Best Times Ever!

I just had the best few days ever! Before I get into this week's adventures, I must make an addendum to my previous post "Twister." It turns out that the tornado that went through Athens wasn't technically a tornado because there were no reported touchdowns and no significant damage. But I tell you what: it was tornado enough for me! I haven't written on my blog for a while because we have been too busy having fun here for the last few days. On Wednesday, Mom flew into St. Louis, and Greg went and picked her up while I was at work. It was so wonderful to see you, Mom! When Greg and Mom first arrived back at the house, Greg gave her some treats to give to the animal children when she first met them. The animals ended up loving her! They are all quite sad this evening because they miss their new friend. That evening we introduced Mom to the horseshoe sandwich--Springfield's most famous food item. We ate at the Boar's Nest here in Athens which was very fun. We also especially enjoyed our appetizer of fried pickles. On Thursday morning Mom went to work with me and hung out at the Lincoln Home for the morning. I even got to take her on a tour!

I took the afternoon off on Thursday so that Mom and I could go have some adventures. We met up with our friend Dr. Rugh from BYU who was also here for the Mormon History Association conference. We had a delicious lunch at one of my favorite lunch spots: The Feed Store. Then we did some fun sightseeing at Lincoln's Tomb and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. One of my favorite parts of the afternoon was when Mom, Dr. Rugh and I stopped for ice cream at a little shop downtown. We sat outside on a bench and enjoyed the beautiful afternoon weather. We then went back to Dr. Rugh's hotel and had a delicious sampling of appetizers at the restaurant. That evening we went to the MHA opening reception held at my old stomping grounds: the Old State Capitol building. What a fun day!

Friday was the big day of my presentation. The MHA conference was held at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel and Conference Center downtown. Mom and I went to a few sessions earlier in the day--but they were all kind of boring :-) We thought one of them was especially boring, and then the speaker from that one ended up sitting by us at the luncheon we attended! He was a little more interesting to talk to than he was to listen to. My presentation that afternoon went really well. I was happy to have Mom, Greg and Dr. Rugh there as well as some friends from Athens--and then some other people I didn't know. One of the people in the audience tried to show how much he knew about architecture by contradicting a lot of the things I said. Instead of appearing smart however, he just came off as super annoying. After the presentation we had a fun cookout at our friend Janet's house. Janet and Larry live just down the street from us, and Janet is our other friend Alice's sister. There was quite a crowd there: Mom, Greg, me, Janet, Larry, Karla, Alice and Don, and their friends Barb and Dennis. We had some divine steaks! After dinner we had a fun time going up to New Salem and attending the play "Little Women" at the amphitheater there. It was a very nice evening.

On Saturday morning we went back to the MHA conference to hear our friend Susan Easton Black make a presentation about a man named James Adams. Back when I worked with Sister Black at BYU, I helped her compile some info. on James Adams who was friends with Joseph Smith and enemies with Abraham Lincoln. He was a very interesting man, and we enjoyed Sister Black's presentation. It was especially fun to see her and Harvey! Next we met my friend Linda at the Dana-Thomas House (a Frank Lloyd Wright house) run by IHPA. The Dana-Thomas House was closed for a few months thanks to the former governor, but Governor Quinn opened it back up a few weeks ago. Linda even took us on a private, behind-the-scenes tour! It was so much fun. After the tour, Mom, Greg and I got some delicious Jimmy John's sandwiches and went to see the new "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" movie. It was hilarious! It had so many funny parts, and Abraham Lincoln was even one of the characters. We then introduced Mom to the divine Midnight Truffle Blizzard at Dairy Queen and then went back to the MHA conference for a little while to learn about Nauvoo during the Civil War.

That evening we had SO MUCH FUN roasting hot dogs in our fire pit! The fire pit worked splendidly, and the hot dogs and s'mores turned out wonderfully. We also had a pretty intense game of Quiddler--our new favorite card game.

On Sunday morning Mom and I attended the concluding MHA event: a devotional at the First Presbyterian Church in Springfield. The church is not the original building where the Lincolns attended meetings, but it is the same congregation of which Mary Lincoln was a member; and they have the original Lincoln pew at the building. It is the actual building where Mary Lincoln's funeral was held, so it is a very neat place. The devotional was really cool and included music that Abraham Lincoln and Joseph Smith loved. Hearing the songs played on the huge pipe organ there was very neat. We then went and picked up Greg then headed to New Salem where we enjoyed a nice walk through the beautiful historic village there. We then went to church, which I especially enjoyed since I haven't been able to go for a few weeks!

This morning Greg took this fun Memorial Day picture of Mom and me in front of our house with our 34-star Civil War-era-pattern flag. We had perfect weather all week until today when we had quite a bit of rain.

It was sad to have to take Mom to St. Louis to head home, but we still had fun along the way. We stopped in one of Mom's and my most favorite places: St. Charles, Missouri--just outside of St. Louis. St. Charles' historic district is so much fun! I took a picture of Greg and Mom--his mother-in-law--in front of this fun place called the Mother-in-Law Restaurant where Mom and I had lunch one time :-) Today we had a delicious lunch at a fun garden cafe, and the rain almost held off until the end of our meal. It rained quite hard for a little while, so we snuck into some of the shops. When the rain let up we were able to enjoy walking down Main Street. Then it was off to the airport. We were sad to see Mom leave, but we're very glad that she made it home safely. Unfortunately it's back to the grindstone tomorrow at the Lincoln Home, but it has been wonderful to have such a fun break with Mom here. Thank you for the most fun ever, Mom!