I have a little catching up to do! We have had a busy, busy couple of weeks winding up our summer, both in the library and in our personal lives. The library has been so busy all summer with lots of guests visiting our floor from around the globe. Since the Labor Day holiday, it has quieted down significantly. Everyone is back to school and back to work! The long, lazy days of summer seem to be over for most people. I'm sure we will still see a lot of guests coming in but it already seems different, like more of the serious, experienced researchers are there now and not the new, pop-in vacationers! Both are awesome in their own ways.
This week on Family Search, I was led to an ancestor of my Grandma Gardner's who lived in Nauvoo, Illinois in the early days of the church. Her name is Charlotte Iris Alvord. I found the following picture and life sketch on Family Search:
"Charlotte
Alvord was born in New York and may have joined the LDS church in
Michigan. She was one of eleven women who accompanied Zion's Camp on
their march to Missouri. She married Lyman Curtis, a member of Zion's
Camp.
Charlotte
was a faithful member of the church, enduring many trials with the
pioneers. She bore a large family of children (12) in primitive conditions
and in many different places as she accompanied her husband on his
missions. She endured the long absences of her husband. She
experienced the mobs in Missouri, was driven out of Nauvoo, and spent
time in Winter Quarters. She crossed the plains, giving birth to a
child along the way. She then built a home in Salt Lake City. All this
time, Charlotte remained faithful to the church, raising her children
to have strong testimonies.
During
Lyman's long mission to the Indians, Charlotte did not hear from her
husband and came to believe that he had died. She, therefore, divorced
him and married another man. When Lyman returned, she had the other
marriage annulled."
I can't imagine how hard her life must have been, but I am inspired by her and hope that she is smiling down on me as I work to connect our family to our past! It is so amazing to connect with pioneers when all these years we thought our parents were the pioneers. I think my grandma would have been really surprised to know that she had pioneers in her history!
I am finding so many of our Swedish ancestors too! It is fascinating to discover people we are connected to from all over the world!
We had some fun family time the past couple of weeks. We have a little bucket list of things we wanted to do while living here. One was for me to climb to the Mt. Timpanogos caves and Eric and I got to do that! It was a perfect day too! It has finally started to cool down here and it was so beautiful. The smoke from the fires throughout the west had cleared and the path was shady and cool. We couldn't buy tickets for the cave tour for the time we wanted (sold out) so we decided to just do the hike to the caves and back. When we were almost to the top we met a couple of Eric's friends who we had a nice chat with. We mentioned that we didn't have tickets for a tour and they suggested we ask the ranger at the entrance if they had any cancellations. We did and they did have two for the next tour and we were thrilled! It was a wonderful experience and now my bucket list has one less adventure on it!
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| These are called straws. They are long and hollow and very fragile. Needless to say there was not touching of anything allowed in the caves! |
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| This is called cave bacon. |
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| These columns on the bottom are formed by water dripping off the ones on top. I think they said that the ones on the left would meet in something like 50 years, or was it 172 years? Anyway, it's a long slow process! Fascinating! |
Mike and I were able to attend his 60th East High School reunion on August 24th. It was held at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City and there were about 170 people there from a class of about 700. It was fun for him to see a few people that he knows and especially fun to see his best friend Tom Plummer and his wife Louise.
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| Mike with Clyde Bench and Ed Wall |
Another thing on our bucket list was to go to a Salt Lake Bee's baseball game. Mike used to watch the Bee's play ball when he was a child so it was a trip down memory lane for him! They won, it was a beautiful evening and a beautiful setting! Loved it and it's always fun with Eric can join us!
Hannah has been doing some volunteer work downtown so she and Violet have joined us for lunch a couple of times. Always a treat to be with them!
We had an extra special treat over Labor Day weekend of going to Colorado. We were allowed to take several fun outings in Brazil with our senior missionary friends there, but since we have been here we have stayed pretty much within the radius of our mission boundaries which is a circle that goes from Logan to Payson and around. Eric and I went to the Manti Pageant but besides that we have stayed in the circle! Not complaining at all and not saying we haven't had fun outings--we have had a great time here!
We got permission to go to Colorado for a few days (just missed two days of library time) to visit our two son's (Tyler and Ryan) and their families in Colorado Springs and then we stopped in Longmont on our way back for a few hours to check on the house, pick up some things, and have lunch with some friends. It was a great trip! Eric was able to take a couple of days off as well and join us so that was a treat too! We spent the night before the trip at Eric's apartment in American Fork. Eric and I did these wonderful facials and we watched the Bronco's pre-season game against Arizona.
We decided to go via I-70 and it was a beautiful trip. The aspen trees in the Colorado Rockies were already starting to change colors. We encountered a couple of intense thunderstorms, but all in all it was a great drive. One of the best parts was stopping in Palisades, Colorado and picking up some delicious peaches! The kids loved them and the whole box was gone the first night!!
We started out spending a couple of nights with Ryan and Ali and their darling girls, Sadie, Claire, and Quinn. Ryan has been working hard with some of his friends building this beautiful firepit in their backyard. He finished it up the night before we arrived and we enjoyed a fun, cool evening by the fire, chatting and eating smores! Tyler was doing a solar booth at the Colorado State Fair so Jaimee and the kids joined us at Ryan and Ali's.
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| Happy Grammy with babies Quinn and Austin! |
Saturday day we relaxed and went out for New York style pizza and then went to the Fair in Pueblo. Tucker wasn't feeling well (we think it's growing pains) so we brought Sophie with us and got to see Tyler and it was a lot of fun. The kids loved it!
The fair was a big hit! What kid doesn't love to see animals, ride a few rides and eat really unhealthy food? It was awesome!
Sunday, we got up early and went to church at Tyler and Jaimee's ward and spent the next two nights with them and their adorable kids. Austin LOVES Papa! He wanted to be near him all weekend and made sure to know where he was and what he was doing at every moment. Needless to say, Mike was very touched by this sweet little boy's outpouring of love!
Ryan and Ali and girls came over after naps on Sunday and we ate yummy ham and cheese sliders and played spoons, then headed to the Balloon Glow at the Memorial Park. It was beautiful!
Monday was Labor Day and we enjoyed a day off from our labors!! Tucker's birthday is September 5, so we celebrated it on Monday since we were there. We bowled and ate at Steak and Shake. Such a fun weekend for us all!
Tucker is quite an expert Lego builder and got a lot of Lego's for his birthday. It was fun for Eric, our master Lego builder to be able to help him a little.
Quinn is the funniest, happiest, cutest little gal! She always has a smile and a hug ready!
Mike and I with our little blonde Griffith grandkids. The other half of the Griff grandkids are all dark haired.
On Tuesday, we left the Springs and drove to Longmont. We stopped by our house and picked up a few winter clothes and some genealogy for Mike, said hi to a few of the neighbors, met our renter's darling twin boys, Nic and Sam, and then had lunch with some of our friends. Sharma was kind enough to put together a potluck lunch for some of my girlfriends, Mike went to lunch with some of his friends and Eric went to Abo's pizza with Jordyn Prestwich. After lunch, we headed across Wyoming back to Utah!
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| Just a few of the friends who joined me for lunch at Sharma Robertson's: Gay Nielsen, Margaret Stones, Katy Lyons, me, Jill Giles, Karen Dunn, Katherine Snow and Sharma Robertson (I didn't remember to take a picture until several of the ladies had already left.) |
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Today was a good day of rest, the Sabbath. We enjoyed our church services very much and were blessed to be able to take the sacrament and renew our covenants with our Savior. We are so blessed to be missionaries in this mission and to have so many other dedicated young and senior missionaries surrounding us. They inspire me to be better, to reach higher and to be kinder, more generous, and more charitable. Mike led and sang in a men's chorus today. They have been practicing for weeks and it was a beautiful rendition of "Beautiful Savior." He's our branch music coordinator and is doing a wonderful job with that assignment.
Well, that's it for this post! We are healthy and happy and ready to jump into a new week of serving in the Family History Library! I'll leave you with this picture of little Violet in her brand new high chair! She's growing up so fast! Hannah says she loves sitting at the table with her and Chase when they eat.
