The Johnson Family Farm

The house was beautiful.  They were well off and had beautiful furniture.  Each item was so useful too.  The house was 85% original and the rest is that time period or reproduced to what it looked like.  So cool.

The study...has a window in it to watch the kids play.  They had many children.

Food Storage room.

Birthing' room...just a little room off to the side.  Or to take care of small children.



Time period table and furniture.

Steep stairs going up.

The lady of the farm LOVED bright colors.  This is the bed Emma & Joseph were on when the mob came in and took Joseph and tarred and feathered him.  The mob left the door open and one of the children passed away because they were already sick.  It is a beautiful room.

This was fun to see.  It was for weaving and such.



Just missing Parker.

Us again!

More very steep stairs.



Front of Johnson farm.

Even a little time to play.  The missionaries thinks the rock wants to be played on.  How could they resist!!

One more view


Well, I would love to do more but I arm tired.  I will try to get more photos up tomorrow...especially of the Kirtland temple and Newel K. Whitney store.  Hope to update again soon!  We are hopefully in Nauvoo tomorrow!  I love that place too.  See yah!

Water, Water Everywhere--LAKE Erie & Girls FINALLY GETTING Swim!

Lake Erie.

Private beach that one of the locals told us about when we told them we just wanted to SEE it.  :)  Pretty cool.

It seems that every motel has some excuse or doesn't have a pool.  Our hotel in Dearborn was understood to have a pool.  But, NO!!!  So finally in Willoughby, Ohio the girls got to swim....and Ryan and Hunter too!

View from the 3rd floor of the motel.

Look at all those trees.  It's amazing to me!

panoramic from the Motel

Love the greenery by the freeways.  Often you can't see past the greenery to the city.

One thing we love is the many water towers, shapes and sizes.  We look for them.  They are fun.  So many!!!!

A few facts about Dearborn

Dearborn is 45% Muslim we were told.  It was so cool to see a different culture.

Because of that, here is something we found in Costco.

Yes, Lamb Shanks right there in Costco.  It was so cool to see them hanging there. 



Cute little Pizza place.  We had quite the conversation with one of the guys who originally walked by and said, "I can't talk to them because their Mormon."  He later came back and talked with us for a while.  Very inexpensive little place.  We needed quick food one night when everything seemed to be closed.  We went back the next day for a photo and for more of their ranch dressing.  Great people!

So that is a couple of tidbits for you.  We left Parker in Dearborn to fly home and the rest of us embark our next journey to Kirtland OHIO!!! Wahoo!  (Though we still wish Parker would've chosen to come with us!!)

Archway...picture forgotten

Back track for a moment.  This is how the Great River Platte Archway looks across the Freeway.  I found these photos on my iPod tonight.  It was awesome.

The competition!!! The Ford AAA Auto Competition in Dearborn, MI

Huge Event...50 cars from 50 states.  2 students on each team.

Ford Explorers.  Very Beautiful and new.  Red, White and Blue.

Parker and Jimmy

Jimmy...They are such a great team  They really are.  They work very well together.  Precise and Accurate.

Inspecting their vehicle.

Driving to the finish line.  UTAH!  We love 'em.  As a mom, I was so glad they finished.  There were four that didn't finish.

Driving to Finish line.



Photo op at the finish line.

What a team!!!

Stage as they presented the TOP Ten.  One never knows who wins until the presentation.  You can finish first and not have a perfect car.  Infact, one team did finish first but they were not number 1.  They ended up being number 10.

The winners were from Oregon!  Congratulations.

Parker got 23rd mostly due to lack of communication and a lack of watching the clock closely .  They got rid of the major problems but missed two lights because of miscommunication.  Then they didn't double check because they thought they were out of time and they had plenty of time.  

 

Also, I was a little sad because two small light bulbs were 6 demerits.  3 for each bulb.  But, for a miss of major engine problems people were only docked three demerits.  I think there is not a scale according to difficulty.  He was sad and pretty deflated.  Looking back I think I was too.  I wanted it to booster him.

 

Regardless, I am very proud of him.  He did a fantastic job.  We are all recovering from the excitement of that.  He is a champ regardless of the results.  He rocks!!