food, crochet, merriment
On our little windy journey–Grammy found that a few new hats were in order. Luckily the crochet hook and cotton works very nicely on the drive with no car sickness…it’s a miracle, I tell you.
Wheat colored, ribbed with a stripe for Beckham.
Lacey pink picot point for Lily—don’t you love the pony tail holes?
And the same, Lacy Picot in cream for the little lady.
Ahh…busy fingers.
What a lovely way to feather the nest.
Photo by Jillian
“I promise that if you and those you love will seek Him in all humility, sincerity, and diligence, you will know with a surety too. Your witness will come. And the blessings of knowing God will be yours and your family’s forever. ”
– Elder Robert D. Hales
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Happy Birthday Mary Jo!!
This moment~
A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from our lives.
A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
If you have a moment of your own–please share a link in the comment section.
Happy summer weekend everyone!
You see all kinds of ridiculous stuff when you’re on the highway for days at a time. Some of it interesting…
and some of it downright spooky. See for yourself…
Not a big fan of tunnels that go through mountains…or under rivers…or at all actually. I’m perfectly happy to go around the darn things. So add to the general creepiness a Prestone jug yellow hue and you’ve got a real eerie driving tube. Get out–get out–get out.
Now this could be an attempt to pass going very, very badly…but don’t be afraid. It’s not. This is actually a Semi towing another Semi…backwards. Just a tad startling to look up from a good book and see a this staring you in the face.
Seriously?! Would you build your brand new hotel at the base of not one, but TWO huge precariously teetering boulders? What were they thinking?!
I like pancakes, but not enough to want to be one. wow.
You can’t really tell from here–but this is crawling tube at a roadside McDonald’s is reeeally high…like a million feet up. Well, to Grammy anyway. I’m pretty sure this is the farthest that little Lilly has every been from home…alone.
My new favorite book series and best road trip pal. We were slow to get started with them–but everyone but the babies is neck deep in the series now. Very, very scary and thrilling at the same time. It’s the first book I’ve ever read that actually makes me jump.
Here’s the best one of all. So your driving along…minding your own business…when you just happen to look over at the vehicle to your right. Yeeeah. I’m sorry–is that a freaking missile right next to us?! Like the kind they blow up small countries with?
I’m patriotic and all that, but come on. They just drive these suckers down the street?! Not sure whether to speed way up or slow way down or make a sharp left and bolt to Alaska. We took off like…well, like a minivan being chased by a missile, that’s what. We’d have had a great story for the policeman giving us a ticket.
“Well you see officer…there was this missile…”
Sheesh.
Just for that…
we’re coming home!
Seems like all the days have started or ended exactly like this. Can’t you just hear the Beatles singing, “The Long and Winding Road.”
Well I can…and it’s beautiful.
We did get a cute little guidance truck to tell us how to maneuver the road construction. They must not have known that we’re from UTAH MAN! The road construction capitol of the universe–and we are detour savvy.
It was a nice gesture though.
Then, all of a sudden these hills started popping up, from out of nowhere. We were entering South Dakota!
Did you know that South Dakota has real, live buffalo hidden away in their hills? I had no clue! Where did I get the idea that they were extinct? Oh no—they have been simply kicking back in SD all these years!
I must be out of the endangered species loop. Can I just tell you–these dudes are ENORMOUS!
Suddenly, the hills turned into bigger hills…small mountains even.
Which was a good thing because where we’re going needs to be a big, BIG mountain.
And it did not disappoint. In fact, Mt. Rushmore was positively breathtaking. I wish I could show you up close how cool this place is. President Roosevelt even looks like he has glasses on. It was amazing.
We had to take the token “stand HERE and snap your picture” shot–you know–for posterity. See all that rubble at the base of the Presidents? There’s a really great film you can watch in the museum that told us that the rubble is from all the dynamite they used to carve this out of the rock.
In fact, they said that 90% of the actual carving was done with dynamite. How does that work? The rest of course, was done and finished and smoothed out with chisels by men hanging down in swing type things. Those guys were soooo brave. Another thing I learned is that the fellow who made it–with 4oo other workers–died before it was finished. They actually had plans for the collars and lapels of Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln–not just Mr. Washington.
The history was positively fascinating.
The ice cream was glorious.
The company was wonderful.
We’ll remember this place–the “Shrine of Democracy” at Mt. Rushmore, for the rest of our lives.