The Founding Fathers

Friday we drove around the Gettysburg battlefield listening to an audio retracing the soldiers steps. There were 170,000 men who fought in this three day battle, and by the weeks end 50,000 had been killed. Most of the fighting done was head to head, rifle to rifle, man to man. Many times when they would run out of ammunition they would raid the dead for more bullets to just sustain through the fight. The men who fought in these battles were sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers--- some who were fighting against their own brothers, and friends. I am not sure the average age but I imagine many of them were in their early twenties. The narrator would say "if you were standing here 140 years ago a band of confederates would be rushing at you with muskets and cannons." So as we sat in our car listening to the sounds of rifles, cannons and the cries of men-- I imagined what they must have felt charging enemy lines. Many knowing that they would not live through the day. But they still rushed to the fight. The kept moving. They didn't retreat. In the face of carnage they still fought.

We've gained amazing insight into our country's beginings this past week. Will and I visited the Lincoln memorial and saw the bigger than life statue of Lincoln. The president who led our divided country through the civil war. We then stood in the place Martin Luther King delivered his famous speech "I have a dream." We also rode to the top of the Washington Monument and looked from one side of city to another-- the Capital, the White House, the Lincoln memorial, the Jefferson Memorial (see picture above). We also visited the Library of Congress --- symbolizing our nation's earliest ideals that knowledge was power and the more one could get knowledge the more "free" they could become. The last day in Washington DC we visited the Holocaust Museum -- and while it did not have a lot to do with our nations history -- it served as another unique experience and insight into Hitler's prison term where he came up with his vision of "purifying his country" by getting rid of the Jews. With his plan in tack he rose to power through the power of media, appealing to the common people.

While this last week was phenomenal we're grateful to be back "home" relaxing with Will's sister Lizzie and Micah (see picture below). Family is chicken soup to the soul-- and like our other family visit we are eating fabulously and enjoying the presence of beautiful children and refined company. Meanwhile, we're slowing figuring out next steps. We're thinking we'll try to get me a full time job and Will a couple part time jobs while he studies for the Step three this next year. The part time jobs could be fairly simple jobs in hospitals and or community colleges teaching medical terminology.

So the following pictures are picture of a New York ward house, Oliver our new nephew, Will and I at Lizzie's place, a session at the Washington DC temple, a picture of our travels to New York where we barely escaped the jaws of one of the east coast floods, our visits to the national monuments, etc...










And a bonus video for the Blackhursts of Simon counting to a hundred ;)