U4ia: Sunday, March 31

So Miranda came home from her mission a couple weeks early to have some surgery, but I have this great excuse to still write our family history down, since her novio is still on his mission in Paris, France for the next year. So until May 9, 2019, I'll still write a missionary letter for our blog posts. =)

So late Sunday night, we got this. So proud of my kids.

Monday morning, Carlie & I found ourselves at the 911 Memorial & Museum. It was sobering. You couldn't help but feel the sacredness of the ground you walked on. And experience that sense of utter astonishment at the wickedness of men, the influence of Satan, and the enormity of the devastation that happened. It's amazing. Right in the entrance is the double tridents, recovered after the towers fell.

They're 7 stories high, and made up the facade of the WTC towers as such:

architecture-twin-tower-trident-detail-521026760-crop-5b724ee146e0fb002cee951a.jpg

Some of the original foundation is preserved. See the people down below? It makes you feel so small, and stand in awe at the destruction of these 2 giants. It's mind-blowing.

The fire engine working at the base of the tower that literally had a building fall on it and melt half of it off. The front of the truck is what melted/ crushed off.

I promise, cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die that I did NOT KNOW that we weren't supposed to take pictures inside this part of the museum: the exhibit of artifacts & timeline. I wondered why no one around me was taking any. I saw the little placard on my way out, and retroactively felt sorry for all the blatant disobedience. But here, I'll still show you. The attacks started at 8:36am... THIS IS AROUND NOON.

Guess if there was a dry eye in this place. Guess if you could hear a pin drop. I can still feel it, just looking at these pictures. Can't see the screen.

The kids looking down into the memorial fountain. Super cool: there are engraved names on the metal plates surrounding the fountain of all the people who died in the tower. They're meant to be rubbed and touched and remembered as you look watch the water falling into the fountain named Reflecting Absence.

There are actually 2 matching fountains on the places where the 2 towers stood. Whoever thought of this is a profound genius. We are strong. We won't forget.

And see the fishbone building? Remember that one.

Across the street from it all

So here across the street is The Sphere, originally set on a fountain at the foot of the WTC towers. It miraculously survived, although melted and dented. The kids sang The Star-Spangled Banner here, too. So great!!

Original Sphere by artist Fritz Koenig:

Then we went into the "fishbone" mall, aka Westfield World Trade Center, a memorial to the original mall at the WTC. It's an architectural marvel.

And on to China Town:

Then out to see Phantom. No illegal pics this time!!!

And playing around at Times Square one more time on our way home, mostly in the Disney Store.

Tuesday morning, my roommate Emily & I took Carlie & her son Eli to The Frick Museum. Now, this is a name and a name to remember for the next letter. Eli and The Frick. So it is a private collection of Henry Clay Frick in his original mansion in Upper East Manhattan. The only pictures they let us take were of the giant atrium in the center of the mansion. And that's all I took! Can you believe it?

After walking all over Manhattan and eating lunch under the Plaza Hotel, and taking a subway again, Carlie & Eli were so tired, and didn't want to find another museum or sight to see. They just wanted to relax in the Grand Hyatt's lobby and wait for the buses to take us to the airport with everyone else. So we did. We got in SLC at about 11, home at midnight. I got to sleep at 2, and SLEPT UNTIL 1:20pm. That's how exhausting this trip was.

So Wednesday night, we Miamaids went to the color walls at the Outlet Mall, and took pictures. The girls were such good sports!! They loved it.

Meanwhile, the twins went rockclimbing at Momentum.

Another moment of Reflecting Absence: On Thursday, while I furiously tried to catch up from being gone for 5 days, my mom had a drawing for my dad's 2 AR-15's that he had assembled and finished with his original logo on them. Here's my brother Grant drawing the names. =) . Kimmy & Scott won the tungsten and burnt bronze colored guns. The rest of us got to have another lower receiver to build our own.

I wanted to share this story I saw on a FB page. It really touched me. We need to find active ways to minister to our assigned families, but also do this for all our neighbors and friends.

And then, Friday night was H&K's birthday party!!! They narrowed their friends down to 16 invites. 12 of them came... The stage is set.

They opened presents,

played Never Have I Ever & other games, blew out candles,

watched Big Hero 6 with tons of movie treats, and had their cousins stay for a sleepover.

Then, I took my nieces with me to my dad's shop, where we as siblings were helping my mom sweep out and clean Levie Precision for the last time. I had tears filling my eyes the whole time. Another experience of Reflecting Absence. This was a hard day. Right before we took all the signs off the outside, we snapped a picture. Me, Kimmy, Scott, Allen, Aaron, Mom.

Then, when we finally closed the "garage door" that had been open the whole time, we saw the last vinyl sign as everyone was driving away. I got out to get it off, and my brother Aaron decided it was worth a picture of me hanging on that vinyl. It did NOT want to come off. Haha!!

Then Miranda partied at the Holi Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork with Roomily and Freya.

Sunday, CarMorDer went with me to the Developmental Center. We took the special needs residents to church... what a sweet experience that was. The sounds of people yelling out, grunting, snorting, spontaneously sharing how they feel during sacrament mtg... it was so innocent and sweet. You should have heard the sacrament prayers by these angel men; the words don't have to be exact in that ward. They call people up to help hold up pictures, and the full adults race to the front of the room to be the first to help. They stand next to the speaker and offer their take on what he's saying. It's all worship and it's all important. I felt like I was in a room with more righteous souls than anywhere I had been on earth. Concentrated purity. We weren't allowed to take any pictures of the residents, so here are my sons in a group of youth on their way to pick up the residents to walk & wheel them back to the chapel.

That night, we went to Kimmy's house for dinner in Heber. We went out to see their new calf, and on the way, Sydney's 3 goats followed her faithfully.