Our 4 hour walk

Forgot to post Daniel's Halloween picture...Thomas the Train! SURPRISE! SURPRISE! The House had a bunch of costumes donated and he got to pick one.


YEP! Daniel and I went for a walk from 11-3 today. It is a beautiful day, so we decided to take advantage of it! I LOVE Stanford campus. The old architecture is incredible. Well, I've never taken my camera with me, but I did this time! So here are some of the pictures we got today:

This first picture is of The Burghers of Calais It is apparently, one of the most famous sculptures by Auguste Rodin, completed in 1888. It is a monument to an occurrence in 1347 during the Hundred Years' War, when Calais, an important French port on the English Channel, was under siege by the English for over a year.

The story goes that England's Edward III laid siege to Calais and Philip VI of France ordered the city to hold out at all costs. Philip failed to lift the siege and starvation eventually forced the city to get ready to surrender. Edward offered to spare the people of the city if any six of its top leaders would surrender themselves to him, presumably to be executed. Edward demanded that they walk out almost naked and wearing nooses around their necks and be carrying the keys to the city and castle. Saint Pierre, one of the richest volunteered first and 5 others followed. They stripped down to their underwear and Saint Pierre led this envoy of emaciated volunteers to the city gates and it is this moment that Rodin is trying to capture in these figures. Defeat, heroic self-sacrifice and the facing of imminent death. I wish I could put the close up of their faces on here, too. Although the burghers were expected to be executed, their lives were spared by the Queen of England, Philippa of Hainault, who persuaded her husband by saying it would be a bad omen for her unborn child. Anyhow, it's pretty cool!



Then right next to this is the Memorial Chapel that Jane Stanford built in memory of her husband Leland. It is INCREDIBLE! Everything you see is in mosaic. I can not imagine how long that took! We went inside and it is even more breathtaking in there! It's just like a church I'd expect to see in Rome or something. Flying buttresses, gorgeous stain glassed windows, mosaic inside, old all over!


We then walked to the cactus garden on campus. It is a abou the size of half a football field. There are supposedly over 100 different kind of cacti. There are little trails all over in it. Daniel had a lot of fun in there! It was pretty amazing. Here he is 'smelling the flower'!


We then went to the mausoleum that has Leland, his wife Jane and their son, Leland Stanford, Jr. There was a statue of the three of the, too. But the sun was not cooperating to get a good picture of that. Too many shadows.


Next was the Angel of Grief. I felt like I was almost interrupting her. It is so beautiful and peaceful. The Stanford's lost their only child, Leland, Jr. when he was 15 years old to typhoid fever. Some of you may have read the story circulating email periodically of their visit to Harvard's president dressed in rags and were turned away and that is how they decided to start Stanford. It's false! I was reading up on it and read they did talk with Harvard's president and got some advice from him. Anyhow, here is the Angel of Grief:



But Daniel's favorite part of this whole walk.....the safety cone! He dropped enough stuff down it to make a mound underneath it. He had fun for about 15 minutes:


We came back and Daniel opened a package g-ma & g-pa sent to him full of animals. He lined them all up in rows and reorganized them a few times. He now has them in a container we had and is on the bed with the dalmatian dogs watching 101 Dalmatians II. We had a pretty busy day and Daniel is already starting to yawn! Maybe he'll sleep good again tonight. Not a good nap equals a good night's rest!


PS Notice he has no NG tube in! He caught it on his giraffe today and ripped the tape off and out if came! I felt bad for him becuase that tape really hurt! I will feel bad for him later tonight when I have to put another one back in. My first time doing it! Joy O Joy!