remembering

September 11, 2001

1:30 a.m. - I head to the airport to pick up our good friends, Steve and Becky, arriving from England for a 2 week visit. This is Becky's first time to America and we are so excited to see them. We collapse in bed at around 3 a.m.

9:00 a.m. - We are all waking up and the kids are so happy to see Becky and Steve for the first time in several years. I am in the kitchen cooking breakfast while Haylie and Matthew are playing on the floor nearby with Becky and Steve. They are all laughing having a great time.

9:30 a.m. - The phone rings and it's my friend Kris. She asks me if I am watching The Today Show. I told her that we did not have the t.v. on and she insisted that I turn it on immediately, which I did.

That's the first time we saw it. The two towers with smoke pouring out of them. As we watched with confusion, I will never forget how I felt when I saw that first tower collapse. I knew this wasn't really happening. It couldn't be. Surreal doesn't even describe it.

We had planned a full day with our friends - we were going to spend the day downtown seeing Temple Square, The Conference Center, eat lunch at the Lion House Pantry. It was all so new to Becky and we wanted show her wonderful Salt Lake City. With heavy hearts, still feeling very confused, we headed downtown. The day was very strange. Passing people on the street, you could see the grief and confusion in their faces. As the day went on and as people realized how truly huge and devastating this was, the stores and shops began to close, hanging signs in their windows saying "Due to the tragic events of the day, we are closed".

We went into the Visitor's Center and silently sat by the Christus statue. After a few minutes two sister missionaries approached us and offered us some tickets to a Tabernacle Choir concert that night in the Tabernacle, which had been planned for some time. They had decided to still go on with the concert despite of what was going on. All I can say is that concert was truly inspired to be held on September 11th.

We arrived at the concert that night, and obviously the program had changed a bit. President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke. He spoke words of comfort, love and hope. As we stood at the end and, with hands on our hearts, sang as a congregation, My Country, 'Tis of Thee, I wept. I wept in a way I have never done before.

It was a difficult time for our friends to be here. Their plans completely changed. There were no cars available for them to rent and travel around as they had planned. Becky wanted to go back home to England - surely she would feel safer in her own home, but that was not a possibility. The skies were silent for nearly two weeks.

Adam didn't join our family for almost 3 years after that tragic day, so seeing all the flags at the Healing Field this morning was just a play date for him. I wonder how he felt, though, as surely he watched from above as the events of September 11th were taking place, about coming into such a world.

But I believe he knew that with the Gospel of Jesus Christ that he would be okay. There he would find safety and shelter from this cruel and unpredictable world.

a conversation in the shower

"Dad, my hair has been really hard lately. Will you put some

AIR conditioner in it?"

whatever works

If blowing on your hot cob of corn doesn't cool it down fast enough, just grab the nearest fan. It'll cool that baby off like a charm! Just ask Matthew, the inventor of the awesome idea.

(The fan really was on, you just can't tell because of the super fast shutter speed of my super high-tech camera.)

an experience of a lifetime

The girls have been back from Peru for almost 2 weeks now, and in that time we still have not seen all of their photos! Yes, they took that many. I finally have few minutes to sit down and post some.


Machu Picchu. Brooke and Raegan say that the pictures don't even begin to do it justice. What an amazing place! And see that really tall mountain behind them? It's called Waynu Picchu, and they climbed to the very top of that thing!

Here they are about one bazillion feet up on the top of Waynu Picchu. Certainly not for those who are a just a little bit squeamish of heights (ie: my husband).

In my previous blog I told about Ida, the woman for whom the group build a new home (and her 6 children - the father left them). Ida's oldest son is serving a mission for the Mormon church which is a huge sacrifice for them. Ida earns a very meager amount of money by washing other people's clothing in buckets. Here is the front of her old house. It was literally crumbling apart. It had one room. That's it. One room with no plumbing, no kitchen. Pretty much no anything.

This was their toilet. It sat behind the house in the dirt with no water connected to it. It emptied into a sewer line, but they would have to dump buckets of water down it to get the......stuff to go down. Ida not only now has a working toilet but has an entire bathroom IN her house with running water.

Inside Ida's one-room home. This picture shows pretty much everything they own. It had all been pushed to one corner of the room so that the group could get in and start working on the new house. Notice the picture of Christ with the children taped to her wall. This family has so little, but yet they have more faith than imaginable.

Brooke with one of Ida's daughters.

Raegan with four of Ida's six children.

Their group was riding in a bus one day when Brooke suddenly could smell something really yummy. She looked over and saw this truck packed full of CILANTRO!

Then, out of no where, this kid pops up in the middle of it!

Apparently there are dogs in Peru. Lots of dogs. Lots of stray dogs. Lots of really UGLY stray dogs. Everywhere. (Too bad they didn't get a photo of the one with the mohawk.)

This is an alpacka. And yes, it is real. I love how it's just standing there - so astute and serious!

At the Lima, Peru temple where they did baptisms (all in Spanish, of course which Brooke said was so cool!).

Before Brooke and Raegan left for Peru, we had a conversation that went something like this:

Me: "Now girls, I trust you to be wise while you are in Peru. You remember when your cousin Zach went on this same trip last year? And we saw the picture of him hanging foolishly off of the cliff, dangling hundreds of feet above the ground?"

Them: "Yes, mom of course we remember seeing that picture of Zach, and of course we would never, EVER do anything like that. That really is something you do NOT need to worry about. We are not that crazy!"

Fast forward to night before last, as we are looking at Brooke's Peru pics on her laptop.

Brooke: "Oh! Oops. (As she quickly turns her laptop away from my viewing).

Me: "Brooke, what is that? What are you hiding from me?"

Brooke: "Nothing, just a bad picture. It's okay, you don't need to see it."

Me:"I want to see it. Show it to me."

Brooke: "No."

Me: "Uh, yes....show it to me now!" I then grabbed the computer and that's when I saw it. My two children hanging wrecklessly off of a cliff. There they were, dangling dangerously in the air over what appeared to be thousands of feet above the gnarly bottom. And it just so happens to be the exact SAME cliff that their cousin hung off of last year!

Me again: "What the.......?! You promised me!"

Brooke: "Mom, it wasn't a big deal. Really it wasn't. We were just walking along and I saw this cliff and I said to Raegan, 'Look, it's the same cliff that Zach dangled from - let's do it!'. It really isn't nearly as bad as it looks. I promise, mom, it was no big deal!

(Although apparently there was a Peruvian tour guide up there who, upon seeing their ridiculous behavior, started blowing his whistle at them to NOT DO THAT. They did climb back up, but of course not until they had their picture. Sigh....)

Some of my favorite photos (that Brooke took - she made me write that).....

salkantay, peru

Brooke and Raegan lay a stone walkway in the village of Salkantay, Peru. (Elevation 15,000 ft.)

Brooke told me how adorable the children are in Peru. And look how right she is! These two little girls just melt my heart. She said that she wants to bring ALL of them all home with her. I reminded her that she will have 2 empty suitcases when she travels home (they had donations inside), so she should be able to fit at least a few kids in them to bring back with her ;)

peru.....week one

Brooke and Raegan are in Peru for 2 weeks doing humanitarian work with Eagle Condor. Their experiences this past week in Trujillo have been both amazing and humbling. Their group built a home from scratch for a woman named Ida. She has 7 children (no father involved). She lived in a one room house (if you can call it at house) with one bed for all 8 of them. Her son is currently serving a mission in South America which is a HUGE sacrifice. He would be the only one to be like a father, to work and bring in money. So with him not there, the situation for Ida and her children is deprivable.

Ida's old house in a heap.

The work has begun. Plumbing is set (Ida has never had indoor plumbing, not even a working toilet), a new floor is poured, and the framing goes up.

Amazing to see these kids frame this home, most of which have never had ANY experience with this.

Brooke and Raegan painting the outside of Ida's new home.

Finished!

From their group leader, Adam:

"The best part of the day... we cleaned up the project, packed up the tools and gathered in Ida’s new kitchen. As the tears began to fall, she thanked each and everyone of us and told us that the Lord blesses those that serve. She said she knows this because the reason she has this new house is because her son is serving a mission and the Lord is protecting her family while his is gone. As we said our good-byes, she hugged everyone of us and now we are all a little better off."

Ida Pretell with her children.

Raegan and her group paint the front of a shop belonging to the Asmat family. They painted it a lovely "mango" color and installed a new awning above the entrance.

The job is now complete. Standing in front of the store with the owners, the Asmats.

Brooke eating a tiny Peruvian banana. This cracks me up because Brooke hates bananas! Oh well, when in Rome..... er, I mean Peru.....

Peruvian women selling at the local market.

charity never faileth (except at the airport)

This morning I took Brooke and Raegan to the airport for their two week humanitarian trip to Peru. I pulled up to the curbside drop-off and we unloaded their luggage. I soon realized that they had 5 big bags to pull, but only 4 hands with which to pull them into the airport. Two of the bags were filled to capacity with pots and pans, yards of fabric, soccer balls, baby dolls - things to donate to these people who have so little.

I stood there for a minute, knowing darn well that you are NOT supposed to leave your car unattended. I didn't know what else to do, so I quickly grabbed Adam out of his car seat and with the other hand grabbed a bag and ran for the door into the terminal. I got the girls and the bags inside, said my good-byes, and quickly dashed back out to my van....only to find a TICKET on my windshield! I was gone for one minute at most. How ridiculous. As I ran to the car, the "Airport Parking Nazi", er, I mean the officer who wrote the ticket yelled over to me....

him: Mam, is this your car?

me: Yes

him: You can't leave your car unattended.

me: My two daughters needed help carrying in their bags. I was gone for one minute.

him: That doesn't matter - you can't leave your car unattended. And in another 30 seconds I was going to have your car towed away.

me: Are you kidding?! Would you rather that I had left my 4-year-old child in it so that it wouldn't be "unattended"? Would that have been better?

(Adam hanging off of my hip with his crusty nose and fuzzy footed pj's still on.)

him: No mam, that would be unsafe.

me: Exactly.

He starts to walk away. I follow him and try to explain my situation more clearly....

him: I'm sorry. You left it unattended. There is nothing I can do!

me: My daughters are flying to Peru this morning to help build schools for children, to paint orphanages, to pour concrete for homes for people who have none. Won't you just help me with this?

him: (still walking away) Those things don't matter. What matters is you left your vehicle unattended.

Well, to me and the people in Peru "those things" matter more than he understands. Thanks for your help, officer #L21.

palmyra, new york

Brooke was one of over 1300 applicants for the 2008 Hill Cumorah Pageant. Only 603 were chosen and she was one of them! What an amazing experience for her. She spent 2 1/2 weeks there in Palmyra, New York (I spent four incredible days there with her).

Brooke - the "Nephite Battle Banner Carrier". Many people kept commenting on her hair, saying how beautiful it was. Funny that it was a wig and no one could tell! She also earned a lot of nick-names from fellow cast members due to her lovely hat, "Hershey Kiss, Cone Head, Dunce, Shark Fin, etc, etc."

Brooke and her new friend McCall (er, I should say "Lamanite Warrior Dancer", and who is really a blonde). The cast members would go out into the audience 2 hours before the show each night and share scriptures from the Book of Mormon and answer questions. Their first several days at the Hill, they were trained by the missionaries on how to best teach the gospel to the people coming to see the pageant.

Armed with her banner and ready for the night's performance.

Giving an autograph to a cute little boy!

Here I am standing on top of the Hill Cumorah looking down. The red close to the bottom is the top of the stage and all 9000 green chairs are at the bottom facing the stage.

Now I am at the bottom looking at the hill. The cast members set up all 9000 chairs, AND took them down after the last performance!

Smith family farm

The Smith log home - where the family lived when Joseph experienced the First Vision and visits from the Angel Moroni.

The Smith family frame home that Joseph's oldest brother Alvin built (partially, before he died). They lived here for 4 1/2 years before they lost the house and had to move back to the tiny log house - all 13 of them!

This is so amazing to me - I couldn't stop staring at it! This is Oliver Cowdery's actual hand writing of when he was transcribing the Book of Mormon (this page is from 1 Nephi 3). This is at the E.B. Grandin Print Shop, where the first 5000 copies of the Book of Mormon were printed.

Peter Whitmer farm house, where the church was organized.

The Sacred Grove