Happy Memorial Day!

I love Memorial Day! I love to drive to the cemeteries and clean graves and reminisce about loved ones and see all the other people who do the same. Cemeteries full of flowers and balloons and flags make me feel happy. I told Merritt today that we are truly ungrateful if we do not remember our loved ones and those who fought for our freedoms, and I believe with all my heart that is true.

I also like Memorial Day because it gives us an extra day to spend together as a family. After six stops at different gravesites (we know a lot of dead people) we headed home for a lunchtime bbq - hamburgers and hotdogs - and then headed into the backyard to make some serious progress on my Mother's Day gift...a raised herb garden. The previous owners of our home left us with a very fine rectangle of weeds courtesy of the fact that they parked their trailer in the backyard. We had originally intended to re-seed the spot, but then I saw a picture and had an epiphany; we could make that dead zone into a wonderful garden! I had the dream, the energy to dig it out, the enthusiasm to see it through, and bought the stone and the weed barrier, but I really had no clue what I was doing. This was especially true since my proposed garden is on a slope! *Sound the trumpets!* Chad to the rescue!! He figured out how to make it work, and despite the fact that I am digging alone in the following picture, we grubbed TOGETHER and he made my dream a reality. Well...almost. I did run out of stone toward the end, so it's back to Lowe's tomorrow! I will post a picture when it's all finished and planted with the seeds I have carefully gathered: thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, basil, marjarom, chives, parsley...oh, the list goes on! Such fun! Also, I'll post a picture of my vegetable garden when I get some serious signs of life from my fun seeds, I only planted them on Saturday so it'll be a bit. You're so impatient! (Actually, that would be me.) :)

This is what happens...

when your lunch tries to eat you!

To And From Casper...With Love

I love my sisters. They each have attributes I admire greatly, body parts I wish I had, and clothes I want to borrow. :) We have a hootenanny when we all get together, which is, unfortunately, not very often since two of them live far away. Last week, I drove to Casper to see my baby sister (she's taller than me though) since she'd recently had surgery. For some reason I thought filling her house with my rambunctious children would be helpful...hmmm. Well, helpful or not, it was at least fun. We all ate good food and lots of dessert, went to the park, talked and talked, played with toys, shopped and rather unsuccessfully dug up weeds in the garden patch. Sandra and I also got our geek on and went to see the new Star Trek movie. I loved seeing her kids again, Mckenna was a wee baby last time we met and Eli is now a talking machine, and visiting with Keith. He is a great guy, and Merritt thinks he is the bomb. Keith is the only person Merritt knoes who has shot (either with bow or gun) a deer, antelope, coyote, wild turkey and a porcupine, AND skinned (or plucked as the case may be) them all too. Keith has a box full of devices that make animal calls, which Merritt thought was awesome. He especially liked the deer call because, in his words, "it sounds like burping." Keith even set up a spy glass (I'm sure there is a proper hunting gear term for it, but I don't know what it is...sorry) so that Merritt could watch the pronghorn antelope that were hanging out behind their house. I thought we were there to help them out, but they laid themselves out for us and were gracious hosts. We were all sad to leave and Merritt is already making plans for when we will visit again...watch out you guys cuz he says it will be 10 days next time!

(P.S. - Thanks to Merritt for the fun but slantwise and highly unflattering picture at the top. I need to hire a professional!)

Heavenly

These beautiful glories grow along my backyard neighbor's fence-line and spill generously over into my yard. I LOVE lilacs!! I think they're about the only flowering tree (or is it technically a bush?) that grows in Wyoming, and I looked forward to their arrival every spring when I was a kid. With three lilac bushes in the backyard, the scent of the flowers is wonderfully pervasive; it hits you as soon as you walk out the door. I'm enjoying every minute of their too-short life (I like to sit under the branches and breathe deeply - I feel so serene) and will miss them when they are gone.

The Mysteries of Life

I made one of those egg strata dishes for dinner tonight, you know, the one that you assemble in the morning, let sit in the fridge for 8 hours and then cook. Well, this dish called for broccoli florets, which I chopped of the stalk. Grace decided the stalk was neat and wanted to play with it. ???? Don't ask me, I just live here. She kept it all day. She caught me every time I tried to sneak off and throw the darn thing away, always asking politely, but adamantly, for her "brokey" back. I don't know what exactly was so wonderful about this broccoli, but she was happy so...okay.

Happy Mother's Day!

Some mom's get breakfast in bed and things like that for Mother's Day, but I get to cook whatever I want with no consideration for others' food preferences, and no one gets to complain. (Cue evil laughter!) Here is a food slide show that demonstrates I do sometimes get my way...

Breakfast: Chocolate Chip Waffles with Chocolate Syrup and Fresh Whipped Cream
(Merritt was highly skeptical of this dish until he took a bite. Now he declares that he likes chocolate chip waffles MORE than Eggos. That is earth shattering let me tell you!)
I ate Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cereal for lunch, but nobody wants to see that, right?

Dinner: Honey Pecan Crusted Salmon (thanks Harvest!)
Honey Yeast Rolls (sweet and tasty!)
Spinach Salad with Strawberries and Candied Almonds

Dessert: Coconut Lime Cake
AND Strawberry Pie with Fresh Whipped Cream!
Now that's what I'm talking about! Jeannine and Dax came over to help us eat it all up and I went to bed happy since everything turned out so yummy!

I Caught A Dino!...and other Merritt stories

The day after we got back from Nauvoo was our Jurassic Park Pack Meeting for Cub Scouts and I had volunteered to make dinosaur bone cookies and do a Paleontologist's Corner. I had Chad print out five big pictures of a Styracosaurus, Cryolophosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Compsognathus, and a Tyrannosaurus Rex, which later ended up on Merritt's wall, and I did dino bios on each one. I then invited Merritt to the meeting because I needed a special dinosaur helper, and because one of the other cub leaders, knowing that Merritt is a huge dinosaur fan, offered to bring a costume for him to dress up in. He was, of course, ecstatic to go and told me, "I get to go to the dinosaur Scout meeting because you need a dinosaur expert to help you." True, true.

The Cub Committee Leader is a fabulous lady and she had found a plastic safari hat for me to wear while extoling the virtues and vices of dinosaurs. Merritt held the pictures for me and inserted commentary whenever he felt I wasn't being thorough enough, which had people's jaws hanging on the ground because he's so stinkin' smart. Apparently I was pretty convincing in my dinosaur scientist role because I was approached by a ward member who said, "So this is where Merritt gets all his dinosaur information. His mom's a paleontologist!" I tried to explain that it is MERRITT'S FAULT that I know ANYTHING AT ALL about dinosaurs, but he looked skeptical. Well, it's true, it really is. That is a good little dino-boy I have.

Picture number three here is Merritt as a first-grade pirate. They made hats, put on eye patches, and yelled "ARRGH!" as they searched for buried treasure. Inside the treasure chest the kids found a pirate bouncy ball and a skull-and-crossbones ring for each one of them. So cute! I tried to have Merritt either give me a big smile or a fearsome grimace for this picture, but since I snapped his head with the elastic on the eyepatch (accidentally!) he looks more pained than anything.

Merritt's hair had grown out of control, and I usually don't cut it because he complains something fierce when I do. It's like each and every hair has a nerve ending that is racked with pain when I run the clippers across it...so annoying, especially since he doesn't say thing one to the stylist at the salon. I cut Chad's hair and he doesn't cry! The other big issue is that he doesn't like to get all that "itchy hair" on his skin. Clothes on or clothes off and swaddled in towels - it doesn't matter, he'll still whine about being itchy. Since we ran out of time to take him to a salon it was up to me to cut Merritt's hair, but I really didn't want the accompanying drama, so this time I stuck him in a garbage bag. It was novel, he enjoyed it (except when he tried to use his hand under the plastic to wipe his face and got hair in his mouth), and even told the bishop about his hair cut adventure.

Farewell to Old Nauvoo

We drove around Nauvoo Monday morning to see some last things and to say goodbye to the town. We had grown so attached to the place and had so many wonderful experiences there that it was harder to leave than I expected. I was actually on the verge of tears at points! We visited the temple once again. I really love the statue of Joseph and Hyrum that is across the road. It depicts them leaving for Carthage, and when he looked back on the beautiful city he helped create, Joseph said, "This is the loveliest place and these are the best people under the heavens..." It truly is a lovely place and I am grateful for all the efforts so many people have made to restore it and make it a place we can visit and feel the Spirit of the Lord.

We had one last adventure before we drove out of town when we went in search of the Rockwell farm property. It is located down a dirt road which, since it rained every night we were in Nauvoo, was actually a mud road. We tried to take the green machine to the site, but we became increasingly concerned that we'd get stuck, so we turned around and parked our bugly rental in a safe spot and hoofed it instead. On the way to our destination, as we hopped puddles and horse pucky, we stopped to get a picture of King Follett's well. King Follett was a church member who died when rock fell on his head while he was digging this well. At the funeral of his friend, Joseph Smith delivered a wonderful sermon known as the King Follett Discourse. In it he taught about the character of God and stated, "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!" I find so much comfort in that truth. Our Heavenly Father is kind and loving and patient with us because he knows that life is hard, but that we can make it.

Just around the bend from King Follett's well is the Rockwell farm. It is a lovely and lush looking place, but what part of Illinois isn't? The perfect grass that we strive so hard to keep alive in our desert home grows on the side of the roads there! It's crazy green! We squelched back to our car, scrubbed our muddy shoes really good on the floor mats (just cuz we liked that car so much), and headed through Old Nauvoo one last time on our way out of town. We couldn't help but think that if we felt blue leaving Nauvoo after a few days visit, the feeling of the Saints would have been compounded a 100 times over as they drove down Parley Street and into an unknown future. They had amazing faith and that important spiritual component of hope, which is the expectation of good things to come.

We made good time across Illinois, since we avoided the toll roads and had no side trips planned. We did, however, have one last stop to make. Our airplane ride friend, the boozy businessman, had been a treasure trove of information about great places to eat in Chicago. He said that if we wanted Chicago-style pizza, Giordano's was not to be missed.
We didn't know much about the place other than that it was a chain resturant, so it couldn't be too hard to find once we were in the city limits, right? We ended up on a toll road on the way to the airport and so I asked the toll booth operator if he knew where a Giordano's was. He was able to give us precise directions and we were there in 15 minutes. Real Italians showed us to our seat and took our order for a small pizza that ended up being too massive for us to eat. They make the pizza from scratch, so it takes about 35 minutes to cook. We had an appetizer to kill the time, which was super yummy, and then ate the most divine pizza ever. It was so good, in fact, that Chad couldn't bear to leave behind the left-overs. He was positive he could get it into his luggage and past the security check. I felt a kind of fatalism when he was pulled aside for extra baggage screening in the airport, but he and the security man just talked about pizza and laughed while Chad's carry-on was swabbed for bomb materials. I think they just wanted to pull aside the guy who was crazy enough to stuff a pizza box in his suitcase. We flew home on a slightly newer model of airplane, it was at least bigger and only half full of passengers, but the pilot seemed determined to fly the entire route home in a cloud bank, which jiggled the wing (yes, we were sitting next to the wing again!) in such a stomach-churning manner that I had to close the window or lose my dinner. We arrived safely home again and found all well there. Our deepest gratitude goes out to Jeannine for making our get-away possible. She took care of our kiddos like a pro! We had such a fun reunion with them in the morning and were glad to be together again. North, south, east, and west...wherever you go, home is best!

Nauvoo - Day Four

The sweet missionaries invited us to attend church at 8am with them on Sunday, and we were so glad we did. The sacrament meeting speakers were two couples soon to go home and they spoke of their gratitude for the opportunity they'd had to serve the Lord. Even better than the sacrament meeting were the Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society lessons. Have you ever been in a ward where there were 100% full-tithe payers, 100% temple recommend holders, 100% committed members? I have and it was in Nauvoo! All the senior missionary couples are so impressive and their dedication is inspiring. One of the missionaries, Elder Deacons, showed us incredible kindness. We found out, after all the travel plans had been set, that the Nauvoo Temple was closed for cleaning during our visit. We had hopes of getting in on a cleaning crew so that we could do some service and see the interior. We visited with the mission president, temple president and then with Elder Deacons, who was a temple engineer, and learned that they didn't take volunteers for cleaning work. Elder Deacons did, however, arrange for us to visit the temple accommodations center and see the temple video that shows many of the rooms and their beautiful craftsmanship. He was so nice!!

After church we put on our walking shoes and headed out to see the sights again. This was an area pointed out to us on the wagon ride, but we went back and snapped a picture of it. When the Saints first came to Commerce to settle, this is the sight that met their eyes. What kind of vision and determination do you have to have to turn this into a beautiful and prosperous city? They dug a canal, drained the swamp water, and went to work building homes and planting fruit trees and gardens. The city was laid out in a grid pattern, each block being a four acre plot. The plots were then parceled into acre lots that the Saints could build homes and plant gardens on. There were 300 brick homes, 500 frame homes, and 1200 log homes. Nauvoo was a big and busy place!

Our first stop was at Wilford Woodruff's home. I LOVE Wilford Woodruff...he was the man! He went on a lot of missions and had lots of crazy experiences with bears and ornery people, but no matter what happened he relied on the Lord and said after every experience, "...and we went on our way rejoicing!" I want that kind of attitude for life. As a missionary, Wilford slept outside many times and trudged through snow, wind, rain and cold. When he returned from his mission to England he declared that he never wanted to be cold again, so he installed a fireplace in every room in his house. With all his responsibilities as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and a missionary, Wilford only spent 100 total days in his home before he sold it for a pittance and walked away.

At the Land and Records Office we got cool information about Chad's ancestors and where they lived in Nauvoo. We also visited the Riser Boot and Shoe Shop, which was a neat place, but we didn't snap a picture. Here are some other spots we stopped by:

The Jonathon Browning Home and Gun Shop
Destination for Nauvoo tourists AND gun nuts - like the gray-haired ponytail sporting, tie-died shirt wearing, motorcycle driving guy in the tour right before ours.

The Webb Brother's Blacksmith Shop
Where a clever missionary made a tiny horseshoe...did you know they are called blacksmiths because they dip the finished product in oil, which made it black?

The Seventies Hall

The Sarah Granger Kimball Home
I enjoyed this stop very much because Sarah Kimball was a faithful lady and there are many wonderful stories about the spirit of service and sacrifice she possessed, plus the house was so cute! The most famous story concerns the formation of the Relief Society. Sarah was looking for a way to contribute to the work on the temple, and she and her seamstress, Miss Cook, decided to make shirts for the temple workmen. They then thought to ask some of their neighbors and friends if they'd like to join in the effort, and this idea led to discussion of the formation of a Ladies Society. Eliza R. Snow was asked to draft a constitution and by-laws which were presented to the Prophet Joseph for approval. He said that the constitution and by-laws were the best he'd ever seen, but that it wasn't what the women wanted. "Tell the sisters their offering is accepted of the Lord, and He has something better for them than a written constitution. Invite them all to meet me and a few of the brethren in...my store next Thursday afternoon, and I will organize the sisters under the priesthood, after a pattern of the priesthood." The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo was formed on that day, March 17, 1842.

The Cultural Hall
This turned out to be one of the most awesome stops of our entire trip. The room you see in this picture is the third floor of the building. The floor is original to the building, which is amazing because the Cultural Hall experienced damage to its roof through wear and time, and the third story was taken off entirely. When restoration work was done on the building, they found the original wood floor right underneath the new roof. It was on this floor that Joseph Smith mapped out the route the Saints should take to the Rocky Mountains.

We were shown through this beautiful building by a wonderful missionary named Sister Dayley. She told us how her great-grandmother, Mary Field Garner, had lived in Nauvoo as a girl. Now, that may seem unremarkable since lots of people lived in Nauvoo, but Mary Field Garner lived to be 107 years old! (Holy crow!) Sister Dayley was eight years old when her great-grandmother died and she remembers sitting on Mary's lap and hearing her testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. She KNEW him!! I had the most amazing feeling of history coming alive hearing Sister Dayley's story. Chad and I were talking to someone just one person removed from Joseph Smith and all that had happened at Nauvoo. Mary Field Garner was present when Joseph and Hyrum left for Carthage and when their bodies were brought back to Nauvoo in a wagon. She was there when the mantle of the Prophet Joseph fell upon Brigham Young. Her family were among the poor Saints blessed by the miracle of the quail in Montrose, Iowa. The Field family returned to Nauvoo for a season the raise money to travel west and watched the temple burn to the ground. Mary Field Garner experienced all these things and shared them with her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Chad asked Sister Dayley if she would share her testimony with us and we all wept as the Spirit touched each of us. It was an amazing experience.

We spent part of the evening watching the sun set over the Mississippi River from the quiet of the Smith family burial site and then attended a "sociable" or fireside at the Visitor's Center. We both felt a little melancholy as the moon rose over our last night in Nauvoo.

Nauvoo - Day Three

Our day started bright and early, 6:30am to be precise, with a visit to the Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds. The cemetery was in use from 1839 to 1846, and most of the 1,800 people, mostly children, who died in Nauvoo were buried here. The majority of the headstones are gone, and many of those still standing are unreadable, but there is a peace and beauty there that is undeniable. Orin Rockwell and his wife Sarah, who were Porter Rockwell's parents, are buried there. As we walked through the quiet morning, Chad commented on how lucky those families are whose ancestors still have a marked grave. He hoped they were grateful.

Our second stop that morning was the Trail of Hope. It is the section of Parley's Street that runs straight to the Mississippi River. It is down this road that the Saints drove their wagons, leaving behind their homes and most of their earthly possessions, to cross the river and "find the place that God for [them] prepared, far away, in the West." It is a somber thing to walk in their footsteps and think of their sorrow at leaving their temple and beautiful city. It is more so, however, a truly inspiring thing to think of the faith and courage and strength that burned inside of them. They believed in Christ, they believed in the prophet, and they would follow and build again. At the end of Parley Street stands a statue entitled, "Eyes Westward." It shows Joseph Smith and Brigham Young together, looking toward the Church's future home.

We made it back to the hotel to get ready for the day and then headed out again to tour some of the restored homes and businesses in the Old Nauvoo area. We visited the Lucy Mack Smith home, which Brigham Young bought for her to live in, the Scovil Bakery (yummy gingerbread cookies), the Print Shop, Post Office, John Taylor home, brickyard, tin shop, Pendelton home and log school (Chad and I both failed the math class), Heber C. Kimball home and the Brigham Young home. The Kimball home is beautiful and is the original home built by Heber C. Kimball. It was the first to be restored after it was purchased by his great-grandson, Dr. J. LeRoy Kimball.

We were especially impressed with the home built by Brigham Young. It too is the original structure, and he put all of his considerable talent and skill into making it the best home he possibly could. The home was originally just the middle portion, but the two wings were added in 1844, and the east wing was used as an office/meeting room where church business was conducted. We had the nice sister missionary snap our picture while we were in that room. I have the utmost respect and admiration for Brigham Young, he was an amazing person and truly a prophet of the Lord.

After doing a little afternoon shopping, Chad and I took the drive to Carthage. We wanted to follow the martrydom trail as closely as we could, but a map with adequate road signs is hard to come by. It seems that if it is a country road, it doesn't deserve to be marked on a map. Anyhoo, we followed it for a bit, got lost and ended up south of our destination, but we did get there so all was well. I had been much struck by a quote I had read on the memorial statue in the Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds. Joseph Smith stated, "The place where a man is buried is sacred to me." That brief statement came back to me again and again as we toured the site. Of course, Joseph Smith is not buried at the Carthage Jail, but he did die there, and the place is sacred to his memory. We were very fortunate to get to the jail during a lull; we were the only ones on our tour and the Spirit was very strong as we listened to the sweet sister missionary share the events of the prophet's time in Carthage, as well as her testimony. We left feeling as though we had been in the temple, it is a place of peace and a monument to sacrifice and truth.

We finished our evening by giving in to peer pressure from all the cute missionary couples to go to "Rendevous," a musical evening that relives life in Old Nauvoo. It was funny and touching, and the missionaries poured their hearts and souls into the production. I admire all those couples who give up children, grandchildren, comfortable homes, and comfortable lives to serve the Lord as missionaries. (I'm talking about YOU too Mom and Dad!) It is a wonderful thing they do!

Nauvoo - Day Two

I slept in on Friday morning, just for the sheer novelty of the experience, while Chad, who is unable to sleep past 6:30 at the latest, decided to go for an early morning drive around Nauvoo. He enjoyed the solitude because, except for a few joggers, he was all alone. He got some nice shots of a quiet Nauvoo morning.

"Prophet's Last Ride" statue across from the temple.

Nauvoo House and Mississippi River at dawn.

Nauvoo Temple as seen from the flats.

We ate our "continental breakfast" (excuse me while I snicker up my sleeve) and then went to examine the Temple up close. I don't mean to gush, well maybe I do, but it is a remarkable and beautiful building. We took so many pictures of it and I was struck again and again by the fact that as I looked up at it from old Nauvoo, I was seeing the same sight looked upon by pioneer eyes. Amazing!

At the Visitor's Center we heard that there was a wagon ride and a carriage ride available, the first was a trip around the old Nauvoo sites, and the second was a ride in the countryside. We decided to do both and had lots of fun. (The horses that pulled the wagon were named Tom and Jerry. I'm petting Tom.)

We spent the rest of the afternoon touring the Smith family sites operated by the Community of Christ Church. We had a very nice guide whose name was Sarah. She knew her stuff and answered our questions about the buildings very ably. We weren't able to tour the Nauvoo House because they rented it out. You can actually stay in the Nauvoo House! I thought that was crazy, but cool.

This is the Smith Homestead. The log part of the home was an exisiting structure when the Saints first came to Commerce. The Smith family lived there and nursed those sick with malaria. The original building was expanded to meet the family's needs and remained the home of Joseph Sr. and Lucy after Joseph and Emma moved into the Mansion House. Joseph Sr. died here. The frame part of the home was an addition put on by Joseph Smith III.

The Mansion House was built as a home for Joseph and Emma. It was expanded, soon after the main home's completion, into a hotel. The Smith's ran the hotel, but it was very taxing considering all their other responsibilities, so they hired a family to run the day to day business. The Mansion House is said to look like the Stowell Mansion in New York, the home of Josiah Stowell, where Joseph and Emma spent their honeymoon. The hotel portion of the home fell into disrepair after the Saints left Nauvoo and then was pulled down after a tree fell on it. Only the original portion remains.

This is the Nauvoo House. It was intended to be a boarding house where a traveler could come to "find health and safety while he shall contemplate the word of the Lord; and the corner-stone I have appointed for Zion." (D&C 124:23) It was planned out to be a large and beautiful building, but it wasn't finished by the time the Saints were driven from Nauvoo. Emma's second husband, Lewis Bidamon, later tore down the walls and used the bricks to build the home that is standing there now.

The Red Brick Store was the general store run by Joseph and Emma. Joseph was a bad grocer, though, because he sold lots of stuff on credit and gave the rest away. It was in the room over the store where the Relief Society was organized. The Community of Christ Church allows the upper room to be used for gatherings, and still uses the lower portion as a store where they sell lots of neat things, like Red Brick Store Rootbeer. It is $2 a bottle, but man it is good! Dang! We bought Grace a bonnet, Merritt a harmonica and Grant some finger puppets there.

We finished the day with a steak dinner in Keokuk and a crazy hunt through the city looking for the Mormon Immigrant Camp marker. After directions from a Wal-Mart cashier and three kids playing baseball, we were finally able to find the park. Then it was back to the Woodruff Hotel where we totally crashed!