Richardson Report

 Oh goodness - it's always a treat when we get Nathan and his family all to ourselves in Oregon.  It's a sacrifice for them to drive all the way out here in a busy summer.  This year they came so that Aves could attend FSY with Kenna and Natalie.  While the girls were gone, the rest of us played.  Faith had the week of her life.  Summer Camp at Miss Annie's with her cousins was a highlight. We also read books galore, ate treats, went to a baseball game and played and laughed hard together.

 On the afternoon of July 6 Josh got a text from his mom that his Dad was not doing so well.  We had a full week ahead of us, but Josh immediately started considering the possibility of heading to Idaho at some point.  Later that evening he called his brother Barry, who was on his way home from Pocatello and was able to give Josh a more detailed update.  He said his Dad might make it through the night, but definitely wouldn't make it to Friday - which is when we were considering driving to Idaho.  That started a flurry of changes to plans. We canceled our commitments for the week, which included Kenna, Natalie, and I not going to Girls Camp.  Sunday morning we got up early and started driving to Pocatello.  We had been on the road only 30 minutes when Sarah called us.  She had Nina with her on speaker phone and they told us that Darwin had passed away just before midnight.  We were saddened to have missed him, but not surprised.  We opte...

 On Thursday we left Palmyra and drove the 6 hours to Boston.  We had planned a fun day in Boston as the culmination of our trip (also it was the cheapest flight home after Palmyra).  The Boston Celtics had just won the NBA championship so we also found out that there was a parade scheduled on Friday...and the parade route ran right in front of our hotel.  We knew that we would want to be sure to get away from the parade chaos on Friday as soon as possible. The drive into Boston was uneventful.  When we got there it was 95 degrees and humid - we were melting.  Our room wasn't ready so we braved the heat and took a walk to the Boston Commons, which was one block away from our hotel (Omni Parker House - home of the Boston Cream Pie and Parker House rolls).  Boston Common is featured in the children's book "Make Way for Ducklings".  The kids were too hot to explore much of the garden, but we did find the ducks.... Once we were in our hotel room, we o...

 We spent all of Sunday driving from St. Louis to Kirtland, OH.  After the flats of Iowa, Illinois starts showing rolling hills and more trees and by the time you are in Ohio it is all rolling hills and trees - you can hardly tell where the towns are sometimes because there is so much greenery between you and the buildings.  The Northeast was having a heat wave so we knew we were in for some heat.  And it was hot.  Thank goodness for air conditioning.  We were outside as little as possible over the next few days. Monday June 17 was our full day in Kirtland.  We started at the John Johnson farm and learned some of the history of that. We next toured the Kirtland temple, now owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (recently purchased from the Community of Christ).  Following that we took a break for smoothies for lunch. We finished with a short tour of Kirtland - which was cut short because a tour group was coming in an...