Memorial Day Week with my Parents

We spent a great week with my parents around Memorial Day. It was so nice to have family come visit us. We spent the week playing! Our first stop was the Cincinnati Zoo. I love this zoo and we had the perfect weather!

 

Our next stop was the Shaker Village near Lexington. It was pretty interesting, but also pretty chilly that day. We toured the main building and I even got to work the lave. We learned more about the Shaker's history and that they invented the flat broom and seed packets with planting instructions.

That night we spent the night at Sleep Inn in Cave City. It was a nice motel with a great continental breakfast. In the morning we went to Mammoth Cave. I've been pretty excited to go since I really like Timpanogos Cave in Utah. Mammoth Cave is the largest cave system in North America, but it's not nearly as decorated with interesting features as other caves I've been to. I still thought it was interesting though and enjoyed seeing it in person.

On our way home from Mammoth Cave, we stopped by the Louisville Temple so my mom could take some pictures.

Sunday we attended church. I had been asked the week before to give a talk on prayer. That is an easy topic for me to speak on since I have many experiences with prayer, but it was also very helpful to me to study it for a week and realize some areas I need to improve on. The talk went well, and my own personal prayers have been even more sincere ever since.

Memorial Day was really rainy so we opted to stay at home and watch the new movie "Meet the Mormons" that was recently released. It was the first time that Jason had seen the movie. I saw it in a theater in Ohio several months ago with the Young Women's group, but it was fun to see it again. We also took my parents to eat at Skyline Chili. I happen to like the specially seasoned dish, but people usually like it or hate it. I don't think my parent's loved it, but now they have at least experienced it. :)

Tuesday we walked along the Riverfront in Cincinnati. The park and walking area have just been finished recently and are beautiful. We also went to the Underground Railroad Freedom center. The museum was large and beautiful, but I didn't particularly like the spin they put on the exhibits. It seemed dark and without hope of a brighter future. It's true that this country has made its share of mistakes, including serious abuse and mistreatment to other races and religions, but let's learn from the past and move on to a better future!

Here are just some fun pictures of Ethan and my parents. We really enjoyed having them stay with us. We had a relaxing and enjoyable time with them. Anyone else who wants to visit us is always welcome!!

Ethan and Grandma read lots of books together and went on a walk to the park.

I love this silly boy!

Ethan loved playing with Grandpa, his new playmate. :)

I love this picture of my parents! They are the best!!

A Few Pictures from May

A few weeks ago we attended a service for the National Day of Prayer. It was well done and we were happy to run into some of our neighbors that live in our building. I only wish more people had attended. Since our LDS church building is being renovated, we've been meeting at the Union Presbyterian Church. It has been a great experience, not only to remind me what I love about the church buildings that I'm accustomed to, but also to become more comfortable and better appreciate the faith of others. Reverend Lisa refers to us as another "flavor" of Christianity. I have really enjoyed getting to know the Presbyterians better as we have had several joint meetings and activities.

Union Presbyterian Building where we temporarily meet for our Latter-Day Saint church meetings

Posted this pic on Instagram in token of our commitment to read the Book of Mormon each day as a family in preparation of the Burningham Family Reunion later this summer

A few weeks ago I organized a group of young moms with their kids for a visit to the Krohn Conservatory to see the Butterfly Exhibit from the Philippines. It was really crowded but it turned out well and we had about 8 of us there with our kids. Ethan thought it was pretty cool and even walked around holding the white card they give you to try and encourage the butterflies to land there. Towards the end, a butterfly actually did land on his hand and he immediately panicked and started shaking in fear until I was able to blow the butterfly off his hand. Now I'm not sure what he thinks about butterflies...

This cool butterfly has brown colors on the outside of its wings but has beautiful blue wings when opened

This is cute little Hailey showing off the blue wings.

This picture shows the butterfly that finally landed on my white card in the bottom left corner.

I love waterfalls!

I think this is a cool bench that they had at the Conservatory

After the butterfly exhibit some of us met at Eden Park for a picnic lunch. It was perfect weather for a picnic in the shade, but too hot to be playing on the playground equipment in the sun.

Picture at Eden Park, behind us you can see the Ohio River and one of the bridges that crosses from Kentucky to Ohio.

I enjoyed happy Mother's Day. I'm forever grateful to my own mother for being such a large part of who I am today. I'm also grateful for all women who have mothering hearts, whether or not they have children of their own. They truly influence me and the world for good.

Happy Mother's Day!

Ethan loves playing at the playgrounds. We could be there for hours and he wouldn't get tired of it.

Ethan loves to 'pop' bubbles. He walks around saying 'pop' when he touches them.

Trip to Columbus, OH

Saturday we took a spontaneous all-day trip to Columbus to visit COSI (Center of Science and Industry) and the Columbus Temple. Jason said he wanted to go to the Columbus Temple sometime and since it's a 2-hour drive to get there, we decided to make a day of it and go to COSI as well.

COSI in Columbus, Ohio

We arrived at COSI a little before 10:30 and stayed until almost 3:00. There was so much cool stuff to see and do that it would be fun to go back sometime!

Ethan, of course, liked anything and everything that had to do with balls. These pipes would suck up the balls and shoot them out the top again. Ethan loved it.

This fulcrum activity was also pretty cool. I'm lifting up a 2013 Honda Accord. You can see that there's another place to try and lift the car closer to the fulcrum point but it was impossible for Jason and I to lift it there.

More balls! This time in water. :)

Ethan thought these pipes that suspended the balls in air were pretty cool, too.

But Ethan's favorite activity was throwing balls into this "gadget." He never even came close to making it, but he sure had a lot of fun trying! :)

COSI had a special focus on early childhood that day so we went through some centers and they dressed him up as a zoologist after he was immediately drawn to the toy giraffe. Then they gave us this picture and frame along with an early childhood kit.

While we were there we also went to the IMAX theater to see the National Geographic documentary "Jerusalem." Jason did a study abroad in Jerusalem just before we were married so it was cool to see a few of the sites he visited. The movie was different than we expected, but the aerial views of the sites and surrounding areas were spectacular! We even got to see it in 3-D. Ethan came with us, but he mostly saw it in 2-D since he kept taking off his glasses. I didn't know if Ethan would make it through the movie since the two previews shown really scared him. Ethan is super sensitive to music and he didn't like the dramatic trailer music. Fortunately he was able to calm down once the actual movie started and he was mostly ok throughout so that we could both watch.

Watching "Jerusalem" in 3-D

From COSI we grabbed something to eat at Subway and headed to the Columbus temple. I went in first while Jason watched Ethan and then we traded. The Columbus Temple looks very similar to the Louisville Temple and has almost the exact same floor plan. The surrounding grounds are small but beautifully kept.

Columbus, OH Temple

Some of my favorite Spring flowers on the temple grounds

When it was my turn to watch Ethan, I took him to a nearby park so he could play. He did amazing well all day despite not having a nap and didn't even fall asleep until we were halfway home. I'm so glad he is easy-going so that we can do adventurous things like this without a total meltdown. Jason and I were completely exhausted by the time we got home around 9:00.

Young Women's Medallion - I love how it has the red ruby referring to Proverbs 31:10 "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies."

In Sacrament Meeting on Sunday I received my 2nd Young Women's Medallion Award. I completed the Personal Progress program as a youth and received the Medallion but since the Church has completely changed the program several years ago I decided to do it again so I would be more familiar with it and could better help the Young Women. I started it 3 years ago and just finished it the other week. The program includes doing 6 experiences for each of the eight Young Women values: Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice & Accountability, Good Works, Integrity, & Virtue. I also completed a 10-hour project for each of the eight values. I'm glad I finished it. It has definitely kept me closer to Jesus Christ and has motivated me to do some projects that I wanted to do, but just needed a reason to do them. Hopefully I can continue the pattern of setting goals/projects for myself and then completing them.