Summer Fun

Life continues to be full of interesting and enjoyable events. This past week we had the pleasure of having our daughter Sally and her husband Josh, and their four children for a visit. The Johnsons live in Virginia and as soon as the Senate was in recess (Josh works for the Senate Energy Committee) they were off to see Nauvoo, Carthage and then to us in Winter Quarters. It was a short but wonderful visit. Who wouldn’t love having a darling 5 year old redhead ask you to play Crazy Eight with her, or a handsome 7 year old want to play No Peekee (Grandma's special card game) with him, or two bright eyed older sisters who want manicures. That is as good as it gets for Grandmas and, of course, they all wanted to play Chickionary with Grandad.

The first thing in the morning we were off to the Trail Center for the tour: the fun of checking out the log cabin, pulling the handcart, and deciding if a small ship’s bunk really was the place to rest. It was a wonderful chance to "be a pioneer!" Our handcart is even one that was actually pushed from Nauvoo to Winter Quarters during the Sesquicentennial and was made to Brigham's specs.

We visited with Aunt Barbara and Uncle John who were glad to hug more grandchildren as we all miss our grands and are so grateful when family come.

Then we went to see the Pioneer Cemetery. Our hill has angels surrounding it continually according to Apostle Christofferson who recently visited. The spirit at this whole area from the Temple to the Cemetery to the Trail Center is so strong as one of our sister missionaries says, "You can cut it with a knife!"

Kanesville Tabernacle was next on our tour. This is a replica of where Brigham Young was sustained as the second President of the Church--a log cabin 40x60 built in two weeks in December of 1847. This last month it has been the scene of the play “Come Home to Kanesville.” The last of the tear down was happening, so we had a shorter tour. But the best part was the statue of Brigham and his counselor, Grandpa Heber C. Kimball, even in the hot, glaring sun.

Omaha has what is considered the second best zoo (San Diego being #1) in the country and since we got our “grandparent passes” early on, we were excited to take our cute kids to the zoo. This zoo had everything from lions and tigers to sharks and snakes. But we really loved the giraffes and the butterflies.

The best site in downtown Omaha is Pioneer Courage Park—a wagon train that is a block long! It is a favorite—in fact it, along with our Trail Center, are two of the most popular tourist places in the greater Omaha area.

The statues were done by two LDS sculptors with pioneer ancestors. Even though it is not an LDS Park, it certainly has the spirit of the Pioneers. We love to come here and obviously, so does Mary.

The girls, Elizabeth and Sarah, were enchanted by our favorite little gal who has been out picking prairie flowers.

Sam loved the trapper with his pack horse carrying three deer--Sam counted them!! We were so glad to have the Johnsons stop by and get a feel for our missionary life in Omaha. Most of all we hope it inspires their four to want to be missionaries too!

This week also had a historic event. “Emma’s Lilacs" came to Winter Quarters.

The Joseph Smith Senior Family Reunion came to visit the Trail Center and brought two

treasures with them. The first was Emma’s Lilacs brought by the Nelsons, Kimberly and Kristy.

They have quite a story. The lilacs were first grown in the garden of Jerusha and Hyrum Smith in Kirtland. When Jerusha died, Hyrum married Mary Fielding and she brought the slips to Nauvoo where the whole Smith family enjoyed the lilacs including Emma. They were Emma’s favorite flower. The lilacs sometimes marked secret places including the graves of Joseph, Hyrum, and Samuel. When Mary went to the Valley she took slips of the lilacs with her and planted them at her home. When her home was moved to This is the Place Park the lilacs went with it. These are the lilacs that came to Winter Quarters. It was quite an event to plant them. John is helping one of the Smith grandchildren dig out the first spade of soil.

The second treasure was a quilt. This quilt was made in 1871 in the Mansion House by Elizabeth Smith, the wife of Alexander, Joseph and Emma’s son, and Emma helped quilt it. It was inherited by Bob Smith, a great grandson of Alexander, and he brought it to the reunion and has agreed to let it be displayed at our big Quilt Show in September.

Bob is one of the great, great grandchildren of Joseph and Emma who has joined the church. He was a member of the Community of Christ (RLDS) who was hung up on the Emma problem and was given a special experience to help him in his conversion--Emma spoke to him and said "I was too tired to go to the valley." That solved his dilemma and he was baptized.

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Another is Gracia Smith, who was the first of Joseph and Emma’s grandchildren to be baptized. She had worked with my mom on a General Board presentation in Nauvoo years ago so I was so delighted to meet her.

The Reunion went to Kanesville for a command performance with a standing ovation for the delightful musical “Come Home to Kanesville,” the story of the Saints who had remained in Kanesville and the difficult choices when Brigham called them to the Valley in 1851—to stay or to go—one third stayed behind. The picture is the cast member who played Brigham Young, John Shadley, standing with our convert, Bob Smith, and it seemed to be a symbolic gesture of the recent reuniting of the Young and Smith families.

One last treat was the visit of the cast member who brilliantly played Thomas Kane, the narrator of "Come Home to Kanesville." His name is Alan Edwards and when he and his wife Cheryl stopped by to see John and the Trail Center, we discovered they had lived in Joe and Janet's ward and loved the Hales!! Small world again!!!

PS: Happy Birthday today to Jill!!!