Grave Yard Hopping

Grave yard hopping, you say? Sounds rather, well, ghoulish... No, it's not as bad as it sounds. Read on to get "Just the facts, Ma'am." :)

Gram had found, through her ancestry research, the grave of her great-great-grandfather, William B. McWilliams. The cemetery keeper (or whatever you call them) told Gram that William had bought three plots, one for himself, and two for his son, David and daughter-in-law Lydia at Lafayette cemetery in Brock, NE . 

Lydia has been very reticent about her family history. Gram and Abi can't find anything on her parents and siblings. 

So, with this view in mind, we headed out to Brock for some exploring! (And, of course, a big bag of white chocolate chip scones.) :)

   

Gram

Our trusty driver, Mom

The three stooges :)

It took us a bit to find the right roads, but we finally got there!

Here we are, wondering around looking for William's head stone.

Found!

We couldn't read the words on the bottom, so we tried rubbing a pencil on paper, which, by the way, doesn't work.

These little yellow flowers were scattered all over the cemetery. They looked just like snap dragons. Does anyone know if there's a wild variety of snap dragon?

This was a very interesting headstone...

After our failed attempt to read the writing, we drove to Auburn to get crayons and paper, shaving cream and ruler. Don't worry, you'll find out what it's all for in a minute.

Scribbling again

Can you read anything? We couldn't, except for the word "God."

We had read somewhere about this lady that sprayed shaving cream onto  a headstone, then scraped it off. It fills in the letters, making them legible.

All covered!

Scraping...

From what we could read, it says, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. " Psalm 14:1 

Smearing the shaving cream on the top now.

William B. McWilliams

Died Oct. 19, 1858

Aged

65 Years

I can't quite make out the rest through the picture...

Let me tell you, shaving cream is hard to get off ones hands without wipes or running water! :)

Aunt Carol and I, still trying to read it.

Mom got shaving cream on her dress. Thankfully, it came off well and didn't leave a stain!

After leaving Brock, we drove to Nebraska City to go to Wyuka cemetery to look up another ancester's grave.

Nellie W. died as a baby

Daughter of John & Frances Neel

John J. Neel

1843-1919

Frances E. Neel

"A precious one from us has gone,

A voice we loved is stilled;

A place is vacant in our home,

Which never can be filled."

The Past While in Pictures...

This is just a collection of pictures that weren't "important enough" to make their own post.

We had a giant mushroom growing out under my hydrangea tree. It's dead now, but it was neat while it lasted!

Sammy's foot beside the mushroom.

WOW!!! KK is taller than Mom!!!

KK's foot is on the left, Mom's is on the right.

This is "Parnelly," our miracle chick. She has a genetic disorder that causes her upper beak to grow hooked and abnormally fast, which, in turn, makes the lower beak turn to the side.  (I think I got that right! :) It looks pretty yucky, but she does great eating!

KK was out taking bird pictures again.

Grasshopper anyone?

Or, how 'bout a grub?

Sam spent a whole day breaking pallets apart and nailing the boards as ladders on quite a few of our trees. :)

Hm... This picture isn't quite right...

Abi's been taking "vanity pictures," as Ryan calls them, of Josh and Ben for their pilate training support card.

Last Sunday, Edward took some of us youth to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines to pass out tracts.

Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of us passing tracts out.

We had some very good, but mostly short conversations with people.

Toward the end of September we will be going to pass out tracts as a church to the Old Market again. Everyone is all fired up to go! (Better stay, Nate, so that you can participate.)

Is that cute, or what? Man, she is so cute, I can hardly stand it!

Nate, remember those huge potatoes I was telling you about awhile ago? This is a large Folgers coffee can. 

My hand

I was getting potatoes ready for the oven for supper.

Gotta poke 'em, or else they'll blow up.

Weather.com was forecasting a "blue moon" for one night last week. It wasn't exactly blue, but it made for an ethereal night.

Zoomed in almost the whole 30x.

Last week, Abi and I stayed up after church Wednesday night to make a batch of salsa.

The Pile Of Clean Dishes

Almost 1 am. We actually didn't get to bed till 2...

That same day (Thursday), after we'd slept in some, Kels came over to help make another batch.

Really hot jalapenos.

Mom made cinnamon spice muffins with streusel topping as a snack. They were yummy! 

Kels, washing dishes.

The star of the show

Look at those jowls!

Sweet hands

Kater is balding on just one side of her head. :) It's really cute. :)

"When the cat is away, the mice will play," as Sam informed us after showing pictures of KK and he when they were home alone.

Mom had gotten some sidewalk chalk, which they proceeded to wipe on their faces. :)

I don't know what induced them to do it...

Upcoming next, "Grave Hopping With Gram." No, it's not as bad as it sounds. Just some ancestry research in the form of finding ancestors graves near and in Nebraska City. :)