Salt Lake City Cemetery & Temple Square
I really loved this activity. Jimmy had taken a tour of this cemetery with his team at work. He found a map that showed where many church leaders were buried.
We saw the gravesites of Wilford Woodruff, Joseph F. Smith, Gordon B. Hinckley, Spencer W. Kimball, Howard W. Hunter, John Taylor, Heber J. Grant. We found Truman O. Angell – Architect of the SLC Temple & Jimmy’s former Stake President, Truman G. Madsen (who died when I was pregnant with Truman – Hence we thought of that name).
James E. Talmage had an interesting story behind his gravestone. He had a theory about the difference between the granite and limestone and thus he designed his gravestone. “His gravestone at the Salt Lake City Cemetery is an unusual geological phenomenon, a “xenolith” (rock within a rock)—dark limestone engulfed in granite.”
Spencer W. Kimball had 2 huge pieces of petrified wood by his grave, reminiscent of his Arizona youth.
It was also sweet to think of the dear wives of these prophets… brave and faithful women, indeed.
After the cemetery, we got a bite to eat at City Creek and walked over to temple square. As we walked out of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, an Asian woman was smiling so big and had her video camera filming our family. She seemed so delighted at our comical family. Luckily, everyone was well-behaved at that moment. The kids had just spied the temple all light up in the night sky. They loved it.
We went over to the visitor’s center to see the Christus. Abraham especially loves hearing the scriptures read up there. Max recognized the echo in that room and said, “I – LOVE – JES-US – AND – HE – LOVES – ME.” Or something like that. ‘Liza picked up on the echo and started squawking. We zipped out of there so quickly since our kids started making so much noise. Ay-Ay-Ay!
We got everyone in bed a little late but it was a fun evening together as a family.
Oh, what fun it is to have 3 children under 4 (at home during the day)
And this is a principle I need to improve on, especially on the dig-deep days. A lovely message for parents.
Constellation Jar
This was a really cool project! I just love stars and have spent many hours in my life gazing upward at night. I saw this constellation jar idea via pinterest on DesignMom.com. I just bought inexpensive battery-operated tealights on Amazon. Hopefully the kids learned a bit more about the beautiful stars in the universe.
I found some Astronomy Papers so they would hopefully learn something. Nothing too spectacular … but perhaps educational. On the second to last page, I printed a strip of simple constellations. We taped that paper on the aluminum pan so the kids could poke the holes to make the constellations. Four of the kids used Quart-size jars and Max used a pint-size jar and that strip fit in both.
Download PDF here.
My favorite resources were:
MrPrintables.com
Lie Back, Look Up
Scouter Mom
sunshine … raspberries … family … autumn leaves
Tru was such a delighted little boy. We heard this over and over:
Summer Part 1
Well – I got one scrapbook done. It’s slappy-scrappy but the kids don’t mind. They just like pictures of themselves and the fam on our adventures.
Happy Birthday Babe!
Today is Jimmy’s 36th Birthday. Very Exciting. I didn’t do the best at making it spectacular, but I think he’d prefer it to be mellow. He had a bunch of church meetings this evening, but we squeezed in a simple dinner, chocolate cupcakes, and a hot/cold game to find a few presents (that he shopped for himself!). We took turns telling what we loved about “Dad.” Hannah said she loved that he is a hard worker and that he sings her hymns in spanish before bed. Tru decided not to comment. Abe said … hmmm, what did he say? I’ll have to ask him. Max said he loved that our whole family was so AWESOME! Eliza waved her arms and smiled at Jimmy. I said that I love that Jimmy honors his Priesthood, works hard, and plays with the kids. He’s a good man. Here’s to a future life living in the country.
Go Cougars!
I have 3 free Shutterfly Scrapbooks that expire on Wednesday. I just told Jimmy and he chuckled and rolled his eyes a bit. It’s like $60+ free. The last time I had free books I about cried because I just couldn’t get it together fast enough. Yah – scrapbooks aren’t as important as other things … like feeding and serving and loving the tots. But – FREE! So, in an attempt to maybe have enough pages for a book, I’m moving forward on documenting our beautiful, ordinary LIFE here in the Smith Fam!
First Up – BYU game from Saturday. We got a dealie-steal on Cosmo Kids Club which included 4 football tickets. I’ll tell ya what – don’t take 3 kids under 4 to BYU to walk 5,000 miles (or more) to pick up the vouchers. BYU campus, built on a hill, was not meant for strollers and tots. But – we live! And Jimmy and the kids enjoyed the experience.
What did the 3 littles and I do while they were gone? Oh- we went and got pictures taken at a $7 School Pictures deal in Saratoga Springs. I really love my kids… aren’t they cute? Each picture is so perfectly unique to their little personalities.
Then we tried to once again find an open snowcone place. We’re not having the best luck with snowcone shops this summer. I just want my free snowcone (buy 10 get 1 free). But their generator was still out. Man! So – McDonalds for the tots it was.
Anyhoo… go Blue! Love live the Cougars! Rrrrrroar!