Gettysburg

Today we went to sacrament meeting at a ward which meets by the temple. Then we traveled up to Pennsylvania to the national memorial at Gettysburg. We went out to the battlefields (there are several) and drove around the auto tour which took us to all the most important places and sites. Since I read a great book about Gettysburg (The Killer Angels), a few years ago, I have wanted to get to Gettysburg. It was so different than I had pictured. Many more trees and greenery. It was so beautiful and I thought what a terrible thing that happened to this samll community of Gettysburg back n 1863. They must have been finding bodies and burying them for months afterwards.

The picture above shows how thick the trees and brush are.

This is one of the monuments. Eventually, every regiment from the Union that fought at Gettysburg put up a monument. This is one of hundreds.

This pictures shows memorials and monuments. The memorials were for generals and the monuments were for regiments. Markers were put up for every regiment also to tell the story of the regiment's movements for the three day battle.

I was surprised to see beautiful homes out on the battlegrounds. There were many of these old lovely homes that surely must have been used to carefor wounded soldiers.

There were lots of cannons set around the park.

Josh at one of the observation towers. We could see all over the battlegrounds from this observation tower.

This picture is of a monument and cannons inside the Gettysburg cemetery for the soldiers. All the soldiers' bodies that they could find were gathered here and buried. It was a beautiful place and very well kept.

Standing in front of the monumeent that was dedicated to all the fallen soldiers. Just in back of where I took this picture was the place where Lincoln stood when he gave the Gettysburg address.

They put a flag on every grave in preparation for the Memorial Day celebrations. Memorial Day was started by women after the Civil War. It was previously called Decoration Day and the ladies wanted to commemorate their fallen fathers, husbands,brothers, and sons.

When we came back in to DC, we went to the White House. I was kind of hoping that President Obama would come out and wave at us, but Noooo.

What a beautiful home.

Be Glad You Have a Room, Lady!

Yesterday was a real good day, even though I had a problem with Abay, the manager at the Howard Johnson. I got more and more concerned as we drove toward our motel from the airport. It was becoming very getto-like and sure enough, we pulled into a very run-down parking lot and it was our motel. I had some hope that the rooms would not be as bad as the outside, but noooooo. The whole motel was under some kind of construction, and it really needed it. the lobby was really scarey, I can't explain how bad it was. And the lobby was also where our continental breakfast was to be served. Lizzy was about ready to bolt. Abay, the Pakistani manager, said we could only get one room because the other one was not ready. Mind you, this is at 5:30 p.m., and our rooms were not ready. So when I was complaining about the place and rooms (one was upstairs and one was downstairs), Abay said to me' "Be glad you have a room."
That really ticked me off and I said, "I'm not glad I have this room." Anyway, I checked us in, very reluctantly and then we got to our rooms. We were not happy. We left the motel to get to the metro. We had to walk down a very scarey road, cross a very ugly bridge over railroad and metro tracks and then down a hill. So the first picture is of our motel outside.

This picture below is of the outside of union station, our metro stop.

this is walking around the capitol grounds. Beautiful trees, flowers, shrubbery. And the weather was great last night.
This is a picture of Les and the capitol looking south.

Lizzy and Dennis reclining on the west side of the capitol building steps. this is where Obama gave his inagural address. Notice the segue thingys in the background. We could rent these for a three hour tour for $70. I think the Captain and Gilligan were extra.

As we were walking toward the capitol, Dennis tried to cross a street over to the capitol grounds. A policeman stopped him and told him we couldn't go through, because a motorcade was going to be coming through. My ears perked up and I asked the policeman who would be in the motorcade. she very reluctantly told me that it was going to be the Israeli Prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. So we stayed close and got some shots of the motorcade. Cool huh? I don't know which vehicle he was in, but there were two large limos with the flags on them. to start there were about 8 policemen on motorcycles, and then there were about police cars, then some secret service cars, then the limos, then about 4 suburbans full of secret service, then ambulance and more police motorcylces and cars. I didn't take a picture of everything, only where I though Netanyahu would be. Anyway, it was exciting.
This is Josh waiting for the prime minister.

This is me at the botanical gardens. I loved this place.

Les and Josh on the west side of the capitol looking toward the Washington Monument. They are setting up some kind of concert stage for Memorial Day.

there are some huge magnolia trees around the capitol. Lizzy is smelling one of the very large blossoms. They are so fragrant.

This is Josh in front of the Supreme Court.

Les and Sara at the Union Station waiting for the Metro.

We are having a great time. So glad we were able to come and do this together. My feet are really aching from all the walking and I'm really tired. It's nice weather, a little on the hot side, but we are all having a ball.

By the way, we checked out of the ghetto motel and came to a better one across the street and down. We are all happier, and it will be less money too. Much better!

Zack's Mission Call and stuff

Friday afternoon Zack opened his mission call. He is going to the Uruguay, Montevideo Mission. We are so happy for him, and he is beyond the moon. We have googled Uruguay and have found that it is very like Argentina where I served. Heavily influenced by the Europeans, especially the Italians. He will enter the the Argentina MTC on September 3, 2009. This is such a wonderful blessing. He has been preparing for this for a long time. He was so excited and nervous at the same time, that at first he didn't want to look to see where he was being sent. I started to cry from happiness and relief, because I know the people in that area of the world and they are wonderful people and Zack will love them. He is so blessed to be able to serve among them. We are truly grateful for this special blessing.

He will be a very strong missionary. He has so many good examples that you all have set for him. I am thankful for all his good uncles, aunts, cousins, friends, and teachers that have taught and guided him.

Now for the other "stuff." These are just some fun pictures from the easter weekend.

Pictures of the little girls.

Picture of the big girls.

Leah in her "cupcake"dress.

The Wii game and all its zoned out followers.

Easter Lilu at the Primary Children's NICU. She looked a lot worse than she was.

Jonas at the "hunt".

Me holding Lily for the first time. Alan was so patient. He had to wait in the room down the hall. I kept going down and giving him news updates on the progress of the birth. He was so sleepy. But when she was born, he could hear her screaming all the way down the hall to where he was waiting.

Pink stick-on earrings, necklace, pants, top, toy.
Marens name should be "pinkie"

An excellent shot of a blue egg at the easter egg hunt.

These are some plants that I bought that I can't put out, because it is too cold and wet. So they are patiently waiting the transplant in the sunroom. They are soooo patient.

My Mother's day flowers from Alan. They are Peruvian Lillies.

I took this at about 7:00 p.m. They are just starting to work the 40 acres kitty-corner from our house.

This is the ditch in front of our house. That's right. No more running water sounds to lull me asleep in the summer. I was really sad about this, but that's progress for you. So we filled in the ditch and Alan wants to plant grass. I'm thinking there's got to be something more creative we can do. Don't I have enough grass to mow?

This is how our cront yard looks as of today. We're trying to warm up, but its taking so long.

Crocuses. I love the leaves of crocuses. They are so pure white and innocent looking.

Beautiful!

I love my yard. I just wish I could get outside to take care of it.