Time For Orange and Black!

No, that title doesn't mean it's almost Halloween (although it IS almost Halloween!).

It's time for the World Series!

And it's time for me to confess one of the bad things I did in high school!

I was sitting in early morning Seminary in the late 60's.  Our bishop came in and said he had multiple free tickets to the Giants game being played that day.  He was also willing to drive a carload there.  But it would mean missing school that day!  That was a tough one for me.  I had never "cut" school in my life.  But it was the Giants and a lot of cute guys were raising their hands. 

I went to the game and had a great time...and still managed to graduate and eventually married a Giants fan!

So I know at least he will understand why I was so bad that day!!

GO GIANTS!!!!

The Tradition Continues!

We made a fun trip to Apple Hill this morning!  We got our apple cider:

 And our apple donuts:

 But Hannah and Joshua had the most fun feeding the fish in the pond!

 And David liked playing with all these "balls" as he calls them:

 He liked giving each one a hug!

 And Hannah and Joshua really liked climbing and running on these hay bales:

Traditions are made up of the fun things we used to do and the new things we find to do!

The Pumpkin Patch...

...Then and Now!!

These photos are from 1977--one of our first times to go to a pumpkin patch.  Then it was all about the pumpkins.  There were some scarecrows and an old tractor to climb on, but it was still lots of fun!**  

Today I went to a pumpkin patch with MaryAnn and her 3 kids!  It was still all about the pumpkins, but there were hayrides, a corn maze, a petting zoo, hay bale towers to climb, slides, a haunted house and many other attractions.  We had fun!  Here we are on the hay ride:

Then to pet some goats:

Heading through the corn maze:

Climbing the hay bale tower.  Hannah made it to the top by herself.  Joshua made it too but I didn't get a picture:

David would have gone to the top if his Mom had let him!

And last but not least....the choosing of the pumpkin!

**I just have to tell you about the old photos at the beginning of this post!  I recently had all my 8 mm home movies transferred to DVD.  I took them with my Dad's old movie camera.  Then with the computer I was able to go through the DVD frame by frame and capture some of the scenes as still photos and touch them up a bit.  It was amazing to me that I could do that!   So those pictures are from an old home movie!  

Harrison Family Fun!

Ring-Around-the-Rosy at FHE:

Emma should never play poker!

Sophie likes sitting on the kitchen table!

Time for scripture reading!

Katie is advancing rapidly in her swimming lessons!

Family ice cream popper fight (AKA Grandma is our babysitter!):

The end of the day for Sophie and Julia!

Tours and Films!

It was fun spending two days being a tourist in and around Temple Square!  

We took advantage of a free shuttle from Temple Square to Welfare Square where we took a tour!

There are 16 million pounds of wheat stored in here:

The most fun part of the tour was our tour group.  We were 10 people in the shuttle van along with a missionary couple.  There were people from Australia, Canada,  New York City, Olympia, Washington and one man who has his baptism set for October 9th from southern California.   Most had never been to Salt Lake City before and they were all excited about everything.  I loved being with them!

One of the sister missionaries who lead our tour was from Elk Grove and knew several  people we know in our stake.   Small world in the church!

Another day we took a tour of the Church's Humanitarian Center:

For lunch one day we ate on top of the Joseph Smith building in the Garden Cafe.  Such spectacular views!  (Also see the photo at the beginning of this post taken by Dan from our lunch spot)

I loved seeing the gardens in and around Temple Square.

We took a tour of the new Church History Library (not to be confused with the Family History Library):

The library preserves historical materials for the Church and makes them accessible to members of the Church.  They had a very interesting film as part of the tour on the importance of journals.   

Because his daughter preserved his journal , the following story about Joseph Millett was re-enacted on the film:

Joseph Millett, an early member of the Church, recalled in his journal this beautiful illustration of simple yet profound faith and love:

“One of my children came in, said that Brother Newton Hall’s folks were out of bread. Had none that day. I put … our flour in sack to send up to Brother Hall’s. Just then Brother Hall came in. Says I, ‘Brother Hall, how are you [fixed] for flour.’ ‘Brother Millett, we have none.’ ‘Well, Brother Hall, there is some in that sack. I have divided [it] and was going to send it to you. Your children told mine that you were out.’ Brother Hall began to cry. Said he had tried others. Could not get any. Went to the cedars and prayed to the Lord and the Lord told him to go to Joseph Millett. ‘Well, Brother Hall, you needn’t bring this back if the Lord sent you for it. You don’t owe me for it.’ You can’t tell how good it made me feel to know that the Lord knew that there was such a person as Joseph Millett.”

There were also computers for public use to look up historical documents.  I had fun searching through some minutes of meetings where Joseph Smith presided.  This one is a page from May 1839:

We  took a tour of the Conference Center.

Here is our tour group reflected in a mirror.  The other couple was from Tasmania!

One of my favorite places was a room with portraits of all the Apostles of this dispensation.

The rooftop is also amazing!   With spectacular views--here is the Church Office building...

...and beautiful gardens showing the prairie--how this spot might have looked in 1847:

Then it was back to the Joseph Smith building to the Legacy Theater to watch "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration."  

We also took a free audio tour of the Church History Museum (formally the Museum of Church History and Art):

We especially enjoyed the current special exhibit:

We learned a lot about the construction of the Tabernacle including the roof.

Then we saw a sign saying that in the basement theater you could watch videos and it included a list that was available.  So we asked around and got a private showing of three 15-minute movies produced by T.C. Christensen (I understand he is making a full length movie about the Willie and Martin Handcart companies)

We saw "A Pioneer Miracle" about Belle Richards, "Treasure in Heaven: The John Tanner Story,"and "Only A Stonecutter" the story of John Rowe Moyle.  His story has been told in General Conference of how he walked from Alpine to Salt Lake City and back each week to work on the temple and even after he lost one of his legs.  He is the one who carved these words on the Salt Lake Temple:

It was a wonderful and inspiring experience to participate in all of these tours and films!  

I love Temple Square!!