Beehive House

For her Utah Studies class, Michelle had to create an ABC book about Utah's people and places.  She decided that as part of her book, we would visit as many of the places as possible and include photos of her in front of those locations holding the letter it represented.  So on one of the days during UEA, we drove around Salt Lake taking photos of as many places as possible.  We visited East High, the Huntsman Institute,  the arena where the Jazz play, the State Capitol building, the Lion House and the Beehive House.

Gabby really wanted her photo with the two buffalo across the street from the State Capitol.  We were at the Capitol just a couple of hours before it was evacuated because a mysterious package with an unloaded rifle was left there by a man trying to send a message of peace.

 Then we headed to Temple Square   I don't know if I have ever done a tour of the Beehive House before...I think I might have years ago.  But my girls and I took a tour of the Beehive House.

 Two cute sister missionaries took us and three other family groups on the tour.  Because it has been a couple of months, I don't honestly remember much of what they said.  What does stand out is the spirit we could feel there.  I also remember that they emphasized how Brigham Young really made time to visit with, listen to and help those who came to see him.  He was a very busy man as both territorial governor and prophet as well as a husband and father.  But he did the best he could to make time for each person who came to see him, to ask for his help, to receive his counsel.

 The home is very beautiful.  It reminded me a lot of my trip with Michelle to Nauvoo this summer.  The early Saints were industrious and worked hard to beautify wherever they lived.

One thing that Michelle and I found fascinating was that what looks like wall paper (and now partially is wallpaper) would not have been wall paper when Brigham Young lived in the home.  They would have hand stencilled the designs on the wall! Amazing!

random photos

I recently found an SD card with photos from 2011 that I don't think I'd ever seen before.  It was fun to see how cute and small my girls were back then.  Here are a few of the photos I found.

Golden Spike

We visited the Golden Spike National Historic Site with our friends on the day before Thanksgiving.  Golden Spike is at Promontory, Utah (west of Brigham City about 20 miles).  It is the site where the Central Pacific Railroads and Union Pacific Railroads met in May 1869.  When we arrived, we watched a Charlie Brown cartoon that taught us a bit about the transcontinental railroad, the Chinese workers that built it and the Golden Spike.   The children all did the Junior Ranger program, so there were a bunch of questions for them to answer/things for them to find.

 Soon after the video ended, their was a tour of the Jupiter and No. 119.  These were the two locomotives that brought dignitaries to the Golden Spike Ceremony.  Both of these locomotives are replicas of the original locomotives.  Interestingly, neither Jupiter nor No. 119 were supposed to be the locomotives that brought dignitaries to the Ceremony.  A locomotive named Antelope was supposed to pull the Central Pacific trains, but as they were headed to Utah, an accident occurred...Antelope hit a log.  The Antelope was too badly damaged to complete the journey to Promontory, so the trains were hooked up to Jupiter.  Jupiter continued to serve as a passenger locomotive until the early 1900's.  Eventually she was sold to be used as scrap metal.

 Originally the 119 was not to pull the Union Pacific trains either.  When the Vice President of the company stopped in Piedmont, Wyoming, angry workers met the train and chained it to the siding.  They had not been paid for several months and refused to let the train continue.  After two days, the money arrived to pay the workers and the Vice President continued to Promontory.  However, the Weber River had risen and the bridge was not safe to cross for the heavy Durant Special.  So the engineer gave the coaches a push and they coasted across the bridge.  Then the 119 was sent from Ogden to pick up the caoches and bring them to Promontory.  The No. 119 served as a freight locomotive until the early 1900's when she was also scrapped.

 The new replicas are used during the spring and summer but are stored and cleaned in the winter.

 The kids worked together inside and out to find the answers to the numerous questions about the Golden Spike and the transcontinental railroads.

It was a fun and informative outing.  It took a little longer to answer some of the questions than we had expected and everyone was ready to go by the time we finished, but it was fun.

Christmas Spirit

Norman Vincent Peale said, "I truly believe that if we keep telling the Christmas story, singing the Christmas songs, and living the Christmas spirit, we can bring joy and happiness and peace to this world."

I felt the Christmas spirit this year as we prepared for and participated in a variety of Christmas activities:  book club party, neighborhood party, ward party, ward Christmas sacrament program, company parties, First Presidency Devotional, reading Christmas books daily, singing and listening to Christmas songs, reflecting on Christ, visiting Temple Square, providing service, driving around to see lights, decorating gingerbread houses, spending time with loved ones.  I've probably forgotten a few.  But certainly all of these things brought joy and happiness to me.  I know that the holidays aren't happy for everyone and I know that many people begin to feel overburdened by all of the things to do and places to go.  I certainly can understand that, but I genuinely love it.  I love all of the aspects of the celebration...except perhaps decorating gingerbread houses. (I do those because my girls really love it.)  And there are aspects of the holidays that I don't participate in such as Elf on the Shelf or singing in the ward choir.  But I love the music, the parties, the service, the thinking of others and the reflecting on blessings as well as the turning of hearts to Christ.

Here are some of the things we did to get in the Christmas spirit.  We made (mini) gingerbread houses:

 We went to Temple Square to see the lights.  This ended up being a bit different than our plans.  My class went in together to buy me a gift card to Old Spaghetti Factory for Christmas.  So our plan was to have dinner there at Trolley Square and then go see the lights.  But I didn't make reservations and when we got there, the wait was an hour and a half.  So we went Rubios instead and then headed to Temple Square.  But Temple Square was so busy that the parking lots at City Creek were full.  So we parked at Gateway, rode the Trax and then walked around Temple Square.  It was beautiful...but so crowded.  But still worth going, in my opinion (maybe not so much in Gabby's...take a look at the expressions she makes in several of the pictures.)

I love seeing the different nativities.  

 On a different night, the girls and I and Gabby's friend Sofie drove around town seeing homes with great light displays.  This house in West Jordan was really cool.  It told you to tune your radio to a specific station and then the lights were flashing in tune to the Christmas music.  Very cool.

 We drove around Christmas Street in Taylorsville.

 We drove around Christmas Street in Sugarhouse...and took a bad photo in front of the Christmas Tree.  We also drove WAY up in the Avenues to see the Reindeer Crossing house there.

It truly is "the most wonderful time of the year!"