Ales Family Adventures: September 2014

HEY EVERYONE...sorry I have not kept up on my blog very much, but we have had so many new adventures. We have had family come into town, mission papers received, birthdays, baby blessing, and we even ended up in prison.

Start off the weekend everyone came into town for this adventures weekend. Friday, September 12, 2014 was when we were able to see where Wesley was going to be serving his mission for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints, for 2 years. Everyone gathered around and was ready to hear him open his letter.

Dear Elder Ales, You are hear by called to serve the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints in the UTAH, PROVO MISSION!"

Saturday, September 13th, 2014 was when we celebrated Henry's birthday. We had so much fun going on our hike to Hidden Falls in 100 degree weather. It was so much fun, but it was a workout. Bentley slept through the hole hiking part, but when we got to the water fall he was awake, but then fell asleep again when we were making our way back through the trail.

Then we ended the night with going to dinner for Henry's birthday in Sacramento called Mortens. It was so delicious and really fun to go spend time with family and friends.

Then Sunday, September 14th 2014 we all gathered at the church to hear the beautiful baby blessing that Jordan gave Bentley. It was such an exciting day because of that, but also because Bentley wore the blessing dress that has been in our family for years. It is 109 years old and was first worn by my Grate Grandfather's oldest brother. It had been worn by so many people in our family, including me. I think that it is so special that my son got to wear the same dress that I wore and many generations before him. It was such a beautiful blessing that Jordan gave to him as well. It made me so happy that my son was able to be blessed by his father and that all our friends and family that could make it were able to join us for that special occasion.

Uncle Arron, Grandpa Ales, Grandma Ales, Uncle Wesley

Uncle Turner, Aunt Savannah, Aunt Journey, Grandma Wilcoxson, Grandpa Wilcoxson

Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Miller

Great Grandma Jordan, Grandma Moss

Aunt Haylee, Grandma Moss, Aunt Ashlee, Uncle Wesley

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Adams

Erick and Kate Nuttal

Clayton and Melanie Allen

Ales Family: Tanner, Austin, Kim, Paige, Brooke, Donnie, (back row) Taylor and Ty

Gordon and Janet Orchard

To end our great weekend we took a family trip to San Francisco and went to visit Alcatraz Prison. We were all excited to see this prison and see how these prisoners lived while there. We left for the tour at 11:30 and docked on the fairy boat to head over to the island. The boat ride was so much fun and were were able to see the beautiful view of the entire island of Alcatraz and San Francisco as well.

Alcatraz Island

Us on the fairy boat

There was so much history in that building that you could ever imagine. We did an audio tour of the entire prison, which was neat because we could go at our own speed, look at all the rooms and site of the prison as long as we wanted, and we could imagine our selves on this island as the tour was playing. We saw where the prisoners slept, showered, went to the bathroom, were sent for having bad behavior, the control room, and even where there was normal citizens lived on the island with their families.

This is the shower room

This was the one toilet in the shower room

This was in one of the cells that you could go in

This was a special cell where they would lock a prisoner up in and then there was another door that the guards would close and it would be pitch black in there. This was were prisoners would go for bad behavior or if they tried to escape.

This was were the prisoners would look through to talk to the visitors that they had. Bentley and I are on the side were the visitors would sit and talk through. Savannah was on the other side in the prison taking the picture.

This is the control room for the guards

Those were some houses where families lived in on the island.

This is the menu that the prisoners had to eat while in prison

This was the kitchen

The knives were outlined in black so that when there was a knife gone from the board they knew exactly what it looked like, encase a prisoner took it.

This was what a normal cell looked like. It had a small bed, a seat, table, toilet, sink. and a self.

This was a look out tower

This was from one of the famous cells of one of the prisoners that tried to escape from this prison and succeeded. It involved 4 men, but only 3 got out. They made heads that looked like them and after head count at night they placed these in their beds and escaped through the wall in their cell. They tried to escape on a boat they made, but they died while trying to escape across the river.

The dock where the fairy boat dropped off and picked up

Another watch tower

After we were done at Alcatraz we went to explore the rest of San Francisco. We went to China town, walked to pier, and even drove down the famous windy road Lombard Street.