Scott was feeling sick to his stomach again on Sunday, and Aaron wrote him, what is (in my opinion) the best Get Well Card I've ever read, from "Emperor Healthy-teen"
We just arrived home from a 2 week long Work-Trip-made-into-a-family-vacation.
Here's our report.....going backwards.
This was the sunrise on our way home
Scott spent one week doing some work in Cleveland at NASA-Glenn.
We met up with our friends, J&B at this lovely park in Medina,
and enjoyed talking about our times at NASA and RWTH in Aachen.
This was Oliver's first time on a park swing.
Lakewood library is so cool
The hotel pool was our private Oasis several times, with no other guests. Woot!
We did an hour at Chucky-Cheese, since Aaron's been waiting for 8 months to go
The Rocky River Metro Park. SO much fun!
You can climb into a giant tortoise shell
This amazing tree there is called Hideaway Hollow
and has all sorts of cool nature to explore on and inside of it.
We spent a day at the University Circle, where they have the
Natural History Museum, Art Museum and Botanical Garden.
We were generously invited to the Botanical Garden by our friends the Millers,
who have a tree dedicated to their son inside the Botanical Garden.
We were able to see Jared's beautiful and unique tree, as well as meet his friend and former co-worker, Matt. Matt brought out this amazing Chameleon for us to see and gently touch.
Isn't he the coolest thing you've ever seen?!
Jared's tree, and the Millers
Jared was a friend of our family in Ann Arbor, and passed away 5 years ago unexpectedly of a severe asthma attack. The Miller's have been advocating for the children in Tamil, raising money for a library in honor of Jared, who loved children and the Tamil language.
If you would like to know more, you can read about this great project here:
http://www.gabrielprojectmumbai.org/Children_s_Library.html
It was wonderful to connect with them and take some time to remember Jared and his great spirit
We spent some time in the art museum which had an amazing virtual art making space.
We just briefly saw a small section of the Natural history museum, and the kids especially liked this dinosaur you can climb on outside
We spent several summers in Cleveland between 2009-2012, and one thing I always wanted to see, but never did was the Christmas Story House. The home that the film was made in was made to look just as it did in the movie with a museum and gift shop across the street.
I rented the movie for the kids and let them watch it before the tour.
Here's Timmy and Aaron as Randy hiding in the cupboard.
"Daddy's gonna kill Ralphie!"
"Randy, how do the piggies eat?"
"I won it! It's a major award!"
"I want an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle!"
The Gift Shop also pays homage to the other great Christmas Comedy "Christmas Vacation."
"I triple DOG dare you!"
"FRAGEEELE'! That must be Italien!"
One day, when the kids and I ate at a fancy restaurant....
We loved visiting the Lake Erie Science Center
This was one of the places I took the boys on a weekly basis when we spent the summers here and it was sweet to see Cora explore the same fun places like this hollow log
The eclipse hype was great on August 21st!
Although we didn't have "totality," there was still a lot of excitement.
You can see projected by this telescope what the eclipse looked like at it's peak in Cleveland.
We looked at it through telescopes, a pinhole shadow, and also viewing cards.
This is one of the coolest libraries for kids! Avon Lake Library.
It has this place called the Discovery Center with a section for big kids and little kids.
We enjoyed the whole morning time here.
One of the best parts of this trip (and one of the reasons I came) is that I didn't have to clean the house or cook for 2 weeks. Such a nice break!
The breakfast bar at the Home 2 by Hilton and Homewood by Hilton was AMAZING.
I will always check to stay at one of these if I can in the future.
Near to Cleveland is Kirtland. Kirtland was the headquarters of our church from 1831-1837, and the location of the first LDS Temple, which still stands there today. We took a tour of Downtown Kirtland and enjoyed learning about the Whitney Family, who were integral to the growth and prosperity of the church during this period.
This upper room in the NK Whitney Store was the first location of,
what was named "The School of the Prophets"
Many people are familiar with the "health code" adopted by Latter-day Saints (Mormons) to not smoke or drink alcohol. That commandment came about while the School of the Prophets was here in session. The 22 men in the room, after being read the revelation all broke their pipes and threw them into this fireplace and promised never to smoke or chew tobacco again.
These are a few excerpts from the journals of three men who participated in the School of the Prophets. Many recorded having special visions in this small room.
The types of things that were recorded as having been sold in the NK Whitney Store.
It was a beautiful store and the Whitney's had such success in Kirtland.
They were very humble and dedicated to their faith to leave all this behind and head West.
It was a go-go-go trip, so we had several of these afternoons. :)
Scott spend a couple of days work at the Air Force in Dayton. The kids and I spent one day at the hotel enjoying the pool and one day at the AIR FORCE MUSEUM, which is HUGE!
The other pictures were a billboard space suit. This is a REAL spacesuit. :)
And a real jet plane!
Capsule from Apollo 15
There were altogether 4 HUGE hangers full of planes, jets, missiles, etc.
One of the highlights was walking through the presidential planes of JFK, Eisenhower, and Truman. The plane was the same one that JFK flew when he traveled to Houston and was assassinated, and in which Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in.
Oliver had his first swimming pool experience. He was a little skeptical here, but did love it after!
Since we were only a few hours from Ann Arbor, we decided to make a stop there and see some old friends and show the boys where they were born.
We sure enjoyed reconnecting to these roots that still run deep for us.
One of the most beautiful parts of the University of Michigan Campus is the Law Quadrangle.
Particularly special to me is that my great grandfather George Proctor Parker went to Law School here. I believe he graduated in 1912, which was before many of these buildings were here, except the very oldest ones.
The Law Buildings are beautiful and have a very "Hogwarts" feel to them.
Timmy just so happens to be reading the Harry Potter series, so he thought that was really cool.
The Law Library is spectacular.
Some books that would have been there during George Proctor Parker's time
The library ceiling.
Where the historic and modern libraries collide.
The windows depicted different ways that people break the law
The Common Area
This makes me almost want to go to Law School, just to hang out here.
We spent a day with the lovely Lisa. She and her family were so much fun to be with. Cora kept asking to go back to "that girls house" the whole trip. When we lived in Ann Arbor, we met for a German playgroup each week and became dear friends. It was so wonderful to meet again after all these years for another German playgroup. :)
Lisa always has the BEST craft ideas!
We gave the boy's a quick trip down memory-lane by visiting the FXB via the blue campus bus....
including......the MOON ROCK
....and the WAVE FIELD
.......Dad's favorite woods spots
.......And our old apartments
The boys were very interested to see where we had lived,
although it was only very vaguely familiar to them.
We made a one night stop in Niagara Falls to make sure the kids got to experience "the Hornblower" boat ride to the Falls. They loved seeing the falls lit up at night and thought the boat ride was amazing.
The boys loved the view from our hotel room of the mist and river
So, as I have written this blog entry going backwards, this last part of the entry was our first stop on the trip, and 2 long weeks ago. We enjoyed a Sunday in Palmyra, the site of the Restoration and founding of our church.
We enjoyed some quiet time at the Sacred Grove, as well as a tour of the Joseph Smith Farm and the Grandin Building, where the Book of Mormon was first published in 1830.
Visiting the Grounds of the Palmyra Temple
And I'll just end with a picture of the cutest baby ever.
