Arkansas Trip

Well, we are now in Hot Springs, Arkansas. We are having a wonderful time and can't believe we've been gone for almost two weeks now! We left Memorial Day evening after I taught a lesson. We stopped outside of Cleveland so we could go to Kirtland the next morning. We had a great time there and saw an abbreviated tour. We went to the temple first and even got to go to the third floor. I don't think I've been up there before. The second floor now has the benches and pulpits like the first floor like it originally did. The third floor is where the school was and where Joseph Smith wrote the dedicatory prayer. The Community of Christ church has a new visitor's center next to the temple now which was really nice.

After our tour of the temple, we went to the sites owned by our church. It's like a little community with a visitor's center, the saw mill, the ashery, a Whitney store, and other buildings. Since we didn't want to stay too long and have been there before, we asked to go to the Whitney store. A new older missionary gave us a tour. He was fresh from the MTC, and super excited about what he learned about the area. We toured the store where many spiritual things happened. He gave us some time alone in the school of the prophets room where Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared as well as where the word of wisdom was revealed. The missionary told us that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith 3 or 4 (I can't remember) times. That's pretty amazing, considering we all think of Palmyra, and that was only once. He took us down to the ashery as well and showed us how Newel K. Whitney made most of his money and employed a lot of the new members in the area.

Finally, he insisted that we see a display they had in the visitor's center for a limited time. (In fact, I think it's already gone now.) We were so glad he did. Apparently there was a woman who was an opera singer, and was realizing that her career wasn't going to be as successful as she hoped. She started molding some clay one day and realized she had a talent for it. She has since made many beautiful, large clay moldings which were bronzed. There were about a dozen of them, mostly of scenes of Christ's life - raising Lazarus, with Mary and Martha, in the garden of Gethsemane, carrying the cross, walking on water, etc. There was a life-size statue of him as well. There was also one of the first vision. They were all quite large, and absolutely beautiful. Each was accompanied by an appropriate scripture. I would have loved to show you, but we couldn't take pictures. I think they were moving on to D.C. at some point, Nauvoo, and other places. If you have a chance to see them, I would highly recommend it.

We were then on our way to Jamie and Kendra's house. Kendra just got back from a 6-month deployment, so we were very excited to see her again and have her meet Claire. We stayed and visited with them until early Friday morning. We left around 6AM to get to Memphis for the night. We toured around Memphis a bit, and enjoyed some good BBQ. Chris looked up the recommended places before we went and decided to go to the Germantown Commissary for dinner and Three Little Pigs for brunch on Saturday. Both were very tasty. We drove around a bit and relaxed in the hotel that night. We slept in a bit on Saturday since we were only about 3 hours away from Hot Springs. We got to Hot Springs later on Saturday afternoon.

Claire did a great job traveling, especially since she started teething! She had a couple of meltdowns, but for the most part, she was very good. Well, she slept most of the time, which helped. She has had many firsts in the last week or so.

First of all, she's really good at sitting up. She started sitting with a little help of the boppy pillow before we left, and now she sits up all the time by herself. We of course stay close by because she does sometimes face plant or tip over. Yesterday, she even pulled herself up from lying down to sitting up. In fact, when I lie her down to change her diaper, etc., she leans on her elbows and lifts her head, like, "hey, I don't want to lie down!" When in her car seat, she also leans forward. In fact, that leads me to another first. When we were at Jamie and Kendra's, I put her in the car seat on the floor next to me while we ate dinner. I knew she could get out, but it usually took a little time (at least the first time) and she usually slithered her way out. Well, I apparently was enjoying our grilled chicken, potatoes, and salad to notice that she had leaned forward so far that she tipped out! I looked down right as she was tipping out of her car seat and face planted into the floor and the leg of my chair! I felt so terrible, and she had a bruise and goose egg on her head. I thought it was going to turn really dark, but it thankfully didn't. Poor girl.

So anyway, back to those teeth. I realized on our trip that I thought I saw teeth coming in. I couldn't feel anything at first. She had a couple days at Jamie and Kendra's where she was very grumpy. I couldn't move 2 feet away from her without her freaking out. It was difficult. Kendra gave her some tylenol, and she was soon back to her happy self. On Friday, the tooth finally broke through. It's her bottom, right tooth. The bottom, left came in on Tuesday. So now I have to be careful when she sticks my fingers in her mouth. Ouch!

Claire's new favorite toy is a water bottle. Chris and I got a bunch of 12 oz. water bottles, and it's her favorite. She'll stop anything that she's doing - eating, playing, etc. - to stare and try to get a water bottle. She just loves them. She's pretty good at holding on to it and stuffing whatever she can into her face. Who needs toys when there's a cheap water bottle!

Claire has also made quite a few friends here. Surprisingly, her biggest fans are a couple of men. One has a 7 month old baby at home, and he misses her like crazy, and the other has 3 grown children of his own. She of course also flirts with anyone she lays eyes on. She just loves all the attention she gets here and smiles and flirts with everyone! It's very cute.

Claire has been doing pretty well on this trip. She's pretty flexible, except at restaurants. She still is quite loud when we go out to eat. Chris and I trade off taking her away when she gets crazy loud. So far we've been able to manage. We have to eat out about once a day, so we just have to deal with it. She is a very busy girl, trying to get into everything she can. Though, the other day, we went to a Japanese restaurant. It was basically empty because we didn't get there until 2:30. The waitress saw us struggling with Claire and she took her for us. I was surprised that Claire was content with her for about 20 minutes. It was long enough for Chris and I to enjoy our food while it was hot! She played with her and carried her around while she refilled our waters and got other people's checks. I was very impressed. She was tipped very well.

Well, I wrote this on Monday, and didn't post it until Saturday. There is still much to tell, but I have to get going. I was hoping to show some pictures, but I can't get them up on this computer. So, things to look forward to - Chris was an interim mentor, and will get paid for it, Chris has a phone interview on Monday with a college in Canyon, Texas for a job, yummy food stories, and our trip in general since we've been here. I've gotta go for now though, but wanted to get this posted! Time flies!