Montpelier- James and Dolley Madison's House!

Today I went to Montpelier, the home of James and Dolley Madison in Orange, VA. I've been meaning to get myself there for a while now and it just turned out that today I could and I am glad I did!  I learned a lot about James Madison, some of which I will write about below. 

 This is the main door of the house, although it wasn't always.  The house has gone through a few phases. At first it was a duplex, then they made it into one big house, then after the Madison family sold it and the duPont family bought it, they made it a lot bigger.  But now they have it back to the original size as when the Madison's lived in it, trying to make it as authentic as possible.

 The view from the front porch!

 The front of the house!  We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the house, but it was beautiful!  They have a few original pieces of furniture and paintings that James and Dolley Madison owned which is pretty awesome! They have tried to make it look as authentic as possible.

 Me in the back of the house!

James Madison seemed like a genuinely good guy. He was a smart fellow who actually went to Princeton and was able to test out of his first year.  He learned 6 different languages while there.  He learned a 7th language later.  He read a lot and owned over 4000 books! He is known as the Father of the Constitution. It is said that he seemed a little reserved when in big crowds but when around people he knew he was more open.  He and Dolley entertained a lot of guests in their home at Montpelier and would often have 25 people sleeping over from 1 night up to 2 weeks.

 Madison's temple! He would sit here and contemplate and enjoy the view of the beautiful mountains in the distance!

 James and Dolley Madison! I must admit I did not know much about either of them before this tour. I learned that Dolley loved to entertain guests and everyone loved her. They sometimes had over 100 guests over for dinner and Dolley would remember each of their names and faces.

 I loved this butterfly!  Isn't it beautiful?!

 And this one?!

 I liked this lion in the Annie duPont garden!  It looks so sad.

 Look at that tree!

 The front stone is the grave of James and the back one is Dolley's grave.

On the grounds!

Today was  lovely day! The drive to the house, the tour of the house, the grounds, the weather were all just awesome!  I am glad that I was able to go and learn more about our 4th president and his wife.

I must say that I really like living in this area where I can go and visit the homes and buildings and sites that we read about in the history books and so much happened there. Going to Montpelier today made James and Dolley Madison more real.  They existed. They had personalities. They had imperfections.

OneRepublic Concert!!

I love concerts!  The combination of the loud music by an awesome band, the dancing, the screaming, the singing along, the audience etc. is just so exhilarating to me!  The OneRepublic concert was no exception.  I went to their concert last night at Wolf Trap and they were amaaaazing!  They sure know how to put on a performance. They sound awesome live and they were real and funny and sentimental and it was just so good!  

 Secrets!  "Tell me what you want to hear. Something that will light those ears. Sick of all of the insincere. I'm gonna give all my secrets away."

Apologize! "It's too late to apologize. It's too late. I said it's too late to apologize. It's too late."

 The awesome guitarist!  He played some rockin' solos!

The main singer, Ryan Tedder, went out into the audience during one of the songs. He wasn't anywhere near us, but that's okay because we were close to the stage. We could almost reach out and touch the stage and could totally see the facial expressions and make eye contact with the musicians. It was awesome!!!

They had an encore performance and this was at the finale of that performance.

Some of the other songs they sang were Good Life, Feel Again, Counting Stars, All the Right Moves, Stop and Stare, Come Home and a few others.

Paris and I during one of the songs. Thanks for inviting me to the concert Paris!  It was awesome!

Sunflower Fields!

A couple of weeks ago Lara told me that they had visited a sunflower field in Maryland. As soon as she told me that it wasn't too far away, I knew I must make the journey to this land of sunflowers!  The last time I had seen a sunflower field was on my mission in Ukraine.  Whenever I saw the fields I was always on public transportation and never in a position to stop and take pictures, although I really wanted to.  I was excited for the chance to finally be able walk through and take pictures in a sunflower field!  Lara let me borrow her camera. Cami came with me. 

I took most of these pictures, although I did post a few of Cami's pictures too. 

I know Cami took this cool shot with the sun rays!

I like this one with Cami in the background trying to take a self portrait too :)

One of Cami's self portraits, although I don't think it's the one that she's taking in the picture above.

Isn't the sunflower field beautiful?!  I loved it!  Thanks Cami for keeping your aunt company on this little trip.

Utah Trip- American Fork Canyon

While I was in Utah, we also took a drive up American Fork Canyon!  We didn't drive the whole Alpine Loop, but the part we did see sure was beautiful!  I love nature!  It has always been a place for me to go and feel peace and enjoy God's beautiful creations and remember His love for me.  

 Timbo and Mamachka!

 Look at that spiderweb!  I thought it was pretty cool looking.

 Isn't it beautiful?!

 Me and Papachka. I think this was the day I was supposed to leave before I knew my flight was cancelled.

Me and Mamachka

I am grateful that I was able to visit Mom, Dad, Heather and Tim and am glad that I surprised them.  I had a lovely time and enjoyed every minute.  Thanks Dad and Mom for letting me come and stay!  You rock!

Utah Trip- Red Butte Gardens

In June, I surprised my parents and flew to Utah and showed up on their doorstep one day unannounced. I loved seeing their reactions! They were completely surprised and were wondering what I was doing there but were happy I was there. :) It was fun!  (Tim (my younger brother), didn't know I was coming either.) 

I ended up staying for a week. (I was only supposed to be there for 6 days, but my flight back got cancelled due to weather in Chicago, so I got to stay an extra day with my family there, which I was totally okay with:)

My main goal in visiting was to spend time with Mom, Dad, Heather and Tim. I definitely got to spend time with them, especially Mamachka. I loved it!  We also went out and did things. One of things we did was go to Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake City. It was beautiful!  It costs a little bit to get in, but it's worth it. Apparently they have lots of wedding receptions there and concerts during the summer.

Enjoy some pictures from the gardens.  

 Tim, Mom and I were the ones to venture out to the beautiful gardens!

 I must admit the children's part of the garden was my favorite part!  It was fun! The rest of the pictures are from the children's part.

A birthday cake made of flowers :)

Tornadoes (Part 2)

It was May 3, 1999. We were living in Oklahoma.  We were at a restaurant somewhere near Oklahoma City. A worker came to our table and mentioned that there was bad weather heading our way and that we might want to leave to get home safely.

When we went outside the clouds were dark and huge and we could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. We turned on the radio in the car to hear what was going on with the weather and started driving.  It started pouring and the clouds were getting more ominous by the minute.

As we approached a gas station to get gas (we were running on empty), the radio announcer declared a tornado emergency (which means get underground as soon as possible without delay) near the area where we were located. (I was freaking out at this point, probably screaming in the back seat and crying hysterically.)  The gas station was closed, but Dad went to the window and convinced one of the workers to let him pay for some gas. (It was before the credit card machines were on the pumps.)

It was windy, pouring rain, and at this point the tornado had been flying around for a while somewhere.  We were listening to the radio trying to go in the opposite direction of where it was going (although it's hard to do, since tornadoes can be unpredictable.)  The tornado ended up lasting for over an hour and a half and covered over 38 miles of land.

We made it to our home safely and thankfully the tornado did not come to our neck of the woods. We never actually saw the tornado but we saw the destruction it made afterwards. Clean up started the next day. Many people took off work for the next week and some even longer to help clean up. The next Sunday we only had sacrament meeting and all of the able bodied adults went to the places that were hit hardest to help with clean up and the younger peoples went to the Bishop's store house to make hygiene kits and food kits for those who lost their homes. The tornado destroyed some whole neighborhoods, like down to their foundations. 46 people lost their lives and hundreds of people were injured.

Dad, Mom, Kristina, Tim, Matt and whoever else might have been with us at the time, what do you remember about that day and the days after? You can either write it in the comments or I can add it on to this post.

Tornadoes! (Part 1)

Growing up in Minnesota and Oklahoma, I was not unaware of tornadoes. In both places, the cities we lived in would test the tornado sirens once a month and we would have tornado drills at school once or twice a year.  Occasionally we would be under a tornado watch during spring and summer months when tornadoes were most common and occasionally the weather forecasters would issue tornado warnings, although usually there were no tornadoes (at least not near us), the conditions were ideal for them to happen. 

Having lived in Minnesota and Oklahoma (part of Tornado Alley), I used to be afraid of big thunderstorms and deathly afraid of tornadoes. Anytime there was a bad thunderstorm with the possibility of tornadoes or not, I would start shaking and find Mom or Dad as quickly as possible and stay close to them until the storm passed.  If a storm happened in the middle of night, it was guaranteed that I rushed to Mom and Dad's room, woke them up, and camped out on their floor until morning.

I was reminded of this fear yesterday (May 20) not because of a tornado near where I am, but one near where my Grandma Crain lives in Oklahoma.

There was a giant EF5 tornado (the strongest tornado category) that tore through Moore, Oklahoma yesterday.  The tornado was up to a mile wide at times and the winds were over 200 miles an hour. Now that is horribly scary tornado. It came within a mile or so of my grandma's house, who lives in Moore. Grandma was not home at the time, because she was at a funeral at the nearby stake center, where someone came in and told them to take shelter as soon as possible. She was shaken up, but is doing okay. Her house is also okay.

But there were neighborhoods that were completely destroyed, two elementary schools were hit and dozens and dozens of people were killed. It is so sad. The relief effort is amazing and I pray for those people affected by this horrible storm.

And this past week and this weekend (June 1) Oklahoma has gotten some more horrible storms with flooding and high winds and rains etc. They just can't seem to catch a break right now from Mother Nature. My grandma is doing okay.  Her house is fine, but her back fence is gone. My uncle and aunt and cousins that live about 15 or 20 miles from Grandma are also okay and their house is fine.  But there are many others who weren't so lucky.  May those affected by these storms be comforted.

This tornado and this bad weather reminded me of a tornado that happened on May 3, 1999 in Moore, Oklahoma when we lived in Oklahoma, but this story will have to wait for another post...