Jimmy the Traveling Frog

Our family has had a furry little secret for many years: a frog puppet named Jimmy likes to travel with us. This began when our children were very young. Bryan brought Jimmy on one of our driving trips (I believe it was to California). The road was long, the ride was boring, and the kids were becoming weary, when suddenly Jimmy was on Rob's hand and trying to drive the car. The kids all thought this was hilarious and roared with laughter at the antics of this outspoken, bossy frog trying to take us someplace Rob didn't want to drive, arguing back and forth and finally being flung dramatically into the backseat.


For several years after that trip, Jimmy would make an appearance on long journeys and usually he'd try driving again...his steering skills never seemed to improve. But then the kids started bringing more interesting things on trips: video games, music playing devices and the DVD player with stacks of movies and poor Jimmy was left behind.


When Bryan was packing up his room before entering the MTC, he piled all the stuffed animals into a garbage bag along with clothes he'd outgrown, high school memoriabilia and other knick knacks. This he designated as his "D I" stuff. The afternoon after we dropped him at the MTC, Rob, Cami and I in a unified, yet unspoken way made our way to Bryan's quiet bedroom. We looked at his things...those he'd left unpacked and the things he'd thrown in the junk bag. Later, we each left his room with a thing or two rescued from the bag. I noticed Jimmy was tucked under Rob's arm along with a baseball cap and a seminary medal.


Fast-forward a couple of weeks to March 26th. We had just landed at Baltimore Washington Airport and were about to disembark our plane. Rob retrieved our carry-on luggage and we were sitting in our seats patiently waiting when suddenly, there was Jimmy!! He had stowed away and was once again joining us on our travels.


Stow-Away Jimmy, bad frog!

I wonder what the TSA agent must have thought when he searched Rob's carry-on bag?





Look who is standing behind George Washington.



The Capitol Building, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and the White House were all on Jimmy's 'must see' list.











Being carried everywhere you'd think he wouldn't too tired to try driving home.



Jimmy became a fan of cannons...He found them at Gettysburg and Inner Harbor, Baltimore.




In Manhattan Jimmy didn't like the rain much...which seems strange for a frog,
but he claims he didn't want to get his fur wet.




Our Jimmy has a lot of miles on him now...I wonder where he'll travel next?

Days 7 & 8 - Nashville, Tennessee

Friday, April 2, 2010

Today Kevin and Tanja took off work to spend the day with us. Cami had made plans with some of her old Tennessee friends so we left her at the house and headed to Nashville for some sightseeing. First, The Kev took us to O'Moore College where he teaches Fashion Design and Fashion Construction. O'Moore is a private arts college in the old part of town. The home and grounds were once owned by a wealthy Tennessee heiress who wanted art and beauty taught to the young people of her community. Her old home is now the administration building on campus.

O'Moore College where The Kev is an Associate Professor.

Our next stop was the Loveless Cafe. I had never heard of it before, but apparently I was the only one who had not. The place was PACKED and we waited for more than an hour to be seated for breakfast. Luckily the old motel next to the old road house cafe has been converted into shops so we browsed and I bought some postcards and wrote and addressed one to Bryan while we waited. Once we were seated and served we decided the wait was worth it because the food was great...especially the biscuits, yum!

Back on the road we drove on in to Nashville. Tanja and The Kev have both had opportunities in the music industry so they are very familiar with the many recording studios, artists residences, and music businesses so they drove us around 'Music Row'. We were able to see the Roy Orbison building where Tanja is headquartered along with the homes & studios of many other notable country music artists including Randy Travis (whom Tanja was an angent for some years back). We went to the Ryman (The original Grand Old Oprey House) in the old part of town. Nashville is a strange assortment of old and new sections sitting on different levels. I've never seen a city like it before.

The Roy Orbison Building in Nashville

Late that afternoon we returned to Franklin. Rob and Kevin went off on a 'redneck' hunt (don't ask) and Tanja and I stayed at the house and I showed her how to get registered and started indexing. She took to it like a fish to water and has already done over 700 names! We ate and talked late into the evening waiting for Cami to return from a date. We got into bed late after packing all our bags and preparing for our departure tomorrow.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Another really early morning, but this time we had someone get up and see us off. The Kev and Tanja helped us load our bags and get out the door by 5:00 a.m. to catch our 6:30 flight.

For some reason there was a long delay getting through security and we were some of the very last ones to board our flight before take off. It was a long, bumpy flight home and landing in cold and snowy Salt Lake City was kind of a shock to our systems after the warmth we had enjoyed the last few days.

Our Kevin was waiting for us in the Jeep as we collected our luggage. We drove to Bountiful and ate breakfast and then on home listening to General Conference. It is good to be home, but all this week I couldn't stop myself from thinking, "One week ago today we were doing...." and then dwelling on how much fun we had seeing our loved ones and some amazing parts of our country.

Jimmy the Frog looking out the window, sad to see the trip ending.

Days 5 & 6 - Franklin, Tennessee

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Rob and Cami in Franklin, Tennessee on an 84 degree day. From coats and umbrellas to shorts and sunglasses--what a difference a day makes.

Guess what? We had to get up really early this morning! We had a 6:30 a.m. flight and we were told that the rental car had to be returned two hours prior to the flight, so morning came very early on Wednesday.

We flew into Memphis where we got to cool our heels for a couple hours. We had some juice and snack mix and tried to find a comfortable position to rest while we waited.

Fianlly we got on the plane and took the short hop over to Nashville. The 70 degree weather was fabulous in Tennessee--flowers were blooming, grass was green and leaves were growing on the trees!

We picked up another rental car and followed the excellent driving directions to Rob's brother, Kevin's home. Tanja had just returned from a trip to Milan, Italy the night before so she was home trying to recover from jetlag and Kevin had just finished up his classes at the college where he teaches. We sat and visited in their lovely home then we all took a little nap before dinner and Mutual.

Kevin created a masterpiece of a meal which we enjoyed immensely. Tanja is in the Young Women's Presidency so she took Cami and went off to their activity where Cami was able to reconnect with many the friends she made while she lived with Kev and Tanja in July 2007. While they were away, Kev took Rob and I on a tour of the area so we would have some ideas of what to do while were on our own tomorrow.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

This little Episcopol Church at the end of Franklin's Main Street made me think of Mitford. I expected to see Father Tim walk out of the rectory with his dog, Barnabas, any minute.
This church was on the Civil War Historical Tour

This morning we slept in! When we got up, Kevin and Tanja had already gone off to work and we took ourselves to downtown Franklin, which is a beautiful little town full of historical buildings and lovely shops. We parked the car and just walked from one end of downtown to the other. We stopped in many shops, ate an early lunch at Marydee's Bakery, and followed the Civil War map of sights around town including Fort Granger. We learned that Franklin, TN had been under Union occupation during the war. The Union soldiers set up this fort on the the highest point. To me it sounded like Nephite-style warfare. They dug an immense ditch around the fort, throwing the dirt into a 20 foot mound completely encircling the fort. Then they cut down every tree in all directions, sharpening the branches and setting them into the mound facing outward. They built lookout towers within the fort and the walls formed a triangle shape with the corners sticking out for rifle coverage of the walls. The only things remaining to this day are the mounds of dirt (completely covered with grass and wild flowers) and the ditch (also all grassy and green), but we could imagine what a muddy mess it must have been with all that fresh dirt and all those men living in tents.

Fort Granger had these markers around the sight showing the layout & history.

The old Factory was a hospital during the Civil War.

It's now an artist gallary and assortment of boutique stores.

That evening we met up with Kevin and Tanja at PF Changs for dinner and more visiting. It had been such a restful and relaxing day and the good food and company wrapped it up nicely.

Day 4 - Manhattan, New York

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Grand Central Station in the rain

As early as we'd been waking up every morning on this trip, you'd think we would have slept in a little today, but no, we wanted to be on the road heading to New York by 6:00 a.m. so the alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. (that is 3:00 a.m. Mountain Standard Time) and we rolled out of bed, got dressed and realized it was POURING outside. We hoped that it was only raining in Baltimore and that by the time we arrived in New York, the storm would be over and we could enjoy a sunny, spring day.

Well, that certainly was a good plan but it wasn't the way it turned out. We drove the three hours to New Jersey in a heavy downpour. We parked at the Newark Train Station in pounding rain. We rode the train across the Hudson River as it rained and rained. We came out of the World Trade Center Station and were instantly drenched as we walked the couple of blocks to the subway station to purchase our Metro passes.
Walking in Times Square in the rain.

We obtained our passes and rode the subway down to 42nd Street and Broadway. We were hoping we would be able to attend a matinee performance, but found out after checking at four different theaters that matinees are only shown on Wednesday and Saturdays and we were there on a Tuesday. We could have purchased tickets for all these shows (except Wicked which was sold out through May) for a 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. show, but that would put us back out of the theater around 11:00 p.m., then a train ride back to New Jersey and a three hour drive back to Baltimore AND since our flight was leaving at 6:30 a.m. the next morning; we opted not to attend a show.
Riding the subway allowed us to be dry for a few minutes at a time.

So we shopped instead!! We walked to 5th Avenue and ooohed and aaaahed at some of the window displays and the price tags on clothing and jewelery, then we found the H & M Store on 5th and had some fun there. Cami loves having clothes that no one else at her school is wearing. Well, we found her some very original things that won't be duplicated by anyone else at Weber High School.

We ducked into other shops and stores to warm up and dry off a little, drank hot chocolate as often as possible and made our way to Little Italy. Since our first visit to NYC back in 2003, we have loved Little Italy and the restaurant, De Nicos. So of course we had to go back there and have a delicious Italian dinner. We enjoyed the warmth (literally and figuratively) of this place and of sitting together and laughing about our extremely soggy day.

We rode the subway all the way down to Bowling Green so Kelly could have a look at the Statue of Liberty, which was barely visible through the fog and rain, but he was so excited to be in Manhattan and to see all these sights he had heard about from Dani over the years.
soggy tourists at Rockefeller Plaza.

From 5:00 to 6:00 p.m., there were so many people with umbrellas walking the sidewalks, it was almost impossible to walk without losing an eye or sustaining an injury. Cami needed a souvenir T Shirt for her friend, Emily, so we kept an eye out for tacky tourist shops wherever we went. It turned out that we didn't find the shirt until we were in the train station under the WTC getting our tickets back to New Jersey. Finally we had checked everything off our 'NYC to do' list (except the Broadway Show) so we decided we could head back to Baltimore.

We got back to Dani's and Kelly's apartment about 10:00 p.m., did a few loads of laundry and said our goodbyes. It was sad to see this part of our trip coming to an end. We had so much fun and enjoyed seeing our wonderful daughter and her husband. We also had such grand adventures in their new home area. We are so grateful to have their home and surroundings in our mind so we can imagine them working and playing and living there now.

We look forward to the next time we see Dani and Kelly...until then, these memories will keep us connected.

Day 4 - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Monday March 29, 2010

The View from a Confederate Cannon looking across the Battlefield


Today we got up early (is that becoming a common thread in recent blogposts?) so we could have as much daylight as possible at Gettysburg. We drove through some of the most beautiful countryside I've ever seen. Farms and pastures, woods and hills--all so fresh, green and picturesque in every way. Even the cows had pleasant, happy faces. We started our day at the Gettysburg Museum which is a grand affair with more displays than you can possibly imagine and then the great 'Cyclorama' which even though Dani and Kelly described it to us couldn't be adequately imagined. After several hours spent in this vast collection, we started off on the Auto Tour.



T0day was Rob's very favorite day...one he's been looking forward to since he was a young boy. Years and years ago he read a story about the Twentieth Maine Regiment and how those brave men were commanded to swing the end of the line and hold Little Round Top. We tramped around in the hills looking for the monument to those brave men of the Twentieth Maine and it was a reverent feeling seeing that marker sitting quite a way back off the road and realizing the fight the ensued in those rocks and trees nearly a hundred and forty-seven years ago. These men had been told to hold the line at any cost and when they had used all their ammunition, they used their bayonets to continue to hold the hill.


The monument which memorializes the Twentieth Maine Regiment.
In all my years of US History lessons, I'm not sure if I was just dozing during the Civil War lessons or if the teachers didn't give adequate time and emphasis to the Battle of Gettysburg, but it was ever so much more than I ever knew. I had always imagined the field to be a few football fields in size. Oh, no! This place is a massive 23 miles wide and encompasses the town, farms, wheat fields, open land, mountains (Pennsylvania sized mountains), orchards, and woods. It is vast! Also, I'm not sure that it ever stuck in my brain that the battle lasted three days and involved nearly 200,000 men with upwards of 51,000 casualties!


The culmination of the Auto Tour (which took us several hours to drive and walk and look at) was the Gettysburg Cemetery and the location of President Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address. I had read those lines a few days before at the Lincoln Memorial. I read and heard them several times more in the museum, but actually standing in the place where those immortal words were given gave me chills. The rows and rows of tiny grave markers and that impressive monument to all who fought and died in that place is absolutely awe inspiring.

The Gettysburg National Cemetery Monument marks where President Lincoln spoke those inspiring words of the Gettysburg Address 0n November 19, 1863.

We left the cemetery as the sky was darkening and drove into the quaint town of Gettysburg. The streets are lined with Civil War era buildings and we saw people wearing hoop skirts and soldier uniforms. We ate at a little diner before heading back to Baltimore in the dark. It was an amazing day...the day I finally learned what I should have learned back in elementary school history lessons.

Day 3 - Baltimore, Maryland

DAY 3, Sunday March 29, 2010
Today we woke up early (again) and went to church with Dani and Kelly in The Jones Falls Ward in Towson, Maryland. It was so fun to be in their ward and to worship with them on this beautiful spring day. Everyone was very welcoming and kind. The high point for me was attending primary. Dani and Kelly teach a Sunbeam class. It was obvious that their little three- and four-year-olds love them very much.

After church we went back to their apartment where Kelly made us Artichoke Chicken for lunch; it was yummy! We took a nap, visited, watched a movie and then in the late afternoon, we went for a drive to Inner Harbor, Baltimore.

It was trying to rain and the wind was blowing, but we had so much fun walking around Pier 5 and seeing the sights. The SS Constellation, a sailing ship from Civil War days, a World War II Submarine, a Coastguard Ship were all moored in the harbor. We looked at these and the offices, restaurants and other buildings surrounding the pier. Baltimore is really a beautiful city with a rich history. It is so amazing to realize that we were walking and driving past buildings that were 300 years old.

The SS Constellation Sailing Ship

Daffodils were blooming everywhere in Baltimore, even the medians of the freeways.

A Coastguard Ship

Days 1 and 2 - Baltimore, Maryland

DAY 1 - Friday, March 26

We've been anticipating our trip to visit Dani and Kelly for some time; finally it arrived! We flew out on March 26, 2010, Rob's birthday. How fitting we would fly right over Cincinnati, Ohio exactly 53 years to the day he was born there.

Dani and Kelly met us at the car rental near the airport and we followed them to Dani's high school - -Baltimore Liberation Diploma Plus High School (what a mouthful!). We were able to see where Dani teaches US History, World History and Geography to her students.

Dani's School and Dani standing in front of her classroom door on Day #1

We then followed them to see some other sites including Johns Hopkins University where Dani attends her graduate courses, Camden Yards, Inner Harbor and Towson (where Dani and Kelly live). We got a nice tour of beautiful homes, lovely country lanes and some inner-city housing projects where some of Dani's students live before we checked into our hotel. Later we went out for Indian food at one of Dani's and Kelly's favorite restaurants, then walked around the Towson Mall across the street from the Sheraton and made our plans for our next day tour of Washington D.C.

DAY 2, Saturday March 27

We arrived early at the Ahern residence to pick them up and head down the freeway to D.C. It was a bright and sunny day, but cool and breezy. We were thrilled to see how many trees and bushes were in bloom as we headed out. It gave us great hope that the cherry trees of Washinton would be in full bloom too. We were not disappointed when we arrived to see that the Cherry Tree Blossom and the Kite Flying Festivals were both in progress. The sky was alive with bright colored kites of every size and design while nearly every tree was spectacularly loaded with beautiful blossoms; I don't think we could have picked a prettier day to spend in our nation's capitol.

shots of different sights we saw on day #2.

We nearly walked our feet off our legs today as we circled the Mall making stops at several of our planned Smithsonian Museums along with the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Monument, the National Arboretum, The Capitol Building, The Vietnam War Memorial and the White House (not necessarily in that order). What an honor to spend a beautiful day feeling inspired, reverent, taught, patriotic and blessed all at the same time!

The National Arboretum was celebrating the blooming of the orchids, they came in every conceivable shape, size and color. This is a small sampling.

The Lincoln Memorial was crowded, but inspiring

A respectful crowd walked past the Vietnam Memorial Wall

We snacked on nuts, fruit and candy on our way back to Baltimore where we made our way to another favorite Ahern eatery--a South American place where we enjoyed delicious empinadas. We laughed and joked and thoroughly enjoyed each others company. What a wonderful day!

Good Morning, Baltimore

My bags are packed, the cat's care and the mail/newspaper pickup has been arranged, we are on our way to the airport in just minutes.

We are so thrilled to be seeing Dani and Kelly and their home in Baltimore. We also plan to see their surrounding areas by spending a day in NYC, a day in DC, and one checking out historical Civil War or Revolutionary War sites. The Aherns have promised to take us to the best resturants in the U.S. (which all exist back east apparently).

Until we return, hum the music from 'Hairspray' and think of us in Baltimore!

One week down...

One week ago today we dropped Bryan at the MTC.

Today we got an email!

I was so bummed that we didn't get to go inside the MTC this time;

the new thing is to just dropped them at the curb--

but we get emails from the MTC now???

That is new!

I like this new thing!

I thought I would start another blog connected to mine and just

cut and paste Bryan's emails in each week.

That way anyone who would like to follow his progress through the MTC for 11 weeks

and the next couple of years in Budapest, Hungary

could check in on him through this blogpage.

I can also post his photos here.

It will be theraputic for me when I'm missing Bryan and feeling blue.

The Happiest Sad

March 10, 2010 seemed like such a long way off on December 2, 2009 when Bryan opened his mission call. But suddenly we woke up this morning and it was time to take him to the MTC.

Needless to say it has been an emotional couple of days at our house. It seems like such a contradiction that you can feel so happy and so sad at the same time. The only time I've felt this way was when we've prepared for and then delivered a young man to the Missionary Training Center. I've had the immense blessing to do this four times. When my little brother, Mark, was called to the Kobe, Japan mission we went to Arizona for his farewell and then brought him back to Utah with us to do a little suit shopping at Mr. Mac before taking him to the MTC. 10 years later we were able to take our oldest son, Kevin, as he prepared to leave for Taejon, South Korea. A few years after that we had the pleasure of taking Kelly Ahern (now our beloved son-in-law) to the MTC before he served in Montevideo, Uruguay. Today we left Bryan, our youngest son, at the curb with four very capable Elders who helped him down the sidewalk with all his luggage.

Tonight there is an intense prayer in my heart that he already loves his companion, that he likes the food they serve, that he has a comfortable bed, that he isn't homesick and that the spirit is strong in his heart so he wakes up tomorrow ready to learn Hungarian and to be a fabulous missionary.

Guardian Angel on Overtime (part II)

Our house has emptied out again after a wonderful few days of having family and friends gather for Bryan’s church talk. We are so grateful for the incredible support and love we have felt from everyone…thank you!

Now that things have quieted down, I can finish the second part of my, ‘I should have died’ blogpost. I recognize that there have been numerous times during my life I’ve been watched over and spared from harm, but this particular event is the most prominent in my memory:

We had tried keeping goats, sheep and cows in the north pasture to keep down the tall, coarse grass that grew there, but none of these animals would eat what was known as “horse grass” so when I was 13 years old my Dad bought a horse to graze that pasture.

Jim and I argued over what to name the horse, I liked Trigger or Ivory, but Jim liked Buster and Mom sided with him so Buster he became. Buster was a slightly off-white color, but the most noticeable characteristic of this animal was not his physical features, it was his attitude. This horse had sass! He was ornery as all get out and mean as a hive of hornets. He would bite, kick, buck or knock you over with a swing of his head. We had a neighbor, Lynn Talbot, who was a real ‘horseman’ and he would come over and give me advice about Buster. Mr. Talbot told me I had to show this horse who was boss and not take any nonsense from him. This is not easy for a 75-pound weakling against a giant animal who wears iron shoes on four powerful hooves and has a mouthful of enormous teeth. Mr. Talbot loaned me a saddle and a bridle and then told my Dad, “That horse needs to be exercised.”

So, in addition to my evening chores every day was added the ordeal of exercising Buster. Of course the only way to really exercise a horse is to ride him, so I would push, punch and pound against Buster to get him saddled and a halter on him each day after school and in the mornings during the summer. Buster would NOT take the bit of the bridle between his teeth, no matter what I did. He would throw his head and knock me off my feet every time I tried. Mr. Talbot got him to take it, but he even admitted he didn’t think I would ever be able to do it. So Mr. Talbot traded the bridle for a halter and Buster wore it around his nose and up over his ears and then to the reins which I would hold. I could yank with all my might and maybe get Buster to consider going the direction I wanted, but not often.

For many weeks this was our routine: I would exhaust myself saddling him; I would get myself up in the saddle and then I would urge, cajole and threaten him to walk or maybe trot around town for 30 minutes, but the second that he knew I was too tired to fight him anymore, he would turn his nose toward home and gallop at a terrifying speed back to the house. We would arrive in a lather, then I would unsaddle, wipe down and curry him and give him his grain and fresh water. He was a very obstinate and demanding animal.

After some months, I started getting some muscles built up and began feeling a little more confident around Buster, but it still never failed that when we’d been out for 45 minutes, Buster would turn towards home and gallop nearly uncontrolled the entire way home.

I liked to take Buster to the Hinckley Rodeo grounds and ride into the arena and shut the giant gate and then just ride in circles until we were both tuckered out, then we would full-out gallop home and go through our routine. One day, I rode into the arena and didn’t shut the gate. I was enthralled to see the barrels were set up and I was excited to try ‘barrel racing’ like the beautiful rodeo queens. (I had quite a vivid imagination!) I urged Buster forward toward the first barrel and we trotted through the clover-leaf pattern of the three barrels and then a quick gallop back out the gate…(because he thought we were heading home)...FUN! I had to try that again, but this time with some real speed. I drove the heels of my cowboy boots into Buster’s sides and forced him to gallop at an angle down the arena to barrel number 1…around we went! A quick flick of the wrist convinced him we were headed to barrel number 2 and that was when things went south. As we rounded on that barrel, Buster reared and I slipped out of the saddle and fell into the soft soil of the rodeo arena. I instantly knew I was in trouble because my boot was caught in the stirrup and I was being pulled through the dirt like a plow. My head was bouncing up and down making a cloud of dust as Buster, without all my strength yanking on his halter, made his dash straight towards the open gate of the arena. I knew I was as good as dead because no way could I survive the pounding I was receiving when we came to the gravel and then paved roads, the ditches, rocks, bushes and other hurdles we would cross between the rodeo grounds and home--which is where I knew Buster was heading at a dizzying speed.

I was struggling with all my might to free my foot from the boot OR my boot from the stirrup as we flew through the gate of the arena. I was yelling at Buster to stop, yet I knew it was completely futile. Just as we were heading through the parking lot, Buster came to a sudden halt…He just stopped! I didn’t waste a second, without the pressure of being pulled by my foot; I could rotate my foot and extricate it from the stirrup. I jumped to my feet, fully expecting someone to be standing there holding Buster’s lose reins. But there wasn’t anyone there, at least no one I could see.

Buster allowed me to easily remount and then he calmly walked out of the parking lot and towards home. It was the first time he ever returned home at anything less than a frenzied gallop. I trembled terribly while I unsaddled Buster, toweled him down and gave him his grain that evening. I patted his head and went into the house still marveling that I was alive.

To this very day, I am positive that there was an unseen (to me, not Buster) presence who stood in front of that run-away horse and made him stop in his tracks and allow me to get out of the precarious position I had been in. I’m so grateful to whoever saved me from being battered to death. Ever since Cami, (my now 16-year-old) heard that story as a very small child, she has always told me that she was the one who stopped Buster from running away dragging her Mom…and who knows...maybe that is what happened. Cami is the only one I've ever known who was more obstinate and headstrong than that horse.

Buster with my little brother, Mark, My Dad (with the carrots), and My Grandma (Georgia Basham)