Mother and Daughter

The adorable Hunter girls!

Jenni and Claire

How cute are they???

Good Times!!!!!

Please Come Out and Play! Please!!

I always look out to see who is knocking at my door. Don't you? I hurried then and grabbed my camera. Needless to say he or she was very sad when I opened the window and said "I can't play today"! Oh how I love my little visitors....especially the ones with four legs!

Zion Fun

This past weekend the kids came up from Vegas and we all played tourist! Believe it or not, even when you live in Zion National Park you seldom get the opportunity to get up there much. It is always so wonderful when the family comes up for the weekend and we get to play.

Most importantly...... Nana gets to see her baby Wynter!!!

Last summer we discovered the ice cream swirl cones at the Zion Lodge. It is the most yummy treat ever!! It is so worth the ride up there on the bus in 105 degree weather. It was hot...How hot was it? By the time we got to the lodge we hurried and wet baby Wynter's hat in cold water for her hot little head. No A/C on the bus folks!!

Mackenzie wasn't to keen on giving her 7 month old ice cream, but she did give in and gave her a few tastes! Mackenzie said, " I guess we will know if she is lactose intolerant" Ha...

SHE LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now she is trying to figure out how she can get more. Now Wynter.......Just tell mommy and daddy that you have to get back to Zion to see Nana and ride the bus!!!!!!!!!!!

Riding the hot ...........hot..............bus up the canyon!

Zion Weekend

What a way to travel! We soon learned it was just to hot for this little "getup"..

Yep..........Nana and Wynter went down the slide!! I think it was more fun for me!

Most beautiful baby in the world! Love them baby blues!

Memorial Day Weekend

Over the weekend my mother and I did some cemetery sleuthing. I had a list of stones that I needed to photograph for their relatives. I love just wandering around cemeteries, especially old pioneer ones. We found some great stones and I thought I would share some of my favorites.


This is the Dudley Leavitt stone. My understanding is the family gathered together a few dollars to erect this new stone that appeared in the last five years or so. It depicts all his wives and their children. The back of the stone has a more descript version of their lives and history.

Old Stones and Old Homes

The original Dudley Leavitt stone sits in front of the new monument.

Note their is no death date. She could certainly still be living. Beautiful stone!!

Great Story Telling

As my mother and I tip toed through this cemetery we came upon this wonderful family gathering. We stood close by for a short time and had to take in some of the laughter from the stories this old timer was telling about his relatives who had passed on. I know, I know...

Tip Toe Through the Tombstones

The Last Lincolns

I love to read! I especially love to read about real people in American History!
This is my latest find and sent to me by my friend Dennis in Salt Lake. Thanks Dennis for such an incredible book. It seems there is always something new to learn about the Lincolns.
Poor Mary Todd Lincoln............such suffering, mentally and physically.



A young Tad Lincoln...............


I have to be able to get something out of a book in order to read it. I mean....really get something........some sort of knowledge. What started me on this post was my interest in the death of young Tad who was only 18 years of age. I was just reading along when I read this:

Illinois was experiencing one of the hottest summers on record. The day before Tad's funeral, the thermometer in Springfield reached 114 degrees. At nine in the morning, the coffin was carried out of the Edwards' ( This is Mary's sister Elizabeth's home) parlor and transported to the First Presbyterian Church. Fittingly, the pallbearers were six young people who had known Tad when he was a frisky terror living in Springfield before his father became president. The pallbearers carried the beautiful rosewood casket, decorated with wreaths of immortelles, in the church and placed it in front of the pulpit.

Whoa......................I am suddenly thinking what? What is a immortelles? So I mark the page and try to remember to go back later and look it up on the internet.

Well, that day is today! So in my next post you will find out all about the immortelle.


Poor, poor Mary Todd Lincoln........It was the fourth deathbed vigil she would endure: first her son Eddie, dead in 1850 at the age of three; then Willie, dead at age eleven from cholera; the martyred Abraham Lincoln in 1865; and now her cherished son Tad, eighteen years of age in the year 1871.

This is a wonderful book and one of the best reads yet on the Lincolns!

Immortelles

Immortelles: a name given by the french to those Flowers which from their papery nature do not wither on dying, known in this country as "everlasting flowers".

"The Immortelle requires no attention: you just hang it up, and there you are; just leave it alone, it will take care of your grief for you, and keep in mind...better than you can;

stands weather first-rate, and lasts like boiler-iron."

"Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi"