First Day of School

It comes every year, the first day of school. I always approach this day with mixed emotions. I am sad to see my children go. It seems that during the summer, our family bonds are strengthened as we spend so much time together. This year, I felt that we were closer than ever after spending 6 weeks together. The beginning of school would bring a separation that is more difficult to overcome. I wish I could say that this year has been an exception, but I cannot. We have all returned to our separate worlds and are struggling to find our commonality again.
On a more positive note, I am grateful to have the school year start. With the mandated school attendance, our lives start to take on a rhythmic ebb and flow as they all leave in the morning, then return in the afternoon. The days seem to be less busy since we have less time to do big things, and I am able to accomplish much during the day without them.
This year was a big first as Maddie entered the hallowed halls of highschool. This also means the beginning of seminary. Seminary doesn't start until tomorrow, but we have been gearing up for the earlier morning for all of us. Maddie was happy that she was placed with the English teacher she wanted and is excited to learn German this year.
Jayd was placed with the math teacher that he didn't want, but that wasn't much of a surprise. He is enjoying his carpool this year, instead of 3 girls, he is with 4 other boys. They are enjoying being boys together, and making plans for after school.
Allie has the teacher that she wanted. She was also happy to see that many of her friends are in her class. I noticed that everyone she mentioned was a boy, and on the first day of school, she was surrounded by boys as she chatted up a storm and was so excited for school to start.
Gabe also has the teacher that he wanted. He came home a little dismayed. His teacher is tougher than he thought, but I am not concerned. I have had this teacher 3 times already. She is tough as nails in the beginning, but once everyone learns the ropes, she will soften a little. I am happy because I know that she will challenge Gabe and keep him busy.
It looks like a promising year. We are ready to go.

Arachnophobia

I walked outside this evening and found a huge spider crawling around on my front porch. I called the kids to see it, but not get too close to it, then I took a picture. I think it is a tarantula. I didn't exactly want to step on it (I didn't even want to get very close to it), but I definitely didn't want to leave it in my yard! We decided to capture it. After a few misses (where there was a lot of screaming), we caught it in a pretzel container. I think I will call animal control in the morning and find out if this is normal. Just to ease my conscience, my neighbor had to say "What if it laid eggs in your yard?" Aaagh, I don't think I can handle this!

Summer in a Week

Since we were travelling for so long, the kids felt that we didn't get enough of our usual summer activities. So we have been trying to pack a whole summer's worth of activities into one week. It has been just as busy as the trip! We also had Aunt Jill visiting us to just double the fun! This week we: went to the beach twice, went swimming 3 times, went to Magic Mountain, went to the Movies in the Park, and still managed to find a little time to play video games, and catch up a little on one of our favorite shows, and fit school shopping in also. It has been quite the week, but it has been good to be home and settling back into our home.

Goblin Valley

After a quick stop in Denver to regroup and prepare to head back home, we left to go to Goblin Valley on our way to visit Jeff's family in Utah. We also lost one of our family, Jeff flew home from Denver to go back to work. Vacations can't last forever.
We first went to Little Wild Horse Canyon. We had come here before when Maddie and Jayd were 6 and 5. I was astounded by how much they remembered from that trip. The canyon hadn't changed much, it was just as narrow, just as twisty and just as amazing as last time. There were spaces where the bottom wasn't wide enough for my shoes. We had to "wall walk" over puddles and followed serpentine paths that only went two steps before reversing direction. It was an amazing little hike.
From there, we went to the valley of the goblins. Here we could climb and conquer to our hearts content. We hob nobbed with the goblins for a while before heading out to Tooele.

Missouri

To complete our church history tour, we stopped in Independence Missouri. We went to the Visitors Center in Independence. Wow, that is some hot property sought after by about 40 different branches of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The visitors center is across the street from the Community of Christ temple. We enjoyed the visitors center because it helped us to learn about the struggles and plight of the Saints in Missouri.
From there we headed to Liberty Jail. That was quite an experience. The original jail no longer exists, it fell down over 100 years ago, but someone built their home on the existing foundation and used the dungeon where the prisoners were kept as the basement for their home. So the original dungeon cavity where the prophet and others were held for over 5 months is still there. They have built a dome over the location and reconstructed the 3 sides of the jail to give the visitors an understanding of the conditions that these men were kept in. It was a very powerful place to visit.
Our last stop was at Far West. One of Jeff's ancestors lived at Far West and was arrested at the same time as the prophet, but let go about 3 weeks later. So there was some family history there. There really isn't much left to see, you would never think that there was once a thriving community there, it is just farmland now. The cornerstones for the temple are still there.

St. Louis

St. Louis was one of my favorite stops on the trip. It was a big city, but not too big. Everything was nicely centralized downtown, but the traffic congestion wasn't bad at all. My favorite part was it was clean. The sidewalks and the buildings, it just seemed clean and fresh. I really enjoyed St. Louis. We went to a Cardinals games. Their new stadium was right downtown and made of beautiful red brick. The game was good, the crowd was a little subdued compared to Dodger Stadium, and the Cardinals lost their lead in the 8th and 9th innings, but I liked the park and it was fun to go to a game.
We went to Six Flags St. Louis the next day. The day was a scorcher. The temperature was 98 degrees, but the heat index was 111 degrees (we had to learn that they talk in heat indexes out here, it is temperature plus humidity). It was really hot, but we found ways to survive. They had garden hoses attached to showerheads throughout the park. We just stood under those and that helped. So did the 25 free refills of cold soda. The good news was: everybody else went home and we just walked onto most of the rides.
The next day we finished our time in St. Louis with a bang. We went on a riverboat ride on the Mississippi, then crammed into this tiny pod. It was for 5 people, but they put us all in there. Our knees were touching in the middle. We rode up to the top of the Gateway arch as the pod clunked and swung through the curve. It was a little nerve racking. But we enjoyed the views of the city from atop that famous landmark. From there, we went to our last stop in St. Louis, the City Musueum. Don't let the name fool you into thinking that this is another boring museum that kids are forced to drudge through with their parents. This place was a kids paradise. It was designed with the climbing kid in mind. If you could get there, you were allowed, even encouraged to climb there. There were wire tunnels 3 stories in the air going from airplanes to firetrucks. You could climb under the airplane. Inside there were caves and tunnels, stairs to climb and a 10 story slide to go down. Unfortunately, this place was not made with parents in mind. They asked us to stay with our children, so Jeff went with the big ones and I went with the small ones. After about an hour of trying to squeeze ourselves into places that made fat man's misery feel roomy (see Mammoth Cave) we both gave up and let our kids run wild. It was instantly given the distinction of the best museum on the trip.

Wildflowers

We stayed overnight with Jeff's brother's wife's father, the Bramwells, in Kentucky. He and his wife run a bed and breakfast there. We had the royal treatment. The rooms were gorgeous. They were decorated so exquisitely and with such attention to detail. The kids weren't quite sure what to do. The grounds were beautiful, wildflowers growing everywhere, streams and bridges, a tree lined driveway with the edge of the property lined by forest. There were tree swings to swing on and tadpoles in the stream. But the best part was Bonnie. Bonnie is a wild deer that they feed every morning and evening. Therefore, she is quite accostomed to people. She let us pet her and feed her and hung around the house for about an hour foraging and eating. We were amazed. We felt like we were violating every park rule in the world about don't feed the wild animals, but it was better than a zoo, we were really there with the deer!

Mammoth Cave

We went to Mammoth Cave. We weren't going to be far from it, and I have always wanted to go there. What I didn't realize was that nearly all of Kentucky has a natural basement, it is covered, or resting on a large amount of caves. I always thought caves were in mountains, but not in Kentucky! We loved Mammoth Cave. We went on a special tour of the Frozen Niagara, one of the few places in Mammoth Cave where there are cave formations. This tour allowed us to bring camera equipment and explore the cave at our leisure to take pictures. Jeff was in heaven as he took long exposure shots with the tripod. The next day we took the River Styx tour that took us 350 feet under the surface down to where the water was still flowing through the cave. It was awesome. We went through enormous natural caverns as big as a stadium, then through narrow passes called Tall Man's Agony and Fat Man's Misery until we reached the river hall. This area flooded during last springs heavy rains, so there wasn't any electricity below that level, so we took lanterns down to the very bottom. It was like being an explorer. Jayd picked the tours and I think he did a great job.

Lake Norris

While on the east coast, we really wanted to visit our friends, the Ellis's, in Cinncinnati. They weren't going to be in town when we came through, so they invited us to join them on their vacation at Lake Norris in Northern Tennessee. It was so much fun. We loved Tennessee, it was beautiful. The lake was surrounded by green trees and dense forest. The lake was a beautiful emerald green, and was amazingly warm. It was like jumping into a lukewarm bath. We tried wakeboarding, but I was the only one who was able to get up on the board. The others found plenty of entertainment though, the tube alone was wild and fun. We also spent time jumping off the dock, and the nearby bridge. Yes, my kids friends told them to jump off the bridge, and we said that it was okay! Even Allie and Gabe jumped off the bridge, it was quite a rush.

East Coast Revisited

From Palmyra, we went south. We unknowingly went through Williamsport, the home of little league baseball. When we realized where we were, we made a quick U-turn for a photo op or two. We also saw the nicest little league baseball stadium ever!
We made a planned stop at Hershey, Pennslyvania. It was a quick stop, we were only there for about an hour, but we took the Disneyland style tour (think Haunted Mansion with cows) in the tram about how the chocolate is processed. It takes a really long time to make; I have more respect for that Hershey Bar that I put on my smore's. Our favorite part was picking out a chocolate bar to eat, although I was really mean, I would let them buy the 5 lb bar. (It was good, we hit 100+ degree days a couple of days later. Imagine that mess!)
We finally arrived at our friends, the Eliason's house in Bristow Virginia. Since we visited with them two years ago when we travelled to the east coast, we didn't do any sightseeing here, we just had a much needed down day relaxing with our friends.

Palmyra

Palmyra was one of my favorite stops on this trip. We arrived early on Monday morning. We had made previous arrangements for Maddie and Jayd to do baptisms for the dead with Jeff. I am so jealous. They said the temple was nearly empty, so after they had completed the baptisms, the temple worker showed them a few things in the temple, like the one window without a stained glass forest. This one window looked out over the sacred grove.
We reunited as a family and went to the Joesph Smith Farm. We were able to see a replica of the log cabin where Moroni appeared to Joesph, and the original family farm where he brought the plates and hid them from the ensuing mobs. Then we were able to wander through the sacred grove. It was so beautiful, just like I had imagined it. There were spindly leafy trees with scattered sunshine shining through. The sunlight lit up the leaves making a bright green color. It was quiet, and peaceful. We enjoyed feeling of the sweet spirit during our visit there.
We went up to the Hill Cumorah. We were not there for the pageant, it ended about a week before we arrived, but there was still plenty of evidence that a large gathering had taken place! We enjoyed being atop of the hill. The kids wanted to roll down the face of the hill, a rather steep drop, but we convinced them to walk down the wooded path on the back of the hill.
We also visited the printing shop where the first Book of Mormon was printed. They had a very nice demonstration and display on how books were printed and bound in the early 19th century. We really enjoyed that.
We ended the day with a visit to the restored Peter Whitmer cabin, the site where the church was organized on April 6, 1830. Gabe had a very hard time believing that 30-40 people could fit in such a tiny room. It must have been very squishy.

Niagara Falls

Since we would be driving fairly close, we decided to make a stop at Niagara Falls. We hadn't intended to do any of the tours while we were there, but we arrived just in time to catch the last "Maid of the Mist" boat ride out to see the waterfalls. I am glad that we did. It was really fun to go on the boat and see the waterfalls up close. The American Falls were a very pretty waterfall, the sun was shining just right to create rainbows over the falls. The Horseshoe Falls were quite exciting as the boat pitched back and forth in the turbulent waters and the wind blew and nearly took our ponchos off and the spray coming from the falls stung our faces. It was quite a wild ride. However, the kids favorite part was getting ponchos as souvenirs!

Kirtland

We went to visit Kirtland. As luck would have it, it was a Sunday, very appropriate for church related sites. We went to church in the morning, then discovered that the sites didn't open until 11:30. So we just ran around in the parking lot. We enjoyed seeing the church sites. My favorite is the Newel K Whitney Store. So many revelations took place there, and I love seeing the school of the prophets where so much was learned about the restoration of the gospel. I also love the ashery. I am always amazed at the ingenuity of people. I didn't know that lye came from ashes and that you had to leach it out then cook out the water. It is just fascinating to me.
After that we went to see the Kirtland temple. Jeff and I went 4 years ago, they have a new visitors center now. After the movie (we missed most of it), they open the curtains for a beautiful view of the temple. Allie was very excited to see the temple, it was the first temple that she had ever been in. But we tried to explain to her that this temple wasn't the same as a temple that was still dedicated to the Lord. Maddie and Jayd could really feel the difference. It is a beautiful building, and wonderful things happened there, but it just doesn't have the same spirit anymore. We did enjoy seeing the location of where Jesus Christ appeared along with Moses and Elijah to restore the keys of the priesthood necessary for the temple ordinances.

Aagards in Columbus

We stopped by in Columbus Ohio to visit some friends from college, Erik and Julie Aagard. We had a great time playing with them, the kids jumped on the trampoline, played baseball in the backyard and played with the toys. We went to the Columbus temple. It was a tiny temple, but we liked it nonetheless.Then we went to the library. It was very beautiful, but Maddie and Jayd were a little frustrated because they couldn't check out any books!