Running for President

My kids were looking through my high school yearbooks last fall. When they got to my Senior yearbook, class of '88, there was a list of memorable events for the calendar year of 1987. I had to laugh when I saw these two entries:

Funny how, 34 years later, these two have once again been making Presidential headlines. Who would have thought?

25 Years Ago Today

Twenty five years ago today was a big day for me.

Saying goodbye to my dad at the MTC. (I've always had a hard time saying goodbye to my dad!)

On July 1, 1992, I entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah in preparation for my service in the Scotland Edinburgh Mission (SEM). I was in the MTC for only 13 days. At the time, missionaries going to English-speaking missions stayed in the MTC for 3 weeks. However, the SEM was getting a new mission president and the outgoing president wanted to get us there before the change to lessen the load on the new president.

The classic MTC picture - my district pointing to Scotland on the big MTC map. I'm in the floral skirt.

I loved the MTC. Two districts totaling 21 missionaries had all been called to Scotland so we were a pretty tight group. 

My MTC district. I'm the one in pink.

I have so many great memories of my time in the MTC and my mission. If I had to do it over again, I definitely would!

50 Years

Happy 50th Anniversary, mom and dad! I'm so glad you were married for forever. Anything less wouldn't be long enough. Even though dad is gone for now, I know we'll be together again.

XO

Pioneer Trek

My boys have had quite a week! Monday morning they left for Mammoth Cave in Kentucky with their Scout troop. They went caving and hiking and pretty much wore themselves out until they left for home on Wednesday morning. They got home in time for lunch then hurried to repack and switch to pioneer gear before they headed out that same afternoon for our stake's youth conference Pioneer Trek.

For the next three days, they pulled handcarts, danced, cooked and ate in the great outdoors, and tried to stay dry during a thunderstorm. And you know what? They loved it! They all had a great time honoring our many pioneer ancestors.

This is my favorite photo from trek. Don't my boys just look the part? I love that Jeff was with them, too.

The whole group:

Here is Spencer (far right) with his trek family.

This is part of Sterling's trek family. It's hard to tell with the smoke (though I love the effect), but Sterling is second to the right. His Ma and Pa are in the center.

Soren (left) with part of his trek family:

A couple of months before trek, the youth were encouraged to submit stories from their pioneer ancestors. Here, Spencer is sharing one of the submitted stories.

Here, Soren is helping his "family" stabilize the handcart as they walk down a hill.

On the last day, on a steep segment of the trail, the girls had to pull the handcarts alone while the men and boys watched helplessly. My boys said that as each group of girls reached the summit, they left their handcarts and hurried to help the girls still on the trail.

US Air Force Museum

Our Spring Break plans were foiled before they began.

We had arranged to drive to Washington DC on Monday to stay with friends and spend a couple of days seeing the sights. Coming home, we'd tour Gettysburg then stop to visit friends in Columbus. Last Saturday night we realized that we'd likely be driving in a snowstorm all the way there; the forecast was still awful for our only full-day of sight seeing. Both DC and Gettysburg looked like they might be buried by snow. Yuck! Driving on snowy, icy roads is bad enough around town. I didn't want to do it for 12 hours - that could easily turn into much longer - on the freeway, not to mention the conditions once we arrived. So we canceled our trip. Fortunately, the kids weren't devastated. We decided to make the best of our week together.

By Wednesday, we were ready to venture out for the day. Jeff and the boys were able to attend the temple in Indiana to do some work for extended family. From there we drove to Dayton, Ohio to visit the US Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

This museum was a favorite of our kids when they were small. We visited a few times when we lived in Columbus. It's been several years since we've been there so the kids were excited to explore it again. It was definitely worth the trip. The museum is HUGE! Four giant hangars display everything related to flight from the early days (Wright brothers) to space exploration and everything in between.

These missiles are HUGE!

Sadie and Soren loved exploring several former presidential "Air Force One" planes. We could actually walk through those and see the differences over the years. Spencer enjoyed seeing all the old war planes. They even have "The Bockscar" which dropped the final atomic bomb on Nagasaki to end WWII. Sterling liked the Cold War planes. That hangar housed an SR-71 Blackbird. My dad introduced my boys to the SR-71 years ago and they've loved it ever since.

We spent 3 1/2 hours at the museum before it closed. We could have easily spent twice that or more. In some parts we just did a quick walk-through to see what was there, but had to forgo all the cool displays and information. My feet, however, were happy to go. We did a LOT of walking. It was a great day and worth the four hour drive each way. By the way, the museum is free. :)

One of the smallest planes we saw.

A beautiful sunset for our drive home.

The Candy Bomber

Sam is posing with one of my favorite people! I've blogged about Gail Halvorsen, a.k.a. The Candy Bomber, before. He provided so much hope to a war-torn Germany in the darkest days following World War II. I must admit that I'm a little bit jealous because Sam got to meet Mr. Halvorsen today at the BYU library and get this picture with him. Sam also walked away with a personally autographed picture.

I've posted the following video before. In it, Tom Brokaw tells The Candy Bomber's story which shows how a small act of generosity took off and ended up blessing countless lives. I'm a fan!

Remembering Sarah Moulton

Today is Pioneer Day, a state holiday in Utah commemorating the arrival of the first Mormon pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. I grew up in Utah and always loved attending the big parade in Salt Lake and the fireworks that night.

Recently I've been thinking a lot about my pioneer heritage. Maybe that's because we stopped at Martin's Cove in Wyoming on our way home from our vacation a few weeks ago. Martin's Cove was a stop for two ill-fated handcart companies in 1856, the Willie and Martin handcart companies. Some of my relatives, the Thomas Moulton family, traveled with the Willie company.

Thomas Moulton's wife died in 1839 just before their daughter, Sarah, turned two years old. Thomas remarried a woman, also named Sarah, and they had many more children. Several years later, they joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and eventually left England to be with the main body of the Saints in Utah.

Thomas' wife, Sarah, was expecting their 8th child when they were preparing to leave England. Thomas was worried about the journey, but Sarah was determined to leave as planned. She received a blessing before their journey began in which she was promised that no one in the family would die before they reached their destination. The baby she was carrying was born on the ship en route to America.

Once they reached Iowa City, Iowa, they traveled the rest of the way with the Willie handcart company. Because the handcart company left later in the season than planned and due to early winter storms and other hardships, it was a perilous journey. When Brigham Young received word that there were still handcart pioneers on the trail, stranded and out of supplies, he sent rescue companies to bring them home.

Ultimately, as promised, all 10 members of the Moulton family made it safely to the Salt Lake Valley. Sarah, Thomas and Sarah's 19-year old daughter, later married her rescuer, John Bennett Hawkins. They are my great great grandparents.

(Click here to read a more in-depth version of this story.)

John Bennett Hawkins and Sarah Moulton Hawkins

I love John and Sarah's story. What was important to them is important to me. I'm grateful for their heritage of faith.

Finding Ute Perkins

My sixth great grandfather was Ute Perkins. He moved to Illinois in the late 1830's, joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when missionaries came through his town and welcomed many of the Saints to Perkins Settlement when they were driven out of Missouri shortly after that. Ute and his wife, Sarah, were the first permanent white settlers in the area. Perkins Settlement had other names over the years including Ramus* and Macedonia. When the Saints were driven out of Illinois, the name was changed to Webster and remains so today. 

I knew Ute and Sarah were buried in Webster Cemetery and I knew that it wasn't far from Carthage (10-15 miles) so I really wanted to see if we could find his grave. The problem was, neither our GPS nor Jeff's phone knew of Webster. It was like it didn't exist. 

Fortunately, we had a map of Old Nauvoo that showed the land as it was in the 1840's. Everything was laid out in 1 mile blocks. According to the map, "Ramus" was 8 miles north and 3 miles east of Carthage. So after our Carthage tour, we started driving north. Just before we'd gone 8 miles, a road sign said "Webster" with an arrow to turn left (east). After winding around a bit, we drove right to little Webster, Illinois. 

The cemetery was tucked away amidst fields and farms. Fortunately, Webster is very small so it didn't take us long to find it. We quickly located Ute and Sarah's grave marker, took pictures, and then explored the cemetery for a few minutes before heading for home.

The bottom of the marker says, "They Led the Way."

This was a great end to our Spring Break. The drive home was beautiful with huge "Toy Story" clouds (big fluffy ones with flat bottoms) and wide open spaces. 

A cute little country church

Our Spring Break getaway was exactly what we needed.

*Some fun trivia for members of the LDS church - two revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants were received in Ramus, Illinois: Sections 130 and 131. 

The Candy Bomber

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Harrison Ford, and Gail Halvorsen

Isn't this the greatest picture? If I had to pick my favorite pilots, these three would top my list! Click Here to read a little about the event that brought them together.

Gail Halvorsen (far right), also known as "The Candy Bomber," is one of my heroes. I first learned his story in 2012 when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir paid tribute to him in their annual Christmas concert. You can hear Tom Brokaw tell the story in the video below. (You might want to grab a tissue...)

Then a few months later, I read a book recommended by one of my kids' teachers that told the whole story of the Candy Bomber. It makes my heart happy (and tears leak out of my eyeballs) when I think of the lives he's touched and the difference he made at such a dark time. In short, World War II was over, but Germany was in pretty rough shape. Operation "Vittles" had U.S. Servicemen dropping food and supplies in the war ravaged cities to help the civilians survive. Gail Halvorsen started dropping candy and gum in little handkerchief parachutes to the children that would watch the planes come in. His idea took off from there. For so many, these little bundles from heaven were a light in the darkness.

What an inspiration!

1000 = 10%

This is it, my 1,000th post! Bring on the fireworks.

Only 9,000 more happy things to go! It took me five and a half years to get here. At this rate, I'll finish up sometime in the year 2065, give or take...

One of my favorite things about this blog is when my kids sit down and scroll through it. Or sometimes they'll click on their name in the tags and look at all the posts about them. I think it might be their happy place, too. :)

Before and After: Wood Floors is one of the most viewed posts over the last five years.

Another popular one was about the little blue finches at our feeder in the spring of 2011. 

Sterling's fourth grade student council poster is the picture from my blog that has been pinned the most on Pinterest.

We have highs and lows like anyone else, but I love that I have a place to record the good times -- the big and little things that make me smile. These are the things I want to remember.

Here's to the next 49 years!

Lincoln's Funeral Train

Lincoln's original funeral train, 1865. Imagesource

Abraham Lincoln was assassinated 150 years ago last month. A Presidential train car was under construction at the time of his death (the equivalent of today's Air Force One) and was quickly altered to become his Funeral Train which transported his coffin from Washington, DC to Springfield, IL. 

The original funeral car was sold several times and ultimately destroyed by fire. In honor of this 150th anniversary of Lincoln's death, a replica train car has been created and is making several stops. Last week it came to my little corner of the world. It was parked at our local fairgrounds which also happens to be the location of one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. 

Sadie, Soren and Sterling all took field trips to tour the Funeral Train. Jeff's parents, in town for the kids' musical, went with us one evening as well. We live in Lincoln country and it's always fun to learn more of the history surrounding our 16th President. 

Lincoln's Funeral Train, replica 2015

Lincoln's Coffin

The metal plate on the coffin

This would have been Lincoln's bed on the Presidential Car if he had lived.

 Here is an interesting article with a lot more information about the Funeral Train, then and now: Lincoln's Funeral Train is Reborn.