A Springfield Anniversary

Today marks the 9th Anniversary of the day that Kendall and I were sealed in the Mount Timpanogos Temple for time and for all eternity.

 It was Kendall's turn to plan our anniversary, and he planned a fantastic getaway to Springfield, Illinois. We left on Friday afternoon as soon as Kendall got off work and my mom had taken the kids away. :)

We drove to Springfield and checked in at our hotel, then went to Outback Steakhouse for a nice dinner. Then it was back to the hotel for some swimming. The water was a little cool but it felt so nice on my sunburned back and shoulders. After swimming Kendall took me to a drive-in movie! We haven't been to one of these since before we were married!

 We got to see Men In Black 3 and then John Carter. I ended up falling asleep during John Carter, but I made it most of the way through the movie. I guess I'm not that great at staying up until 2:00 am anymore.

 The next morning we had lots of fun things to do and had a hard time deciding just what to do first. We decided to go to Lincoln's Tomb. It is in a big cemetery where lots of other important politicians are buried. We saw lots of signs pointing out the way to different senators' etc. burial sites. But here is a picture of the monument over Lincoln's tomb.

 This was some other important person, I can't remember who but it was a cool structure!

 This used to be the home for the caretaker of the cemetery and Lincoln's Tomb, but now it is just offices. I liked the castle look.

 It is considered good luck to rub Lincoln's nose, so his nose is shiny from all of the rubbing.

 These were some of the symbolic statues on the monument.

 If you are interested in history and symbolism click on this picture to make it bigger. It had some interesting information that I thought was really cool.

 Abraham Lincoln had 4 sons, and only one of them lived to adulthood and went on to have children of his own. His direct line died out only a couple of generations later, and I thought that was really sad.

 Inside the tomb is where the President is actually buried. He is many feet under this headstone. His wife and 3 of his sons were also buried in the tomb.

 Here is the back of the monument. There were a whole bunch of steps leading down to the temporary tomb that held Lincoln's body after he was killed.

 And here is the temporary tomb. It looks big from the outside, but you could look through the bars on the door and it was tiny. Probably only big enough for the casket to be laid down.

 Also inside the cemetery there were other war memorials. This one is the Vietnam Memorial. You probably have to make it bigger to see, but there is a flame at the top of the memorial. But it was flickering quite a bit in the wind, so it's hard to see it.

 There was a big section dedicated to the Korean War.

 This plaque talked about the biggest battle of that war.

 And here is the actual Memorial for the Korean War.

 There were paving stones leading up both sides of the path like this with names of the men who died.

 The World War II Memorial looked really cool but they were having some kind of ceremony over by it, and we decided not to sight see in the middle of that.

 They had a 21 gun salute. But it was starting to rain, so they were all wearing ponchos.

After we finished at the cemetery and bought post cards and mailed them home to the kids we went to the Ice Skating Rink. Now, I literally haven't been ice skating in probably 10 years. Somehow I managed not to fall on my butt, but my ankles got tired so fast!! There were these little tiny kids skating circles around us, but it was a whole lot of fun. We obviously hadn't prepared to go ice skating though because we didn't have jackets or gloves or anything.

The park where the Ice Skating rink was had a beautiful walking path with this darling bridge, pond and waterfall. So we went for a little walk.

Kendall chased the ducks. They didn't stay this calm once he decided to pet them.

 I told Kendall to run up on the bridge so I could get his picture. I didn't expect him to climb up ON the bridge, but I should have.

 And then...

 But he thought better of it.

 And I even let him take my picture.

 I thought these were cool flowers. They looked like Queen Anne's Lace, but had these pretty flowers around the outside. Then Kendall noticed that some of them had 3 petals and some had four. We need to find out what they are called.

 We decided to hit the Illinois State Museum before we went to lunch. It was a free museum so I thought it might be a little lame, but I was pleasantly surprised. We are going to take the kids back there sometime because it was very interactive and had lots of fossils, animals, ecosystems, and big play areas for kids.

 Right around the corner from the Museum is the state Capitol building. We didn't take any tours of it, but it was a pretty building. It was a perfect day to be there. There was nobody around. Everything was quiet and we had the museum almost to ourselves.

For lunch we decided that we had to find a place that sold horseshoes. Springfield is the birthplace of these "sandwiches" and everyone said "You haven't been to Springfield until you've had a horseshoe." It is basically 2 pieces of toasted bread, with meat on top (usually ham or beef but we went with the healthier turkey) and then a delicious cheese sauce and french fries on top. Definitely not the healthiest of food, but it was very yummy.

After lunch we decided to head home and get the kids.  We packed a lot of fun into a short amount of time and were able to do a lot of things that we haven't done in years. Plus, in the four years that we've lived in Illinois we've never toured Springfield. We decided that we needed at least another day to see all of the fun things, so we will have to go back again. But it was such a nice get-away and little mini vacation.

I feel like the luckiest woman alive to be married to such a fantastic man. He has never been anything but supportive and loving as well as intelligent, handy and he makes me laugh every day. After 9 years and 4 kids we have a lot more experience and life under our belts, but I only love him all the more.

I feel so lucky to be able to say that marriage has never been difficult. I hear so many people say that it is hard to be married or that you have to learn how to work together. But in my experience, LIFE is hard and marriage and your spouse is what gets you through the trials of life. Kendall, I thank my Heavenly Father every day for you and that I have the opportunity to be sealed to you for Eternity. Happy Anniversary. And I can't wait to spend dozens more together.