Palmyra Adventure - Day 2

Today was Kirtland and what a wonderful day! We were so impressed with the beauty of the area, but even more lovely was the strong spirit we felt. It was powerful and I was nearly in tears much of the time.

We started our day at the visitor's center and saw the sites owned by the church:

* saw mill

* the ashery

* Whitney home - where the first priesthood blessing was given (by Joseph Smith to Elsa Johnson who's arm was healed of debilitating arthritis)

* Newell K Whitney Store - where the School of the Prophets was held and the Word of Wisdom was revealed 

* Johnson Inn - where the first patriarchal blessing was given to Joseph Smith Sr and the Book of Abraham was translated

The cutest young sister missionary led our tour and she bore testimony of how she had group b strep and meningitis and a newborn. She nearly died, but her life was saved through the power of the priesthood. Also in our tour group was a family from my brother Scott's stake and a great non-member couple. They were explained that they had lived in Ohio for years and felt a draw to Kirtland and finally decided to come see the church sites for themselves. They gave us their name and number and insisted we call if we needed anything during our visit. So kind!

We visited several other sites and one of the Senior missionaries taught us something wonderful. He explained that when Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the Sacred Grove, he called in "The First Vision." That implied there would be more visions, and there were! Kirtland is the place where God appeared 4 more times to His servants. The pictures are of these locations.

2nd vision - Isaac Morley farm

This beautiful place reminded us of the Sacred Grove.

3rd vision - John Johnson home 

The Johnsons sold their large and lovely dream home to finance the building of the Kirtland Temple.

4th vision - Whitney store

A section of the upstairs has original floorboards, and it was a thrill to walk where the prophet Joseph walked.

5th vision - Kirtland temple

This was a labor of love by the Saints who gave their all to build this magnificent structure. It is a miracle that it is still standing, especially since it hasn't been owned by the church since the 1830s.

So much important work was done in Kirtland and so many revelations were received there. The Saints made great sacrifices to do God's work. In return, He poured out His spirit upon them and you can still feel it today.

Melanie

Palmyra Adventure - Day 1

Soon after we learned that Marianne would be in the Hill Cumorah Pageant, we started thinking about a trip. I have always wanted to see the pageant and what could be better than seeing your daughter perform? Time alone with my husband, that's what! Fortunately, this trip let me have both.

John and I arrived in Cleveland, picked up a car, checked into our hotel and headed out for dinner at a little Thai restaurant. I loved the mango curry! John asked the waitress if there was anything fun to do in the area and she recommended a place called Olmsted Falls Park. Actually, she couldn't remember the name of it, nor give us specific directions, but she gave us enough to go on and we found it.

As we searched for the park we noticed a theme: lots of churches! We found a place to park, in a church parking lot of course, and we saw the greatest bench painted with a beautiful scripture.

We hoped we were in the right place and we headed towards some stairs. We were pleased to find a lovely wooded area along a river. It was a great place to walk after sitting on the plane all day. We followed hiking trails and explored a bit we found the falls! We also found: old mill stones, the foundation of a Boy Scout cabin, a beautifully developed park across the river and a cool covered bridge. It was a wonderful evening that we topped off with frozen yogurt!

We stayed at a great hotel, but the next morning we noticed an odd assortment of characters.
*A man doing major car repairs in the parking lot. He had his muffler off and everything.
*A man with a cane who reminded me of Sammy Davis Jr.
*A older woman in the breakfast room who loudly gave us a running commentary during the morning news show on TV.
*A platinum blonde in short shorts who was clearly not a woman. The hotel is next to a hospital and we determined that many of the guests stay there while receiving medical treatment.

All in all, we had a fabulous day together. I had forgotten how easy it is to pack, fly across the country and find your way around a new city WITHOUT a 3 year old in tow. Thanks to my sweet husband for planning this trip for us!

Independence Day

You're probably expecting this post to be about the 4th of July. We did have a great independence day. We went swimming and ate lots of good food with the Bakers. Then some of us took a hike up the hills to see fireworks. A certain little girl was exhausted after staying up until 8 PM, so I took her home and put her to bed.

Lavender has always been pretty independent, but here are some pictures to document her growing strides at becoming a "big girl."

I made little missionary name badges for the kids when I taught Primary a few weeks ago. Lavender was thrilled to have one for herself! When the sister missionaries came for dinner the next week, she was so excited. She sat next to them, got chocolate on them, talked incessantly and finally took charge of the lesson.  They showed us a video about fathers and then asked each of us questions about our fathers/fatherhood. Then Lavy jumped in and asked each of them to tell us about their fathers. I have a feeling she will be a great missionary some day!

Cousin Alyssa is an amazing dancer and is teaching a preschool ballet class at the studio. Lavender is so independent that she chooses her own moves or gets a drink of water instead of following her teacher. Hmm. Still working on that one!

We know she's happy when we hear her singing and playing with her
animals. Here she is taking them on a train ride. She's a good little mommy.

We went to the beach one evening and Lavender played in the sand while we played frisbee. It wasn't long until she took charge. She grabbed the frisbee, buried it in the sand and sat down on it. She was so proud of herself and we couldn't stop laughing.

She dresses herself every day and is perfecting the art of putting on her shoes.

Lavender accompanies Jenny and me on our morning walk. She loves taking selfies and I especially like this one that captured those of us actually getting some exercise. One day the stroller got a flat tire so we walked around the track at the park while waiting for John to come over. Lavy walked with us for about a mile. She moved those little legs to keep up with us!

Here's another app she loves. She captured her sassy side with this one.

We sure love our independent little big girl!

Wedding Extras.

In a previous post I mentioned the wedding we attended while Evan was receiving his awards at the fair. Our good friend Josh was married to the beautiful Rachel in the San Diego LDS temple. We have known him and his wonderful family for 19 years. It is always a joy to see a young couple starting their life together by being sealed for all eternity. It is also a great opportunity to reunite with friends you don't get to see very often!

I apologize for failing to get a photo of the bride, but here is a picture of the groom and his handsome groomsmen. Aaron has been friends with most of these guys since he was four years old.

Here are Michael, Meryl, John and Aaron. Four friends enjoying the wedding reception. These awesome young adults (and Josh the groom who was probably busy dancing, cutting cake, kissing the bride or something) were all homeschooling buddies and grew up together. Meryl was the first to get married early last year and she and her husband now live in our ward! John also recently returned from his LDS mission to Texas and he spoke at church on Sunday (which also happened to be Father's Day). What a weekend!

But it wasn't just the kids who had a reunion.  I loved getting to see some of my best friends. I didn't get any pictures at the wedding or reception, but here are a couple from the beach on Monday.

Jenny, Sheree, Angela and I homeschooled our kids together and worked to create a new commonwealth school where our teens met for weekly classes. These women are awesome mentors who helped me raise my kids. I love any excuse to get together with them!

I think you are officially middle aged when your social life revolves around weddings. How many years before funerals become the big events?!

Letters

Aaron installed new blinds in a couple of our bedrooms. I haven't really worked on teaching Lavender her letters yet, but I know she recognizes her favorite letter "L." So I showed her this box and asked, can you find the "L"?

She pointed to each letter in order and explained:
L - That's an L
E - That's an F
V - A "W"
O - "ahh"
L - An L
O - Another "ahh"
R - And RYAN!!

Pretty darn close!

A Prize Winning Trip to the Fair

So Evan took a textile screen printing class at the community college this semester. He made several cool shirts, some tote bags and even pillowcases. He entered a couple of them in the fair and he won! He also got an "A" in the class to boot!  

The award ceremony was scheduled for a Saturday morning in June. Evan received tickets for free admission to the fair, but John and I weren't able to go because we were attending a wedding. Evan decided to take his two favorite girls to the fair and they were probably more fun than mom and dad anyway.  

They all wore the awesome shirts that Evan made for our family. Don't they look great?

Here is another shirt that Evan made. He also made tote bags with this design for the girls in my Eternal Warriors class.  Evan is an Eternal Warriors graduate who loves the program.

 This shows the certificates and ribbons he received. He made the white shirt behind him.

He also made the black shirt above him. It is kind of hard to see, but it's a cool design.  He shined a bright light through a glass blown vase and photographed it. Then he edited the photo to create his design.

Wish we could have been there with him on his special day!

Lavender was excited to get to feed the cow . . .

 . . . and the goat!

She had a great time walking hand in hand with her big brother and sissy. They rode down a giant slide, ate corn dogs and fries and had a great time.

So much fun that she and Peter had to take a nap on the way home! A big thanks to Evan for a great trip to the fair!

When Three Year Olds FaceTime

Lots of silly faces, laughter and very little conversation--especially when Leighton pulls her favorite trick of clicking the mute button! These girls sure do miss each other. They always ask if we can come over tomorrow. When I say it's too far, Lavender has an easy solution. We'll just go to the airport and get on a plane. No problem! Life is pretty simple when you're three.