Ox Wagon Ride

We were just in time to get the last ox wagon ride of the day. I really wanted to see the oxen in real life because I hadn't before. They are bigger than I even imagined. Their eyeballs are the size of oranges. We learned that they are trained to walk in a yoke when they are only 2 years old. No weight is pulled behind them, but they are able to learn to walk along side another ox. 

The wagon men allowed us to hold on to the horns for a picture.

Here is us in the wagon. 

I had to take another picture of the oxen and their hugeness.  

May 13- Carthage Jail

On the morning of May 13th we took the short drive from Nauvoo to Carthage to see the jail Joseph Smith was killed in. 

This is me with the jail and statues of Joseph and Hyrum.

A sister missionary gave us a short tour of the jail. I learned a lot about the time Joseph spent there. The jail owners lived in the house with the prisoners and were kind to Joseph. There were four prisoners ( Joseph, Hyrum, John Taylor, Willard Richards) but the first night at the jail there were 12 men in total. The other 8 were there to support Joseph. 

The prisoners were in the dungeon cell that in on the top floor of the house. Being at the top of the house, and with 12 men inside, the room got very hot so the jail owner let the men stay in a different room downstairs. 

As you can see it's just bare floors with nothing else so the men slept on the floor.

The next day the other 8 men left. The jail owner then let the 4 prisoners stay in his and his wife's bedroom. This is the room Joseph and Hyrum were killed in. A mob busted in the door downstairs and ran up the stairs shooting their guns as they went. Hyrum was tyring to hold the bedroom door shut and was shot in the face. The jail still has the original door with the bullet hole in it.  John Taylor was shot in the hip and in the chest. His pocket watch blocked that bullet so he didn't die. The shot did push him back so he rolled under the bed and was protected from further bullets. Willard Richards was never shot. Joseph was looking out the bedroom window when he was shot, he fell out the window and died. Willard Richards was able to carry John Taylor out of the bedroom and into the dungeon cell. The cell had a straw bed on the floor with a mattress. Willard put John Taylor on top of the straw and put the mattress on top of him. The straw was able to stop the bleeding in John's hip so he couldn't bleed to death. 

This is Ja outside the window Joseph fell from. 

May 12th- Nauvoo Temple at night

We drove into Nauvoo on May 12th just as the sun was setting. It was such a beautiful sight to see the Mississippi river and the Nauvoo temple during sunset. We took some great pictures.

This is a pictures of the statues of Joseph and Hyrum stopping in front of the temple as they continue their walk to Carthage Jail. The sunset behind them was amazing. 

This picture has the same statues but with the temple in the background.

I took this picture of the tulips on the temple grounds. I was so proud of this picture because it looks like it could be a desktop or screen saver picture.Here is the Nauvoo temple in all it's glory. It sits on the top of a hill and over looks the part of Nauvoo where the Saints lived. We were able to go to the temple and it's so beautiful inside. Even though it was recently rebuilt it looks like it was built a long time ago. The builders did a great job making it look authentic. Some of the windows inside are made with glass that is from France and made in the time period of the Saints. 

May 12- Visiting Winter Quarters & the Kanesville Tabernacle

We were planning on getting up early today so we could get to Nauvoo before dark. I guess we were really tired because we didn't wake up until 9 am. Oh well, it did feel good to sleep in.

We visited Winter Quarters first. The sister m

issionary there gave us our own little tour around the visitor's center. We were the only people there, another perk of going during off-season. It took the Saints about 130 days just to cross Iowa. It took them around 100 days to make the rest of the trip! The Saints left in the winter and weren't prepared for the weather and terrain they faced. They did forge the trail for the rest of the people moving west and made it easier for all to follow.   

Then we went around and took pictures outside. 

 Ja is standing next to a statue of the Saints pushing the handcart. This is a picture of me with the statue of a mother and father who just buried their child. The statue is in the cemetery next to the visitor's center and temple.

     

This is the Winter Quarters Temple. I wanted a better picture of it, but it was Monday so the temple was closed. 

Our next stop was at the Kanesville Tabernacle which is in Council Bluffs. Ja is discussing the tabernacle with Brigham Young.

The original building was made with cottonwood trees because they are very tall trees. Cottonwood trees shrink width wise over time, so in a few years the roof was connected to the walls anymore. When the church rebuilt the building they also used cottonwood  trees. With modern technology they build the roof on jacks so when the walls start to shrink the whole roof will lower too. Clever huh?

This is the inside of the building. The columns are on the jacks. The huge fire place in the back is made with dirt and sod. 

  

This is the stage where Brigham Young was sustained as the second president of the Church on December 27 1847. During the years 1847 and 1848 Kanesville was the headquarters of the church. 

Next Stop: Omaha, Nebraska

Today we saw Mount Rushmore then drove the Omaha, NE. The drive wasn't as exciting as yesterday's so luckily it was 2 hours shorter. Tomorrow we are visiting Winter Quarters then drive on to Nauvoo. I'll post more detailed info and pictures later on so you can look forward to that!

May 11th- Driving to Omaha, Nebraska

Our drive today was about 596 miles. After Keystone is the city of Rapid City. We tried to find the chapel so we could go to church, but we couldn't find it. The drive through did make us familiar with the little town. We saw this zoo on our drive and thought it was a funny statue. Then the goats started moving, it was real! We had to turn around to take a picture of the "goat bridge." 

As we were driving through South Dakota, and the middle of no where, Ja decided he wanted to see ho many miles we could go on one tank. It wasn't to our destination because our gas light came on. Of course it went one right after 

we passed the only gas station for a long time. He is a very lucky man because right when I was going to get really mad if we ran out of gas, an exit for Sinclair gas station came. Unfortunately the gas station was 3.8 miles from the freeway so we "saw more of the country." That became a often used phrase when we got lost. We didn't say we were lost, we were seeing more of the country.

The part of the state of Iowa we saw was your stereotypical mid

-west state. Flat and grassy. A lot of farms too. So far in our trip I have been amazed by the number of farmers and huge farms.

 While driving through the farms of Iowa we asked ourselves a few questions. Feel free to answer them if you know the answer.1. Are only the black and white cows milk cows? Or are the brown cows used for milk too?

2. Are the black and white cow named Jersey cows?

3. Why is super unleaded gas cheaper than unleaded? 

4. What makes the super gas super?

5. Why does Highway 90 have a red tint to it?

As we crossed over the Missouri River we entered Nebraska. Luckily we had 2 chances to enter Nebraska because I missed taking the picture of the sign the first time.   

This is just a picture to show how dirty our windshield was at this point. 

May 11th- Visiting Mount Rushmore

This morning we visited Mount Rushmore. It was a beautiful sunny, and cool morning. At first we didn't think the statues would be very cool, but when we got a better view they are amazing. There is a whole visitor center and big memorial site, and amphitheatre to walk around. 

We took the "strenuous trail" to see a closer up view. We went down a lot of stairs at first then we learned why they called it the strenuous trail becau

se you have to go up all the stairs at the end. We took some good pictures but they are mostly of one of us at a time. We realized when someone asks us if they want to take a picture of both of us we should take them up on their offer. That is the only way we both can be in a picture.

This is the overview of the mountain.

Facts about Rushmore:

The project started in 1927 and was finished in 1941. Even though it was 14 years, about 6 1/2 years were actually spent working. The winter weather would stop work each year. 

Gutzon Borglum sculpted the faces. 

The mountain was named after a New York City Lawyer named Rushmore. 

Most of the mountain was sculpted using dynamite.  

As we were driving out of the park, we saw this wooly goat. It as unsuccessfully trying to blend in with his surroundings. 

We made it to Mount Rushmore!

Since we don't get reception up here I figured I would write a post saying we made it safely. It was an 11 hour drive up here but it didn't seem long at all because we listened to "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" the whole drive up. The drive was also fun because neither of us had driven that way before so we were excited with the new landscapes. There are more cows in Wyoming than people, but it sure is beautiful. What we've seen of South Dakota is beautiful too. We will drive all the way across SD tomorrow so we'll see more then. The highlight of the day was having to slam on the brakes so we didn't hit the 5 deer that were standing in the road. Now I really understand the saying "deer in the headlights." We did take some pictures today but I will post them later because the camera cord is in the car and it's really cold outside so I don't want to go out. We are having a fun trip so far! 

May 10th- Drive through Wyoming & South Dakota

Today we drove safely from Provo, Utah to Keystone, South Dakota. We drove a total of 673.2 miles today. The drive through Wyoming was beautiful. 

The sky is bigger in Wyoming. Even though most of Wyoming was flat, there are different rock formations, prairies, and little canyons. 

Wyoming is ranked 50th out of the states for population. Now we understand why, there are more cows than people. We didn't see many people at all while we drove through. There is a town called Lost Springs that has a recorded population of 1. 

We did stop in Rawlins, Wyoming for some gas. On the map it looked like a bigger town, but we think this sign says it all about Rawlins:

As we crossed over to South Dakota the scenery changed a little bit. We actually saw a school bus sign which means people actually live there. The western part of South Dakota has a lot of evergreen trees and huge rock formations. It was no wonder to us why Mount Rushmore is in South Dakota. The eastern part of South Dakota was really flat and had few trees and rocks.

We almost hit 5 deer in South Dakota. We were looking around at the rocks and then all of the sudden we see 5 deer standing in the road. I saw them in time not to hit them, but it was a little scary, and fun. We also drove past a farm that had buffalo instead of cows. What do they do with the buffalo?

This was our hotel in Keystone. Washington Inn & Suites. The town of Keystone is very, very small. I would not like to be there during busy season, which is end of May to early September. One good thing about it being small is that every thing is within walking distance. We walked the downtown in about 5 minutes, that's how small it is. In case you stay here, be careful, they don't have shampoo or conditioner. 

Like I said on another post, the drive was great since we listened to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on CD. I really recommend books on cd for any long trip!

Tribute to a very smart man

I wanted to make a shout out for Ja. He got his grades 2 days ago and he got all A-'s. That means he got all A-'s for his entire Junior Core experience. Those are very good grades considering the type of workload and intensity those classes involve. He was so excited he started jumping up and down and yelling. Then he checked 2 more times to make sure those were in fact his scores and that he really could celebrate. They were his grades, so he jumped around some more, hugged me a lot, repeated how excited he was a million times, then made some phone calls. I am so proud of him  for working so hard and studying so much. Even though the junior core was as hard as everyone said, I think Ja had a really good time making new friends and having great recruiting experiences. I think I can say we are both very happy the junior core is over! Good job Ja!

Graduation Pictures

Here is a link to see pictures from Graduation April 2008. Thank you very much for everyone who came, I really meant a lot to me!

The Price is Right

Last friday BYU had a Senior Celebration for all the graduating seniors. (which is me!) Certain schools within BYU set up booths with fun games, food, prizes, and even caricatures. The accounting group BAP decided to have a booth for the School of Accountancy. Ja and his friends got together and decided to do a "Price is Right" booth. Ja went and bought the materials to make the booths for the beginning of the show. They looked great. Shea did a good job too cutting out the letters.



Bob Barker was nice enough to come out of retirement for a night and host the game show for BAP. He would ask them money or accounting related questions (the person who one usually did so by chance) and the person to guess the closest without going over went on to the next game.




If the contestant had taken any accounting classes before then they played an accounting game. They had to tell what is a debit and what is a credit, or make a correct accounting equation with flash cards. I have taken an accounting class but failed miserably at the account equation game, Ja had to help me.

If the contestant hadn't taken accounting then they moved on to the table of Ja and James. James's game was guessing the price of grocery store items. If you got within $1 of the total you won. Most people were a few dollars off. I was the first winner, getting within 80 cents. One girl got within 7 cents, she was the closest of the night. (Except for Amy who helped James buy the items.) They had things like dish soap, soda, spaghetti o's, sharpie marker, and little debbie chocolate rolls. People liked that game.

Ja's game was also a lot of fun. He did the game "lower or higher" where people have to guess if the price of the item is lower or higher than the price listed. He started out switching 6 different items out, but some were too easy. He stuck with Rainbow sandals, the perfect push-up, and a financial calculator. Those were the three most common missed items. People were always surprised by how cheap the perfect push is (Ja had it at $30 but they are only $20 at Wal-mart), and by how expensive Rainbow sandals are. Ja had those marked at $29.95 and people always said, "Oh, they have to be lower. That is too expensive for sandals." But if any of you have every purchased those sandals you know that's not the case. So, if the contestant got 2 of the 3 right then they got 2 chances to find the taffy under one of 5 cups. Then if they got the taffy they got the real prize of a candy bar. But don't worry, the school of accountancy never leaves you empty handed, if they didn't get the taffy they got either a notepad, pen, or taffy. People really enjoyed this game and loved Ja putting on a show.



Overall the night was a big success. There was always a constant stream of people wanting to play the price is right. All the people who helped with it kept talking about how much fun they had. They even won a huge check!

Jazz Game

On March 22nd we went to a Utah Jazz game with some people from the accounting group BAP. This was only my second time ever watching a live basketball game, and my first NBA game. It was a lot of fun. As you can tell, our seats were very high up, in fact, as high as you can get. It didn't really matter because you could still see everything just fine. When we got to our seats our friend said, "We are even higher than the jumbo-tron!" The Jazz won so we had a good time.

The court looks so little.



Our group consisting of friends and Ja's professor Hobson.


We had a great time!

For those Office Watchers...

Ok, who is counting down the days until Jim proposes to Pam?! I know it will be a while but I can't wait for it to happen! I'm so happy that Jim and Pam are back...

You have got to be kidding me!

Ok, I am officially sick of this weather! Yesterday was a high of 75 degrees and today it is 37 degrees, but with the wind feels like 30! It was just snowing a few minutes ago too. I can't make up my mind on what to wear, what to do outside, or what season it is. Yesterday I had the car air conditioner on and today I had the heater on. Crazy. It's no wonder why Utah has so many cases of mental illness; I'm becoming depressed and bi-polar because of this weather! I need to get out of here!