Our Huge Puppies

I was trying to take pictures of the puppies so that I could up-date the advertisements so that we could get them sold. But now the puppies are really, really active. So they wouldn't hold still for pictures like they used to. I got a couple of okay pictures of Baloo. And then I was trying to pictures of the other puppies, but I couldn't get them to focus. So I decided to try string cheese to lure the puppies into posing for me. It didn't really work...









This one is pretty good.












Profile shot.




All the puppies eating string cheese.







Stripes just eating cheese...





Soda trying to keep the string cheese and me trying to get a good shot...

St. Louis, MO

On our flight back, we weren't nearly as lucky as on our flights to D.C. We had to just sit in our one seat. I also had to sit next to a lady that hit me really hard in the elbow with the seat belt and then didn't say sorry or ANYTHING! She was really rude. Then she put up the arm rest between us. It made me really uncomfortable. I don't know. I kind of like that separator. It makes me feel like we each have our own designated space. So through the whole flight, she kept inching closer and closer to me with her bottom. I was so annoyed. She also had her over sized bag under our feet the whole time. It was so wide that it wouldn't fit under the seat in front of her. So she had it immediately below BOTH of our feet. And to top it all off, she farted the whole entire flight. Gross.

In the middle of the flight, they announced overhead that they needed medical personnel at the back of the plane...any nurses or doctors, etc. So I got up to answer the call, and she got really, really mad that she had to let me out of my seat. It ended up being nothing, just someone got light-headed and almost passed out. They just sat down. But the flight attendants freaked out. When I go back there, a guy was like "I'm a doctor. Get out of the way!" It turns out that he is a psychiatrist. Yeah. He didn't even know how to take blood pressure correctly. I just wanted to laugh my face off. Instead I just walked away. I told them to get me if they needed any help. Like I said, the guy was fine. He just sat down and then drank juice and got "checked out" by the "doctor" and went back to his seat. Then I had to get back into my seat and go past that rude lady again. She got all upset that I had to disturb her book reading time TWICE. I was like "whatever."

We also had drunks sitting right behind us. When they came on the plane, you could smell the alcohol. The immediately ordered Bloody Mary's. And then they went on for about an hour about how appalled they were that there was no salt or pepper on the plane. They just couldn't believe it. I just wanted them to shut up. And when the whole "medical emergency" happened, one of the drunks was like "I'm a doctor. I need to go help." The flight attendant told him that they had it all under control. He kept freaking out and saying how he felt like he should help. And I was just thinking how no one would want a drunk beyond reason doctor to help them. He finally got over it and they all passed out and drooled all over each other.

So this was not a fun flight. Our layover was in St. Louis. Spencer took some cool sunset pictures. He was smart and sat in the window seat so he didn't have to sit by any strangers. Anyways, these are the sunset pictures that he took.

The White House

Spencer was very specific about what things in DC he wanted to see. One of them was the White House. I had a hard time explaining to him that he wanted to see the back of the White House because it is more famous. He didn't really understand. So we went to the front on Pennsylvania Avenue. That wasn't what he wanted to see. So we walked all the way around the block to the back side where the White House is curvy and there is a fountain. You can't get as close as in movies because it is all blocked off with tons of security. So we didn't get a very good picture. Plus, it was at night. But this is what we got.


















Here is Spencer. Doesn't he look happy?









And here we are. I couldn't take the cold anymore, so I bought a hat earlier that day. We were lucky that a lady came by to take our picture. Her son was REALLY excited to be there and tried to get in the picture with us. It was funny. Awkward, but funny.

Here's a better picture.

Front




verses


Back

Washington D.C. at Sunset

After the Holocaust Museum, it was really pretty outside, so we got some pictures of the Washington Monument with the sunset. We tried to get us in the picture as well...but none of the functions we tried really worked.

I love the American Flags in this picture that are in a circle around the Washington Monument.







Spencer is in this picture. He's the black blob.



And he's in this one, too.



And this is the Capitol Building with the National Mall in front of it.

The Holocaust Museum

Spencer and I went to the Holocaust Museum. We actually went on Martin Luther King Day, and it was completely packed. It turns out that that is the busiest day of the year there. So, we went back the next day. It was much, much better. Just a handful of people rather than buses and buses of people.


This is probably one of my favorite museums that I have ever been to. I think that I like it because of how significant it is. I like the message that it gives and what it represents. These are some of the things that the museum is supposed to portray:



A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum stimulates leaders and citizens to confront hatred, prevent genocide, promote human dignity, and strengthen democracy. A public-private partnership, federal support guarantees the Museum’s permanence, and donors nationwide make possible its educational activities and global outreach.

Located among our national monuments to freedom on the National Mall, the Museum provides a powerful lesson in the fragility of freedom, the myth of progress, the need for vigilance in preserving democratic values. With unique power and authenticity, the Museum teaches millions of people each year about the dangers of unchecked hatred and the need to prevent genocide. And we encourage them to act, cultivating a sense of moral responsibility among our citizens so that they will respond to the monumental challenges that confront our world. Today we face an alarming rise in Holocaust denial and antisemitism—even in the very lands where the Holocaust happened—as well as genocide and threats of genocide in other parts of the world. All of this when we are soon approaching a time when Holocaust survivors and other eyewitnesses will no longer be alive.

The museum was very effective in conveying a humility and solemness about the Holocaust. It was truly unbelievable. I recommend this museum to everyone.

This is Spencer outside.





It starts out by giving you a passport with a real person's identity and what happened to them. Most of them end up with the person dying in the concentration camps. You go up in an elevator to the fourth floor and you begin to go through the museum. I goes one direction level by level back to the beginning.

It has videos and artifacts and educational phones about every aspect of the Holocaust. The whole thing was just...unbelievable. Spencer told me that there are some people that are trying to say that the Holocaust never happened or that it wasn't as bad as people say. I was completely repulsed by this information. I couldn't believe that someone would deny this horror. I think that those people and the people involved in the Holocaust are going to hell. I don't think that they can come up with any excuse good enough.

The hardest part was the actual voices of survivors describing what happened to them. The other hardest part was watching the video footage of when the soldiers came to the camps to set them free. It was very graphic to see bodies being bulldozed and people that look like skeletons walking around. It is probably the most disturbing thing that I have ever seen.






The whole thing really made me think, though. What if this were to happen again? Would I be brave and strong enough to fight it? My greatest fear would to be a bystander. How weak and cowardly would that be?


There were poems on some of the walls. This is one that really reiterated this point to me:


First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out--because I was not a socialist.
Then the came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.

By Pastor Martin Niemoeller

There was a picture of all of the hair that they made the prisoners shave off. They sold the hair for wigs and to stuff pillows, etc. The voices of the actual survivors talked about how they had to get naked and shave their heads and turn over their clothes was just horrible.

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seen times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreathes of smoke beneath a silent blue sky."

"Never Shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever."

"Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God himself, never."

Elie Wiesel

Most of the prisoners never even made it into the camp. They were killed with Zyklon B gas in fake showers. There is a sculpture by Mieczyslaw Stoierski that depicts the Crematorium II at Auschwitz-Birkenau to scale. It is amazingly detailed and very moving.

Spencer told me that not all of the people were killed by the gas alone, but that they would be trampled and suffocated underneath the people in a state of chaos brought on by sudden fear.

All of the children were killed upon arrival. Most of the women were killed on arrival as well. Only the men strong and able to do work were kept alive and tattooed with numbers.



Others were taken to have scientific experiments done on them. To see how long the could go without food, or how long they could live in cold water, or if they could survive on strange foods. It was to experiment to teach their soldiers survival methods. They performed all sorts of cruel experimentation on these people.

This is a pile of the shoes that the Nazi's kept when sending the prisoners to be killed.




"We are the shoes, we are the last witnesses.
We are shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers,
from Prague, Paris, and Amsterdam,
and because we are only made of fabric and leather
and not of blood and flesh, each one of us avoided the hellfire."


Moses Schulstein





This is a three-story tower display of photographs taken of the people in Eishishok, Lithuania. It was a Jewish community that existed for 900 years. In 1941, an SS mobile killing squad entered the village and within two days massacred the entire Jewish population. The photographs are some of the people killed.





There were artifacts from the concentration camps. There were two actual bunk beds. One of the most solemn artifacts was an actual rail car that was used to transport the prisoners to the camps. 100 people were forced to fit inside. And it was tiny. Like the size of a very small room. Most of the prisoners died on the way to the camps. They were starved or suffocated or dehydrated or froze to death or died of heat stroke, etc. Some died of disease because they had to urinate and defecate in the places that they were standing. I cannot imagine the smell of those rail cars. With dead bodies and bodily fluids...I just cannot comprehend it.






My favorite part of the whole museum was the Hall of Remembrance. This room is in the shape of a hexagon. And I liked that idea because a hexagon fits inside of the Star of David. And by connecting the points on the hexagon, you can make another Star of David. And you can keep putting one inside the other forever and ever.




The floor had triangle tiles and there were triangle windows. This reminds me of the triangle registration patches that the people had to wear in the Holocaust.

This one was for gay people. They had some for Poles, gays, gypsies, Jews, etc.



The hall is at the end of the walk-through. It is quiet and serene and invites you to pause and contemplate and honor those that died (as well as those that survived) in this great tragedy. The hall itself is very bright. Almost too bright for mourning. Perhaps it is supposed to convey a sense of hope. On the walls are the names of the twenty most important concentration/death camps. It has in the front an Eternal Flame, designed to serve as a formal memorial space. People go there to say Kaddish, which is the Jewish prayer of commemoration. You can light candles that are all along the walls in memory of relatives and friends to perished in the Holocaust. This room is just beautiful and sacred. It almost feels like the celestial room at the temple. I found myself wondering if the spirits of those who died in the Holocaust were there in the room, helping to convey the message and spiritual feeling.




These are the candles that are lit in honor of those victims.






Before leaving the museum, there is a book where you can write your name and a message or whatever you want. I wrote that our trip there was dedicated to Spencer's teacher, who was an Italian survivor of the Holocaust. She has taught Spencer a lot over his years at BYU and has been a great teacher and mentor to him. I also wrote "Let us never forget." Spencer wrote the same message in Italian. Then Spencer and I signed it. This was in the Hall of Witnesses that is full of windows and light.

The whole museum was beautiful and very spiritual.



MISSION STATEMENT
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is America's national institution for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history, and serves as this country's memorial to the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust.
The Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victims — six million were murdered; Gypsies, the handicapped and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic, or national reasons. Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war and political dissidents, also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny.
The Museum's primary mission is to advance and disseminate knowledge about this unprecedented tragedy; to preserve the memory of those who suffered; and to encourage its visitors to reflect upon the moral and spiritual questions raised by the events of the Holocaust as well as their own responsibilities as citizens of a democracy.
Chartered by a unanimous Act of Congress in 1980 and located adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, DC, the Museum strives to broaden public understanding of the history of the Holocaust through multifaceted programs: exhibitions; research and publication; collecting and preserving material evidence, art and artifacts related to the Holocaust; annual Holocaust commemorations known as Days of Remembrance; distribution of education materials and teacher resources; and a variety of public programming designed to enhance understanding of the Holocaust and related issues, including those of contemporary significance.

Korean War Memorial

This is the Korean War Memorial. I have the same solemn feeling here as I do at the Vietnam Memorial. I think that I would feel more reverent at the World War II Memorial if it had all of the names and/or faces of the soldiers that died like the Korean and Vietnam memorials do. Does that seem silly??

I have a particular fondness for this memorial because my grandpa Spracher served in this war. I love my grandpa Spracher more than anything. He is very, very dear to my heart. And so going to this memorial was kind of like honoring him and what he did to serve this country. He is a great man and I am so proud of him.

I like that the wall that has the names on it also has pictures of faces of soldiers. It is very artistic. This wall is also black and also reflects those looking at it. It's kind of neat to see your face next to the face of a soldier.

This is an ariel view of the whole memorial.

As you approach the memorial, the first things you see are the nineteen soldiers on patrol heading up hill. The use of Juniper bushes in the field is to show the rugged terrain they met. Veterans who visit the memorial view the granite slabs, located in front of each soldier, as obstacles that American soldiers had to overcome. A low granite slab does not do justice to the many obstacles that they had to overcome. The ponchos that each is wearing can only give you a hint as to the miserable weather they faced. The soldiers at the front of the patrol represent the first soldiers sent to the Korean peninsula. Many of the first soldiers were ill equipped and ill trained yet they persevered. American soldiers faced foul weather, rugged terrain, poor equipment, not to mention 54 divisions of communist Chinese soldiers but in the end they were able to overcome all these obstacles.

These are statues of soldiers marching.

If you look in to the faces of the soldiers you will notice that they represent all different races. Even though the United States had a very segregated society, the armed forces had begun to integrate units. Visitors to the memorial are so awe struck by the soldiers, that before they know it they have missed the other parts of the memorial. Along the north side of the memorial is a low stone wall, on which are engraved the 22 countries that made up the United Nations forces in Korea. Not all the nations participated militarily. Several contributed much needed medical supplies and personnel. These 22 nations felt strongly that their freedom was also being threatened, and was willing to help in whatever way they could.

Here is a close-up.

The soldiers represent a unit on patrol. There is much to see in the field, most of which is not readily apparent to the average visitor. The original design of the memorial was to have 38 statues to represent the 38th parallel. Most of the fighting occurred along this line but due to space limitations the number of statues had to be cut in half.

The highly polished surface of the wall of faces reflects all nineteen soldiers producing a total thirty-eight figures. It is not just the Army represented in the field. All four branches of the United States Military have representatives.

You can see the reflection in this photo.

The memorial says:

"OUR NATION HONORS HER SONS AND DAUGHTERS WHO ANSWERED THE CALL TO DEFEND A COUNTRY THEY NEVER KNEW AND A PEOPLE THEY NEVER MET."

General Douglas MacArthur said, "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away." When the last veteran of the Korean War fades into history, he can do so knowing that a memorial will remind future generations of his/her sacrifices in defense of South Korea.

This is me by the memorial.

This is the wall with the faces carved into it.

Along the south side of the memorial is the wall of faces. When the wall is viewed from a distance, the faces form the outline of the rugged hills that are a dominant part of the Korean landscape. The images depicted on the wall were taken from actual photographs of soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen who participated in the conflict. The faces along the wall represent the support troops it took to keep our foot soldier in the field. We do not often think about those who are behind the front lines. It is somewhat ironic that one of the best-known TV shows about war, MASH, takes place in Korea and is about doctors and nurses in the Korean War.

This is the wall with the faces carved into it.

This is at the very left hand side of the wall.

There is a reflection pool next to the memorial. There were signs that said not to throw coins into the pool. Partly because it defeats the purpose of it and partly because it causes a chemical reaction and leaves ugly gray stuff on the bottom.

The greatest achievement of the United States in its over 200 years of history is that its people have remained free. The American flag has become recognized as the symbol of freedom around the world. It's why so many people around the world strive to come here. It's also why so many countries hate us. Our freedom comes with a price and from time to time we will have to fight to defend the highest principle known to humanity, freedom.

Where the two walls come together there is an inscription inlaid with silver that says, "Freedom Is Not Free." Which means there is a cost to the freedom that so many of us take for granted.

This is where the wall says:
FREEDOM IS NOT FREE
You can see reflected from the wall where there is a reflection pool. The pool was empty because it was winter, but I'm sure that it is pretty.

The price the free world paid to insure that freedom, is engraved on the other wall. The total casualties of both the United States and the United Nations' forces are engraved there, and the numbers are staggering to many visitors. The Pool of Remembrance is the most misunderstood part of the memorial. It was meant to be a place where visitors can sit in the shade of the trees and reflect upon what occurred nearly fifty years ago. Unfortunately, the pool is viewed as some kind of wishing well where coins are left behind. In actuality the stilled water of the pool is the part of the memorial that is for those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our freedoms.

Vietnam Memorial

My favorite D.C. memorial is the Vietnam Memorial. I love the design of it, it is very artistic and moving. There is something very spiritual about this place. I love the message that it invokes and I just really like the feeling of humility, respect, admiration, and gratitude that I feel when I see all of those names.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial recognizes and honors the men and women who served in one of America's most divisive wars. The memorial grew out of a need to heal the nation's wounds as America struggled to reconcile different moral and political points of view. In fact, the memorial was conceived and designed to make no political statement whatsoever about the war. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a place where everyone, regardless of opinion, can come together and remember and honor those who served. By doing so, the memorial has paved the way towards reconciliation and healing, a process that continues today. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial accomplishes these goals through the three components that comprise the memorial: the Wall of names, the Three Servicemen Statue and Flagpole, and the Vietnam Women's Memorial.

Maya Ying Lin, the designer, wanted to create a park within a park - a quiet protected place onto itself, yet harmonious with the overall plan of Constitution Gardens. The walls have a mirror-like surface (polished black granite) reflecting the images of the surrounding trees, lawns, monuments, and visitors. The walls seem to stretch into the distance, directing us towards the Washington Monument, in the east, and the Lincoln Memorial, to the west, thus bring the Vietnam Veterans Memorial into a historical context.

Toward the Washington Monument.

Toward the Lincoln Memorial.

"...this memorial is for those who have died, and for us to remember them." - Maya Ying Lin, designer, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall

With the addition of three names added in 2007 the total is now 58,256 names listed on the Memorial. Approximately 1200 of these are listed as missing (MIA's, POW's, and others).

Set in the grassy park of Constitution Gardens, the Wall is neither prominent, grand, nor imposing. Rather, it is simple, thoughtful, and profound. It is a place to remember those who served during a turbulent time in American history. It is also a place for the nation to heal its wounds.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall contains the names of the 58,249 men and women who were killed and remain missing from that war. The names are etched on black granite panels that compose the Wall. The panels are arranged into two arms, extending from a central point to form a wide angle. Each arm points to either the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial in the distance to bring the Vietnam Memorial into an historical context on the National Mall. The Wall is built into the earth, below ground level. The area within the Wall's angle has been contoured to form a gentle sloped approach towards the center of the Wall. While entering the memorial at ground level from either end of its arms, the descent to the center reveals more and more of the Wall until it towers more that ten feet above the walkway. At the center, within the protection of the arms of the memorial and surrounded by the grassy slope, is a place of quiet, calmness, and serenity.

"…the memorial appears as a rift in the earth - a long, polished black stone wall, emerging from and receding into the earth," Maya Ying Lin, the designer of the Wall, remarked in her submission to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Design Competition. She later said of her design, "I had an impulse to cut open the earth…an initial violence that in time would heal. The grass would grow back, but the cut would remain…this memorial is for those who have died, and for us to remember.I though about what death is, what a loss is. A sharp pain that lessens with time, but can never quite heal over. A scar. The idea occurred to me there on the site. Take a knife and cut open the earth, and with time the grass would heal it. As if you cut open the rock and polished it."

"It was while I was at the site that I designed it. I just sort of visualized it. It just popped into my head. Some people were playing Frisbee. It was a beautiful park. I didn't want to destroy a living park. You use the landscape. You don't fight with it. You absorb the landscape . . . When I looked at the site I just knew I wanted something horizontal that took you in, that made you feel safe within the park, yet at the same time reminding you of the dead. So I just imagined opening up the earth. . . ."

"Approaching the memorial, the ground slopes gently downward, and the low walls emerging on either side, growing out of the earth, extend and converge at a point below and ahead," wrote Maya Lin. It is here at the center of the memorial where the two arms of the Wall tower above and extend outward in a welcoming manner, providing for a safe and protected embrace, "a quiet place, meant for personal reflection and reckoning," according to Lin.

There were four criteria for the design of the memorial:

1. be reflective and contemplative in character;

2. harmonize with its surroundings;

3. contain the names of those who had died in the conflict or who were still missing;

4. make no political statement about the war.

On the granite wall itself, the layout of the names perhaps most strongly conveys the significance of the memorial. The names are listed chronologically, according to the date the servicemen and women died or were declared missing. Thus the story of the Vietnam War, from beginning to end, is recorded on the Wall. Finding a name would be like finding bodies on a battlefield, according to Lin. More importantly, the names of those who served together and died together would tend to be together on the Wall.

The names begin at the top of the Wall in the center of the memorial. The listing continues down each panel, as if each were a page in a book, towards the right end of the Wall. The listing resumes at the left end of the Wall and continues back towards the center. Here, at the bottom of the Wall, is the last death. As described by Lin, "…the war's beginning and end meet; the war is 'complete,' coming full circle…." By illustrating that the war has come to completion, perhaps the Wall encourages visitors to move on to the next step of coping with their feelings about the war and those who served. In addition, the circular layout of the names may also suggest that the healing of the nation can also come full circle.

The black granite of the Wall not only records the past, but it literally reflects the present as images of the nearby grass, trees, sky, and visitors are reflected in vivid color. When looking into the Wall, the images of the present are intermixed with the names of the past. This may symbolically bridge the past with the present and help visitors deal with the past. The reflections of the Wall may also encourage those who visit to reflect on the Vietnam war, those who served, the healing that the nation has achieved, and the healing that has yet to be accomplished.

Name after name after name appears in an almost never-ending account. The listing appears chaotic, just like war. But there is order to the chaos. The names are listed in the order in which the men and women died or were declared missing.Other than the names, nothing on the Wall describes who the men and women were. No name appears any more meaningful or important than any other. The names are distinguished only by how the men and women were lost. A diamond next to a name indicates a person was killed. A plus next to a name indicates a person is missing. Over 1,000 of the names on the Wall are of people who are missing.

Every day, family and friends of those on the Wall, and the general public, visit the memorial. Often, they leave flowers and mementos to remember their loved ones. They leave letters to say thank-you, good-bye, "I'm sorry," and whatever else is in their heart. Some take pencil rubbings of the name of someone special.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall honors all who served, and in particular, those who were lost. The memorial puts a human face on what was America's longest war.

The last time that I was here, I didn't have the opportunity that I had this time. I was able to help Spencer find a name of an acquaintance of Joyce (Spencer's mom) that served and died in Vietnam. This really, really brought the memorial to life for me even more than before. It makes it a little more personal. And to realize that the name on the wall is a real person that lived and was cared about and had a life...it just really makes you think. That means that EVERY name on that wall was someone important. They were someone that was deeply loved by their family and friends. And all of those people died for me. What a selfless sacrifice. What an honorable thing to do. It is so Christlike. It really got me choked up. I loved watching all of the other people find names and making copies, too. It was just really cool.

Here is Spencer coloring over the inscription to make a copy of the name. There were people there in the freezing cold to help us. The showed us how to find the name and gave us the supplies that we needed to make the copy.

Again, here he is coloring. It was pretty high up on the wall.

Here is the name: Peter R Carroll

Again, closer.

And here is the memorial. I love that it is black and it reflects the faces of the people looking at it. I love that it is built into the ground. And I like that it is the shape of a "V".

This is the statue that is facing the memorial. It is three soldiers. I like the image of brotherhood that I get from it.

"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may or may not have always. Take what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own.
And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind. "
Major Michael Davis O'Donnell1 January 1970 Dak To, Vietnam Listed as KIA February 7, 1978