Home at Last

We found our home in perfect order, thanks to Chantal. We weren't in great shape though. Most of us came down with influenza our first week home. After such a fantastic adventure we couldn't complain too much though.

Toby was happy to find his old squirrel nemesis to chase.

Our little fruit trees produced some beautiful samples for us.

It's good to be home. Thanks to all of you who helped us with pets, keeping up our home, planting tomatoes and squash, supportive phone calls, or just following our blog. We love you!

Utah--a few odds and ends and goodbyes

As if a rodeo and a camping trip weren't enough. We also got to go boating and swimming and just hang out with our favorite people in the world. It is always hard to leave our wonderful Utah families.


Daniel and Mark

Hayley, Mara, and Emily

We got to meet our newest cousin, Holly Joy Spann. Mark waited patiently for a week to hold her. He had walking pneumonia when we arrived so he was on quarantine.

Ice cream party at Scott and Amy's house. This was also a farewell to Toby party. We took him with us that night. We were so glad that he was in good hands.

Movie night with the cousins in the Hemmert yard (yes there are that many little boys, plus a couple more). It is so fun to be in Utah and always so hard to leave, but we were ready to head home and back to our regular lives.

Utah! (cont.)

We went camping for two nights with the Hemmert family. Albion Basin, just above Alta, was one of the most beautiful campgrounds we have ever been in. Oh, it was good to be back in the Rockies! There were so many fun pictures to share, I had a hard time picking. Here are some in random order.

Tyson and Devin found this watch in the bushes. They heard the alarm go off at noon and followed the sound. Probably lost by a skier.

A few moments with a book.

Natalie and her boys taking a break on our hike to Cecret Lake.

Daniel and Mark. Good buddies.

Camping with Grandpa and Grandma Hemmert wouldn't be complete without an amazing Dutch oven extravaganza! We had fried chicken, potatoes, and pineapple upside-down cake. It doesn't get any better.

The girls kept the little boys busy building "fairy houses" out of moss and bark and leaves. The fairys were very grateful and left a treasure hunt to find a bush covered with candy!

On the trail to Cecret Lake.

It was so breathtakingly beautiful.

S'mores and songs around the campfire. We love Grandma's ukulele!

There were two moose right in the campground!

Salamanders!

Cecret Lake

No Hayley, we can't bring it home.

Utah!

It was so good to get off the road after four long days of driving! Grandma and Grandpa Hansen's tree is much more fun than being stuck in an overflowing van.

The Hansen's took us to the Spanish Fork rodeo! We had so much fun with our Hansen cousins. This was a part of Americana that we didn't see in the East. It was good to be back home in the West!

Thanks Wayne and Marsha! We loved it!

Kirtland--Homeward Bound!

On Saturday, July 18 we finished loading up our cherished possessions (at least the things we didn't think we could do without) and drove Northwest towards I-80 and Kirtland, Ohio. This was the our last Church history stop, and one of our favorites.

We arrived an hour too late to tour the Kirtland Temple. But we enjoyed the beautiful grounds and imagined what kind of sacrifice it took for the early church members to build this special building.

The Church has impressively restored many buildings in "Historic Kirtland." This is Newel K. Whitney's store. Joseph and Emma lived in upstairs rooms here and this is where the "School of the Prophets" was originally held.

A senior missionary couple from Idaho gave us a personal tour. We appreciated their knowledge of Church history and their strong testimonies.

This where the School of the Prophets was. In a tiny upper room of the Whitney store future leaders of the Church met and were taught by Joseph Smith. This is where the Word of Wisdom revelation came from--remember the story of Emma scrubbing the tobacco spit off the floor and not liking it much? This is also where wonderful visions of the Savior occurred. There was a special feeling is this room. It felt like a sacred place to us.

Newell K. Whitney's home

A working saw mill and an ashery have been restored. We thought these were fascinating buildings. Newell K Witney was a very astute businessman and made a lot of money with his mill and ashery and store. He gave most of it to the fledgling church. He was a great man.

Packed floor to ceiling, but happy to be on our way home. We stopped in Colorado for one night to return the U-haul and attach our camp trailer. We had to retrieve Toby from Neil's brother in Utah and spend our last week and a half of sabbatical with our Utah families.

A Few Last Things

Our last week in DC we spent tying up loose ends. We bought a few more souveniers, celebrated Hayley's birthday, and visited a few well loved places for the last time.

Neil rides through Gravelly Point on his bike every day and he wanted to share it with us before we left. It is a park just a hundred yards from the landing runway at Reagan National Airport. The planes literally fly directly over your head as they come in to land. It felt like you could jump up and touch them!

Jeffrey tried to out run them!

This was Neil's last bike ride. He bought this old ten speed for $40 when we moved here. He hated the squeaky old thing every time he rode it, but it held together until his final ride home. The back tire blew out and he had to ride on the rim! Ouch! Here is what he e-mailed me in the morning (before the tire blew).

"Today was the last bike ride to work in the District for me. I won’t miss the bicycle, but I will miss the ride. I saw a couple of jets land at Reagan National, paralleled the Potomac, flew past cars in gridlock on the I-395 bridge, paid homage to Thomas Jefferson, skirted around the Tidal Basin, saluted the Washington Monument, glanced down the reflection pool towards Lincoln, flashed my security card to the guards and sat down at my desk with a big smile."

Does it get any better than that?

Happy Birthday to a wonderful young lady. We all went to "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince", dinner at a Thai restaurant with just Hayley, Mom, and Dad and strawberry shortcake for dessert.

This is the library just around the corner from our apartment. We spent many school mornings here.

The grocery just across the street from the library. We spent many dollars here. :) It is way too easy to walk to the store every time you need "just one more thing."

Looking the opposite direction from the Library. This is a row of restaurants and shops.

Home Sweet Home. We will miss you Shirlington Villiage! We are on our way! We'll stop at Kirtland, Ohio to see more Church History sites, head to Utah for a week, and be home in Colorado on August 1.

Next to Last Week!

(This post is a bit out of order, but I don't know how to fix that. It should be above the 4th of July post.)
Because Hayley's friend, Megan, was here last week we got to re-visit some of our favorite places. We also saved some things just for her visit, like the elevator ride to the top of the Washington Monument. It was amazing to see the view! We felt like we were saying goodbye to old friends.


To the West: the WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Constitution Gardens, Arlington Bridge, Roosevelt Island, and the Kennedy Center.

To the East: the United States Capitol, the Supreme Court (back left), and the Library of Congress (back right).

T0 the South: the Tidal Basin, Jefferson Memorial, 14th Street Bridge, and Ronald Reagan International Airport.



To the North: the White House.


Farther to the North: the LDS Temple. Isn't that cool?!

This is the Declaration of Independence in the National Archives. It was amazing to see the originals of these incredible documents.

Mara, Mark, and Jeffrey and I bought hot dogs from a street vendor and shared with a squirrel in the sculpture garden. Mark was astounded that we actually bought lunch from a vendor! We never buy lunch!

A sea turtle in the National Aquarium. We don't recommend the aquarium. It was rather underwhelming.


We got to go to the National Zoo one more time! And Mount Vernon too (my fifth time!)


The most incredible thing we did last week was take a tour of the White House and Capitol with Senator Bennett's (R-Utah) wife. We met her at church and she generously offered to take us for a personal tour to places that the general public doesn't get to go. It was a highlight of our entire 4 months here! This is a hallway in the Senate wing of the Capitol. It was beautifully painted. The artist worked on the Capitol for 25 years.

This is the room where the Senate Appropriations Committee meets. It was very beautiful. We got to ride the underground tram from the Senate offices to the Capitol! We saw Senator Leahy, Senator Bennett, and Senator McCain! We also got to see the House in a voting session. It was chaotic! And very interesting.

We are glad you came Megan! We got to revisit our favorite places!