*The Rhoades*: October 2011

Preston and I hosted a Halloween party. It was so much fun. We had lot's of yummy food, awesome friends and LOT'S of laughing thanks to the "Game of Things". Everybody had awesome costumes. We're so lucky to have such great and fun friends here.

We were a 50's couple! I wore that skirt in H.S. for a dance and Preston used his Letterman's jacket.

I think I was meant to live in the 50's. I love that time period.

Jasmine and Aladdin. No makeup or wig's necessary, they look just like them! Lizeth made those costumes!

Such a fun idea! Jelly Belly's. Mike and Ashlyn.

Claire and Tyler. Can you read her shirt... "The Devil Made Me Do it" If you can't tell, she's preggers! CUTE!

Megan and Kendall. Our nurse and Dr. Funny thing is.. Kendall really will be a Dr. soon :)

These two crack me up. Kirsten and Nate. Mahana from "Johnny Lingo" Notice her 8 cows around her neck and the one and only Billy Idol!

Our cute lil' bumble bee! Donna!

Abe and Donna... "IT" The best costume. I couldn't take Abe seriously all night. Cree-py. He'll be wearing that at our ward's trunk-or-treat. Donna also made those costume's. I need to learn to sew more!

Our fun drinks. The one on the right has dry ice in it for a fun effect.

Sorry this picture is really bright. Between my camera that needs replaced and the BRIGHT light in the background..


It was towards the end of the night when his make-up started flaking but check that out. He looks just like "IT" haha

Such a fun night! I tried a new recipe for one of my soups. I did Pumpkin Turkey Chili. I thought it was actually really good.

Pumpkin Turkey Chili:
1 Tbs. Vegetable Oil
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb. ground turkey
2 cups pumpkin puree (same thing as pumpkin filling if you're confused like I was)
1 1/2 Tbs chilli powder
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 dash salt

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat and saute the onion, green bell pepper, yellow bell pepper and garlic until tender. Stir in the turkey and cook until evenly browned. Pour meat mixture into slow cooker.Cover and set on low, and cook for 4-5 hours. Serve topped with Cheddar cheese and sour cream.
** I added about two cup's of water to make it the consistency I liked. Play with it a little to get it how you like it. I also added about 3 Tbs of sugar to sweeten it up a tad.

I also made Pumpkin bars.. or pumpkin cake for dessert tonight.

PUMPKIN BARS (it came out more like a cake consistency... bars... cake.. same dif!)

Caution: If you are watching your figure, do not attempt. Or, if you're like me, watching my figure but when it comes to something like this, I just don't care! I have a weakness for anything pumpkin especially when cream cheese is on top!

Bars:

4 eggs

1 2/3 cups granulated sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

15-ounce can pumpkin

2 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

Icing:

8-ounce package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350. Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda. Mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on pumkin bars.

I had an amazing opportunity to go with my dad on a Church History Tour to Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska. My dad is a tour guide for Mormon Heritage Association. He does about a tour a year (switching back and forth from the Nauvoo part and the Palmyra part. He asked if I would like to be his assistant on this and I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Unfortunately, Preston couldn't come because he can't miss a week of school. So he had fun watching all the football he ever wants and did some things with friends and stayed plenty busy with school. He also got called as the Young Men's president while I was gone. I was sad I missed it, but I'm so proud of him and I know he'll give his all to this calling and dedicate so much to the young men in our ward. Anyways, this trip was fantastic. It was so much fun spending time with my dad and getting to know a whole bus full of new people. By the end of the trip, I left with so many great friends and we all had a blast together and had such amazing experiences that helped us grow emotionally and spiritually. I won't type much anymore because the pictures will take up PLENTY of space. Enjoy the pictures.
Day 1: (flying and getting to hotel late)
Day 2:
We went to church Sunday morning. We showed up and found out it was a Polynesian ward (with a few of us whities). Oh how I love the Polynesian culture. Because I am Polynesian. (some of you will get my joke on that) Great, great people!
Then, we went and visited the Community of Chris temple. Very interesting. Not in a disrespectful way, but their temple looks like something from a Dr. Suess book :)

Independence Temple Lot. (Just across the street from the Community of Christ temple)

the LDS Kansas City Temple which should open in a few months :)

Printing press

Call me crazy, but I find old cemeteries very interesting and cool.

Liberty Jail

Day 3:

Far West Temple Site

Cornerstone

Check out those thorns.

lunch at Cycles Restaurant. Hole in the wall, fun place, great food.

Adam-ondi-Ahman..Amazing place, amazing spirit just knowing what happened there and what will happen.

All the trees were changing colors for fall. Beautiful.


Hannibal, MO; hometown of Mark Twain. Such a fun town, I could have stayed there forever. I really felt like I was back in the 1800's.

haha my dad is a goof. Since he was the tour guide, this hat fit him perfect!

Mark Twain's home. The white picket fence is the fence he talks about in Tom Sawyer.

Dinner where we met with Dr. David and Mrs. Costigan. Professor of history at Quincy Univ. Expert Civil War, Abraham Lincoln etc.

Lincoln/Douglas debate

Day 4 & 5: Nauvoo

With a quick trip overlooking the Mississippi River.


Check out the super cool Elephant Plant leafs.

Wilford Woodruf's home.

Heber C. Kimball home.

A piano from 1801. Amazing. I love old things so this was fantastic.

The beautiful Nauvoo temple.

After finishing a session at the temple with the group. We met with the temple president and he gave us a tour of the temple and the coolest part was that we got to go to the tippy tippy top of the temple inside the bell tower. 95 steps up. So so cool!

Joseph and Emma's mansion home.

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Top pictures are of John Taylor's home. That rocking horse is one of his child's horse. After they left for Salt Lake, his son was so sad they didn't bring the rocking horse so John Taylor went ALL the way back to get the rocking horse :)

Meet John. Best bus driver ever. I sat right behind him the whole trip so I got to know him pretty well. Very nice, fun man!

A house Joseph and Emma lived in.

Emma, Joseph and Hyrum's graves. Right outside the home pictured above.

Isn't that gorgeous. I didn't want to leave the beautiful fall weather on the trip.

Masonry. We saw how they made brick's and you even get to take home a 'Nauvoo brick'

On a wagon ride through the "country" of Nauvoo. So pretty. The Elder on the right is also from Surprise, AZ!

This was taken from the wagon ride. I just love open farm land. Isn't that pretty?

I love my dad!

Brigham Young's home

Red Brick Store

Rendezvous play put on by the missionaries in Nauvoo. This was so fun! They all did such a great job.

Carthage Jail. This place is amazing. Last time I was there (about 7 years ago) and this trip, I can't help but feel for Joseph and Hyrum and the others. The spirit was so strong here and it really put things into perspective. Joseph and Hyrum.. What great men, two of my hero's. This was the beginning of day 6.

The top window is the window Joseph fell out of.


Two bullet holes. (Another one is just below the door knob). One hit John Taylor (who lived) The other hit Hyrum and killed him instantly.

After Carthage, we went back to Nauvoo.

Sarah Granger Kimball home. She did a lot of service for all the men working on the temple,

Sarah's family bible that her husband gave to her for a gift. That is one big bible!

A chair in Sarah's home that Brigham Young made.

Now, I will take you down the Trail of Tears of also known as the Trail of hope. The saints walked down this trail as the went to cross the Mississippi river. Minus all the huge trees, they had one last view of their beloved temple the worked so hard on and had to leave.

Along the Trail of Hope, there are quotes from the saints. I really liked this one. I don't have to worry about any controlling men and I'm not a feminist, but this kinda made me laugh knowing there were these strong willed women towards men back then :)

Ready to cross the frozen Mississippi river on a very cold, wet winter day. (imagine that anyway)

Making rope.

My dad and some of the Aussies making rope. That's right, we had a group from Australia. I just love them! And, I guess I love my dad too ;) JK dad. I of course love my dad!

I even 'jump roped' with it! I'm a pro. I should make and sell rope!

Day 7: Last day
We went to Farmer Bob Brown who lives on Mt. Pitsgah. Which was a settling place for the saints for the winter months. They ended up staying there for a while until Brigham Young wanted everybody to go to S.L. Farmer Bob has 1600 acres and Bob has found hundreds of spots where cabins where and hundreds of graves. You know how he does this? He uses iron rods. These rod's detect where ground has been disturbed 18 inches or more. (Try it out on your sprinkler system at home) There isn't anything magical or super natural about it but somehow with the magnetics in the ground, if you hold these rods (even coat hangers work) hold them lightly in your hands about a foot apart and when you go over where ground has been disturbed, your rods will cross, and open back up when you get to an opening. Like a cabin. He could find the cabins due to journal entries and measurements of cabins. He's never dug up ground because he wants it preserved. It's hard for me to explain so you guys might not believe me, but we all tried it and saw it first hand and my brother even did his science fair project on it a few years ago. Bob has had people come from Universities from back east and BYU and they bring all their expensive equipment to find where these cabins were and all the expensive equipment does is confirm what Bob has found with his rods. Pretty amazing.

Farmer Bob. He's not even a member of the church but is so proud of the heritage and background on his land. The owner of the Mormon Heritage Assoc. who is good friends with Bob asked him why he's not a member of the church and I don't remember his answer on why he's not but he told Clint "If the church ever needed land to build a temple in this area, I'd give them the land" Bob is such a happy, loving, 'salt of the earth' kind of guy. Great, great man!

I've got my rod's! It was COLD this early morning at Bob's. But I sure loved the cold weather knowing I was going back to 100 degrees in AZ.

See how my rod's are crossed. I'm walking over where a wall of a cabin was.

Just a replica of a cabin from the pioneer times.

A part of Bob's beautiful land.

Tractor ride through Bob's farm where he showed us where different things were. Like row's of cabins, wells, even out houses. He even showed us where they had wagon trails were through their town,

Our amazing group

Back home at the S.L. airport. This is Jessie. A good friend I met on the trip. Such a sweet, fun girl! Don't mind us, we were on a plane and bus pretty much most of the day and this was at midnight. We're TIRED.


Meet Lili. My cute little sister. Love her! I got to spend a little bit of time with my family before I headed back to AZ.

Well, if you made it this far without falling asleep or turning off your computer. Thank you! This trip was fantastic and I learned and grew so much spiritually. I missed Preston so much so it was definitely great to be back with him. Speaking of Preston, today is his BIRTHDAY!!!!

Next exciting events coming up:
October: Halloween/party
November: Vegas, family visiting
December: Christmas and UT (hopefully, if I can get work off)
In the future like February-ish.. we're hoping to experience our first cruise. That's still just a possibility at this point. Again, if I can get work off :)