Fun Weekend

I had a fun weekend with nieces and nephews! Dancing included.

Lil Thanksgiving Roadtrip

During the last few years I've taken off the entire Thanksgiving week from work to focus on my own special projects - exercising, scanning photos, typing in old journals into the computer, etc.

However, this year has been crazy busy at work and many of us just used the Monday - Wednesday part of the week to actually get work work done instead of coordinating so much of it. So, though I was teleworking on Wednesday, I was working all the way up until 6 or 7 p.m. and fully expecting to pull in some hours on Friday and Saturday while lounging around the house.

But, no...we ended up taking a lil roadtrip. We had intended on doing a 24 hour stint to visit J's kids, but weren't quite sure what part of Thanksgiving that would fall on or how that would work.

So, at 11 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning we went to the local Cracker Barrel and had a lil Thanksgiving meal and then came home, packed quickly and hit the road.

We found out along the way that we couldn't actually see the kids until Friday and so we took a detour and late evening we were nestled into a not so great hotel in Kirtland, Ohio. By the way, is it just me - even the four and five star hotels gross me out now.

But, I digress.

On Black Friday morning we arose fairly early and went down into historic Kirtland and saw a lot of older couple missionaries and a younger missionary all up and about getting the place ready for visitors. We walked around the Newel K. Whitney  storefront, by the School of Prophets, and near the mill. It all was in great shape and it had obviously been updated since I was last there over 20 years ago.

We then drove up the hill to the Kirtland Temple which is still owned by the Community of Christ church.

Me with the brother and sisters at Kirtland, OH. Wow, and to think three more boys were born after this point!

I clearly remember the moments in the photo above. Besides liking that purple shirt (rare for me because I've just started liking purple recently), I distinctly remember the feelings I had when we had the tour with the Community of Christ tour guide and the tour we had with our LDS tour guide. Both were kind and good, but I felt powerful spiritual feelings with the LDS tour guide. It is just a reminder that children are not exempt from feeling the Spirit in their lives and may be closer to it than most of us having grown into adults.

It was great to walk the grounds alone. No one from the Community of Christ was at their visitor center and so we assumed it was closed for the day.

Right as we were walking toward it, the church across the street had an organist start playing "Till We Meet Again." That, along with the crisp (warm) morning air and being alone made it an especially peaceful experience.

The neighboring graveyard had many grave stones with familiar names - Smith, Stevenson, Pratt, etc. Standing among the graves of people who made great sacrifices brought feelings that I've felt at Gettysburgh, PA. Gratitude, respect, peace and a desire to push myself a little harder in life to stand for something and be something more than merely living a status quo.

We decided to head down into Ohio a bit more to see some Indian Mounds J had been hearing about. Sometimes it is more amazing to read about these things than actually see them in real life. But, again, I know that I had been to these mounds, or those that were similar, on one of those past family trips when I was young. Yet, I don't have a picture to prove it.

You can't go on a trip without visiting a local diner and we did just that - and sat up where we could talk to the waiters and waitresses as they shouted at each other and quite possibly us.

Notice how J also had to indulge in a Dairy Queen even while I try to be good. And, yes, the chocolate covered cone IS bigger than the vanilla cone he is eating. It isn't just bigger because it is closer to the camera.

A fun moment was seeing the Longaberger Baskets offices on a random drive near Newark, Ohio. The building looks like a big basket.



We ended up seeing J's kids after all this and the drive home was mostly in the dark through the mini-mountains of West Virginia and Virginia.

Trips are the best! They get us out of our norm and most important to me - I see people living life and they are OUTSIDE of the DC racket. Yes, there is a life out there and I'm excited to hit the road more to see it!

P.S. You will probably see another post above this since our moonroof decided not to close during our trip. Ugh. It was in the 60s and sunny the entire time, but now it is raining and presenting issues. More car sagas!

Fun Picture

Between the colors, the kids, and the John C. Freemont poses to block out the sun...this is a pretty fun picture.

Bald Men vs. Bald Babies

Bald men can complain all they want. I think bald babies have it worse. Who goes around putting bows on the bald heads of grown ups?

Even so, it makes for fun pictures.

Columbus - Part 2

Pics of Columbus

Columbus - Part 1

Since my parents had to work at the temple this weekend, a lot of us decided to descend on Columbus, Ohio for a couple of days after Christmas to celebrate.

Two of my sisters came with their kids and two of my brothers came making it about half the family. Let's just say we've figured out the best way to have a family get together in the winter.

1- Find a nice, but not too nice hotel - Courtyard by Marriott
2 - Reserve the entire hallway of rooms facing the indoor pool. Make sure each room has sliding glass doors wall to ceiling so doors can remain open and parents can see which children are flitting in and out of different rooms.
3 - Order pizza for almost any meal. Our mistake - not getting a hotel with a free continental breakfast. With lots of nieces and nephews this becomes a must.
4 - Just let the kids play in the pool, watch tv, play video games, etc. Only stop them when they start playing laser tag or laser guns (one sister had a cowboy theme this Christmas and so lots of guns appeared - we joked that this is what happens when you choose a job near the West Virginia border).
5 - Save the 1-2 pillows that you want to use to sleep on in the closet. During the course of the day people will migrate to different rooms. At one point one of my nieces was laying in my bed watching a show that wasn't on in any of the other rooms. For me, this is a no go. I must not have anyone touching my pillows or sheet before I sleep in them. Yes, this may be a phobia, but it is fact. Luckily, I was able to salvage one pillow before it had been touched.
6 - Make sure everyone puts the rooms on separate bills or agrees up front who will pay. My parents bought most of the rooms, but then people started adding their own and then it gets a little messy.

It was a great way to keep people happy - kids could play, parents could talk and fun was had by all.

It's kind of great being able to leave and know that someone else is responsible for cleaning the bathrooms and the bedroom and that you will never see it again. It's better than renting a beach house
Now, if I could just get out of the Columbus airport. Five delays so far and I've only checked in 35 minutes ago.