Family, Friends, Fairies, Fall Leaves, and FUN!

Last night I returned from the most fun trip ever!! I needed a break from work, and I was missing everyone in Utah, so I took a trip home for a few days. Greg stayed behind with the animal children to hold down the fort here in Illinois. Tiger Lily was sad when I was packing my suitcase. She kept climbing in and looking at me like, "Mommy, you takes me withs you?" I left on Thursday morning and flew from Springfield to Chicago, then to Salt Lake.
It was so fun to see my family!!! Mom and I had a delicious lunch with Aunt Karalie at Takashi, a yummy Japanese restaurant in SLC. Then we went to visit the girls--who are growing up so fast! Mom and I then grabbed a tasty dinner at Marley's (located in the Harley Davidson building) and had a fun "Bones" party together (just like old times!). We also went for a walk and enjoyed the beautiful fall weather. (I didn't get to see Dad and Rich that evening because I was sooooo pooped and fell asleep kind of early.)

On Friday I saw Dad and Rich! Then Mom and I had a fun day going for walks, hanging out, and having lunch at Macaroni Grill. That evening it was time for the much-anticipated sleepover. The girls enjoyed the BAM BAM OBAMA punching bag I brought home :-) Nothing feels better than taking a swing at him! We had a fun evening playing outside and watching "Nacho Libre." Then we had a fun slumber party in the family room. One of the cutest things was when Sid stood up at about 10:30 p.m. and said, "I'm schtarving (starving)!"

On Saturday we had a fun breakfast with the girls, and then after they went home, Mom, Dad, and I took a trip over to Camp Floyd. It was beautiful there. They were having a Boy Scout Adventure Camp while we were having our picnic, and it made me especially grateful that I was having a break from work :-)

We even got to see my Civil War generals exhibit panel in real-life which, I must say, was pretty cool.

On Sunday we went over to Lindy and Nate's ward for the girls' Primary program. They did such a good job!! Lindy also did a great job playing the piano. They had some quotes from the Primary kids in the Sunday program, and one of my favorites was from Riley. They asked her what her dad's job is. She said, "Sometimes he kind of cleans up our messes after we go to bed." :-)

We then went to the home ward, and it was really great to see all of my friends there. We even got to hear Elder Loveless' talk--he just returned from the Illinois Peoria mission. I actually saw him a couple of times while I was going to EIU--it's a small world. That evening the Barretts came over for more fun outside and a yummy dinner. Playing outside is so much fun! We also had a good game of hide-and-seek inside the house. Once again it was a perfect fall evening.

On Monday Mom and I had a fun lunch with our friends Susan and Yevon. It was so great to catch up with them. We then went to BYU to enjoy the spectacular fall leaves (pictures don't do it justice) and shop at my favorite store: the BYU Bookstore.

Then we went over to the Barretts to see the girls once more and so I could tell them good bye. Sid and Riles wanted to give us a preview of their fairy princess Halloween costumes. Sidney was quite excited about her fairy dress. There is also a chance that she will be Peter Pan for Halloween, but she seemed to quite enjoy the fairy look.

What beautiful fairies! I have a funny video of Sid doing a fairy dance which I'll have to post one of these days. She kept running around saying, "Get those wings up and fly!"

The fall leaves on Timpanogos looked amazing!

That evening, Mom, Dad, Rich and I went over to Grandpa T. and Grandma Cathy's for a visit. I always love a chance to see them. We had fun fall treats: root beer floats and pumpkin bread.

On Tuesday my vacation came to an end :-( Mom and I needed to take a picture of ourselves! Then we headed up to Salt Lake where I flew back to Chicago and then to Springfield.

The view from the plane when landing in Chicago was pretty awesome. Once again, the camera doesn't do it justice. We flew way out over Lake Michigan, circled around, and came back over the city. It's good to be back in Illinois with Greg and the animal children (Lily has been extra cuddly), but it's always hard when a vacation--especially such a FUN vacation--comes to an end. Unfortunately, as soon as I left Utah, the temperature dropped almost 30 degrees and it got really cold there! Hopefully everyone can stay warm, and I'm sure we'll be next with the cold weather. Thank you everyone for the fun time, and Greg and I are looking forward to seeing you at Thanksgiving!!

America's Best Idea

It's been all about the national parks at Illinois' one-and-only national park lately. We've been getting ready for the big premier of Ken Burns' new mini-series: "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" on Sunday, September 27 on PBS. They'll be showing a 45-minute preview of the film to the public at the Lincoln Home on Saturday. The series should be pretty amazing--they've been working on it for six years. And of course anything Ken Burns does is top-notch. It will be exciting to see the series which will highlight America's natural parks and explore the history, meaning, and importance of the National Park Service. I've been writing press releases, site bulletins, and other materials to be handed out to the public on Saturday. Hopefully the series will increase interest in the national parks--which really are one of America's very best ideas. So be sure to tune in to PBS on Sunday evening! The series will run for two hours each evening from September 27 through October 2.

Speaking of national parks, here is my Natchez ranger friend and former roommate Jessica's cute dog Wilhelmina in the costume Jessica made for the annual "Bark in the Park" event in Natchez. Isn't she funny?! She's a little ranger dog!!! I wonder if Jessica could make an outfit like that for Kaiser. I am very excited because on Thursday I get to go home to Utah for a visit!! I will miss Greg who needs to stay here to take care of work, school, and the animal children, but I am so excited to see family and friends. It will also be nice to have a little break from work. A few random things: I got a flu shot today, and Big Spike ate a slug the other day. He got kind of sick, but he seems to be doing a little better now.

Strange Springfield

Today was a funny day. At the Lincoln Home, we have been planning for our "Safe Trick-or-Treat" event at the end of October. Today my assignment was to obtain an application from the city of Springfield to get a permit to close down Edwards Street (which runs along the south end of the park) on October 30 so that the kids can cross the street there without having to worry about traffic. Unfortunately obtaining said permit requires one to get signatures from 80% of the residents living along the street, saying that they don't mind if the street is closed. That would be okay--if the street you're wanting to close isn't the GHETTO! I told my boss that I didn't want to go soliciting signatures by myself, so they sent Ranger Matt with me--which I ended up being very grateful for. It was okay when we were on the nice end of the street--there's a bed & breakfast, a law office, and a restaurant there. All of those people were happy to sign our form. But then we got to the shady end of the street. There is an apartment building there, and we had to try to get signatures from all of the tenants. When we opened the door to the building, the putrid smell almost knocked us over. We tried holding our breath and running around to the different apartments, but no one would open their door. Finally a BIG black guy opened the door, but he really "didn't" live there--he was just visiting his brother who wasn't home. We also had a crazy white guy open the door, but he refused to sign anything (I think he thought we were the police). So we got zero signatures from the apartments, and then there was one other really dilapidated house along the street from which we got no response. (There are also a couple of vacant, run-down houses on the street.) We returned to the park with only three signatures--but I told Mike that I was resigning from signature duty because I never want to return to that apartment building . . . ever!!!

Just as I was thinking about how funny it was that in Springfield you can go from pristine National Park to Ghetto Land in about ten steps, I looked up and saw a strange car(s) driving down the road. It was a car made out of a half of two different cars--duct taped together in the middle. (Safety hazard?) The front was bright yellow, and the black was brown. I had to pinch myself to make sure that I wasn't in some kind of messed-up dream. :-) It was really funny. Springfield, Illinois is a strange place. I wonder what Abraham Lincoln would think if he could see his hometown today.

Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jacks . . .

Last Saturday Greg and I had another wonderful trip to St. Louis for a Cardinals game! It was an absolutely beautiful day to be at the ballpark.










Here is our favorite player, Albert Pujols, getting ready to bat. We were hoping that he would hit a home run for us, but they kept intentionally walking him.

It was a really good game, and the Cardinals had the lead going into the 9th inning, but unfortunately the Atlanta Braves pulled ahead and won by one run. It was still a very exciting game.

And, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset on the way home--a perfect ending to a perfect day!

Surrounded by Stars

I knew it was bound to happen--out of all of the thousands of people going through the Lincoln Home each day, there was bound to be someone famous. Today I gave my first tour to a "famous" person. I didn't know he was famous--I had never seen him before, nor did I recognize him, but Ranger Gene did. Gene actually recognized him from the Gore Vidal "Lincoln" DVD we sell at the park bookstore. He played Stephen Douglas in this funny movie we have featuring Sam Waterston as Abraham Lincoln and Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Lincoln. Anyway, Gene recognized this guy as Stephen Douglas, but it turns out that he is quite the Hollywood actor--even though none of the other rangers remember ever seeing him on TV. His name is Robin Gammell, and the biggest role he ever played was Mauric in one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (this picture is of Mauric--he doesn't really have a crazy forehead). Most recently he was on the TV shows "Nip/Tuck" and "Saving Grace." I have never seen those shows, nor did I ever have the desire to see them, but it's cool that I was able to take a famous Hollywood actor through the Lincoln Home. He was really nice, and he and his wife had an adorable dog named Finnigan. Unfortunately Finnigan didn't get to come inside the house.

Tad the cute cat came back to our house! He couldn't resist the kitty food we left outside for him. I was afraid he had left us forever, but when Greg came home for lunch yesterday, Tad was out by our door munching on some food. He even followed Greg back to work--until he saw our neighbor's cute kitty whom he then went to play with. Hooray for Tad being our outdoor kitty! He was outside eating once again today when I returned home from work. I think he likes having adventures around Athens. He is so cute. Greg made some delicious turkey for dinner, and I now have some white chocolate bread pudding in the oven, so we're going to have a yummy treat.