Strange Mormon Jello

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aka Throw Up Jello

Or at least that is what I thought it looked like the first time I saw it. I was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints but I married a Mormon. Being married Mormon is a lot different than being LDS. You can be LDS anywhere, but you can only be Mormon in the US. It is easy to define what it means to be LDS, just ask a missionary, they’ll tell you all about it. It isn’t easy however to define what a Mormon is, but I can tell you it starts with green jello.

Now if your like my son you may be skeptical, and you should be, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow. The question is are you daring enough to try it?

Jello – Cottage Cheese Salad
(I snuck this out of a not so secret cook book. Why it is called a Salad I don’t know, but looking at the ingredient list it is definitely Mormon.)
1 Package Lemon Jello
1 Package Lime Jello
2 Cups Water
1 can Milk
2 tablespoons Salad Dressing
1 Carton Small Curd Cottage Cheese
1 Lg. Can Crushed Pineapple
Nuts

Mix Jello. Beat. Beat in other ingredients (don’t forget all Mormon dishes are served in their native environment, a casserole dish). Let set in refrigerator.
Pretty simple and amazingly pretty good.
Also pretty good was Reid and Doris’ Christmas tree, but it needs some more decorations.

San Luis Rey Mission, November 2010

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San Luis Rey Mission

Being so close to San Diego one might think that the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia (King of France) was the second of the California missions. This is of course not so. The San Luis Rey Mission is actually the 18th mission.

San Luis Rey Model Highlighting the Chapel

Having been built in 1798, it was now a long time after Father JuniperoSierra and so this mission took quite a different feel. One of the first things that you notice withthis mission is it’s size.Despite some ups and downs it was evident by the time this mission was built that the mission system in California was taking on a life of its own. Built in a good spot with plenty of land the mission was very successful.

The natives were by most accounts treated well here and in turn they helped this mission prosper. One of the things you can see is the beautiful Lavanderia (Washing Area).

San Luis Rey Aqueduct Stone

More than just a washing area one can tell by the still beautiful ruins that this place must of been quite a garden in it’s day. The mission was so successful that by 1830, the mission was the largest building in California.
With time however all things must change. In 1833 the mission was taken over by the Mexican government. It was supposed to go to the Native American tribe called the Luisenos, but through a lot of shady deals the Native Americans didn’t profit much on the deal. The once beautiful mission started to crumble. In many places all that is left is the archways to tell someone what it must of been like.

Retreat Arches with Pepper Tree

In 1847, the Mormon Battalion rode into the mission and declared the mission for the United States Government and used it as a base.

From this spot the Mormon Battalion took over the Mission in 1847

It would remain in the US Government’s hand until 1865, when then President Abraham Lincoln gave it back to the Catholic Church by executive decree (one of his last acts in office).
Back in Catholic hands the mission was abandoned until 1892 when a group of Franciscan Monks from Zacatecas asked if they could take it over.

The Priests at the Mission use the traditional Franciscan Robe.

The Catholic Church conceded the request but the US government insisted on a US citizen for it’s management so Father Joseph O’Keefe was put in charge of the mission. With the help of the Franciscans from Zacatecas, Father O’Keefe rebuilt the mission to what it is today. A great mission to visit, truly worthy of the title “King of the Missions.”

Outward view of the San Luis Rey Mission.

Mission San Diego de Alcala November 2010

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As the sign will promptly tell you California’s first mission was established by Father Juan Junipero Sierra on July 16, 1769. Although, to truly understand this mission you have to go back to 1542. This was when Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo (you can read more about our Cabrillo trip HERE) first discovered San Diego Bay (then named San Miguel) and claimed it for Spain. It wouldn’t be until 1602, when Sebastian Viscaino came into the bay would it be named San Diego, after Saint Didicaus of Alcala (we we learn about him soon). If you notice that was a 60 year gap. Russia noticed this gap and slowly started making their way down from the North of California. About a hundred and sixty years later Spain started to notice and thus was born the California Mission System.

The first mission site was located in the Presidio area (about where the Mormon Battalion Centeris now). After Father Sierra left to go establish the other missions the remaining Fathers didn’t like the location because it was too close to the military and so they moved it 5 years later. This would initially prove to be disastrous for two reasons.

The first reason was it was that the new site was too close to existing Native American settlements which angered them into a riot that left one missionaries dead. The second reason was they were so far away from the Presidio (also known as fort) that the Spanish army had no idea about the riot until they saw the smoke from the burning mission walls.
Eventually, the army along with Father Sierra found out about the disaster, reconquered the area, and rebuilt the mission. The mission however would remain as one of the poorest missions in the entire chain. The land around the mission site is very arid and as mentioned before the locals were not really motivated to help the Fathers make it much better. The location of the mission however was crucial and so the Spanish made sure that this mission survived (until of course they got kicked out by the Americans).

A crown on top of a bell denotes the bell was founded in the royal foundry in Spain.

Now completely restored the San Diego Mission is a beautiful structure steeped in historical significance. For a few dollars and a few hours you can stroll through it’s immaculately kept up grounds. When we were there there was a funeral going on and so we didn’t get to stay long in the chapel, but we were able to spend plenty of time everywhere else.

One of the things I found particularly interesting was the story of San Diego. San Diego is known in English as Saint Didacus. He was born in Andalusia, Spain in 1400, joined the Catholic priesthood, and became a really good infirmarian until he died in 1463. I mention the date because in 1562, Carlos, then son of King Felipe II of Spain got injured and went into a coma. Not knowing what to do, the surgeon in charge of Carlos decided to dig up Didacus (whom had been dead for 99 years) and put him in bed with Carlos. Carlos miraculously wakes up (I would too if someone put a 99 year old body next to me) and the King is so overjoyed he petitions Rome to make him a saint. Creepy, miraculous, and crazy all at the same time. I believe it just because I couldn’t make up a story like that if I tried.
Well, besides miracle stories there are many more things to see at the museum. Some of my favorites was seeing where the Fathers slept (talk about stiff beds!) and the Native American baskets.

Not exactly ADA compliant


Our family had a fun time going. You should note that if you plan do go, there isn’t much distance covered, but there is a lot of going up and down stairs.

Have fun!!

San Juan Capistrano Mission 2010

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When talking about the San Juan Capistrano Mission there are so many places for me to start writing. I am not a Catholic, but I will say there is something special to me when I think of the California Missions and I think it has to do with San Juan Capistrano. San Juan Capistrano was the first of the 21 California Missions that I ever visited. When I first went there I think I was about 5 or 6 years old. I don’t remember much, but I do remember standing just about where AJ is standing in the above picture. Back then that was about as close as you were allowed to get to the great Stone Church because they had not yet retrofitted it. The other thing I remember was seeing the big garden. There used to be big pepper tree.

The pepper tree was the largest in the entire United States. It died in 2005, but the gardens are still beautiful even without it. The other thing I remembered was eating a really good burrito at this place called Pedro’s Taco’s. It luckily is still around:

The San Juan Capistrano is known as the “Jewel of the Missions” and it lives up to it’s representation. There are many things to do and see there and I wont be able to cover even a tenth of them here in my blog but it is always fun to show highlights.

The first thing you will see when you go to the mission is a big sign that says it was established on November 1, 1776 by Father Sierra.


This however is only mostly true. The true story is that Father Lausen and Father Amurrio first started building the San Juan Capistrano in October of 1775, but in November of 1775 news got to San Juan Capistrano of the native uprising in San Diego and the Spanish army decided it was better to go back to San Diego and help them out. So the fathers buried all the bells and left one cross up. When they came back a year latter in 1776 the cross was still up and so they unburied the bells and started building again.

The building was made out of adobe bricks with fired roof tiles. Makes for a very picturesque building, but not very earthquake resistant. In December of 1812 a big earthquake rocked Southern California and the great church was destroyed. Unfortunately, they were having mass the same time the earthquake hit and so 40 people were killed. After that fateful day the San Juan Capistrano Mission changed hands many times and went into a terrible state of neglect (as did all of the missions). This is where the story got very interesting to me.
In 1895 after the mission was in almost complete ruins a group called the Landmarks Club of Los Angeles came to the site, rebuilt the old soldiers barracks, and made some attempts to stabilize the remaining buildings. Then in 1910 Father O’Sullivan walked into town and changed everything.

Father O’Sullivan was an interesting man to me. Basically he came to California to die. He was from the East coast and he was suffering from an advanced case of tuberculosis. He came to the then abandoned mission and instantly fell in love with it. He said he could relate to it’s state of disrepair. He figured since he didn’t have long to live he was going to make everyday count and he got to task gathering whatever he could from the mission. His original plan was to gather up all the fallen tiles and artifacts and categorize them so that after he died someone could start repairing the buildings. Funny thing was it was several years later, he had finished his project, and he wasn’t dead. So he went onto the next project and started repairing the buildings figuring someone could decorate them after he was dead. Again however he finished this project and didn’t die. In fact he started getting better, but he needed money for decorations. At first he charged .10 cents for the curious to tour the building, but to get more people coming he started talking about the sparrows.

Every March they would come to the mission to eat the mustard seeds that would grow abundantly in the area. Father O’Sullivan knew this was a curious habit and promptly started writing about it. People got the message and started coming every year. By the time Father O’Sullivan died in 1933 the restoration efforts for San Juan Capistrano were in full bloom. In 1939 composer Leon Rene was so inspired about the mission that he put in a little office at the mission and started writing the song “When the Swallows Return to Capistrano.”

Leon Rene’s Desk

A group called the Ink Spots sang this song and it became a nationwide hit:

Due to efforts of Father O’Sullivan and the popularization of the song, the San Juan Capistrano Mission is a major destination today.

Our family had a great time exploring the mission grounds. It made for a nice afternoon drive. As of this writing the mission was open most days except major holidays and cost $9 which included the headset tour.
As always here is a little video of the some of the things we saw at the mission.

Also, if you are interested here is a little photo album of some of the things we saw. To learn more about a picture in this gallery click on it, then click on the “San Juan Capistrano Mission 2010” title to come back:

The Getty Center Los Angeles, California 2010

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Recently we went to visit Denise’s brother in Los Angeles. The main point of our visit was to see our new nephew Jonah, but there is only so much time you can stare at a baby so we decided to plan something more than just baby staring (which would of probably been a bit creepy anyway).


We had a fun time going to a place called the Pitfire Pizza. It was described to me by Tom, my brother-in-law, as the place where “all the hip young parents go in LA.” Not being that hip we were lucky as Tom and Erica were able to sneak us mountain folk in. Denise had a sandwich, I had a mini pizza, and AJ had their version of Mac and Cheese.

It was all pretty good but we had other plans as well.
The main event for the day was visiting the Getty Center Museum. There are two Getty museums, one in LA and one in Malibu. The Malibu is the older of the two, but the LA museum is by far bigger. I personally haven’t been to Europe and therefore have not visited any of the great European museums, but one day I hope to go and I hope it looks like this museum. The best part of this museum however is that it is FREE (something I hear is not like European Museums), except parking was $15 per car (talk about a case for public transportation). Tom’s goal was to get some good scenery shots, but as it turns out it was a cloudy day. It was huge and I didn’t get but to briefly file past it’s many exhibits. Here is a small video of what I did get to see:

In a lot of the areas I was not allowed to take pictures so Denise and I played our favorite museum store game: “Which is the best poster?”
This was Denise’s pick:

This was my pick:

Not shown is AJ’s pick, which would’ve been the stone shaped crayons. Not really a art piece I know, but that is what AJ wanted.
Anyhow, we had a very fun day. If you haven’t done so already I encourage you to go to Tom and Erica’s blog and check out their photos of the day.

Happy Halloween 2010

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Happy Halloween everyone! Hope you had a good day today. Actually, today we didn’t do much, we actually celebrated Halloween on Saturday. That was when our church had a Trunk-or-Treat Party. Basically, it is like regular trick or treating but instead of going from house to house you go from car to car asking for candy. A wierd tradition here in the USA, but that is what we do. In order to get candy you of course have to have a costume. In AJ’s case he was a bat:

In case you didn’t know he was a bat all you had to do was ask him to do was say “Elvis” and he would show you he was a bat:

Thanks go to Grandma Jackman for such a cool costume.
Denise got into the act too as a witch.

Thanks go to “Nana” for the hat.
I went as a pioneer, but no one wanted to take pictures of me…
Anyhow, the party was very fun there were many things to do…
There was donut on a string…

Ring toss…

But the hands down winner for AJ was…

the bounce house! He was in there for hours. The only thing that got him out was the announcement that it was time to go trunk or treating. If it had not been for that I don’t think we would of ever gotten him out of there.
We did lots of other things on Saturday too which I hope to blog about but check out this cool house in Riverside, California:

The New Crestline Library 10/30/10

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One of the things we did this last Saturday was to go to the ribbon cutting for the new Crestline Library. The affair was a grand affair for the small town of Crestline. We had a fife and drum core and a local Scout troop bring in the colors and lead us for both the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem. Doing the ribbon cutting was San Bernardino County Supervisor Paul Biane and the President of the Friends of the Library Bill Steiner. The library was supposed to be done in the Spring of 2010 but it was pushed back to October because the orginal builder bid too low and run out of money. In all the new library cost nearly 7 million dollars. Quite a sum for a local library, but despite being a small town Crestline has more than proven it will use it’s new library. With the new library comes a lot of new features. The new library has a beautiful setting overlooking Lake Gregory. It has double the space of the old library and four times more computers than our old library. If by chance they are all full you can bring your own laptop and get free WiFi anywhere on the grounds or at the park next door. If books are not your style there are several Kindles and V-Tech e-readers available for check out.

Utah State Capitol 11/23/09

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When we went to the Utah State Capitol it had just snowed. It was a little cold, but being used to the cold that didn’t really bother us much. The Utah State Capitol sits high on a hill and is visible from almost any point in Salt Lake City. The first thing you notice is it’s many columns, which when you first go into the visitor center they painstakingly tell you how each one was retrofitted for earthquakes (kind of boring, sorry I didn’t take any pictures of that part of the tour).

Taking the tour you are first shown the grand rotunda.

Decorated on the rotunda are various scenes from Utah history. I never thought of anyone else besides Native Americans and LDS pioneers visiting Salt Lake City, but the first non-Native Americans to Salt Lake City were actually two Catholic Fathers named Dominguez and Escalante in November of 1776.

They got to Salt Lake City, looked around, said “this is NOT the place,” and promptly left.
It wasn’t until 1847 when Brigham Young came into the valley that  any meaningful modern development of the site started. Surprisingly for all of it’s LDS history there are not really many references to the LDS faith in the Utah State Capitol. There are lots of murals depicting pioneers, but those could of been any pioneers the way they are painted. There are two murals however that depict Brigham Young and the one inside the House Chamber even shows the Salt Lake City Temple:

As the tour guide will tell you, Utah very proudly has a part-time legislative branch and so when we were there they were out of session. This was good however because we got to walk right onto the floor of both of the chambers.

If you notice in the picture Denise is holding AJ. This was not because Denise or AJ wanted any sort of cuddle time. It was because AJ saw those roll down desks in the Senate Chamber and instantly wanted to see if he could open them all up. I have no idea what those Utah Senators keep in their desks, but I didn’t really want to find out. Nor did any of the state troopers there want us to find out as well.
We toured the old Supreme Court chambers (sorry pictures came out too dark there) and then finished up in the Governors galley. The Governor was in when we were there, as noted by the fact that I saw what I think were some lobbiest waiting in his waiting room. We did not see the Governor of Utah, but we did see his ceremonial office (he has two).

The one we saw is the one he uses whenever he is on TV or is going to take a picture. Also of note was the State Reception Room:

Visiting the Utah Capitol is free and they are open M-F 9AM-5PM. Tours are given every hour on the hour. If you want to have some additional inside fun download this BINGO CARD. If you tell the visitor center where everything on the card is you can get a prize.

Colorado State Capitol 7/24/08

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The Colorado State Capitol is a rather imposing structure. I guess if you are going to have a city called the “mile high” city, you are going to need a State Capitol to match it. You might think this is a joke, but it is not. If you pay attention when you walk up the stairs there it says “one mile above sea level.”


The Colorado State Capitol was built in the 1890s but wasn’t dedicated until 1894. When you walk up to the building and when you walk inside you a confronted with this big golden dome.

It was completed in 1908, and yes, it is real gold.
For those with a bit of stamina and no fear of confined twirling endless stairs you can go climb right to the top of the dome.

Your reward for doing this will be spectacular vistas both inside and out:

The Colorado capitol has very elegant chamber rooms decorated with esquisite stain glass windows. It makes for a very bright yet opulent look:

Tours to the Capitol are free Mon-Fri 9AM-2:30PM, but may require reservations. You should also note that the dome is considered a separate tour.

Arizona State Capitol 9/7/10

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I have been doing a little programming and now the blog has some extra features. If you click on a picture it will expand, you can move it around, and when you click again it will retract…


In an effort to promote travel one of our goals as a family is to eventually visit all state capitols. This is going to be a daunting task but I figure we can at least start with the easy ones, which for us means the west coast states.

Last month we visited the Arizona State Capitol. The Arizona State Capitol is a funny kind of Capitol. It is actually more of a State Capitol Complex. The centerpiece is the Capitol Building, but the thing is no legislation actually takes place there because it is actually a museum. All the real work takes place in the surrounding buildings.

The state of Arizona didn’t ever want to have a capitol building, but they did want to become a state and so it was decided that to show prestige they would build a capitol, but they were going to be practical about it. The building was completed in 1901 for the very decent sum of $136,000, but it wouldn’t be until 1912 (when Arizona became a state) that it would be dedicated as the Arizona State Capitol. Being practical they built a capitol thinking that Arizona could never need any more than 30 house representatives (Arizona now has 30 senate and 60 representatives). The main capitol building served the state assembly until 1960 when the two chamber buildings were built and it served the governor until he moved to the 9th floor of the executive building in 1974. There are many evidences of the practicality of the building when you tour it. My favorite is right at the entrance:

This picture was taken from the second floor of capitol building. If you notice there are some nice doors beyond the banners, but you can’t go there, and you wouldn’t want to open them because they go nowhere. Apparently, the original plans called for this really nice staircase and visitors would enter through the second story, but being practical they didn’t build it, but they kept the doors. Go figure!!
Praticality aside the building is beautiful. Walking inside you are greeted by a big mosaic of the state seal.

Walking up the metal stairways you can go and visit the old house chamber. Just outside the chambers is a hall with statues representing various Arizona notables.

The advantage of it no longer being active you can walk right up and sit in one of the chairs.

It was been restored to when the state was first chartered. Also on the second floor is the former chamber for the Arizona Supreme Court, which now displays an exhibit of Native American basket weaving.

A lot of the old offices have interesting displays. I found this one particularly interesting:

(more interesting was that it was broken)
Going up further you can see the old Governor’s wing. When you get in to the Governor’s Office you will see this guy:

(mouse over to see detail, click to expand)
His name is Governor George W.P. Hunt and the wax figure was commissioned by the State from Madam Toussaints. One of the more colorful characters in Arizona history, he refused to vacate his office even though both houses and the State Supreme Court told him he had lost his re-election bid. The Governor insisted on a vote recount and was eventually vindicated and thus he still stands there, refusing to budge. If your wondering of the picture of the pyramid in front of him it is his tomb. You can go and visit it, haven’t been there yet but it sounds interesting.
While visiting the Treasury room AJ had a fascination with the safe.

The tour guide showed us how it was locked, but AJ ended up opening it. We wondered wondered what secrets could be inside, but it turned out to just have some extra carpet.

The rest of the room was talking about the Harvey Girls.

Going back downstairs we looked at some of the exhibits. Mostly paintings, but there was some interesting things to be found. In one exhibit they spoke about the USS Arizona and it’s role in the Pacific.

Not much survived after Pearl Harbor, but interestingly enough the Silver survived.

(mouse over to see detail, click to expand)
It was taken out of the ship just a week before the bombings. The USS Arizona never really saw combat before that eventful day, it was really more of a display ship of US Navy Power. Ironically it was going to be scrapped soon because it was considered out of date.
After the USS Arizona room we saw an interesting room dedicated to the Merci Train. A bit of forgotten history, after World War II the French wanted to show their appreciation for the food and supplies given to them. So they took 49 of the boxcars that were given to them, they filled them up with as many gifts they could muster and sent them out to the different states. Most of the gifts are gone, but Arizona kept theirs. The two gifts that interested me the most was a handmade wedding dress and a container made out of an artillery shell.

This exhibit was originally set to open in 2003, but they had it shut it up because the too many Arizonans had expressed opposition to it.
Connected to the State Capitol is a beautiful research library. Smoking was always prohibited in the library and so the paintings are really bright. This particular one shows the 5 C’s of Arizona (cattle, citrus, copper, climate, and cotton):

I mention the smoking thing because there is evidence of when smoking was allowed in the capitol. Actually, it is just evidence of tobacco use. You can look at the floors and tell exactly where the spittoons used to be:

The last thing we saw was the flag hall:

I recognized all of the flags except for the 2nd one on the right. Turns out it was the Confederate Arizona Flag that did fly briefly in August of 1861. It didn’t hold for too long because in July of 1862 the Confederate Arizona government was forced to flee into Texas and in 1865 the Confederate government ceased to exist entirely.
Overall it was a good visit, the place definitely has a lot of history to it. Can’t beat the price (it was free). Hours are Mon-Fri 9:00-5:00PM.