Brandon accepted an internship with Procter and Gamble (P&G) doing Brand Management this past summer in Cincinnati, OH. P&G makes a lot of the things you all know and love: Tide, Charmin, Bounty, Venus razors, Old Spice deodorant, Duracell, Pampers, Tampax, Always, etc. We headed out to Ohio in May. The drive out there was one of my favorite memories of this summer. We stopped in Denver to visit three of my best friends from college, Ashley, Chelsey, and Shawntae. I had so much fun visiting them and catching up on their lives. They spoiled us with great food and even better company. I did not want to leave. Then we hit the church history sites all along the drive East. We created very special memories.

When we arrived in Cincinnati, I was amazed at how GREEN it was! The trees just cover the cities. We would drive along the freeways and see nothing but trees even though I knew we were driving through cities. It was a really neat experience.

We only took what we could fit in our mid-sized sedan between the five of us. We were very tightly packed and loaded down. That was a memory in and of itself. We moved into the first apartment of our married life...

Things I liked about living in a two bedroom apartment on the third floor:

*Laundry Room on the same floor as everything else

*Small kitchen floor to sweep

Things I didn't like about said apartment:

*EVERYTHING else

I never want to live in an apartment again

If I am being less dramatic... it would not have been so bad if our apartment had been on the ground floor and we had actually had furniture, but you get the picture.  

Our apartment during the first week we moved in:

Kids' Room

 Dining Area (loved the carpet under the table)

 Family room

 Our Bedroom (we slept on a blow up mattress for 3 months)

 Over the first week we accumulated or borrowed a few things to help for the summer including a Pack N Play we put in the closet for Makaida (trying to use the floor for her bed was a horrible/tiring mistake)

 A toddler bed for Kash and a small cabinet thingy for their books

 A TV in the process of being thrown out and a blow up sofa (yes, really)

 And four folding chairs

With what we had to work with, in the end, I think it did not end up too shabby, no?
GREAT memories being developed here.
By the last month, the blow up sofa would only stay full long enough for a single episode of White Collar. After trying to blow it up repeatedly between episodes, Brandon jimmy rigged this genius(?) contraption to enable some sort of comfort. Classic.

Perfect picture to wrap up a pretty uncomfortable summer.

Kirtland is right next to Lake Erie so we spent a Saturday afternoon at the beach. It was a little cold that day, but we enjoyed it anyway. I must say that going to a beach with fresh water is AWESOME! 

Sunscreen

The sand was fun

Makaida enjoyed the beach on towels next to me - I was so glad I brought a jacket

Experiencing the joy of getting buried in the sand

We caught the last tour of the Kirtland Temple after going to the lake. It was really neat.

Being from out West, I am not used to this sort of vegetation growing just about everywhere. This was the parking lot by the church building

Joseph Smith's home in Kirtland #1

#2

Interesting history

After attending the Kirtland ward on Sunday morning, we had a picnic at the park and took a tiny little walk to the quarry where the stones for the temple were dug. There was a little lake on the walk where the kids checked out turtles, frogs, and such.

The quarry was beautiful too

You can still see the chisel marks on the stone

Looking for some more frogs and turtles

After the walk in Chapin Forest, we headed off to the Church sites. I loved Kirtland!

This is where the School of the Prophets was held. A very special room above the Whitney store.

This adjacent room was the Church's headquarters during the Kirtland era

This was Newel K. Whitney's home. It was really beautiful inside. The equivalent to a very nice home during that time.

The room  in the Whitney home where the first miracle of healing occurred. Joseph healed a lame arm.

Whitney Store

Saw mill - one of the main sources of income for the church at that time. The original one was built by my ancestor, Joel H. Johnson

This amazing picture was in the visitor's center. The artist who painted this picture heard that the Church was restoring Nauvoo so he painted this picture and another huge, beautiful picture and donated them to the Church. I love it.

We had a couple of awesome experiences at Kirtland. My mom had mentioned that a couple in her ward were serving a mission in Nauvoo. She said they were really great and we should look for them. I did look for them in Nauvoo, but never found them. When we were watching the introductory movie at the Kirtland visitor center, an elderly missionary couple were introducing themselves and Brandon said, "Did they just say there were from Inkom, ID?" I went and asked them and sure enough, they were the missionary couple from my parent's ward. My mom had accidentally thought they were at Nauvoo. My mom was right though, they were AMAZING tour guides. They had wonderful stories and it was such a neat experience learning from them and having a special connection with them since they knew my parents. They were not even supposed to be helping at the time we were there. On their way home from church they had noticed that the Visitor Center parking lot was very full so they had stopped to see if they could help a few hours before their actual shift. During our Kirtland stay we heard a lot about the church historian and patriarch, Karl Anderson. He is the foremost expert on the Church's Kirtland era. As a history-lover, I was really wishing I could hear him speak. As we were doing bathroom and drink stops on our way out, Karl Anderson happened to walk into the visitor center and we got to meet him and talk to him for a bit. It was a perfect ending to a perfect trip.

P.S. If you ever stop in Kirtland, DO NOT stay at the Travel Lodge. It was horrendous. I would not let anyone sleep with the bedding. I would not put Makaida down on the carpet. Even the sheets were stained. At least there was no chance of getting cold at night, the air conditioner would not bring the temperature down below 85 degrees, or something like that. It was a very uncomfortable, disgusting night.

I love this statue. I love how strong Joseph and Hyrum's bond was. I think the Lord gave Joseph a wonderful brother like Hyrum so that he could make it through the many hardships he had to face in his life.

My sweet baby - she was SO good, the entire trip. I am so lucky.

My two favorite plaques in front of Carthage Jail

I can never really get enough...

Carthage Jail

The famous well, or recreated well, anyway

This is the room where Joseph and Hyrum were killed. I did not realize that they were not in the jail cell when they were attacked. The family who kept the jail were friends with the men and let them stay in their bedroom during the day so that they would be more comfortable. They were killed in the jailer's bedroom.

The window Joseph fell from

For some reason, all of the subsequent owners of Carthage Jail kept the original door of the bedroom, despite the two bullet holes in it.

I really loved visiting Carthage. It was hard when the missionaries were trying to share their stories and have "moments" and we were frantically trying to get Kyla and Kash to sit still and be quiet so that they did not disturb the moment for everyone else - but I was still given my own special moments, despite the chaos of the kids.