Thursday, May 28, 2009

A Family Weekend

Even looking at this picture gives me the heebie-jeebies! On Memorial Day weekend, we went to visit the granite museum with Janeen, Greg and the kids. This time they were offering a "caravan" tour to the quarry. The quarry is down about 610 feet and they won't go any farther because they don't need to and because they don't have the technology to do so. We learned that the men are lowered in trams down into the quarry to work. The thought of it made me absolutely nauseous. It was an awesome sight. We didn't get a good picture of the gigantic cranes but if you look closely you can see one on the right. A man climbs up there to check all the riggings once a month! We found out that the quarry was the background for the car chase in the new Star Wars movie.


This is an old quarry which is now filled with water and is right beside the other one. The far pool is part of the system to prevent silicosis which killed many quarry workers because of the granite dust. It looks like a beautiful pond for swimming but it's very dangerous.
We also visited you-know-where again. Chris and Trey enjoyed the visit and the ice cream.

On Sunday we again visited the Joseph Smith Memorial where the spirit of the Lord is a tangible gift to all who visit this beautiful place.

We also drove through an interesting cemetery called Hope Cemetery which is a tourist site. It's the subject of a blog all by itself.
On Monday after Janeen and Greg had gone, we went to Barre's annual Memorial Day Parade. It lasted about 30 minutes and was full of lots of vets, bands from the local schools, limos with VFW officials and fire trucks and flags. The streets were lined with cheering people. This group is from the local military high school. Their drill sergeant is from our ward.


It was nice to have family here to share this adventure with us and to have someplace else to sit beside hard kitchen chairs. Dad spent his days putting together furniture which the boys provided for us. Just before I took this picture, I told him that I was going to send Jeff an e-mail. He's saying, "Tell him not to send anything else that I have to put together!"





3 comments:

Jennie said...

I'm jealous Janeen! I want some mom and dad time...lol! That last pic is just like dad!

Anonymous said...

It sounds like you guys had a great time! Does Janeen have a blog? Because I'd love to stay up to date with her family.

Jaime said...

I'm jealous too!! I miss you guys so much!! But so glad you guys have some furniture!! now we need an updated photo of your appt with funiture!!