A week in Indiana

But first, we had a back-to-school ice cream social Sunday evening at our house with Beckie, Emily, Joe, Lucy, Quinn and Larkin. Noah was doing his own ice cream thing working at Oberwiess.  I made simple vanilla with an ice cream maker that was given to us second hand. And, now I understand why....the motor is just a wimp (probably too old) and it couldn't churn the mixture to a hard enough consistency. Think soft serve soup! We poured it into a large flat cake pan and froze it for about 30 minutes which made it just soft serve. It was still yummy, though, and it was fun to visit with everyone.

Speaking of back-to-school, I just have to share my first day of first grade photo from 1961. 

Tuesday afternoon, Steve and I headed to Greenwood, Indiana. Alex needs help to attend the temple and the thought was that, if we were there a few days, at least one of the days he would feel able to go. And, so a temple trip happened Friday morning. And it went well! 

The rest of the time was spent doing whatever we could to help Julina....fixing meals, getting a flat tire to be replaced, cleaning, mending, and I did some yard work a couple of mornings. 

At the Greenwood library, just around the corner from the house, Julina had a display of some fabric art she made back when she was in college so we took a little "field trip" to see it on display.

Julina had to work all the days we were there. But, not on Saturday so she and I escaped for a couple of hours that morning to Newfields. It is an art museum and a botanical garden complex that used to be the private estate of the Lily family (of pharmaceutical fame). Temperatures were perfect and we had a really lovely time enjoying all the late summer gardens.

Included in the admission price was the ability to go inside the Lily mansion. I loved the library with the gorgeous ceiling and the built in bookcases with the alcoves on top to hold busts of famous authors.

There was a place in the basement for kids of all ages to create their own gardens using wooden trees and pieces of felt. Here is our garden creation...

We left Greenwood a little before 3:00 pm and had an uneventful drive back to St. Louis.

Steve and I are caught up on Strange New Worlds episodes and we watched a movie Friday evening called Six Days In August that told about the drama around the succession to Brigham Young from Joseph Smith. It was pretty good. Our heat wave has moved on and we are enjoying much better temperatures but, sadly, not much rain has fallen so, when we returned from Indiana last night, I spent the rest of the evening watering. And, that was our week....