Tomb of the Unknown Solider

Note: After a little research it seems that some of these "facts" are not true. See HERE for details. A lot of the facts are close, some are just rumors or fallacies, and some are true. Regardless of this, it's still a remarkable and amazing thing that these people do, and what it stands for.

I got this chain email today and normally I don't do anything with them, but I thought that this one was worth sharing. I still hate forwarding these things so I thought I would post it here for all of you.

On Jeopardy the other night, the final question was How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the tomb of the Unknowns ---- All three missed it --

This is really an awesome sight to watch if you've never had the chance,

Very fascinating..

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

"Here Rests
In Honored Glory
An American Soldier
Known But To God"

1. How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the tomb of the Unknowns and why?

21 steps. It alludes to the twenty-one gun salute, which is the highest honor given any military or foreign dignitary.

2. How long does he hesitate after his about face to begin his return walk and why?

21 seconds for the same reason as answer number 1

3. Why are his gloves wet?

His gloves are moistened to prevent his losing his grip on the rifle.

4. Does he carry his rifle on the same shoulder all the time

and if not, why not?

He carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb. After his march across the path, he executes an about face and moves the rifle to the outside shoulder.

5. How often are the guards changed?

Guards are changed every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year.

6. What are the physical traits of the guard limited to?

For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be between 5' 10' and 6' 2' tall and his waist size cannot exceed 30'.

Other requirements of the Guard: They must commit 2 years of life to guard the

tomb, live in a barracks under the tomb, and cannot drink any alcohol on

or off duty for the rest of their lives. They cannot swear in public for the

rest of their lives and cannot disgrace the uniform {fighting} or the tomb in

any way. After two years, the guard is given a wreath pin that is worn on

their lapel signifying they served as guard of the tomb. There are only

400 presently worn. The guard must obey these rules for the rest of their

lives or give up the wreath pin.

The shoes are specially made with very thick soles to keep the heat

and cold from their feet. There are metal heel plates that extend to the

top of the shoe in order to make the loud click as they come to a halt.

There are no wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform. Guards dress for duty

in front of a full-length mirror.

The first six months of duty a guard cannot talk to anyone, nor

watch TV. All off duty time is spent studying the 175 notable people laid

to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. A guard must memorize who they are

and where they are interred. Among the notables are: President Taft, Joe

E. Lewis {the boxer} and Medal of Honor winner Audie Murphy, {the most

decorated soldier of WWII} of Hollywood fame.

Every guard spends five hours a day getting his uniforms ready for

guard duty.

ETERNAL REST GRANT THEM O LORD, AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM.

In 2003 as Hurricane Isabelle was approaching Washington , DC , our US Senate/House took 2 days off with anticipation of the storm. On the ABC

evening news, it was reported that because of the dangers from the

hurricane, the military members assigned the duty of guarding the Tomb of

the Unknown Soldier were given permission to suspend the assignment. They

respectfully declined the offer, 'No way, Sir!' Soaked to the skin,

marching in the pelting rain of a tropical storm, they said that guarding

the Tomb was not just an assignment, it was the highest honor that can be

afforded to a serviceperson. The tomb has been patrolled continuously . . .

24/7, since 1930.

God Bless and keep them.

God Bless and keep them. We can be very proud of our young men and women in the service no matter where they serve.

IN GOD WE TRUST

Orem City Lights

Last Monday night I went with Andrew & Becca's family (Rob was working late) to see Orem City turn on the lights. Robby would NOT stay next to us - he wanted to run up to the people putting on the little program and dance around in front of everyone. He ran up to the front giving people high fives and he made friends with Miss Orem. After their program was over she came over saying, "I had to come meet my little friend! What a little flirt!" So we got a few pictures of him and her - he was just staring at her smiling.... ahh my little Quattro.

Twilight

We didn't wait in line for the midnight showing but thanks to Malea we had awesome seats for a Friday night 7 pm showing at Thanksgiving Point. We had Malea, lots of Liv's family, my sis in laws Becca and Amy, Tara, Tiff, Linds, Mary.... awesome group of girls! And the audience was hilarious - everyone ooooo-ing and ahhhh-ing and screaming and laughing.... it was great!



I really liked the movie! I went into it with low expectations - I've been so annoyed at all the previews and Bella's voice.... "your skin is cold as ice..." ughhhhh..... but really it was better that I thought it would be! She didn't bug me as much in the movie. And Edward was great! I thought some of the best characters were the dumb high school kids - especially Mike & Jessica. She was so believable. It was so fun! Most of all it was an awesome girls night out!

Who's seen it? Did you like it?

Happy Thanksgiving

There is so much to be grateful for even in this crazy world that we live in. I am so grateful for my wonderful wife and son, and for great family. I'm grateful for great friends. I'm thankful for a good, secure job where I'm not worried about the economic situation. And I'm grateful for our Savior who brings happiness and meaning to life.

I hope everyone has a great holiday and has something to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving.

24 Redemption

As I mentioned earlier, 24 Redemption was on last Sunday, a 2 hour tv special that is supposed to bridge the gap between season 6 and season 7 of 24. We're big 24 fans so of course we set the show to record on our DVR and got ready for some action. After watching, it felt like it wasn't complete. It felt like it was just something to get us ready for season 7--which it probably was. It was good--just felt short and not complete.

My opinion on Redemption is that they did it for 2 reasons--first, because they had extra time because of the writers strike. Rumor has it that they thought about having Jack in Africa for season 7, but scratched the idea because of cost and logistics. So now they could do a small scale show in Africa with Jack. Second, is that to tell the complete story they had to tell some things separately because of the real-time aspect of the show. That always presents several difficulties and they did this extra show to help alleviate some of those problems. Now I'm ready for the entire season 7 to just start--which it will on January 11th, 2009.

Some days you just need to go to Kmart!

Never thought THOSE words would escape my mouth.

Thank you, Liv, for introducing Quattro and I to the best $.25 activity EVER. Kmart, which is about 3 minutes from my house, has a couple of those kids rides which kids normally freak out when they see and desperately want to ride but normally it's like $.50 and lasts 10 seconds. Well, they have this one ride that fits 3 small children, costs only a quarter, and lasts almost 2 minutes or so. And these kiddos love it!

Proof:

Sometimes we just need to get out of the house, or pull our hair out.... so some days we stop by Kmart and spend a few quarters, or I get a drink at McDonalds while he plays in the play zone. Of course we also color and play with clay but it seems like he likes those things in phases....

What do YOU do these days with your small children? Maran just blogged about this and I have to tell you I was taking notes from the comments she got but could always use more ideas!

More haircuts!

As I mentioned below Rob's mountain man beard has driven me a little crazy at times and after months of not trimming it at all he finally shaved it down and gave himself a decent haircut!

Before:

After:

It's not the best pic of his hair but he's wearing a hat in pretty much every other picture! Go figure! :)

And not like I was looking much better. It'd been months since I'd gotten my hair done and those roots were looking a little frightening!

Before:


After:

Can I tell you how excited I am that my hair is getting LONG? Hurray!

And thanks Stacy for making my hair pretty again!

ILYREPIII~ENP

Happy Birthday Handsome Husband! I know I'm a few days late in posting (his birthday was last Friday) but we were too busy celebrating and let's be honest, the blog has been neglected lately.

I've always liked calling Rob my handsome older man even though his birthday is only 2 1/2 months before mine. I remember when we were turning 14 and I was so jealous that he could go to church dances before me and he even got to go see President Hinckley speak to the youth at our stake center and I couldn't go because the cut off was 14. :( Anyways...

Rob, I've been in love with you for more than half my life now! And we've got an eternity to go! Whew! Sometimes you drive me crazy with your mountain man beard and obsession with guns but I can't imagine my life without you and I know we'll be together forever.

Happy Birthday Rob! I love you!

*****

We had a fun couple of days celebrating! We had a date night on Thursday with Andrew & Becca and Amy & Nathan where we went up to Gateway and ate and walked around.

Then Friday ate at Macaroni Grill with Will & Amanda and then went to the BYU basketball game. Quattro got to see a lot of Cosmo and is still talking about it. I worked with Robby on saying, "Happy Birthday Daddy" and he actually was able to get out somewhat of a birthday greeting... he would say, "dada burfday dada..." Very cute.

(gotta love Quattro's smile for the camera!)

As much as Robby LOVES Cosmo he pretty much freaked out when he got up close to him. And what is he doing here pulling on his ear?? He was absolutely exhausted but loved the game!

Go Cougars!

BYU had their last home game Saturday! Quattro went to one game at the beginning of the season and it went ok but not great but we thought we'd give it another shot! He did awesome this time! He somehow managed to stay awake for the whole game, falling asleep minutes after it ended... he was super happy and made new friends all over the place!

After hanging out in the tent for a little bit the big boys threw the football around while Quattro clutched his and ran circles around them. One older guy passing by smiled at Robby and said, "he's a future linebacker, huh?!"

After the game ended we were able to go down on the field and meet one of the players... that's when Robby finally conked out! It was fun to be in the middle of all the action of senior day on the field.

Sunday photo shoot & other moments

So these are pre haircut pictures... I don't know why he's folding his arms here but it's cute. And in all the pictures I was taking he kept doing that toungue sticking out to the side thing...

And you gotta do some of the mommy & me ones....

This is the face he does when you say, "give me a smile!" He does this funny little blinking thing.

He wore this safari hat of Rob's all around the house the other day...

Robby has been "talking" a lot more lately! Everything has a "shh" sound to the end of it it seems.... "eyeshh" "iceshh" "washhhh" Today I handed him a couple of crackers and then walked away and then heard him saying, "one, two... one, two," while pointing to the crackers! I know he can say one and two but I didn't really realize he knew what it meant but there he was counting the crackers I gave him! So he's not saying it quite as well as he did before I whipped out the camera but isn't that always how it goes? And usually when I say ABC he tries to fingerspell ABC! It's so cute! He can't really do it with the crackers in his hand but that's what he's trying to do.

Quattro's trip to Cookie Cutters

While my mother is an amazing hairdresser I did not inherit any of her talent in that department! (unlike my younger sister, Rachel) Luckily Rob learned how to cut his own hair on his mission and I sometimes assist with cleaning up the back. We've buzzed Robby's hair twice before and it was always fine but I just thought it'd be fun to take him to get a real haircut at this kid's place Cookie Cutters.

So the kids get to pick which car or airplane to sit in and can even pick out a show to watch too. Quattro loved sitting in the car and thought everything was pretty neat until the girl turned on her clippers and he got a little scared. Good thing - it only took about 2 minutes for her to do the haircut. Bad thing - since she only took 2 minutes on it I'm still finding long stray hairs I need to trim. Hmm....

All in all it was a good experience. He got a cute little haircut, a balloon with a lollipop and cookie cutter attached to it, and got to play on the slide in the store. And look at how cute he is!

He is very proud of his haircut! He looks so much older...

So the girl spike his hair up in the front with some kind of gel/pomade stuff and I could not get his hair to do that with the regular old gel Rob uses. Any ideas? I could call the store and ask what they use....

Halloween... finally!

So Halloween has finally come and gone! We had a fun day.... even though Robby shed a few tears I think overall it was a success. And I'm kind of glad Halloween is over.

The kids wore costumes when we went to work out at the gym, we went and trick or treated at the mall, and then I went to A&B's to trick or treat outside. Taba and gang came down from Salt Lake that was fun!

So when I first started thinking about costumes I had really wanted Robby to be Cosmo for Halloween but the outfit didn't turn out exactly like I'd planned. I found this little Lion outfit/vest thing at Costco and I kept rotating between him being a lion and a BYU football player because the jersey didn't fit too well over it. Finally I just went and bought a bigger jersey and voila - he's a little funny looking Cosmo!

Since Rob's been working at the Dreaded Grove he's missed out on a lot of the Halloween fun. I'm glad he could come and trick or treat with us at the mall. And Aunt Lindsay too! Even if you can't see her eyes here! The kids were so excited to see her there it was fun.

All the cousins! Gwen, Robby, Anna, Tyler, Quattro, and Annie. Check out Andrew's awesome outfit and how funny Quattro looks from the back! He kind of looked like a bobble-head.

Visiting dad at the Dreaded Grove

So tonight is the LAST night of the Dreaded Grove! Hallelujah! I don't think I've even mentioned that he was working there this year. If you remember last year how relieved I was when the Dreaded Grove was over.... I said we'd never do it again. But this year it wasn't as many nights and he really wanted to do it again and I'm a pushover (wait, was that my outloud voice?) and can I really complain he he wants to work more hours and bring in some extra cash? Oh wait, yes, I did but that's ok because tonight is the LAST NIGHT! Ahh....

But tonight since it was the last night we (me & A&B) took the kids over when Rob was heading over to do a little walk through just for fun. Quattro was not scared at all and just was running through the trail, trying to keep up with dad. I think he was just too little to be scared. The other kids were pretty nervous even though it was light out for most of it. We got to take a little ride in the Argo thing (it's like a big four wheeler except it has more than four wheels... I don't know how to describe it. A tank? That goes on land and water?) and Quattro loved that too. And I am loving that this dang experience is over! Almost!

And can we just talk about how he was the cutest little edible looking lion last year?