I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane - on Thursday

This last week has been busy busy busy.  AA, Rachel, and I went into Chicago twice; once on Tues., to go to the flower and garden show, and then again on Thurs., to the Chicago Art Institute.  Both trips were fun and I saw a little more of the Lake Michigan than we had planned, due to AA not knowing exactly how to get to Navy Pier and overshooting as we drove north on Michigan Ave.  Rachel got a little impatient, but I have to say I was just enjoying the time looking at everything.  The pics below are of the Sears building off in the distance (my first glimpse of the city on a very misty morning).  The tall building is the Sears Tower.

Below was where I first saw Lake Michigan and then we turned left and drove up Michigan Avenue.

Below was when we were headed back down Michigan Avenue after we had gone too far.  The city was beautiful through the clouds.

After we found the garden show I took lots of shots of beautiful planters, bedding plants, borders, water features and so much more.

All these plants were indoors and blooming like crazy.  It gave me a fever - spring fever.

Very creative ideas I thought.

I was especially interested in all the stones and pavers.  This one I really liked.

I didn't take any pictures at the Art Institue, because I couldn't figure out how to not take flash pics. I loved the paintings there, and reconogized several because I am a Masterpiece game aficionado.  Friday morning we set out for Nauvoo the beautiful.  It rained the whole time so every pictures is misty and wet.  AA and I went to the temple on Sat. am.  We heard from several missionaries that they were having their stake conference that weekend and Elder Holland was going to be there.  It would have been nice to have stayed overnight again and heard him speak, but we needed to get back to Chicago.  Anyway, here are some pics of Nauvoo and Carthage.

As I took these pics., Alan called me from Ethiopia and I was describing this scene to him.  I said it looked to be at least a mile across and even two miles in some places.  It was beautiful, and so impressive.  This was looking to Montrose, Iowa where the Seelys were settled back in the days.

This was looking north west toward Iowa Fort Madison area.

I loved how some of the homes were right down on the river.  This was one of the Smith homes and where Josep, Emma, and Hyrum are buried?

I don't know if this statue was here back in 2001 at the time of the reunion, but I loved this.  It is just west across the street of the temple - so it faces the temple.  

And the temple is beautiful from any side. I had a br one posted, but I deleted it accidentally.

Carthage was deeply moving to me.  I went on the tour without AA and Rachel, who decided to stay in the Visitor's Center and have a little chat with Laree Dye.  I was so not wanting to go into the room where Joseph and Hyruwere shot.  The spirit I felt there was so strong that the most terrible wrong had been committed at  that place.  I got very emotional as I went down the stairs and wondered how the saints had dealt with such a terrible blow when they heard the bad tidings.  Carthage was a testimony to me of Joseph Smith's courage and desire to do the Lord's will.  I will never forget Carthage jail. 

We got back to Batavia last night, and had church this morning.  We even got to church on time despite not getting the clocks turned ahead one hour.  After church, Kate, Mike and their children came for dinner.  It was good for me to meet the boys and Mike for the first time.  Such good boys.  They all called me Aunt Shelley.  One of them, I think it was Ewan, asked his mom if he should call me Great-aunt Shelley.   Kate is a great mom and it was so good to see her again.  I should have taken pictures, but I forgot.  Sorry, everyone.  The boys adore Rachel and Seth and spent most of their time here with them.  They really are cute, cute boys. 

Now, let's get those pesky quiz qustions answered. 
1.  I aked about the hectares and acres at Highland.  One acre = .404 hectares.  So if have already done 380 acres, that equals 137.543 hectares.  And the extra point answer is Squirrel.  Highland is at Squirrel.  I know you've all heard us go on and on about Squirrel. 

2.  A five letter word beginning with F that describes both unclear and fluffy is fuzzy.

3.  Elder Baum calls Uruguay 'guay.

4.  The two states that have the most neighbors are Missouri and Tennessee.

5.  Meow is an onomatopœia, a word that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes.  Common occurrences of onomatopoeias include animal noises, such as "oink" or "meow" or "roar".
6.  The answer to this is B or "its." 
7.  Firstly, flora and fauna are plants and animals.  The following states have these types of nicknames.  Ohio - Buckeye state, Georgia - Peach state, Kansas - Sunflower state, Kentucky - Bluegrass state, Louisianna - Pelican state, Maine - Pine tree state, Mississippi - Magnolia state, Pennsylvania - Beaver state, South Carolina - Palmetto state, Washington - Evergreen state, and Wisconsin - Badger state.
8.  Where is "Adam ondi Ahman located?  OK, I admit I was trying to be tricky by putting on the quote marks, but I guess I failed in trickiness.  The geographical location is Daviess Co. in Missourri and the musical location for the song is in the hymnbook #49. 
9.  The man in the photograph is Pablo Picasso.  I was going to put up a photo of one of his paintings and ask who painted it, but I reckoned that would be too easy and then I wondered how many of you would be able to identify the man himself.  So I went with that.
10. The Barbie doll was introduced in March 1959.  She's THAT old.!
11.  Badminton originated in India, Polo in Persia, Curling in Scotland, and Tennis in France.
12.  A hobber in horseshoes is when the horseshoe is leaning on the post.

13.  A milligram is .001.  I know for some reason we get a little confused on decimals.  Milli means a thousandth part.  So count the zeros to the right of the decimal.  0.1 would be a tenth part,  .01 would be a hundredth part, and .001 is a thousandth part or a milligram.  Interesting what Miranda wrote about the drug LSD being measured in micromilligrams, which is a thousandth part of a thousandth part.  Cool, huh.

14.  The Airforce had only fifty corpsmen at the start of WWI.
15.  Shere Kahn is a Tiger in "The Jungle Book."  Just ask Leah.
16.  The D in CJD stands for Disease. 
17.  Have you ever heard of "Slim" Whitman?  He was a folksinger, yodeler sort of singer.
18.  The Glen Miller Band was famous for Moonlight Serenade as well as many other melodies during WWII.  When we were at the Pearl Harbor Memorial, we listened to the Marine corps band and they played several of his songs while we waited.  It was so neat to be there with Dad and listening to songs that were popular during his youth.  This was one of the questions I missed in the Trivial Pursuit game because I said Benny Goodman.

19.  The song "The Defense of Fort McHenry" was later named "The Star Spangled Banner."

20.  Love means never having to say you're sorry is from "Love Story."  I can proudly say I never saw this movie. 

I will bring something from Ethiopia for Elizabeth.