South for trhe Winter!

 

101 is giving Shawn a hard time.  She and all the others had to have a copper bolis given to them so they could go to California for the winter. I guess the feed is copper deficient. 

 I am a little jealous, I would like to go with them. 

 

This is 1000.  She has 3 "popcorn" teeth and this will be her last calving season.  She is gentle enough to let us pet her and hand feed her.  She gets to go to California too.   My girls think it is funny that we call them by their number like it is a name.  They think we should name them all.  Not a bad idea except we wouldn't want our friends to think we named an onery cow after them or something like that!

Christmas Treats

This is the kitchen before the mess.  The girls and I had a fun time putting chocolate on everything we love.

Chocolate covered Oreos.

Chocolate covered pretzels and Craisins.

These are our favorite.  Oreo cake pops.

This is Marge's best popcorn--it is the bomb!  Now the challenge is to get them delivered before we eat them all!

Bright Lights

On the Front Runner! 

Katelyn, Hollie, Lexie, Brooklyn

Kylee, Mady

Kiersten, Ariel

Savanna, Emilie

Allison, and Raygin with Josh, Ivan, and Gale behind.

 

Noah

Kelsey and Anna, a foreign exchange student living in the ward.  She is from Brazil.

In the entry of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

Bonnie, Sierra, Savanna

Back Row:  Nathan, Ivan, Gale, Josh, Emilie J., Megann, Brooklyn, Ariel, Savanna, Ethan, Noah, Christopher, Brooklyn, Colette, Mandy.
Middle Row:  Matt, Raygin, Emilie, Kelsey, Deborah, Abby, Mady, Vickie, Kylee.
Bottom Row:  Breno, Anna, (both exchange students from Brazil) Allison, Bonnie, Sierra, Katelyn, Hollie, Lexie, Brayden, Kiersten, Tana, Saje, Dan.

This is at the reflection pond in front of the temple.

This is on the roof of the Conference Center.  Everyone is going up to see their reflection in the black granite.

Sierra and Allison

Tana, Dan and Saje

Dinner at the Lion House.

Noah and Savanna.

 ( I am in denial over this picture--she is still my baby!)

 We had planned to go to dinner at 5 but got done early so we went at 4 instead.  When we walked out of the restaurant the line was out the door and to the road!  We were so lucky(?) to have gotten in when we did or we would have had to wait an hour for dinner!

Josh, the Young Men's president proposed  that we take the kids to Temple Square to see the lights.  It was so much fun!  We didn't lose anyone, which is saying something, since we had 32 kids and 7 leaders.  We were only missing (4 YW and 3 YM!)
We rode the Front Runner from Ogden to Salt Lake and then got on Trax and rode to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for lunch.  Then, we watched the Joseph Smith movie there,  took a tour of the roof of the Conference Center and of Temple Square, had an early dinner at the Lion House and then walked around and looked at the lights and took in a high school concert (because we were cold) that was going on in the Assembly Hall. 
We left home at 9 a.m. and returned home by 9 p.m.  We had many tender mercy's throughout the day and I felt very blessed to be in such a beautiful place with some of my favorite people!

Day 6 National Mall

Here is Vickie and she is taking a picture of the capitol building which is behind me.

The students were to meet at the Natural History Museum for lunch and then they could wander to all the museums at the mall for the next couple hours.  We could have wandered around but we were tired and we just casually strolled around!

This was an interesting sculpture.

This was the restaurant  that we ate at for our last night.  It was a nice southern place an it was delicious.

It was a great trip and it was busy every day we were there.  That was a good thing so that we weren't worried about what was going on at home. 

Day 6-Arlington Cemetery

These are the gates going into Arlington.

This is a quilt that was in the visitors center.  It was more touching than I thought it would.  It's hard to not appreciate all the lives lost in defense of our country and our freedoms.

This little guy's face just ripped my heart out.  Each block was the baby picture  of a soldier who was killed in action.  You could just see the potential in his eyes and know that he was taken too soon.

 

The sun was a little bright--not a bad thing!

This is Jon and Vickie and the home of Robert E. Lee in the background.  We had hiked down the hill and now had to hike back up. 

 I didn't realize the difficulty that Gen. Lee had in leaving this place to be a general for the confederates.  He was living in the north and all his friends and family were there.  They thought him a traitor so they burried their dead on his plantation in retribution.

This is the view from Arlington.  At the end is the capitol building and the Washington Monument. 

The Kennedy eternal flame.

 

JFK's famous quote.  It was heartbreaking to see all the Kennedy headstones.

Robert E. Lee had a great view.

This is part of the memorial to the unknown soldier.

We were able to watch the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier.  It was amazing to  watch the precision.  If you look at the cement around  the soldier there are what look like rust stains.  It is the foot prints where they walk or march.  The soldier walks on a black carpet back and forth.  They change the guard every hour, every day.  The men who  try out for this position have to swear to no TV, cussing, alchol and tobacco use for their entire 2 year committment.  It takes an hour to put the uniform on and it has to be perfect.  It was amazing.

This is the inside of the memorial 2 pictures up.  This was definately a favorite place!

Day 5 continued-Williamsburg

This was our cute little room in Williamsburg.

We went to a Tavern for dinner  in Williamsburg.  Just as we get sat down the fire alarm sounded and we had to evacuate!  The ladies in the dresses and hats were the servers.

Each house and business had these cute wreaths on the doors and railings.

The houses were so cute and we enjoyed looking in them.  There were "interpreters" in the businesses and they told us about how people in colonial times made things.

This is the tavern we ate at in the daylight--not on fire!  They fix everyone the same thing--no menus.  We got to have roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and ice cream.

This was in the wig making shop.

Men wore wigs more than women.

Since we were caught sleeping in church, we had to sit in the stocks.  Just kidding.  They were not very comfortable and I would definitely stay awake in church to avoid being sentenced here!

There were people dressed in period clothing sitting around town and riding horses down the streets.

We got to listen to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson for about an hour each.  The interpreters did a good job of portraying their personality.  After they spoke the audience could ask questions and that was very interesting.  They answered according to the times they lived in.

This big barrel was in the garden shop.  I had never seen one this big before.  I could barely reach across it.  These cabbages were still growing!

Sierra and Carley were also sent to the stocks!

This is Thomas Jefferson riding his horse down the street--a common occurrence here!

I knew little of Williamsburg and the surrounding area but soon learned to love it.  It was one of the original permanent settlements along with Jamestown and Yorktown.  It reminded me of how Nauvoo is (I haven't been there in so long I forgot exactly how it is).  We loved being here and the weather was so nice.