Trip to Nauvo

The second weekend Kathie and I went to Nauvoo, Illinois.This was our third trip. It is always

great going to Nauvoo. We stayed at the Nauvoo Inn, which had very small rooms, but very convient. I think the Nauvoo temple is just beautiful. I think out of 40 pictures I took, 20 of them were of the temple.

We were able to watch the presentation of “Sunset on the Mississippi” and the Nauvoo pageant, twice.

We had seen the Sunset skit on previous visits, but this was the first time we saw the pageant. The Sunset skit is great because it is just down right entertaining. On Friday the Sunset skit had a mini-skit where a person gave the Cinderella story but each word was started with a different letter. It was so funny that when we went back to see it on Saturday I brought my video camera to record it. Unfortunately, that skit wasn’t performed on Saturday night.

The Nauvoo pageant told the story of the settlement of Nauvoo by the Saints. It was very good and uplifting.

Kathie and were also able to visit the Carthage jail where both

Hyrum and Joseph Smith were martyred. The door still has the bullet holes from when they were killed.

In the visitor center they had a section of sculptures that I really liked. Here is one of Joseph Smith's vision of the Father and the Son. And another one with Jesus at Lazurus' tomb.

Trip to Kirtland

While Kathie was with me in Indianapolis we went on two side trips on the week end. The first was to Kirtland, Ohio. Neither one of us had been there before. Kirtland was a site of some of our church’s history. It is interesting to see how people lived ‘in the olden days’, so much different than us today. The living conditions weren't unique to the early Saints, but what was was the sacrifices that they went through. Leaving their homes and in many cases living in more a primitive environment. Also the sacrifice that they made to make the temple. The temple was a big building in those days.

A very interesting fact was the distance between the different places. I had always thought that the homes, cities and farms were next to each other. But they weren’t. Just driving to the John Johnson farm from Kirtland took 45 minutes.

These are some pictures of Newell K. Whitney' store and house. We were told a yellow house was a sign of wealth.

This is the John Johnson home. The bed room had an intersting checkered floor.

Kirtland is also in Amish country, and we saw some of them.

Indianapolis

Since Kathie had a break from work this summer she spent some time with me on my business trip. Here are some pictures in Indianapolis.

This is a picture of the monument at Monument Circle.

This is a canal that goes through the city. I eat lunch here sometimes.

Youth Conference - Pioneer Trek

Kathie and I spent some time as cooking assistants for the Greensboro Stake youth conference. Our youth partook in a pioneer trek reenactment. We worked hard but had fun. Kathie hasn't camped out that much so sleeping in a small two man tent wasn't very fun.

Cutting trees

I thought it might be intersting to capture the cutting up of some trees in our woods.

On 5 June Kathie and I decided to cut down some trees that were leaning. I am glad this isn't my job! Even though Kathie isn't in any of the pictures (she was the photographer) she was working hard at hauling the debris away.

Let's start off with pictures of our dog Bailey -

Here I am using my chain saw.

We had to use the truck to pull the top of the tree to the ground.

This is a view looking at some of the cut up tree sections. It always amazes how heavy a tree is. I cut the tree into 2-3 foot sections, and the sections are still heavy!

Charleston, SC - Memorial Day Weekend '09

Kathie and I thought it would be nice to go on a trip, since all of our children are out of the house. We spent the Memorial Day week end in Charleston, South Carolina.

We really didn't know what to expect. The trip was nice. We had a hardtime finding the hotel. We stayed at the Double Tree Hotel, and it was in a very convient place for tourist. The main tourist point is the Open Market. Which is alot like a flea market. A lot of different vendors. Out hotel was right at the market.

We walked around alot, took a horse carriage ride, took a ferry around the Charleston Bay.

This is a view down E. Bay St. Part of it is also known as Rainbow Row because the houses are painted different colors. It's suppose to be very difficult changing the color of a house. You are given a selection of colors to choose from, the city then reviews your choice, comes up with their own suggestions, etc. The houses were at first tenet housing, and someone in the 1930's painted their house, and talked the other houses to do the same. Now it's a tourist attraction.

There were some expensive homes. This is a famous inn, known as the 'Two Meeting Street Inn', which you guessed it the address is 2 Meeting St.

Here is another intersting house.

And here are some fountains we saw.

This is a bridge over one of the rivers (Cooper River) that flows into the Charleston Bay. Expand the pictures and you can see better the cables. An intersing design.

Proud Grand parents

Kathie and I are proud grand parents. We had Kristina's kids for a couple days and they also visited us for Kernersville's Spring Folley.