Sparkus no, no, no!

He's cute, but cats and sidewalk chalk don't mix.

Rainbow Sparkus!

More Birthday Fun

Here is Riley all decked out in his Disney Pirate gear that he got from Catherine for his Birthday.

 The day after Riley's Birthday is Annie's Birthday.  She turned 10 years old this year.  It's amazing to think we've had her for so long.

Here's Annie with Kitka checking out her Birthday Present.

It's a grooming ring on the outside with a scratching surface lined with catnip on the inside.

She likes it!

Happy Birthday Princess Annie!

Nine Years Down, Nine to Go!

Today is Riley's Birthday!  I can't believe he is 9 years old.  Today he crosses over the half way point of his childhood and in less than 9 years he will be a legal adult.  It's crazy to think about.  We are on the down hill slope :).  To celebrate I took him out to lunch at Leatherby's and we had our own mini party right in the middle of the restaurant.

Riley opening his presents.  We gave him a photo collage with pictures of him with Granny and a Kirtland Temple t-shirt.  I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of the actual presents, how uncharacteristic of me.

We were the only people in the restaurant and the staff seemed super bored.  They gave us a ton of attention, let us light candles on the cake I brought and all came and wished Riley a Happy Birthday and sang to him.  I think he really liked it.

I asked Riley what the "Best and Worst" of the past year was (this is a game we used to play for birthdays at a job I had a long time ago).  He said that the best was all of the presents he's gotten this past year, and after a little prompting, he agreed that going to Hawaii and getting baptized were pretty good too.  He had a hard time thinking of a worst, (which is probably a good sign that his head is mostly filled with happy thoughts).  When I said "What about Granny dieing?" he replied with, "Yeah, that's the worst, but it was probably a best for her because she got to see her mom and dad again."  How cute is that?  What a sweet boy.  He decided later that his worst was that the Nurf gun he got this morning didn't come with anything to shoot and told me "it was a scam."  What a funny kid :).

Me and the Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday Riley!!  We love you a TON!

Ohio- Day 5: Going Home

We had an early flight home on Sunday morning so there aren't any "last day in Ohio" pictures since all we did is wake up and drive to the airport.  I did want to make my submission to the pillow contest before leaving however so here it is...

(Actually, this picture was taken yesterday in anticipation of not having enough time before heading out today... good thing too because it was a close call.  Mornings just aren't my thing.)

(The pillow designs are posted on the Anderson Family blog for voting and you can read any comments left there if you are interested in seeing who the winner was).

I'm happy to report that we made it home without any fanfare and without any of our flights getting canceled.  It was nice to see our kitties again and we were very grateful for a fun time with Karen and Brian.  Thanks you guys!

Ohio- Day 4: Fiesta, Falls, and Philharmonic

Karen's turn for the pillow contest

1st stop of the day was to a local farmers market

Then to institute to help prepare for "Siete de Julio" which isn't a real holiday for anyone, but Orlando (the guy in the picture) is from Mexico and wanted to show everyone a real Mexican Fiesta, so we just went with it.

I should have taken some pictures of the food as it was fabulous.  Everyone enjoyed the party.

Then out to break piñatas, which would have been much more fun had it not been 111 degrees outside (I'm not joking about that, it's what my phone registered the as the "feel").

Then we headed to what we heard was a really pretty waterfall at Chagrin Falls. We were a little nervous when we got there that this was it.

It looks a little better with the artistic flowers in the front shot.

At least the town was cute to walk though

We went exploring in search for the falls

Finally, we found it!

Although the falls were lovely, even Niagara Falls wouldn't have been worth it in this heat, so we really only had one choice.  Grab some ice cream on the way back to the car and...

... go home and crash!

I figured since we were going to be at home for a while, I minus well take some pictures of the apartment, since it's such a cool looking place.  Karen and Brian live on the 6th floor and looking out over the banister of their floor you can see all the floors below.

There is a pretty little atrium below.

How can I get one of these in my house?  My kitties would LOVE it!  All the fun of outside, no bugs.

Laying on the circular bench below looking up.  That is Kristin and Karen looking down at me :).

That evening,we drove down to the Blossom Music Festival to hear the Cleavland Orchestra in this awesome outdoor amphitheatre.

The orchestra was conducted by Jahja Ling who was AWESOME!

The orchestra played music from Mozart and Chopin and featured world renouned pianist Emanuel Ax.  Thanks Karen and Brian for treating us to this amazing night!

Ohio- Day 3: Squires Castle, Historic Kirtland, Temple and Amish Country

After Kristin's submission to the Pillow Contest we headed out for the day.

First Stop was Squires Castle.

It was literally a castle randomly placed on the edge of the woods.

So, who was this guy?  Can you read that small?

It's crazy to think someone actually once lived here.

Inside the castle.  Do you like Kristin and my matching outfits?

Attempted artistic shot of Brian and Kristin looking through the window.

What a cute family.

This is about 10 steps behind the castle into the woods.  How would you like for that view to be your back yard?



Every part of the forest was so beautiful and Ohio is covered with trees and spectacular shades of green everywhere you look.

Look close- there is a spider on that leaf.

Next stop was Historic Kirtland

This is the Newel K. Whitney Store.  The story is that when Joseph Smith came to Kirtland he sought out Newel K. Whitney, introduced himself and said "You prayed me here, now what do you want?"  They became great friends and Newel made many sacrifices for the church, provided a lot of financial support, and eventually left everything to move West.

The door to the store is original to the building.  Here is Kristin through the same wooden frame that Joseph Smith did many times.

The inside of the store

The missionaries telling us all about the storage room in the store and how Newel K. Whitney would often give away things to people in need or barter and trade with them if they didn't have money.

Kristin and Karen in the storage room.  Joseph Smith spent a lot of time here as well and lived with the Whitney's in this house for a while.  In the left corner of the picture you can also see a desk where Newel tracked all of his inventory.  He was a very meticulous record keeper and the items represented in the store are pretty exact.

Upstairs in the dining room the family would eat and study.

Joseph Smith sat right here and organized his church business and met with other church leaders.

This table is original to the building.  It is the actual piece of furniture that Joesph Smith worked from.

Behind the dining room is this small room known as "The School of the Prophets" where the men would gather to learn the gospel, study and improve their grammar and etiquette, and prepare to eventually leave and become missionaries.  As the missionary giving the tour said, this was the first MTC :).

The kitchen was downstairs.  You can see how they used to dry the herbs they grew.

The Sister Missionary is demonstrating the "wife saver" which is a long arm that pulls food cooking in the hanging pot away from the fire and into the open for cooking and serving.  It's called the wife saver because the second leading cause of death for women at the time was infections from burns they got spending their days over these huge fireplaces wearing those long skirts. Sad.  By the way, the first leading cause of death was child birth.  It's truly amazing anyone survived at all.

It's amazing to think of these pioneers carrying such beatuiful things with them

Inside the Whitney red store.  The big tub was for laundry as well as a bathtub.

A "Feast of the poor" was held in this house where women would cook for days and serve meals to people who needed it most.

The pewter bulb in the crib is a baby bottle.

Bedroom off the dining area.

Same bedroom with amazing quilts and Newel K. Whitney's original chair.

The sitting room, (that is me artistically placed in the mirror).

The Visitor Center had some really amazing things...

...A bible that shows how Joseph Smith's translations were written right on top of the original pages,

 

2nd Addition Book of Moromon,



Handwritten Word of Wisdom,



1st edition D&C,

Images from Egyptian manuscripts translated by Joseph Smith

Beginins of the Pearl of Great Price

Model of the Kirtland Temple that we are going to visit later

Image of Christ appearing to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple

This is a replica of the Ashery owned by N.K. Whitney

It had a saw mill and prepared wood to build the Kirtland Temple.  These are the pulpits in progress.

The people sold their fire ash to the Ashery where it was mixed and heated and prepared to be use for either gun poweder or turned into these white chucks that were sold to make porcelain.  The Ashery was a very profitable business and N.K. Whitney donated 100% of the money to the church.

Kristin standing by some pretty gardens.

Next Stop... The Kirtland Temple!

This was my artistic attempt at a photograph.  We took a tour of the inside, but photographs aren't allowed.  There are millions of pictures of the inside if you google it though.

Even though we had already done so much in one day, we decided to do more and headed to Amish Country for dinner.

The horse and buggies share lanes with the cars.

Here's a traffic sign you won't see in Salt Lake.

Kristin and I took a turn :).

Hey, watch where you park that thing!

We took the scenic route home to pass by this beautiful light house. (I had never seen one up close before).

Another view of the light house.

Beautiful view of Lake Eerie.  It looked like fun down there, but there just wasn't enough time, money, or energy to do it all... not to mention that with humidity factored in it was 105 degrees out there.

Pretty boats docked at the lake.



We got treated to a beautiful sunset on the drive back, but our day wasn't over yet.  After going back to Kirtland we got to attend opening night of "This is Kirtland" which is a musical production of the saints settling in Kirtland and told a lot of the stories that we learned about today.  It also had a bunch of Karen and Brian's institute kids performing in it.

The play was great and reminded me of when my mom used to drag us pagent hoping all around Utah to learn about church history... good memories :).