Grandpa and Grandma B and Michael's Visit Part 2

Thanks, Mike, for sharing your candy purchase with us!

Sunday:  Russ, now Rev. Herman, preached two sermons from Hebrews 9.   We had a fellowship meal at noon to celebrate Russ' ordination with the church family.  Everyone brought sides and desserts.  Pulled pork sandwiches and drinks were provided by the church.  Russ and the boys had youth group after the evening service while the rest of us enjoyed popcorn and leftover pizza.

Monday:  We homeschooled and relaxed in the morning.  In the afternoon we toured the Old Idaho State Penitentiary.   The penitentiary was a functional prison from 1872 to 1973.  After going through some of the facilities it was hard to believe it was still functional in the '70s.  Several buildings are no longer standing due to fires from prison riots.  Since we were in the downtown area anyway, we picked Nicolas up from orchestra practice and headed home for a quick bit to eat before his NHS induction ceremony.  Grandma had just enough time to whip up a batch of ollie bollen batter that we enjoyed immensely after the NHS service.

Solitary confinement cells--thought it was a good place for Seth for a little while:)

  

The most modern cells that were still standing.

Exercise area

The cells on Death Row

This is a little morbid.  Because of the glass and lighting I couldn't get a picture of the actual hanging area.   This is the basement where the body ended up after the trap door opened.

The oldest cells in the penitentiary.  They are four stories high.

This is a close-up of the ventilation shaft that is pictured on the right of the picture below. This is what the inside of the oldest cells looks like.  Highly claustrophobic.

The kids wondered if they really slept on mattresses filled with straw.  

The Old Penitentiary also houses a weapons museum.  I took a few pictures of some really cool old swords, but the pictures really don't do them justice.

They had one area where you could pretend you were in the trenches of WWI.  Since we studied this in school this year the kids thought that was pretty cool to pretend to shoot a machine gun into no-man's land!

Tuesday:  I attended our women's  church Bible study in the morning.  The kids stayed home with Grandpa and Grandma and Michael and worked on their schoolwork.  It was kind of a bummer day because we had to say good-bye to Michael.  We really enjoyed having him hang out with us for those days and missed having him around.  I am not sure he was as sad to leave as he had allergies to our pets and probably didn't sleep as well sharing a room with "Seth the Snorter" and Nicolas, who got up early each morning for school.  Anyway, we consoled ourselves by going shopping:)   Grandma, the girls, and I went to Joann's and picked out fabric so Grandma could make a purse for Lydia.  Then we had fun browsing through Barnes and Noble for a little bit.  Seth stayed home with Grandpa and they worked on the yard--mowing and fertilizing the lawn.   For supper that night we treated them to Idaho trout.  An elderly gentlemen in the church loves to fish, but doesn't like to eat it.  So he blesses us with a freezer full of trout.  Nicolas has gone fishing with him a couple times and enjoys having a pole in his hand!  Instead of frying it on the stove as we normally do, we grilled it with lime and dill.  All agreed it was a keeper recipe!

Wednesday:  This morning we had a large funeral for an elderly lady who was one of the founders of the church.  All her children and at least ten grandchildren and their families still attend the church, as do her sister and several nieces and nephews.  Pretty much everyone in the church was related to her in some way!  The girls were asked to work in the nursery and Grandma came and helped them.  Seth and Grandpa stayed home and joined us later for the funeral luncheon.   Later that night we went to another track meet.  Unfortunately, Nicolas did not run as he had strained his quad muscle in the previous meet.  

Thursday:  Today was the day Grandpa and Grandma had to leave, but we fit in a quick trip to the Antique Mall in the morning.  Lydia really, really wanted to bake lemon poppy seed scones for them, so we quick baked those before we left and enjoyed them with a cup of coffee when we returned from "antiquing".  Then we said good-bye, looking forward to seeing them with the rest of the family at Big Sand in a few months!