Ohio - Part 1

My last post I told you about my trip to Cleveland. What I didn't tell you is that months before I even started my business, John's entire family had been planning a trip to Ohio for our nephew's baptism. His baptism was scheduled for the weekend after my convention. John wasn't working at the time, so he and Joseph actually flew out two days before me. Both of our tickets were just one way.

On Sunday they picked me up in Cleveland and we went to church and then went about 20 minutes outside of Cleveland to visit Historic Kirtland.

We really enjoyed our visit there. It was my second visit. John has been lots of times because Kirtland was part of his mission. The family that we went around on the tour with had also just come from the ACN convention. Our favorite part of the tour was the ashery.

It was incredible to consider that those people worked in there, dressed in their cotton and wool long sleeved clothing, wearing heavy leather aprons, keeping huge fires going all day long, working inside the same building with those fires, along with the humidity and heat that is part of the weather there already. We were really hot in there with only the building and the heat and humidity of the day! I can't imagine how they survived their work. Anyway... after the sister missionary described to us the process of making potash and pearlash, she pointed out that the Lord is able to do the same thing with us. We give what we have, which may be so insignificant, like ashes, and He takes us through a refining process and is able to create something that is valuable, extremely useful and in high demand. I love being refined by the Lord!

aren't those sunflowers beautiful!?

Newel K. Whitney store

As we made the three hour drive from Kirtland back to John's sister's home we drove through several rainstorms like I have never seen before in my life!! I couldn't believe the amount of water on the windshield as we drove. So many people would just pull over to the side of the road to wait out the storm. It was like having the contents of a swimming pool dumped on your windshield all at once. There was no way the wipers could keep our view clear for even a second. It really was amazing. We drove through most of the way, only stopping once to wait for a bit.

We spent the next week hanging out with John's family. We stayed with his sister Melissa and her family of 6. Another one of his sisters and her family of 7 were there as well. Joseph had a blast playing outside and finally overcame his uncomfortableness with walking on grass and uneven surfaces.

One day that week we all took an outing to Dayton and visited the Cox Arboretum.

They had a butterfly house there, making for a great opportunity to take some cool butterfly photos. (You gotta click on these and look at the detail in the butterflies themselves.)

There was also a little hedge maze that the kids played in forever, trying to find their way out.

We enjoyed watching the turtles and fish in the pond and even saw a momma duck with her little ducklings.

We ate our lunch there and then headed out to the National Air Force Museum for a while.

The size of some of that aircraft was pretty mind-boggling. I thought the coolest craft there was the B-2 stealth bomber.

Joseph enjoyed walking through a little plane and really lost it when he couldn't go through more than twice.

The rest of John's family arrived by caravan on Friday, filling the house up to 27 people.

Joseph and his cousin Jacob (who is 7 months younger) with their Grandma Humphries

Kristi's twins Mary & Elizabeth (3 months younger than Joseph)

It was really fun to all be together and support Alden for his baptism on Saturday. Later that night we all went to a Mudhens baseball game.

They lost, and by a lot. The end of the last inning was exciting when a couple of balls were consecutively hit towards the area where we were sitting. And after the game there were fireworks and Joseph was absolutely mesmerized. It was sure fun to watch his cute little face totally in awe at the sky.

... to be continued.