Midland, Michigan, and a Stay with John and Pam

We then went on to Midland, Michigan, to see John and Pam, arriving around 10 or so.  The next day, we drove around the area, including the Dow Botanical Gardens.  It was so fun to see where we had lived 48 years ago.  

The Midland Hospital where Heather, Clay, and Adam were born.

The Midland Ward building

The Dow Fine Arts building

The Midland Library

The lovely Dow Gardens - see images below...

We then went on to Frankenmuth that night for a dinner at Zenders, including the plastic animals on the ice cream, and a visit to Bronners, the enormous Christmas store.  I bought a cute memory ornament there.

The Zenders plastic animals

Saturday night, we went to their stake conference and were able to sit next to Carlos Bowman and see the Goodyears, the Rogers, and David Kitchen.  Elder Costa was the visiting authority and spoke about ministering, including training videos. 

Sunday, we enjoyed their Stake Conference and then saw Marilyn and Claude Price who came to dinner that night for a great visit.  They were our first friends when we arrived in Midland.  Marilyn has had MS for 30 years and Claude has been Stake Patriarch that long as well.  It was such a sweet visit.

Aurora, Illinois, Home to the Peoples and the Loves

We drove on up to Aurora, Illinois, arriving in the evening.  Aurora is the city where both the Loves and the Peoples families finally settled after immigrating from different parts of Ireland.  There is nearly nothing about the Peoples, but there is quite a bit about the Love family because Robert Love and two brothers who started the Love Brothers Foundry, a successful iron foundry of its time.   Most of the ornate metal work in the area was done by this company.  

The next morning, we drove around Aurora, passing several sites that had been locations of the foundry at different times..  Then we went to the public library where we were able to find many newspaper clippings about the family.  I didn’t find anything about the People’s family, but it was still special to be where my ancestors had lived. 

The city today.

The Peoples first home was on Pierce St.

A main street.

Where the original foundry was located.

This cannon has Love Brothers Foundry inscribed on the lower right corner

A memorial to those who fought in the Civil War, including both Robert Love and Robert Peoples.  The Foundry did all the iron work on the building.

They did this plaque which gives more detail about the memorial's purpose.

One of the Love brother's homes.

Although they did not do this manhole cover, this is the kind of thing that they would have done.

Jeff Smith; Liberty and Independence, Missouri: and Pleasant Gap

On Monday, we took off early for Liberty, Missouri, and a stay with Jeff and Tina Smith from our Michigan days.  It turned out that Tina was helping a son and his family in California.  Jeff showed us a number of sites including

the Liberty Jail

Here we are at the temple site in Independence, We also did 

an initiatory session at the Missouri Independence Temple.  

the Tabernacle of The Community of Christ Church

 (the former Reorganized Church) who owns the temple site.

Wednesday, we went to the site of Pleasant Gap, in Bates County where the Beaver’s and the Cockrill’s lived before heading to California in the 1850’s.  Because of a Union order in the Civil War, all the people living in Bates and other counties were ordered to leave and everything was burned in order to keep them from harboring any Confederate sympathizers.  That is so terrible.  As a result, there was really nothing left there from the 1850’s or earlier. 

The basement of a demolished building that might have been there then.

A local Church that has been built there.

I just took pictures in two directions to capture the countryside as it might have been in the 1850's (minus the telephone poles, of course)

Denver and Ben's Family

We left Utah, saying goodbye to Bert and Bryan early the morning of the 13th, and traveling to Denver.  

We have had so many dear times with Bryan and his family during our mission.

You can tell that I am not happy about leaving my dear brother!

Adios!

We spent the weekend with Kaye Reeve Weirda who we have known for about 40 years!  She lives not far from Ben and was so kind to put us up for the weekend.  

On Saturday, we joined Ben and kids at a local donut shop for breakfast.  

We had not seen the girls in over two years.  They were so fun.  After donuts, we went to the Denver Botanical Gardens and spent some hours exploring and taking fun pictures.

So special to have this picture with all of them.

Then we went to an amazing ice cream store where we ate rolled ice cream - yummy!

They spread the ingredients out on a pan that is iced.  After making it into a square, 

they roll individual slices and then stand them up in a cup with toppings. 

You can see all the different kinds of toppings!

We're happy!

We then went shopping for shoes for William and Mother’s Day gifts for Jaclyn. 

 It was hard to say “good by” to them. 

Sunday, we went to Kaye’s ward and she made us a wonderful dinner.  Kaye's ward had these yummy cheesecakes for Mother's Day!

Delicious artisan bread that Kaye makes.

Then we ran by my cousin Richard Wonnacott’s home to visit with him and his wife Tammy.And then left early Monday morning to continue our trip.

Our Last Days on our Mission - Visiting with Family and Friends.

As we saw in our previous mission, the last weeks of our mission just flew by. But we were able to do so much visiting still with family and friends.

I hosted my sisters-in-law for brunch one day.

A Swan House menu

Carolyn wanted us to put our hands together and had Rob take 

a picture showing that we were all united and supportive of each other. 

I love these women as my own sisters!

We were grateful to have been able to see Rodney and Marcia Ford at the Lion House for lunch one day.

We visited with Kathrine and Robert Fowles one evening.  Kathy and I were sorority sisters.  Robert was Rob's age, helped with the recent Yalecrest reunion, and is the Bonneville Stake President.

  We were also able to have breakfast with Jim and Joy Crismon from our first mission 

                                    and saw Wendi's mom and step dad, Donna and John DePalma.  

We had a fun time watching Grace on Friday/Saturday while Emily was out-of-town with her sisters and Bryan and Clay had a camping trip.  Grace was in a ballet production with performances Friday night and two Saturday, so we were happy to be able to taxi her back and forth.  We attended the Saturday afternoon performance, and she did such a great job – she was in five dance numbers!  

Here is the whole cast on stage!

After her great performance - I believe that she was in five numbers.

Always so nice to see the Parkinson's, Emily's parents

She had a piano recital that week as well.

We also attended Duncan’s soccer game on Saturday where they won!  Fun to see that…

Our last Monday night, Bert and Chris took us out to dinner to a fun place called Bandits.  It was so kind of them, and we were so grateful for their wanting to spend the time with us. 

And we have to include a picture of Mushu, their darling dog, who has been 

a companion to us through our mission.  She loves sleeping on my robe.