Happy Birthday Kara!!!

Emilie and I took a little tour of the church history sites in the mid west. We started with a two day visit with Chris, Kara, and the girls. Disney on Ice and the Denver Temple were our touristy things but we mostly enjoyed time with the family. A short flight to Omaha started the tour part of our trip. We visited the temple, the pioneer cemetery, the Kanesville Tabernacle, and Lewis & Clark sites while there. A drive across Iowa brought us to Nauvoo. How we loved the sites, the mighty Mississippi, and the temple here! A drive across Missouri took us to Independence. Here we saw Far West, Adam-ondi-ahman, Liberty Jail, and the sites in Independence. We had a wonderful trip, saw a lot, found that we were really good at getting lost (but we always managed to get found), and had an overall great time!

Love Story ???

I ran across and old letter (Dated Nov 28, 1958) that was written by Mary Black Ford. In it she tells a fascinating love story from my mom's genealogy. My grandfather's grandmother was named Ada May Walters Black. She was the child of George and Mary Adelaide Walters. The story is the sometimes tragic love story of George and Mary Adelaide. It is kind of Cinderella in reverse. According to the letter, "She (Mary Adelaide) was one of Queen Victoria's lady's in waiting, when Victoria was yet the princess royal. Adelaide met George Walters, who was a clerk in one of the big dry goods stores in London, while on a shopping tour with Victoria - and the romance started. Her family was shocked to think she was in love with a commoner and when she married him, they disowned her - however she did get her share of her family fortune and with some of her money set her new husband up in his own dry goods business in London. This store burned and the left with their children for America where she again started him up in business in Alton, Illinois. That store also burned, then he was ... watching workmen get [ a new building] ready - the ceiling was being painted, he was standing there looking up and some of the paint got in his eye' and blinded him, he spent eleven years in the school for the blind and learned to become a broom maker. In the mean time there were two more children born, a little girl 4 years older than Mama (Ada May) named Laura, then Mama. ...When Mama was four years old, her mother left the Father. The older sisters cared for the little girls until the Father sent them away to a convent. Their mother, before she left gave him [the father] half of the money she had left, $2500 and she took $2500 with her. She went to and old friend in Springfield , Ill intending to return and get the little girls but when she did go back to get them, their father had sent them away and would not tell her where that was. " Somehow Ada May met the Black family and went to Kansas with them where she married John Thomas Black shortly before her 16th birthday.

Baby Boy

The news is out -- Grant is going to have a baby brother!

Grant is a year old!

While I don't have any birthday pictures (forgot to take my camera to the birthday bash) here are some recent pictures of our birthday boy - or should I say birthday boys - Grant turned 1 on Jan 8 and his daddy has a birthday Jan 15. Grant loves technology. He shares earphones for the Zune with his dad. He loves the cool look of sunglasses. "Looking good, Hollywood" with Uncle Jake.

Sunday Evening Christmas feast with Salmonds

Lots of food and fun were available to all as we spent and evening with Patty, Nyles, and their children. Cami and Steve were in town from Chicago. Rob, Nygelit, and Susie were over. From my family, Walter's family, Jenn's family, Emilie, Jacob, and I were there.

Budding Musicians

Grant, Belen, and Joshua (left to right) try their hand at the piano. They may not always make exactly beautiful music, but it is certainly loud.