Have you ever camped for 15 nights in a row?  That's what we did at the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  This is the thing that made me the most nervous when I thought about going.  We could have stayed in some dorms 20 minutes away but we decided to save our money and camp.  This was camping on a whole different level. First of all, we had a huge tarp to go over the campsite.  We brought a tarp that was 20x30.  It was actually a little too big.  We had to cut a little bit off because we didn't have enough poles and ropes for it and the leftover tarp was flapping in the breeze and making a lot of noise when we were trying to sleep.  Also, there was a big wind gust early on, the tarp collapsed on our tent and actually broke one of the screws in the pole.  Fortunately (huge blessing), it didn't break the pole so my husband was able to fix it just by buying a new screw.  The tarp protected us from a couple of rainstorms and also kept the sun off of...

The week before our mini-family reunion was my extended family's BIG family reunion.  We were missing two of my 10 siblings and their families (12 people) plus my son who was still on his mission and not everyone was there the whole time.  But by the end of the reunion there were 60 of us there.  We stayed in a house near Bear Lake just over the border of Utah in Idaho.  We all took turns cooking the meals.  We had fun games called "Undokai" which is a Japanese word my sister-in-law gave us.  We had a talent show, a testimony meeting, and an outing to the ice caves.  We also rented some canoes, a kayak, a paddleboard, and two jet skis and had a day at the beach.  Unfortunately my brother broke his leg halfway through that day in a freak accident on the beach.  But we were all able to help him get to the hospital and get the care he needed.  Despite that, it was a good reunion.   Getting ready for Undokai.  Everett and cousi...

Our missionary returned!  It's been great to have him home.  We actually got a phone call on Monday from the mission president's wife telling us that Lincoln got shingles.  We got to Skype with him so we could see the bad rash on the right side of his face.  It was a little distressing but there wasn't much we could do.  He had been to the doctor shortly after the rash appeared (and a few days after pain started in his back and shoulders) and got an anti-viral medication.  By the time he came home, the rash was better and the pain wasn't too bad.  However, the right side of his face is paralyzed so his facial expressions are a little lopsided.  Hopefully that will get better soon. He probably got the shingles from stress.  He had been given a lot of responsibilities and maybe it was a little too much.  For the last week of his mission, he couldn't do much. He flew home on Thursday.  The flight was delayed by t...

While we were in Palmyra last month, we were able to visit the place where the Book of Mormon was published:  the E.B. Grandin Building.  Much of the building is original; the LDS Church has built a visitors' center around it so you can walk freely in and out of the fairly narrow original building.  The building is set up the way it might have been back in 1830 when the Book of Mormon was published there.  The missionaries give tours that explain how they printed books back then and I found it extremely interesting. Here are pictures of E.B. Grandin and his wife not long before he died at the young age of 39.  He was actually a few months younger than Joseph Smith and died the year after Joseph Smith.  E.B. Grandin wanted to make a name for himself in the world so he married a woman with connections and money.  He purchased his printing business in his early 20's but wasn't able to get a lot of contracts.  The Book of Mormon was his biggest ...