Click on the > and watch the video. Our dessert was in the latest "Taste Of Home". I think it's banana collada and the kids love it.
Last week we celebrated S's 14th b-day. He enjoyed all the cards, gifts, and checks.
Here he is getting his little ipod from us....
A "The Message" Bible from Mom and Dad.
And "Facing the Giants" dvd from Aut.
He's got all the downloading from iTunes stuff figured out, which I haven't a clue about.
I went on a field trip with the 5th grade classes last week. We studied the Underground Railroad. Our first stop was Beecher Bible Rifle Church
If you don't know what that is...there were a group of Abolutionists from Connecticut who were planning to settle in KS and set up a "freed" town where slaves would feel welcomed. (This was the late 1850's). Henry Ward Beecher gave $600 and raised more to provide each of the pioneers with a Bible and a rifle. As they traveled, they had to stop in St. Louis where their belongings were inspected. They knew this was going to happen and they knew that the Missourians were pro-slavery, so they hid the rifles at the bottom of the crates, but put the Bibles on the top. When they were inspected, of course, the Missourians only saw Bibles and let the pioneers move on. They did not want the Kansans armed because slavery tensions were escalating during that time. The church in the picture was founded by those pioneers in the town of Waubunsee. Sadly, this little town has dwindled to nothingness. The church hasn't operated since 1920's. This first wave of pioneers however, did inspire more abolitionists and thus, we have the safe houses for the slaves all in this area of KS.
I do not want to go into all the detail right now, but the story of this man...
is amazing. He was a white slave. Ask me to tell you about it some time. He was buried in the Waubunsee Cemetery.
At the edge of the cemetery is an area that was an old Indian village. In this photo, it is where the ground is plowed. They said there were all kinds of artifacts found there. Wish we could have walked out there.
In order to illustrate a point, the tour guide had each kid tied together with a string to a partner. He told about how if the slaves were captured, they'd have to be brought back to their owners, walking many many miles, not allowed to talk, and then usually beaten. So these kids had to be tied with their partner and walk to the top of a hill called Mt. Mitchell. They were not allowed to talk, and if they did, they had to go back to the end of the line. It was about a 15 minute hike, and a hot day, so most were struggling. I was struggling and not tied to anyone.
Almost to the top...
Once at the top..the guide speaks to them about the life of the slave..
The farm on the left was owned by the Mitchell family who hid many of the slaves. They found many creative ways to hide them in their attics and rafters. One way was to build a book shelf into the wall and at the top of the shelf was a removable board that went into the attic. The slaves would use the shelf for a ladder and scramble up to the top. The slave hunters were always looking for trapped doors and could never find them in this guy's house as well as some in the area because the "door" was in the built in book shelf.
Another view from Mt. Mitchell. You can see some of our burned prairie here. They burn the fields at this time of year and there's always smoke in the air for a few days.
We stopped and ate our lunches at Pillsbury Crossing. If we haven't taken you out there when you've visited, make sure we do next time.
The "Crossing"...of course a few days later we got 4 inches of rain, so it's probably extremely flooded right now.
A cabin from the Underground Railr.
The view from the little cabin
Autumn's best friend is moving next month to Ft. Bliss. I had her mom and she over for tea and dessert last week, while John Mark played the "Man Servant" as Autumn called him. I'm really good friends with the mother. She's one of my two German friends.
I just had to take this picture of Autumn's bedroom. This is about 1/4 of her stuffed animals, and they're driving me crazy.
3 comments:
Would you please tell Sam that I measured his smile when he held up the I Pod then I measured the smile with the Bible . There is a significant difference.
mom witter
Ha ha! Mom is right! Hey, that is about how many stuffed animals that Emily has but I think she has more.
Heck, i was just glad to see a smile:)
Dude looks happy.
uncle john
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