You can't tell me that you don't just love Sam's annoyed look in this picture. I have a feeling that this is going to be showing up regularly in family photos from now on! How embarrassing for him to have us for parents:)
Janice Joplin's PorscheAnd to round out the Thanksgiving extravaganza we headed to Cleveland to the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. Shawn has been itching to visit this and it was loaded with music memorabilia galore! From Elvis outfits to Janice Joplin's scarves; Michael Jackson's Thriller mask and jacket to Curt Kobaine's death certificate - it has a little bit of everything there. They had a great Beatles collection, and were featuring Women of Rock - so Lady Gaga, Shakira, Madonna, Aretha Franklin, etc. were all featured. The only downside was that you can't take pictures in the actual "museum" part, so we don't have any cool shots of any of this cool stuff. Shawn sat and worshipped on the ground of Steven Tyler's scarfed microphone stand and costume he wore for "Pink". I had to drag him away! It was here we said farwell to the Tolboe's and hopefully it won't be nearly as long until we get together again!
The front doors are the original front doors of the store, and the ones that the Prophet Joseph Smith would have walked through the day he arrived in 
On the steps of the 
The temple isn't owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is owned by the Community of Christ a break off church formed after Brigham Young became prophet and headed west to Utah. They have maintained the building along with our church, and give tours of this beautiful building. It is the first temple built in church history.
Jack and Lyv loved the kids' pool. Jack was constantly on the slide there, and Lyv managed a few rides down with the help of Shawn or me. 
Jack and Landon
And then a rumbling snapping roar... seriously that is the best way to describe it. I was walking up the step to help Lyv and I saw the tree limb come falling down. I yelled for the boys to come inside, because I was sure that the entire tree was coming down. I was scared to death - a live power and cable line were down. I couldn't get a hold of Shawn who was in surgery and the electric company was being bombarded by calls from others who had outages. In the words of Jack, "I just freaked out!" Here's the result.
We were SOOOOO blessed to not have had more damage, and most importantly the kids had decided to play on the other side of the house. We always play by the trampoline and slide, the yard is bigger there, and for whatever reason we went to the opposite side of the yard, and I'm forever grateful for that prompting that saved us from more serious problems. We are also so greatly blessed to have had great friends, the Thun's, who took us in for two nights and two days until our power was restored!!! Thank you Josh and Sam, we are so glad to have you here.
Sam didn't have school on Veteran's day so we packed it up and headed south to Virgina to see my two BYU roomies Emily and Bekah in Charolettesville. We stopped in Hershey, PA on our way down and toured the factory there. We may or may not have come away with a bag full of delectable goodies! We stayed with Emily and Eric and Bekah and her new beau came over. It was great to see both of them.
On Saturday we toured Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson. It was a beautiful day and the kids loved being outside more than anything. The house was great, and something I always wanted to see. I loved the library - all of those old books. However, my camera battery had died and I was able to get a few snaps of the visit by rubbing the battery on my jeans! T.J.'s inventiveness inspired it....
On our way home on Sunday we stopped in Kensington, MD and walked around the Washington, D.C. temple grounds. This is one of my favorite temples. It is just beautiful!
