Ohio Trip - Part 2

(continued)

Day 3 - Friday, July 13th

In the morning, my parents took us to the Farmpark, one of the Cleveland area Lake Metroparks that happens to be located right in Kirtland. We all tried our hand at milking a cow and grooming a horse........ petting sheep and piglets........watching a border collie herd sheep, marveling at llamas and alpacas, and learning about bees, plants, and gardening.

After lunch, my parents were off to their afternoon assignment giving tours of Historic Kirtland, so we took the opportunity to enjoy a "VIP" tour of the Visitors' Center.........Newel K. Whitney Store and home, the sawmill and ashery, and the schoolhouse. We also met a lot of other missionaries who confirmed my suspicions that my mom and dad are well-loved by all of them.
We also viewed the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Exhibit in the visitors' center, which was quite impressive. After the tour, we all (even me and Jay) tried out the tree swing out back.
Since my parents had to work through dinner, and the kids were hungry (and Jay wanted pizza), we took off in my parents' car with their Garmin nuvi (nicknamed "Helga")... the coolest gadget in the world.... to find some decent pizza. (Without it, we would have gone insane trying to find our way around. But with it, we could head off on our own and we never got lost. We gotta get one of those.)

After dinner we attended a performance at the stake center of "This is Kirtland," a musical written, directed, and performed by members of the Kirtland Stake. I was expecting "stake road show" entertainment, but was blown away by how professional it was, from the singing and dancing, to the costumes and set. It was really fun, and the kids loved it too.

Afterward, we went out for ice cream at the local joint. While we ate our ice cream on the lawn, a teenager mentioned to her friend that it was Friday the 13th, and I thought what a perfect day it had been.