Back from Israel

I packed everything I could to go home on the pallet, we had to leave our office chair, converter box, and boogie boards because we were over weight. 600 pounds doesn't go very far when you live somewhere for almost 10 months.

 My flight was late getting into Dallas because of lightning. We circled until we were low on fuel and went to Tulsa, OK to refuel and head back to Dallas. I missed my connecting flight because a TSA guy wouldn't let me through security with my boarding pass from Israel and I had to wait in line to get a boarding pass from Dallas. Instead of paying $60 for a hotel room for the night I opted to spend the night on a chair/floor/cot in the terminal. Not much sleep going on but I made it to SLC the next day.

 I got to spend a great week with the G-kids doing field trips to hike, swim, dance recital, and see Kinnecott copper mine.

 One of the huge tires on the rigs they use there, with my little group I was in charge of.

 The pit.

 Fun times on the tramp!

Alan got in a day late because of plane problems and spent the night in a hotel in London. Now we are safely in our home in OR and the G-girls came for the weekend. We had some great times shopping and eating!

Utah trip

We made it to the Y.

Jamie, her kids, and I climbed the 'Y'. It was awesome, even though I was the last one up.
We had a BBQ with the family, here are the sibs.
The girls wore twin shirts and put make-up on. They got along really well this trip. Sometimes they both try to be the boss and they have fights but this time they got along great!
The sibs after we got back from SLC seven peaks water park.
Ashleigh took this family pic of the Schips.
My niece, Hillary after she came out of the SL temple.
The cute family!
My nephew's wedding, Logan and Summer, at Manti Temple.
Ash took this gorgeous picture, the inside is really pretty too. They have the longest free standing circular stairway inside. This is Alan's family. They even have a picture of Les, who is in Afghanistan, on the I-phone Jeff is holding, so all of them are in the picture.
The birthday boy's 4th party. He picked out a dragon cake, mmm good!
We got the cousins together for one last picture before we left the next morning.
Alan and I holding the baby. She's a cute little chunk!

Nauvoo, Il

We visited Dale's dental office and all the Tripps got tooth brushes!

Tonya and I checked out some prairie grass, yup, that's what it was alright.We looked at the stained glass temple star replicas.

We drove into Nauvoo around lunch time and looked around at the sites. The temple stands in the middle of town on the hill and is very beautiful.
The Tripps' great- great- grandfather, Enoch Bartlet Tripp, was baptized in this store in Feb 1846.
This is the inside of the store where they brought a large tub from the temple and Heber C. Kimball baptized Enoch and two other men.
Tonya and Debi with the store goods.
This is Enochs' aunt's house that he stayed at.
Printing office in Nauvoo.Ding bat~ornamental piece of type used to take up space but have no real use. *
Chase-holds the letters to print in a set size. Thus the term, cut to the chase- taking words out so it all fits inside to print.
Galley- a long narrow block of wood with unbound letter types so you had to hold them tight together or they would slip out.

Mind your P's and Q's- it's easy to mistake lowercase p's and q's in setting the type.

Stereotype-When something is printed often they make a permanent mold of the print set.

Quo Key-tightens everything down.
Pretending to print on the press. Hot off the press didn't work well because they had to hang the paper up to dry before they could be handled.
We played some pioneer games.
Found a toilet!
Tried out the stilts.
Racing game.
Dressed up.
Found some transportation.
Walked into the city.
Danced with a bunch of strangers that felt like friends.
Watched the Nauvoo Pageant that Alan and I were supposed to be in.
Went to the Villa and relaxed before bed.
The next morning we walked the trail of hope and read pioneer diary passages on the way down to the Mississippi River, where they crossed to leave for the west.
Reading the signs.
What the Conestoga wagons looked like that they took to Salt Lake City.
The end of Parley street on the side of the Missis sip.
We met Dale at the Temple and did a session that morning. Loved the pictures, old aprons, stained glass, sun, moon, and stars all around. It was packed with people and lots of weddings going on.
The sibs.
Stained glass stars on the 4th floor.
One of the sun stones in town.
Katie told us we had to drop by the fudge factory. No wonder I gained almost 5 pounds on this trip!
The bagpipe band. I loved it, they played beautifully.
They even let us get into the act; what a great group!
We said good-bye to Dale and Katie and drove to Carthage jail. This is the dungeon room.
The room where Hyrum and Joseph Smith were killed by the mob.
The window Joseph fell through after he was shot; to the well below.
Outside with the well and window in the background.
The monument of Hyrum and Joseph.