Do I Have to Share? (6.30.24)

Family dinners are family dramas.  Our family gathered for Sunday dinner on June 30, 2024, the week after Thomas' sixth birthday.  Thomas had been "king for a day" at his own birthday party, and we lighted candles on a slice of  Norwegian blotkake to sing happy birthday to him again.  Thomas enjoyed blowing out the candles himself, but he was not sure he was still happy when we lighted candles on the blotkake for little Calder and J to blow out.

It was a big deal for Calder, two, to get to blow out candles.

J thought it was very special, too!

Audrey, our little princess, amused herself eating grapes, one by one.

The adults had nothing as exciting as blowing out candles or eating grapes one by one.  However, we still had a great time, just talking and eating good Norwegian food--stuffed pork loin, potatoes au gratin, marinated cucumber salad, and, of course, that blotkake.   I tell my children they are Vikings.  My Ancestry DNA test showed that I have a bit of Norse blood, and I attribute it to the Viking earls that ruled the Orkney Islands, off the north coast of Scotland, for hundreds of years.  My Calder ancestors lived on the north tip of Scotland and married women from the Orkney Islands.  So there. 

Thomas is Six (6.29.24)

Birthday parties are big deals for little kids.  When Thomas turned six, Jonny and Jenny invited Dave and me to Thomas' birthday party.  On June 29, 2024, Thomas was king for the day, with his cousin, Finn, Hayes from Thomas' school, and two friends from the ward attending.  

Thomas' brother, Henry, also attended the party, although it was a bit hard for him to turn the spotlight over to his little brother for all afternoon!

Thomas' little brother, J, tried out the slide which Thomas' parents blew up on their front lawn.

Jenny was the mastermind behind the party.  One event involved the boys throwing baskets through the Spendlove hoop.  The goal was to make 20 baskets, as a group.  The hoop had been specially lowered for Thomas and his friends.  It was still too high for J, who tossed the ball into the air, about three or 4 feet above his head, and then ducked as it fell near him!

Another game was pinning the knife on "Crafty," Thomas' favorite social media character.  It was a variation on "Pin the tail on the donkey."  Thomas placed the knife exactly in Crafty's hand.  Was that skill or a little peek?

Another major activity was a pinata.  

It took the boys just five or ten minutes to knock the pinata wide open.

Thomas' friend, Grayson, was the big winner.  He went home with a gallon plastic bag filled completely full of candy!

Jonny brought out a "charcuterie board" for the little boys, which included such finger food as bites of cheese, slices of pepperoni and salami, and pretzels.  There was also a bowl of grapes, separated into individual grapes!  Jonny and Jenny know what pleases six-year-olds.

And, of course, there was birthday cake, with Thomas blowing out the candles.

The finale was opening presents, with all the boys analyzing the treasures as they were unwrapped.

Then, it was all over.  Jenny relaxed with a popsicle.

Jonny crashed next to the guitar which his son, 10-year-old Sam, already plays well.

Dave and I congratulated Jenny and Jonny on a party well done.  We also savored the beautiful, original painting on their living room wall.

The Seductive Salt Flats (6.22.24)

On June 22, 2024 Jonny took his boys--Sam, Henry, Thomas, and their cousin--to the Salt Flats to see the summer solstice through an arrangement of pipes set up by a local artist.

The Bonneville Salt Flats are 90 minutes away from Salt Lake City, a bizarre world where mirages appear and the fastest sports cars in the world race.  From time to time, as our children grew up, we stopped at the salt flats ourselves, whether on our way to California or to watch the cars race.

These photos, taken in 1987, show the fun little kids can have in that strange and wonderful place.

Show Me Missouri: Moline and Galena (6.23.24)

A high point of our Missouri trip was visiting Jonny in Moline, Illinois, where he bought a duplex and became an Illinois resident.  Jonny's family lives in Salt Lake City, but Jonny commutes to Moline every Sunday night through Thursday, three weeks out of every month. 

 A path along the Mississippi River winds right outside Jonny's home.  We walked along it on June 24, 2024.  It passed a John Deere plant, protected with barbed wire.  Jonny works in the construction division of John Deere.

Dave and I met Jonny in Galena, Illinois, up the Mississippi from Moline.  While we waited for Jonny to arrive on Sunday morning, we first went to church in Davenport, Illinois, and then visited the Ulysses S. Grant home.  

After the Civil War, when Grant was a famous general, the City of Galena gave him an elegant home, which he kept while he was U.S. president.  Grant initiated his campaign for president in Galena.  He had lived there as a young man, working unsuccessfully in his father's leather goods store.  Grant was unsuccessful as a farmer and shopkeeper, but he was a military genius in both the Mexican-American War and the Civil War.  After reading Grant's biography, I came to believe he was also a very good president.  He asserted federal control over Reconstruction in the South.  Southern blacks rose into leadership positions in their communities and began to prosper.  That progress was lost when Rutherford B. Hayes became president and gave control back to the states.

Grant's home in Galena was full of treasures, such as this family Bible.

Grant's wife, Julia, had once owned slaves, as the daughter of a planter in Missouri.  She became friends with the wife of Jefferson Davis after the Civil War, as well as with prominent Yankee women.

The rooms of the Grant home had the finest Victorian decorations.

Jonny joined Dave and me on a trolley tour of Galena.  Jonny was so tired after commuting nine hours from Salt Lake City that he dozed.  Dave convivially joined him.  We passed the Victorian mansions of the riverboat millionaires who lived in Galena when steamboats still visited it.

The sites we passed included Ulysses S Grant's original house in Galena, not nearly so grand as the one the city gave him after he helped to win the Civil War!

We relaxed with a root beer float on Galena's picturesque main street.

I never realized that root beer has many different tastes and qualities until my grandson, Spencer Flindt, worked at a root beer store in Seattle.  He is a connoisseur.  When I serve root beer at family parties and Spencer attends, I buy several varieties so Spencer can choose the best ones!

On our drive back to Moline from Galena, we stopped at the Minnetonka Caves, a favorite state park with Jonny's boys when they lived in Bettendorf, Iowa, across the Mississippi from Moline.

It was dark and delightfully spooky deep in the caves.

When Jonny went back to work Monday morning, Dave and I made our pilgrimage to the John Deere center in Moline, where the company's prized machines are on display.  We always feel proud that Jonny helps to create those machines, in the many different roles he has played at the company.

Show Me Missouri: Nauvoo (6.21.24)

Dave and I have visited LDS history sites so often and with so many family members that there is a rich patina of memory on all Church sites.  In July 2013, for our family reunion in the Massachusetts Berkshires, we met Camille's family in Ohio and visited Kirtland, Ohio, together.  Kirtland was the first major gathering place for Church members after the Church was organized in upstate New York.
 

On the way to our family reunion in Tennessee in 2011, Lisa's family stopped with us in Nauvoo, Illinois.  Illinois was the third gathering place for Church members, before they crossed the prairie to Utah.  The second gathering place was disastrous Missouri.

The first Church site we visited, on our drive from Missouri to Nauvoo this year, was Carthage Jail, where the Church's first president, Joseph Smith, was murdered in July 1844.  Dave and I have a soft spot in our hearts for young women missionaries, since four of our granddaughters have served as missionaries.  This statue is of Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, who were killed by mobbers who broke into the Carthage Jail.  Joseph and Hyrum were imprisoned on trumped up charges.

We saw the room where the jailers lived, below the prison in which Joseph Smith and Hyrum were kept.

We saw the cell where Joseph Smith and Hyrum were held, until the jailer moved them into a room with windows and more light.

We saw the room into which the mobbers shot, killing Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum.

And we saw the second story window through which Joseph Smith fell, after he was shot.

We drove on to beautiful Nauvoo, where LDS Church members lived and built a city between 1839 and 1844.  Nauvoo has now been restored, with many historical buildings to visit.

Talented young dancers and singers audition to serve three months as missionaries in Nauvoo during the summer, giving performances at the Visitors Center and throughout the restored area.  This presentation focused on the life of Joseph Smith in Nauvoo.

This spring the Church bought several historical sites from the Community of Christ, a breakoff church which is losing interest in its historical roots.  One of those buildings is the Red Brick Store which Joseph Smith managed, and in which he held many religious meetings.

The entertainment missionaries reenacted an early meeting of the Relief Society, which has now become the largest organized women's group in the world.

We saw the tombs of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.  My great-grandfather, Thomas Cottam, was in Nauvoo when their bodies were brought back from Carthage.  Grandfather Cottam later said that he thought that the Church would fall apart after the death of Joseph Smith and that he would return to England.  Instead, the Church has now grown to 17 million members and Grandfather Cottam lived a productive life as a furniture maker in St George, Utah.  He created chairs for the St. George Temple and Brigham Young's winter home in St. George.

One moving statue was that of Joseph Smith and Hyrum, preparing to leave Nauvoo for the last time, as they rode to Carthage.

We visited many restored homes of Nauvoo residents, prominent and not.  I especially enjoyed visiting the home of Orson Hyde, who baptized my ancestors in England.  He later traveled to Jerusalem to bless that land and predict that there would someday be missionary work there.  That time has not yet arrived, but, as a college student, my daughter Camille spent a semester at the BYU Jerusalem Center, built on the Mount of Olives.

Another interesting home was that of the architect of the Nauvoo Temple. It included many of his drawings.  The Nauvoo Temple was burned and abandoned when LDS Church members left Nauvoo in 1845 and 1846, but it was rebuilt in ____.  

I am interested in Victorian interior decoration.  It is definitely "fussy", with lots of color and many contrasting patterns.  Adult missionaries, as well as young people, serve in Nauvoo.  Dave's sister, Nancy Moench, and her husband, Darrell, were missionaries in Nauvoo.

We also visited the Heber C. Kimball house, where the Nauvoo restoration began.  LeGrand Kimball, the father of our longtime neighbor, Bill Kimball, bought this house and renovated it for his family as a summer home.  He then had the dream of renovating all of Nauvoo, so not just his family, but anyone else who was interested could enjoy it.

We drove to the banks of the Mississippi, where another statue of Joseph and Hyrum gestured out across the water.  Several of my ancestors crossed from Nauvoo across the Mississippi into Iowa, and then on to Salt Lake City.  They included the Romneys, Cottams, Hamiltons, Bennions, and Hills.  Each family has left us wonderful pioneer stories.

The spire of the Nauvoo Temple, with its statue of Moroni, from the Book of Mormon, on top, is a symbol to me of faith and hope.