Hurray! My Son, Aaron, Comes to Visit

I was so excited to learn that Aaron had a work assignment in Manhattan, Missouri, and that he would be able to spend a little bit of time with me. He flew into Kansas City on Monday and drove to the Library where I work and we were able to have a few hours before he returned to airport to pick up co-workers and drive to Manhattan.

On Friday, after a week's work and dropping off co-workers at the airport, he drove to Independence and we were able to see a few sights Friday evening. He stayed Friday night and then we were able to do more sightseeing on Saturday before he had to return to airport to fly home. It was such a special treat for me to spend some time with him. Thanks so much, Aaron. I love you.

We visited the cemetery in Independence where Joseph Smith III (son of Joseph Smith, Jr.) is buried. He was the first President of the Reorganized (Community of Christ) Church. There are others of that family buried there also.

The marker for those in Zions Camp who died of cholera

We then visited the Community of Christ temple

This is a picture of the ceiling inside the sanctuary.

The Community of Christ First Presidency

The Community of Christ Twelve Apostles

Displays on walkway to Sanctuary -- all a little foreign to me, but interesting to see

Community of Christ Auditorium

Temple Site - owned by Church of Christ

We also went to the Visitor's Center, by the Truman Home and then on to the Truman Library. They had the flag at half staff -- not sure if that is the case all the time or if there was some other reason.

The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum is a wonderful place to visit, and we spent a couple of hours here. It's impossible to really post pictures that do it justice, but here are a few.

Me and Aaron in lobby of library.

Replica of the Oval Office

Harry S Truman and wife, Bess, graves

A Trip to Fort Osage

We had a fun day visiting Fort Osage. It was a little late for all the Fall colors, but a good day because it was a day of celebration taking place with all staff/volunteers in costumes performing drills, parades, shooting the cannon, cooking over fires, etc. It was interesting to learn what took place there, including Lewis and Clark being involved with the trading post and dealing with the Osage Indians.

Ann checking out all the sights.

The Missouri River

Our Friends Came to Visit

How delighted we were to have two of our very dear friends (high school), Marlene Stock and Karen Taylor, come to visit us. It was such a treat for us to have them here and we had a really wonderful time. Besides seeing some of the local sights, we took a trip to the Lake of the Ozarks, staying in their timeshare. On the way, we stopped at the Bothwell Lodge in Sedalia -- wish I had more pictures of that site.

Marlene, Karen and Ann


After checking into our timeshare, we took a drive to Ha Ha Tonka Park where we had a little hike getting up to the burned out castle. That site and the surrounding areas were so gorgeous and we had a beautiful day besides.

Marlene, Karen, Ann and myself

Below are pictures of the burned out mansion.

A view of the beautiful trees and lake.

I wish I had more pictures of some of the other places we went, it was all so wonderful. In addition to Lake of the Ozarks and the local sights in Independence, we went into Kansas City to the Hallmark Center.

Marlene and Karen flew in Thursday evening and we took them back to the airport Tuesday morning. Such a fun time. Thanks again, friends, for making that effort.

A Little Catchup

I had to add a few pictures of the wonderful l library where we work. It's fun to go to such a new, beautiful building every day -- and even our spacious (considering) backroom where we work is a pleasant place to be -- new, big and lots of light (windows) -- see pictures in earlier post.

Sister Clarke and Sister Avauli. We always enjoy having the young sisters over for dinner -- and also having the opportunity to go out with them on teaching/visiting appointments. Sister Clarke had to go home for some surgery, but will be back before Thanksgiving.

This is certainly not fancy, but it's nice to have a couple of just "family walls." Thanks family!

This is the four "single senior sisters" that work at the Genealogical Library. We're at the Mission Home for a Senior Conference. Sister "Z" (LaVonna) left last Wednesday for home -- so now there are just three .

Sister "Z" (LaVonna), myself, Ann and Lynn


Below are all the current Senior Missionaries -- at least current as of 2-3 months ago. On the first and second row next to the Mission President and his wife (with Ann and I on the other side) are guests that were there, President Frederick Larson and his wife. It was such a special opportunity to meet them and to hear him speak to us. He is the last living lineal descendant of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., and currently the President of the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (one of the numerous breakoff groups of the Reorganized (Community of Christ) church. It was a pretty amazing experience.

A Day of Heat & Humidity and then Hail -- BIG HAIL

We went to the Renaissance Festival (because we had free tickets).

Jackie, Lynn and Ann

I liked the animal things

Ann with the Giants

Ann with the Giants

Me at the end of our day -- very hot and soaking wet
(in case you can't tell from the hairdo)

We had just arrived home -- noticing that it was starting to get cloudy. The next thing we knew it was like someone was pounding on the walls with a big club. We looked out and much to our surprise, it was hailing -- hail as big as baseballs. You can kind of get an idea with the picture. Most were the size of golf balls, but there were definitely ones the size of baseballs. I heard on the news that in some places, hail was 5-1/2 inches -- the size of softballs. It sure did a number on my car -- many dents and some quite large. I'm sure it's fixable -- have an appointment next week to have it taken care of. There have been dent repair shops/trailers pop up on every street corner. Also, roof repair signs on a good share of homes in the area. Quite a lightning/thunder storm -- it was like a strobe light show in the sky just going round and round in circles. Glad we were not out for a walk right at that time.

A Trip to Branson

Before arriving at Branson (and after our little hour detour because we missed a turn), we stopped at the Oseaola (sp?) cheese store. This picture shows only a fraction of the cheeses they had -- and there were samples for all the different kinds -- yummy!! We each bought some of our favorite cheeses.

Of course by then we were hungry, so we stopped for lunch at "Lambert's," a favorite of Lynn's, who had been there before. It was a very fun experience. Besides the food being good (notice my salad in the plastic bag in front of me -- yes, it was that big, and also Ann's cinnamon roll --pretty good size, don't you think), they have "pass around food." That's why so much of my salad is left -- I totally filled up on the pass-around food (fried potatoes and onions, macaroni and tomatoes -- those were my favorites, but there were other choices as well). Also, they have wonderful rolls. The only thing is they throw them to you across the room. Luckily, Lynn was there to do the catching, I'm sure I would have dropped one. She caught two for me.

Here are the "Happy Cooks." Notice that I'm not among them.
I'm looking out the window at the golf course.

Ann and I in front of Lion and Lamb at the Sight and Sound Theater.

Ann and Lynn coming out of Sight and Sound Theater after seeing "Noah-The Musical." It really was an amazing experience. The theater and the scenery was gorgeous. They had many live animals, including camels, horses, cows, ducks, birds, etc., etc. I'm sure I've forgotten a lot of them by now. Also, the inside of the Ark scene had all the animals you could think of that were animated and including all the live ones. Spectacular!! The only thing that we were disappointed about was that it wasn't Michael McLean's version.

We also went to see the "Twelve Irish Tenors" and the "Dutton Family." They were both wonderful shows. In fact, there are so many good shows to see -- unfortunately, there just isn't time for all, but we loved the ones we saw and had a wonderful time in Branson. Thanks to Ann we had a very beautiful timeshare to stay in. Thanks Ann!!