There's a skunk on our porch

The vibrancy of autumn surrounds me and I love it!  I was so grateful to be able to go back to Michigan.  I miss the trees.  I love the people there. I am ever grateful for all who came out to a rainy pizza party and the Levers for offering their home!  Also while we were there we went to Nixon’s grave site as a family.  It was peaceful.  Last time I was there I was by myself and I was flooded with emotions.  This time I was excited.  I was excited to share it with my boys. I was excited because I knew I had grown from this experience.  Excited because one of the only decisions Dave and I had was what to do with his body.  We studied and prayed and felt our decision was honorable and best for us and I was reminded of this.

We donated his body to Wayne State University to help with the study of medicine and then he was cremated along with other babies. I read about cremation and how in Asian cultures it signifies cleanliness verses a rotting body. I read an article by Joseph Smith saying how he wanted to be buried by his brother so that when his body would rise again how he could rejoice with him. This made me think about Nixon, how he would be there with all the other babies like himself and not alone.  I imagined him leading them and helping them understand where they were and where to go.  I don’t know if we literally are resurrected where our physical elements lie, but it was a beautiful thought to me.  And so his ashes are buried with others.

Well I went from skunks to autumn leaves to this. Eh, thus is my mind.  Back to autumn, it is my favorite season.  We celebrated the season by going to pumpkin patches, riding a carousel, being outside as much as possible because fall has perfect temperatures and then we took a trip to a cabin in the mountains.  I needed to see more color.  We went up near Leavenworth and it was beautiful. I loved it!  No TV, no internet and hardly any phone service.  We had each other, a stream, the trees and of course a hot tub.  Dave says we should make it a tradition. I agree. 

Sometimes when the boys fall asleep in the car after church we just keep driving. It's seems easiest and most fun. This is how we ended up at Palouse Falls again.

Before we moved to Washington Dave bought me a book about the geology of southeast Washington. It's called the“Big Black Boring Rock”. It was signed by the author, a geologist, Stephen P. Reidel.  Dave knows and loves me well.  After finding Palouse falls because of the book then Dave decided to read it too.  So we have found some other interesting places nearby like the petrified forest.  It surprises me always when I move somewhere and the people that have lived their whole life in that area have never been to the places I visit and sometimes have never heard of them too.  In Detroit it was Heidelberg Street.  I took all my guests there.  So now Dave points out interesting rock formations or fault lines to me.  In the picture above there are some columnar basalt formations, maybe Erica you can tell us about the circular pattern in it? Is it from wind? We’re novices and it is fun.  Enjoy the pictures, you finally get to see the skunk on my porch and who came to play with him!