She's Fine As Far As We Know!

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

The missionaries know nothing about what is going on. Whitney texted Miranda today and asked if they were in a war. We received a phone call earlier today from Elder Mitchell who is an A.P. and he said Whitney is fine, let's just hope she and all the others stay that way.

Our Trip to the Midwest!

Coming out of the Eisenhower tunnel in Colorado.

We must be in Nebraska.

Here we are in Carthage.

I don't know what to do with her.

The back of the jail.

The wrong visitor's center in Nauvoo. I just used their bathroom and then we left.

An original sunstone.

We're coming out of the right visitor's center with maps and proper directions.

Some beautiful flora.

The Nauvoo Printing Office. Most all of the buildings are made of this pretty red brick.

Look who we found at Lyon Drug.

There were many beautiful old quilts displayed on the top floor of the social hall.

Here is Bill Dye at the Tin Smith Shop.

Banner posing at her Dad's favorite place, the Browning Gun Shop.

Tennyson enjoying the pretty flowers.

The temple was beautiful.

I hope the girls will always remember this trip.

Tennyson swinging with the temple in the background. She and Banner were free to do what they wanted while we were inside the temple.

Jim and I on the steps after a session.

Banner, Me, Tennyson, Brooks and Miranda.

This is a statue of Joseph and Hyrum leaving Nauvoo for the last time to go to Carthage. It is just west of the temple and overlooks the Mississppi River.

Now we are at Anne Adele's. It was kind of chilly so Jim decided to make a fire in the fire pit.

This is a picture of our deluxe sleeping accomodations in A.A.'s basement. When we got there she told me that Jim and I had a "good" bed. Not only did we get this bed, we shared our basement suite with, Tennyson at the head of our bed, Banner at the side of our bed, Rachel at the foot of our bed on a bean bag chair, and A.A.'s grandson sleeping on the floor in the storeroom. Miranda and Brooks were in the next bedroom which we had to go through to get to the bathroom. There were 16 people at the house that night. Eventually Jim go out of the bed and went to sleep in the Suburban, little did he know that Maurie was also asleep outside in their van. I must of been exhausted to be able to sleep at all. I woke up in the morning and the air had leaked out of the mattress under my head. You can see that in the picture. My head was on the floor and my feet were about 2 feet higher than my body. I told Anne Adele that she had negative 4 stars for sleeping accomodations but she could improve her rating with good food.
She succeeded.

Here we are in downtown Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Jim is trying snowboarding for the first time.

I felt right at home with the fake Mama pig and her piglets.

I'd like to see her try this with a real cow.

Happy clowns?

What is this? Hitler Youth?

This is the only German U-Boat that is still in existence. It was captured and kept top secret during World WarII. This turned the tide in the naval battle for the Allies because they were able to get lots of information off of this boat and from the crew.

Do you recognize this car? It is the Weasley's flying car from the Harry Potter movies.

This is Lake Michigan with Chicago in the background.
The tall building is the Sears Tower.

A cruise ship on Navy Pier.

Relaxing on the Pier.

This reminds me of the PDA couple from the John Mayer concert.

The Navy Pier has a display of stained-glass windows.

We had a wonderful time on our trip. It was topped off by the fun Open House for Noah and Becky. I have made it a goal to visit Anne Adele and her family more often. We won't wait another 20 years before we go back.

The Living Desert!

Tennyson, Banner, Liz, Anne Adele and I went to the desert today. Lizzy had heard that the cactus were in bloom. Boy were they ever. Here are some pictures of all that we saw.

Click on the pictures for a closer view of the beautiful colors.

Lizzy spotted a Sego Lily when we were driving to the Wedge.

A closer view of the inside.

Banner at the Wedge

You can tell it has been a wet spring.

I've never seen so much green along the San Rafael River.

Tennyson likes to live dangerously.

Look at all those layers of rock under her feet.

Window Blind in the background.

Does anyone know what this wild flower is called? Lizzy thinks it might be called Bottle Brush.

An antelope ejoying the lovely flowers.







We found a sale on raspberries monday so on tuesday Anne Adele and I made some delicious freezer jam.

The raspberries.

They are such a pretty red color.

Anne Adele mashing the berries.

This is Miranda's share of the jam. Lizzy and I each got some too. We wanted to give some to Anne Adele but she has no way to get it home.

I had some left over so I put some in freezer bags for later.

On monday we made rhubarb syrup, it turned out very tasty. We had pancakes on tuesday morning and used our delicious syrup. Gabe said it was very good.