Northern States Road Trip (Day 13 - The End)

We finished off the last six hours of driving today, and this evening we celebrated Nate's 16th birthday.

 The theme of Nate's birthday meal:  Swine

I can drive!  And date!

He even won the game of Rook tonight.  He almost doubled my score!

 I think I'll use the word "awesomesauce" again to describe the foot-zoning I received from Stacie tonight.

Doogles loves Grandma

A few statistics from our road trip:

Days on the road:  13

States we drove through:  12 (Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and Nebraska)

Lowest gas price:  Iowa ($2.39)

Highest gas price:  Utah ($2.99), but only because we had to fill up in the Bear Lake resort town of Garden City.

Total miles drives:  4564

Total driving time:  77 hours

Lessons learned:  Minivans are wonderful

Northern States Road Trip (Day 12 - Two New Words)

The subject line above refers to two new words recently added to the Oxford (Online) Dictionary.  One of them describes Douglas (and probably many of us) at various times throughout the day when he is searching for something to fill his tummy.

Hangry:  Bad-tempered or irritable as a result of hunger.

We drove eight hours today.  Because we are staying the night in enemy territory (Laramie, Wyoming - home of the Wyoming Cowboys) I decided to remove the BYU magnets from the vehicle before we began our journey this morning.  We don't need our tires slashed the day before we are due back in Utah.

 We arrived at our hotel early today, so we spent some time relaxing at the pool and in the room.

Notice the warning above the door?  We'll see what happens when I get on the treadmill tomorrow morning.  It would be a shame to end this awesomesauce (the other word added to the Oxford dictionary) trip by passing out on the treadmill in Laramie, Wyoming.

Only six more hours of driving!

Northern States Road Trip (Day 11 - Hey butterfingers, can't you catch?!)

This morning I changed a diaper and dressed Douglas on the couch in our hotel room.  He stood up and leaned against the back of the couch.  When I said, "Hey Doogles, let's get your socks and shoes on so we can go outside," he launched himself toward me.  However, as I reached for him he slipped through my hands and went down, face first, into the corner of the coffee table.  Wow, I felt bad.  Normally when Douglas trips and falls, or when he runs into things on his own, I don't give him a bit of sympathy.  I simply tell him to get up.  Not this time.  I hugged him and told him I was sorry and that it was my fault.  This trip has been rough on the little man.  Lots of bumps and bruises.  Despite the incident this morning, Douglas was a good sport throughout the rest of the day.

 We drove three hours from Springfield, Illinois, to West Branch, Iowa, to visit the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.  Along the way we stopped at the world's largest truck stop.  They even have a trucking museum there.  No, we did not go inside. :)

 Douglas found the pillows while we wandered about the Hoover Presidential Museum.

 Hoover provided large quantities of food to the Belgians after WWI.  We received a sampling of what one of their meals would have been (small bowl of bland, watery soup and a piece of bread).  They add an apple to the meal here in order to make it a bit tastier, but the Belgians didn't get fruit.

 Because of Hoover's kindness to the Belgians they gave him a statue of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of life.  Think about that.  Isis used to be a symbol of life.  ISIS is now a symbol of death and destruction.

Hoover burial site

 Then we drove another four hours to Winter Quarters so that Sam could visit the Mormon Trail center.  I took a few more photos of the beautiful temple.

We ate Thai food tonight.  Thai food in Omaha, Nebraska.  Funny.  Now I can't sleep (as usual), which is why this post is coming tonight instead of tomorrow night.

Did I mention that having a minivan has been wonderful on this trip?  Did I also mention that Hertz gave us a very dirty (on the inside) minivan that was 1000 miles overdue for an oil change?  After this trip it will be more than 5000 miles overdue.......if it doesn't blow up before we get home.  The van began telling us it needed an oil change three days into our trip.  Lovely.

Oh, I forgot to mention that today was another beautiful day.  We have been SO blessed with good weather our entire trip.  We haven't had a day over 83 degrees.  And it's August!

Northern States Road Trip (Day 10 - Springfield)

 Today we drove to Springfield, Illinois and visited the Lincoln Museum.

 I played with Douglas for a bit while Sam enjoyed some peaceful wandering about the museum.  Here I am trying to get him to put his face in the hole.  He kept putting his arms through instead.

I finally succeeded!  Little Abe.

 I built and I built.  Douglas destroyed and destroyed.

Frederick Douglass

Goofing off

 One of the anti-Lincoln political cartoons.  The third person behind Lincoln is saying, "I want religion abolished and the book of Mormon made the standard of morality."

America

 The old Illinois State Capitol

 The Lincoln House

 The current Illinois State Capitol

 Stephen A. Douglas

 Illinois State Capitol

 Lincoln's Tomb

 Oh Abe, I know what it feels like to have a different-colored nose.

 "Mom, can we sing a song?"

"Sure, son.  Ready?  Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set..."

We finished the day early.  Hallelujah!  Early sleep.

Northern States Road Trip (Days 8 and 9 - Call me Babe Ruth)

Yesterday:

We visited Marianne and Kevin (and children) for a couple of days in Amish country.  Here I am with William.

Marianne and I walked some laps around their property on a cool, misty morning.

Matthew and William cooking up pancakes.

I flipped a few as well, and then we topped the pancakes with delicious maple syrup straight from their maple trees.  Mmmm.

Later that afternoon we all gathered around a fire in the woods to enjoy roasted corn, homemade potato salad, hot dogs, and watermelon.  Anna drove out with her cute little baby to join us.

I can still taste that corn!  Yum.

Douglas enjoying some time on the trampoline.

In the evening a group of neighbors (Amish, Mormons, and Mormish) gathered for a Family Home Evening.  We began with a song from the Amish hymnal.  The words are as follows:

HOW BEAUTIFUL HEAVEN MUST BE

We read of a place that’s called heaven,

It’s made for the pure and the free;

These truths in God’s word He has given,

How beautiful heaven must be.

Chorus:

How beautiful heaven must be

Sweet home of the happy and free;

Fair haven of rest for the weary,

How beautiful heaven must be.

In heaven no drooping nor pining,

No wishing for elsewhere to be;

God’s light is forever, there shining,

How beautiful heaven must be.

[Chorus]

The angels so sweetly are singing,

Up there by the beautiful sea;

Sweet chords from their gold harps are ringing,

How beautiful heaven must be.

[Chorus]

I shared some experiences from my travels overseas.

And then it was time for baseball.  And oh what fun we had!

The two teams gathered for a photo before we became opponents on the field of battl........baseball.

"Here it comes!  Here it comes!"

"I'm going to SMASH this thing!"  This might have been when I popped the ball straight up in the air and got out. :)

"Oh no!"  Sam just hit one of our own players.

Sam did a fine job pitching for our team.

Time lapse video of our game.

Okay, it's too dark to continue.  Bring it in!

What a great day.  Thank you, Kevin and Marianne (and children......and neighbors!) for being such amazing hosts.  Twas a short visit, but very memorable.

Today:

 We drove to the Indianapolis Indiana Temple.

 I have now served (initiatory work, endowments, sealings, and/or baptisms for the dead) in every currently-operating LDS temple in the United States (a total of 73 temples, if I am counting correctly).  I had the thought that because today is the first day of operation for the Indianapolis Temple, there is a chance that I am the only person in the Church (right now) who has done work in all of the temples in the United States......unless Brother Goulding was here today. :)  Check out this article Sam sent to me:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865634877/84-year-old-man-travels-to-77-LDS-temples-after-wifes-death.html?pg=1

 Another photo bomb!

 "It wasn't me.  He did it."

 Temple?  What temple?  I see only water to play in.

 Beautiful temple