17 Miracles

This morning I got up at 6:00 and got ready and went to the 7:30 session at the temple.  If I had made it to the 7:00 session, it would have been the Tongan session!  Oh, well…at least there were still come people from the Tongan session in the celestial room when I went in.  That’s real dedication…to be in the celestial room for more than 30 minutes!  I’m glad I was able to go and am thankful to Nick for watching Autumn for me.

I got home, changed my clothes, got Autumn dressed, and then we went over to Mom & Dad’s at 10:00.  Liz met us there and we drove to a movie theater that’s about 30 minutes away from our house.  I thought this Captain America balloon thing in the lobby was cool.

Here we are waiting for the movie to start.  I was worried when we pulled into the parking lot and it was full of mini-vans.  I thought the theater was going to be packed, but it was surprisingly empty.  I figured w/ it being a Mormon movie that it would either be packed, or that people would be on “Mormon standard time” (1/2 hour late).

The movie we saw is called 17 Miracles (you can watch the trailer HERE).  It’s about the Willie/Martin hand cart companies that crossed the plains trying to reach the Salt Lake Valley.  The first part of the movie was kind of slow, but then it started to pick up and I had tears just streaming down my cheeks.  If I had been at home watching it, I would have been gasping for breath between gut wrenching sobbing.  But, I held it together and just cried quietly and breathed deeply since we were in the theater.  You could hear people all over in the theater sniffing, b/c it was such an emotional movie.  There were a lot of miracles that happened that I didn’t know about.

It made me really do some introspective thinking about if I would have had the faith and courage and testimony and determination that these early Saints had.  I sadly have to admit that I don’t think I would have.  They had to not only leave all their possessions behind, but had to endure incredible hardships.  But, the miracles they experienced were also incredible and I left that movie w/ a greater appreciation for all they endured and how they remained faithful to the end.

Autumn got to ride in the Corvette w/ Papa and thought she was hot stuff when they pulled up next to us at a light.  She kept telling Papa to “go faster!”

We came home and Pam Thompson was here visiting for the weekend.  We had grilled Ollie North chicken, and grilled zucchini and yellow crook neck squash.  It was a scrumptious and I felt like we were feasting on food meant for a king after watching what little rations the pioneers had to survive on.  We swam for a while and then Dad & Autumn went to refill the bird feeders.  This tall sunflower just grew on it’s own from a seed falling out of the bird feeder!  I kept telling Autumn to shake her legs and bummy so she wouldn’t get mosquito bites (it was over 100 degrees today and I would think they couldn’t handle that type of heat).  But, they do b/c I got 2 huge welts on my legs where they bit me while I was worrying about Autumn not getting bit.

After filling the bird feeders, they were hot and sweaty so they came and jumped in the pool again.  Dad laid under the water rainbow b/c the water is so much cooler.  He told Autumn to come do the “Papa plank” w/ him!  LOL!

Then they both rolled off into the pool.  We swam for a while and then finally went in b/c I was starting to get sunburnt.  I played Super Market Mania 2 and Autumn fell asleep and we just hung out and watched TV.  Mom & I made fried rice for dinner and that was about it for the rest of the evening.  Autumn & I finally came home so we could go to bed and be ready for church tomorrow.