Dec 26, 2014- Jan 2, 2015 (Puerto Rico, USA)

Sam jumping from cliff up a river/ waterfall he hiked with the boys the first day we were here

Happy 22nd Birthday to my nephew Andrew

 On the way to church with my sisters

 Family photo in front of one of the LDS Wards in Puerto Rico 

 We learned how to weave hats from palms trees today 

 Sam's new homemade hat

 "Miss Scuba USA" gave us a tour of the Rainforest and surrounding areas today explaining about the trees, "termite highways" the many frogs in the area including the Kokee that we hear all night long and about which of the animals are indigenous to the areas and the others that have been brought and have now become invasive - like iguanas, some of the large frogs, and have a few crocs.

 Sam holding a white lipped frog

 Entering the rainforest in Puerto Rico with the Redblood trees and native trees with shallow roots and covered in spikes, lots of vines and large toads that have poisonous blisters on their backs

 Birthday Party for Grandpa Dick and Grandma Nancy on the beach 

 Ole! 

Me and my hubby Nate xx

December 8, 2014 (Washington, D.C., USA)

Home in Park City and it is nice to be back, although buried in mail and Christmas and Sam in homework and catching up, ...but nice to unpack and start getting caught up. The weekend was really nice to just get a chance to visit with friends and family. We were able to go visit my cousin David and Carrie and give Sam a chance to play with his cousins. Sam doesn't have many cousins his own age, so it is great when they get together. Saturday evening I was able to see many family friends that I grew up with at our Potomac Ward Christmas. It was so nostalgic really to see so many adults that were such a part of my upbringing and establishing the values and faith that I hold so dear. They have seen me through many phases and have remained loyal and strong examples of faith, hard work, service and fun. In the evening I was able to visit my friend Natalie and her family who I love and only see once a year and never before 10 p.m. and have never left her home before midnight. The craftiest I have ever been in my life was when we lived near each other and had our first babies together in Laguna. I reflect on those days and I think who was I? I was inspired and lifted by my amazing friend Natalie.

Sunday church was wonderful and was reminded through testimonies that were given (the first Sunday of each month people share their beliefs in a reverent way). There were so many sweet lessons that were taught by people's experiences. The most moving was of the woman that had suffered with such ill health and thought there is no way I will ever feel this curse is a blessing, but she had come to realize her illness had been a blessing. It had given her opportunities to witness miracles, to feel God's love through the service and love of others and humbled her and made her spiritually strong. It was very sweet and from the heart and reminded me that adversity is what refines us and can bless us if we allow it.

Sunday evening we dolled up and headed to the Kennedy Center Honors. This year they were recognizing Al Green, Patricia McBride, Sting, Tom Hanks and Lilly Tomlin. It was off the charts! Stars like Lady Gaga, Usher, Jane Fonda, Bruno Mars, David Letterman, "Sue" from Glee, Meryl Streep, Bruce Springstein, Jennifer Hudson, Martin Short, Earth Wind and Fire, ...all killed it up on the stage along with the best ballerina I have ever seen that did a tribute dance for Mrs. McBride. It was just an incredible evening! Come to find out at the end of the show my friend Michael Stephens and his father George spoke and announced this was their last Kennedy Center Honors, a show George had created and begun 37 years ago. I was so shocked. CBS is going to have someone else produce it next year. There is no way anyone can gather more talent and put on a better show than what we witnessed last night. My hats off to the Stephens for their incredible job. It was exciting for Sam to see all these celebs along with all the DC big hitters including the President and First Lady! What a night to send us off from our east coast trip, knocking off the Kennedy Center as a memorial to JFK and having a lesson in the arts! After a dinner that went well past midnight and a few turns on the dance floor with my hot dates, Sam and Nathan, we headed back home and then left for DC today.

December 5, 2014 (Washington, D.C., USA)

Today was a big day. It started with waffles at Lincoln’s waffle shop, a diner next to Ford’s Theater where Lincoln was assassinated. It was a classic diner where we sat at a laminated bar with a linoleum floor and was served up a  good and fast breakfast- lots to do today. Across the street we walked through the museum in the basement of the Ford’s Theater which honored  Lincoln and recounts and memorializes the night that Lincoln was attending a play with his wife and was assassinated by Booth.  Booth was a disgruntled Southerner whose action was in response to the South surrendering to the North and not wanting the Union to exist. He came into Lincoln’s theater box and shot him in the head. 

Lincoln died as a hero for keeping the Union together and also remembered for his Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves and his Gettysburg Address. The museum had a great video too that had the living presidents of the USA speaking the words of Lincoln’s Gettsyburg address which was his most famous speech given when Gettsyburg was dedicated as a memorial.  Sam and I were both really interested in the displays and Lincoln’s life. Had a moment for Sam's friend Arron MacRitchie that is a total Lincoln fan :) It again struck me how vital it was that he was the President when he was in order to have kept the Union together so that today we remain the United States of America. 

We opted for the Trolley today which had a tour guide who told us interesting facts about the Washington sights.  It was nice to sit inside the warm bus and learn interesting facts including where the Smithsonian got it’s name. I have actually always wondered that, and our guide explained that it was from a half million dollar donation from a Scottish man named James Smithson that had never even been to the USA before and yet  he gave his fortune to the US government to found an establishment "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge." Hence the many buildings that have been built and preserve our cultural, artistic and historical treasures. He did ultimately visit the USA after his death, since Smithson is buried underneath the Smithsonian red brick castle. 

We got off the Trolley at the FDR Memorial. I had never seen this memorial and it was AWESOME!!! There were so many amazing quotes, truth spoken and words that weren’t just words spoken at a pulpit but words that had been put into action. FDR had been an incredible leader and had revived an economy and a generation that was in despair and had fearlessly led a country into a war and through a war in defense of world peace and good over evil. He also picked an incredible wife who I learned today was named the first US appointment to the United Nations.  Sam and I walked through the monument and took turns reading all the quotes which were sectioned off into sculptures and engravings from each of his 3 elected terms. It was inspiring. 

We then moved to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. It  was impressionable as well with more inspiriting quotes about peace and unity. There is a curved engraved wall through a mound of rock where a chunk has been cut out and a carving of MLK has been cut into this breakout rock. On the rock with the sculpture of MLK is the statement “ Out of a Mountain of Despair, a Stone of Hope.” The Memorial is awesome in my opinion and overlooks the Basin. It was next to the Lincoln Memorial the most visited Monument was saw today. It again was moving as Sam and I talked about each of these quotes and what they meant and the significance of MLK. 

We then walked over to the WW II Memorial I can’ t believe I had never seen it. All of these had been put up since I left high school. This was the most beautiful of all the monuments in my opinion with the wreaths that symbolize prosperity and industry and fountains and each state bound together by symbolic ropes standing unified, each state placed by when they joined the Union. Again symbolic eagles and ribbons that are strong and brave and hold together our country. It was inspiring the monument and felt like it offered hope. Sam has two grandfathers that fought in WW II, Pa and my mother's father and other family members. They have a wall covered in gold stars and a star for each 100 soldiers that gave their live in battle. There were 4048 stars, nearly a half million Americans gave their life to this great war. 

We walked over to the Vietnam Memorial next. I can’t believe that  I hadn’t seen this one. This one struck Sam the most as we could see and read thousands of names that covered the entire monument with names of those that had made the ultimate sacrifice for their country and freedom of others. The sheer magnitude of names was sobering. 

The Lincoln Memorial was the last one that we visited and walked all around, although we did see the Korean Memorial which is really different with depictions of men in rain gear and weapons trenching through grasses. Wihle taking the Trolley back we were stopped by a motorcade that was going to be coming through. It was Marion Barry's funeral procession, the former DC Mayor. For the past two mornings outside our hotel window looking onto the DC City Hall there have been processions of people and flags and police cars in the street. We saw his casket being carried into the City Hall for a viewing on Th and then this morning saw the funeral procession happening. They are taking his body all over DC for the next 3 days. I have never seen such a procession and event for someone that has died and especially such a controversial mayor that was caught doing cocaine while in office. But then again he was reelected and apparently a very popular Mayor who had decades of public service.

Arriving at my mom’s home she took us around every room in the house, each decorated to the nines with Christmas decorations- it’s really rather amazing actually. She made us a tasty dinner in what looked like nothing less than Mrs Clause’s dining room and then we went next door to visit my cousin/friend Angie with Sam and share details of our Asia trip with her. Full day, good day. Collapsed writing our blogs :)

December 4, 2014 (Washington, D.C., USA)

Today we conquered as much of DC as we could. We began with a two hour tour of the Capitol led by one of the interns in Orrin Hatch’s office. She was so thorough and I was reminded of so much and Sam learned a ton. Since I last was at the Capitol they now have a Capitol Museum with an excellent movie. It was a great set up and reminder of what our politicians are supposed to do in this great Capitol building, work together for the people. And yet how difficult it can be when we have a country founded on strong independent thinkers and how they must come together, find compromise based on the fact that we believe in a union - that the sum of our parts is greater and stronger than we are if we stand alone. 

The rotunda was under construction, the dome has a couple of cracks in it apparently. But the just beautiful paintings, floor work, frescos and statues that cover the Capitol make it a beautiful building. But the fact that it isn’t just a beautiful building and symbol, but that is really being used each day to make laws that will protect it’s people and preserve our nation, makes it even more amazing. It was interesting to go in and see the Senate meetings and House of Representatives meet and watch for instance the Senator from NH and a Senator from Delaware debate an issue. 

As we were walking around inside I walked by a door where I could see the Capitol’s Christmas tree that was outside, which will be lit tonight, and the view all the way down the mall to the Washington Monument. This is the door that the President walks out from to be Inaugurated and is the best view in DC. Wow! Around the corner from there is a hanging wall monument that remembers 9-11 and then those passengers that were victims of the terrorist attack whose onboard heroes saved the plane from crashing into the Capitol and ended up crashing in a field. It struck me then what the affect would have been to destroy our national symbol of freedom, how many elected officials  lives would have been taken, and how many civilians would have been killed. What heroes those men and women were that deterred this plane from it’s intended route  which would have taken many more lives and directly affected the functioning of our government.  It was especially sobering to have come from the 9-11 museum in NYC just a couple days ago. 

A couple other interesting things that I was reminded of today was that the President does not work in the Capitol, he must be invited into the Capitol. The three arms of government: Presidency, Judicial and Congress each have their own buildings, although the supreme court used to be inside the Capitol. It was also interesting to see the statues that each state picked that are throughout the Capitol- each state gets two statues. Utah had a statue of Ferguson- apparently the person behind the TV and Brigham Young, who settled Utah. I was reminded that the Capitol was burned by the British during the war of 1812 and again what a symbolic and detrimental move that was by the British. I then also found it interesting that in the National Archives we visited later in the day held  a gold engraved plate of the Magna Carta that the British gave the US for their Bicentennial celebration in 1976; a gift recognizing that their child had done well on it’s own and/or just a reminder again from whence this country and their Constitution had grown from? 

The National Archives which we visited held the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution and Bill of Rights and a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, which is only shown a couple times of year due to it’s fragile condition. The main documents were so beautifully hand written on lambs skin actually, didn’t know that. They can also be lowered into a vault in case of attack on the Archives. I didn’t know that the Constitution was only signed by 12 of the original 13 colonies, since Rhode Island didn’t send a representative to the Constitutional Convention. I didn’t realize that the Bill of Rights was added just 2 years later as an amendment to clarify and protect our individual rights regarding religion, speech, press,… 

We visited the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and was able to see how our US Dollars are made and how they are constantly adding protections from counterfeiters on their printed money. I learned that we have two Bureaus of Engraving and Printing and the other is in Texas and they each print different bills. The largest bill printed now is the $100, at one time they printed a $100,000 bill. I learned that the $1 bill is protected from being altered, although the other bills are altered for counterfeiting reasons every 5-10 years. The Mint actually makes coins, and where we visited only makes bills and they also make some stamps and do the White House engraving and printing for special invites. The paper for money isn’t actually paper it is really a cloth made from 25% linen and 75% cotton. This material is made by the US Company Crane- yes like the invitations….cool. No one else is allowed to purchase this particular “paper” from Crane. The ink is made internationally, ironically and can’t be purchased by anyone other than US government. 

We walked through the sculpture gardens at the Smithsonian/Hirschhorn and I was reminded of again my art history and humanities classes and was able to point out to Sam Rodins and Calders, and other famous works that we walked around and through on our way from the Bureau to the Archives. I was so amazed that these sites are all free. They are for the people. It is rather amazing honestly and so beautifully kept. I love that DC it isn’t filled with huge high rises so that we can see these buildings and still have some sunlight. It was just a great day to explore the city on foot and see so many places that reinstilled my faith in our country. 

I am so grateful for a country that I believe was destined for freedom and greatness from the beginning of time. That it was preserved and then settled for freedom. The Book of Mormon is another testament of this, a book of scripture that we as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints read and recognize as another source of truth and prophecy which details settlers of this promised land in 600 BC from Israel. They were led here by a loving God that was preserving them from the destruction that was happening in Israel. We believe that Christ also came to this land of freedom and as promised visited His other chosen people, as a resurrected being.  The Book of Mormon recounts His visit and what He taught them and showed them and recounts how He blessed them, in 3 Nephi. Later these people dwindled in unbelief but the engraved book that their stories were written on was preserved and  later translated by the Prophet Joseph Smith for our benefit today. We know that Joseph Smith was able to do this and reestablish the restored church of Jesus Christ on our American continent because of our country’s founding right- freedom of religion.  It all became more evident to me today that this country is different than the rest, that it’s mission throughout time has been a place for freedom, which we believe as members of the LDS church is what the foundation of God’s church and plan is. Freedom allows us, and everyone, the agency to choose for one’s own and as we make good choices of our own free will we are able to progress and meet our greatest potential. I am grateful for our country and for the faith that I hold dear and their founding principles of freedom and agency.