Mount Vernon and Arlington

Our first stop on our trip was Mount Vernon. This house and surrounding museums could take all day to visit and ended up being one of the kids' favorite places. I loved seeing Washington's home; he considered himself a farmer first and foremost and used many innovative farming practices for his time. It was also interesting to see how revered he was among his contemporaries. His accomplishments were recognized even in his day. No pictures were allowed inside the home, but green was Washington's favorite color and the family dining room had bright green walls. Green was also an expensive color and indicated the wealth of the homeowner. Other walls were painted blue, another expensive color.

Appropriately, we were there visiting the home of the father of our country on Father's Day. An actor portrayed Washington and did a great job of telling his story.
I was in the gift shop looking at this year's Christmas ornament for Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon creates a new ornament every year, and since our family adds one new ornament to celebrate each year this seemed serendipitous. I noticed that this year's Mount Vernon ornament had the Arnold Friberg painting, "Prayer at Valley Forge" on the back. The little explanation with the ornament said that the original is at Mount Vernon. We had passed a painting that we all thought was a copy. It was under glass, but other than that there was no indication that the painting was special.We ran back into the museum to get a picture.

The curator said "We get a lot of Salt Lake Mormons that go crazy over the painting." I told him I would be one of those. For a painting that's supposedly worth millions you'd think they'd make a bigger deal out of it.

Because we spent so much time at Mount Vernon we were left with little time to see Arlington National Cemetery. We had enough time for a quick bus tour and to see the changing of the guard which was very precise and impressive. We are so grateful for our armed forces.

Vacation 2011-East Coast and Church History

We just got back from a wonderful vacation. However, to make it great required more planning than had ever before gone into one of our vacations. It required an entire notebook to hold our reservations and advance tickets. We figured we spent as much time planning this trip over the last few months as it took to actually go on the trip! I used to think that being a travel agent would be fun--now not so much.

Look how impressed our children were with all of our efforts.

Seven people, eleven days, and we packed it all into this small pile of luggage. Just like backpacking, everyone had to carry their own stuff.

This was Erin and Camille's first plane ride that they remember and Rachel's very first plane ride ever. Or in her words, referring to how many times we changed planes, "Four more chances to die." I think she is channeling Grandma Adams!

Luckily for Rachel, other than our first landing in windy Denver it was smooth flying.

Stay tuned for the rest of our adventure.

Finally! A new entry.

My kids have been telling me for weeks to go and blog. "Mom you haven't blogged since CHRISTMAS!" "We are sick of seeing Kevin every time we look at the blog!" "Hey, I've done stuff why aren't I on there?" I never actually thought they cared, but apparently they all want their time in the spotlight. Nice to know they are humble and unselfish.

So here are a few things that have been going on around our house. First, did you know that Krysta is really the Tooth Fairy? Several elementary students in Provo were thrilled to discover the Tooth Fairy visiting their school. During a presentation by the UVU Dental Hygiene students on caring for teeth, the Tooth Fairy paid a surprise visit.

"Hello!" Krysta the Tooth Fairy said in her best fairy princess magical voice. The students all immediately knew she was the real Tooth Fairy. Who else would have a bag with a tooth on it? A sash with a tooth AND a toothbrush? And the wings? Don't forget about the magical wings.

The students were thrilled. Especially several little girls who didn't want to stop talking to her.

We have a baby...

Here's a picture of the baby at our house. The girls treat the cat like a baby, wrap her up in blankets, and snuggle with her. She seems to tolerate all of this love.

Easter weekend...

Easter brought us to St. George where we kept the Graf tradition alive by rolling eggs. I thought maybe we were beyond this stage, but no. Apparently the rest of the Graf clan were slackers in this area, so it was up to us to roll the obligatory egg or two. So we met up with Ryan's family and found a convenient hill near his old condo and let the fun begin.

The eggs had a good time I must say.

Kourtney had a great time.
And again, the eggs were all smiles. They were cracking up.
We then had a good time at the arts fair and up on the DIXIE rock.
We also took a fun hike on the hills overlooking Hurricane.

Ready for warm Spring weather?

So was I, but it was not to be. That didn't stop Rachel's soccer team from competing. See the lovely blue sky with what looks like sunshine peeking out from beneath the clouds? It is an evil illusion meant to fool one into thinking of warmth. See the gray storm clouds and the fresh snow on the mountains? That is the true weather. I had on long underwear, two coats, a scarf, gloves, and a hat and I was still cold. Rachel claimed that running kept her warm. Such is the joy of youth.

Here is another deceptive photo.

See the smallish dent in the door of Kevin's car. That was received as he was minding his own business, driving to school. You'd think it'd be no big deal, right? After all the car is more than 10 years old and if it has a dent, oh well, it's a kid car.

A driver turning left into traffic T-boned him. She later claimed it was Kevin's fault. Right, he made her turn into traffic and crash into him. But some mature adults believe they can pin anything on a teenage driver. However, once the insurance company got a witness statement from our neighbor who was fortunately right behind Kevin and saw the entire thing, and once they saw the police report clearly stating that Kevin had the right of way, they quickly paid up. That dent took out the handle and there is no way to open the door from the outside. The repair was more than the car was worth and ended up totaling it. Now Kevin is without a car until we find the time to look for an inexpensive car that also looks semi-okay. Not an easy feat. The good thing is the insurance paid more than we could have sold it for given that it had a few mechanical problems that were starting to manifest themselves.
Then his bike broke. I guess he's supposed to walk more to get ready for trek this summer.

Want me to rearrange your face?

As most of you know, Kevin had jaw surgery on December 21st. Thankfully, it went really well. We are grateful for good doctors, one of whom is even related to us! Yeah for Brian! We appreciate everyone's prayers and expressions of concern. Here are a few pictures of the event. Curt was the one who brought the camera and took most of the pictures. I was too nervous and slightly nauseous to think that was a good idea. Apparently, Kevin wasn't too anxious. He seems pretty calm in the waiting room at 5:30 in the morning.

Here he is several hours later. The surgery actually took about an hour less than the surgeon told us to expect. This meant there were no complications and all went smoothly. Yeah for Dr. Nicholls!
Kevin has an ice pack wrapped around his face. The tubes go to a cooler with ice and water that continuously cycle up to the cooling pad on his jaw. It looks more dramatic than it is. He has no outside scars; all cutting was done inside his mouth. He got to wear this head wrap the entire two days he was in the hospital and then they sent the cooler home with us. It was his best friend for a few days.

When Kevin woke up in recovery, he tried to ask the nurse about nausea. His jaw was elasticized almost shut and he was probably still a little loopy from the anesthesia. The nurse understood the word "nausea" and thought Kevin was feeling sick. The nurse's son-in-law had had the same surgery and threw up afterward. He later told her that was the worst thing that had ever, ever happened to him...EVER! With this in mind, she immediately took precautionary measures and gave Kevin a drug to knock him out so he could sleep off the sickness. Kevin later told us that he wasn't feeling sick at all. He was only inquiring about the possibility. No one thought to tell him that that wouldn't be the best question to ask in post-op!The girls are smiling because Kevin can't argue with them! He would write or use his phone to type what he wanted to tell us.

The mummy has been unwrapped and is almost ready to go home. The next picture is at the height of the swelling. This is what his face would look like if he were a burley football player.
Christmas 4 days later. Note his Christmas morning excitement. That was as much expression as we could get out of him. Rachel would hand him a present, he would open it and give a half hearted thumbs up, Rachel would take away the wrapping, and start the cycle over again on his next turn.

The first few days home were kind of rough. I felt like we brought home an old man that would sleep most of the day, shuffle around a little, and barely be convinced to eat. Thankfully, on Christmas afternoon he "woke up" and started talking more. We all were able to play games that night. From that point on, his recovery went better than I expected.
This was about 6 days after the surgery--much improvement though he still used his phone to communicate long messages.

Now Kevin has lighter elastics holding his jaw in place and he can talk pretty much as normal...dang it! :) He looks forward to eating solids in about 3 weeks. We'll see how quickly he can gain back the ten pounds he's lost. I'm guessing it will take about a week!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to our family and friends. If you've been following our blog, then you know our news and family events. All that is left is to wish you a Merry Christmas and tell you how grateful we are for you. The following song, sung by Brian Stokes Mitchell, expresses how thankful and blessed we feel this Christmas season. Enjoy!

Technology Trials

I just got a new smart phone. That's the good news. That's also the bad news. It is apparently smarter than me. Ironically, downloading apps and using the internet came easily to me. After all it's just a mini computer. However, the basic uses of a phone--calling and texting were difficult if not downright impossible for the first few days. I was used to pushing one or two buttons to make a call. This phone requires more effort and is a lot less simple than my former phone. I've gone from driving a Model-T to trying to drive a Lear Jet. (Update: I have found the "Genius" button. One touch and I talk to my phone and tell it what to do--Genius! However, I refuse to be one of those people who talk to their phones in public.)

I was proud that I found the button to set the alarm on my phone. I found it once, set the alarm for every M-F (workdays), realized that I might want to turn it off sometimes, and can't find my way back to where ever I set it from. Oh well, I have until Thanksgiving to figure that one out.

I downloaded apps with the scriptures and conference talks from the last ten years. "This will be so useful in church," I thought. Then I went to Stake Conference where our Stake President asked us not to bring our phones to church. Sigh. He's right; technology often leads to bad language as you try to figure out what has gone wrong.

I have also learned the meaning of "sync." The meaning was brought forcefully home when I deleted contacts on my phone that were just e-mail contacts and not people that I call. Imagine my joy at discovering they were also deleted from my Gmail! All my Primary and Scouting contacts gone. Thank goodness for actual paper copies. Sync, people, is a powerful force. Use it wisely.

Yellowstone

This is how we roll. On the way to Yellowstone.

I love the Yellowstone Inn.
The wood and stone interior is unique and something that wouldn't be built today; it is one of the largest log structures in the world. Many of the rooms share a bathroom down the hall. They are small, dark and historic. After all the place was built in 1904. My goal is to stay there one day.

We were there on a rainy overcast day. Luckily it cleared up later. Fall in Yellowstone is colder, but much less crowded than in the summer. We could actually find parking and didn't get caught in traffic jams. The lodges and places to stay were closed or closing, but the scenery was still there and it was beautiful. Most of the fall color was visible on the bushes near the river as we zipped by on the road, but trust me (you'll have to-I have no pictures), it was the best time so see the park.

Hot pots near Old Faithful.

It took us 3 tries to see Old Faithful. The geyser was going off just as we arrived. We decided to wait around and eat lunch. Lunch at the Inn took just long enough that we had just missed it when we came out again. Oh well, we weren't trying to see everything; we were trying to have a relaxing weekend. I have been to Yellowstone so often (my grandpa and grandma worked there during the summers) that I don't feel the need to see it all every time we go.
But the third time is the charm and we finally saw the most famous geyser in the world. Old Faithful was faithful once again.

Mud pots and Grafs.

This buffalo was on the side of the road, beefing up for the winter.
This is known as the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The canyon walls were steep and colored from the minerals from the geysers.
Here we are on top of the 300 foot waterfall that you can see in the previous picture.
Yellowstone and the Tetons in the fall. Maybe next time we'll see the park in the winter. Riding snowmobiles through the park would be amazing.