Monticello

One weekend in August Nels and I went to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home. We learned so much about the third president of the United States. Here are just a few:

• Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence at the age of 33
• He taught himself to be an architect and Monticello was one of his designs.
• Founder and architect of the University of Virginia
• During his presidency he conducted the Louisiana purchase and sent Lewis and Clark across America.
• Had 6 children...sadly many died shortly after being born.
• He knew many languages, studied and learned all of his life. He woke at sunrise and wrote letters, and studied books.
• He loved gardening and tested different ways to grow plants.

Here's a few pictures of our adventure at Monticello:

This was the path that led up the hill to Monticello. It was about a half mile uphill, but a pretty walk.The family's graveyard was about half way up the hill. The Jefferson clan is buried here. It was said that Jefferson wanted to be buried under a large oak tree. There's trees all around and it's very peaceful there.

This is part of the vegetable garden. It was a huge garden that stretched for at least 1/4 of a mile. There were all different kinds of plants and different varieties. There were also herbs like basil and lavender that smelled so good.

A small building that had two chairs inside. I'm sure Jefferson spent time just sitting, thinking, and watching his plants grow.

Flower garden near the house. He grew a widerange of flowers. Most of them I had never seen before.

Monticello:

We weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside. There were a lot of little inventions that Jefferson had implemented in his home. He was always trying to come up with a more efficient way to do things. He had a bell system, and a pulley system for wine to be pulled from the cellar to the dining room. He also had an ice house on the north side of the home. In the winter large chunks of ice would be placed in the ice house (a large circluar room below the ground). This way they would have water/ice for several months. Oh, and Jefferson loved French cuisine. Being entertained in the Jefferson home meant having the best French food.

We wrote our name with a quail feather and some ink.

We noticed this tree on our walk to Monticello. I love this....I call it Tree Hugger.

Two different types of trees are entertwined...hugging. The one on the right shows the two different types of leaves.

It was a great trip and we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Geocaching

Ever heard of it? I hadn't either, but Nels learned about it and planned our day date with it. Lots of fun.
This is what the geocaching website says: Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors. Once the container is found you can leave something in it and take something out. There's geocaches everywhere, with different levels of difficulty. So look it up and find one by you!
So our first geocache was at First Landing State Park. It was a four stage geocache which means that once you find the first coordinates clues are given for how to find the next stage. So our first coordinates were N 36 54.985 and W 76 02.490. So we put the coordinates into our GPS and started walking. The first one was relatively easy to find and so was the second. The third one we kept getting lost. We kept hiking in circles and taking the wrong turn....only we didn't know it was the wrong turn until a half mile later. Eventually we found it though. The fourth was where the geocache was hidden. We found the coordinates and then we got off the trail and started looking around. I happened to tentatively pick up a bunch of moss by a tree, and what do you know?? There's the geocache, carefully hidden under moss. We were so happy to find it and exhausted. We ended up hiking about six miles in the hot, humidity. I guess the pioneer trek wasn't enough, we had to go do it again. Although, hiking is much easier without a handcart!

This is what some of the area looked like. I don't know if swampy is the correct term to describe it. Luckily, we had nicely groomed trails to walk on.
At the trail head.Hmmm, I wonder what's under this moss stuff?

Ta da!

Nels with the geocache.

Me with geocache. There were some pretty random items in there. I think I'm holding up a picture of a dolphin. And yes, we both had to have our picture taken with our first geocache...we're cheesy like that.

This is what Nels wrote on the log notebook that goes in the geocache: Nyborg family, First cache ever! Sometimes you have to get a bit lost to find something...:) We left 2 bandaids, took memories and pictures. After our geocaching adventure we went to Sandridge Beach. I love this beach. It is so calm and peaceful. The waves were a lot bigger than at Virginia Beach. We sat in our little beach chairs and read books. We went in the water for a few minutes. But I am such a chicken! I did not want my head to go under the water. The waves were pretty big and strong so I didn't go in very far. It was so nice to just sit and relax.

Shadow picture:

Waves:

Aw, just relaxing.

Good job Nels for planning an amazing day date!!!

Pioneer Trek

Nels and I were asked to be the Ma and Pa for our ward's youth conference. We dressed up like pioneers, had handcarts and went hiking on a difficult trail. I have never sweated so much my whole life! The weather was about 100 degrees for the high and 80 degrees for the low. So even at night we just laid there in the hot, humid weather. The heat was probably the hardest challenge.

The next challenge was going up and down hills with our handcarts.

Another challenge was loading one handcart with 13 people's stuff...including 2 guitars! The first two times we loaded the handcart, after we walked for a minute something would fall out. Very frustrating. But by the third time we loaded it, we had a system that worked pretty well. At least nothing was falling out. :)

Both Nels and I ended up getting ticks. Yuck! I did not like pulling those things out. Gross. I'm now paranoid and whenever I itch, for example my arm, I immediately look to see if there is a tick there. I'm getting less paranoid though.

Nels was sick the whole time with a nasty cold. His throat hurt and he wasn't able to talk for most of the trek. :( But he had an awesome attitude the whole time and that probably encouraged the youth more than anything.

So those were a few of the challenges. Looking back it was really neat to see the youth work together to pull and push those handcarts around. We all grew a stronger appreciation for the pioneers and all they did. I enjoyed sharing my testimony with the youth and hearing their pioneer stories and testimonies. Although the guitars were a pain to pack on the handcart, in the evenings it was great entertainment. The two boys that brought them played and it was nice to have music. My favorite part was when we were coming into "Zion," the youth were singing "Come, Come Ye Saints," and their parents were there cheering them on. It took my breath away. I had a feeling of accomplishment, love and of course being exhausted.
Here's a few pictures:
This picture was taken before we had taken one step on the trail. See how clean we look....that's the cleanest we were. It went downhill from there. Nels and I are on the bottom right.
Gung Ho! Let's go. They were pretty motivated the whole time. Of course, we all had our moments. :)

We were given a baby doll that had to be held from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. I was surprised and impressed when our young man, Shelby took the doll for almost the whole time.

Our backs started hurting so we leaned up against each other. It helped a little.

Another picture of the youth pulling the handcart along.

This is our handcart and it was one of the first times we loaded it...you can see how lumpy it is. It looked a lot better once we figured out how to do it.

Cheese. They had asked the Ma's and Pa's not to help push or pull. Which was nice sometimes, but I felt bad too. I would sometimes jump in. I wasn't doing much here, as you can see. :)

The second day we had the pleasure of trail blazing. Using saws and axes, mostly the young men cleared trail for the handcarts to pass through. It was hard, exhausting work. It was difficult too, because not everyone was able to help. There were only so many saws and axes. But we definitely appreciate those who make the trail for others to follow. This picture is some of the trees that were cut and then moved to the side so the handcarts could pass through.

This is a picture of the terrain...hills we climbed and ran down. This picture doesn't show the steepness very well....but believe me, it was steep. I was very grateful for rope.

Pa and Ma smiling for the camera. I think this was the hardest thing Nels and I have done together. We learned a ton and we have a deeper appreciation for the pioneers and our Savior.