Farnsworth Family Memoirs: Ode To a Toad and Springy Updates

In July of 2015 we took a family road trip back to Nauvoo and had a caravan of about 4 cars or so, all on our way to visit Lisa while she was on her mission.

Rachel wasn't able to make it so our family took Korbyn and Logan in our car with us!

We left early in the morning and by the time we made it to Wyoming, Korbyn called to talk to Rachel and was overheard to tell her, "Yeah, I'm already kind of starting to forget what you look like."

I had the great honor of riding in the backseat with Korbyn and Logan for the majority of the drive and was privileged enough to be present for Logan's "Fart Nest"...enough said.

I think out of all the things we did during that trip, one of the boys' favorite things was stopping at the gas stations and buying whatever sugary squeezey snack tubes, junk food, and other treats they could find.

The entertainment was endless (as were the farts)...

It was so fun to see Lisa and be in Nauvoo again with some of the family!

On the way back home we all stopped at a motel in Nebraska and after staying the night we headed out for the Farm, which we would get to that night.

We got to the motel kind of late at night but Korbyn immediately managed to find out that there were toads all around the little motel courtyard and with skills to make his Poppa Brian proud, was catching toads left and right!

Logan was right there with him and as soon as we got up the next morning, they were right back at it.

Everyone was busy packing up, getting breakfast, and loading up while the boys were just having fun seeing how many toads they could find before it was time to leave.

During the drive home, Korbyn seemed a little more mellow than usual but always assured us that he was fine. We drove from Nebraska back to the Farm and got home late that evening. As we all piled out of our cars, somehow in the hubbub of it all, Korbyn disappointedly let us in on his secret - he had caught a toad prior to getting in the car in Nebraska and stuffed it in his pillowcase to take back to the Farm with him.

Somewhere between Nebraska and Jerome, his little toad friend croaked - not literally - but as in, his toad died in the pillowcase. It was a miracle that anyone survived a car ride full of Logan's "Fart Nest" and would have been beyond amazing if a toad could have pulled through something like that.

We were all more than shocked to find out that he had snuck that little toad all the way home without anyone knowing! Korbyn was just sad to find that his stowaway hadn't lived to see it's new home.

In memory of that fateful event I found myself moved enough to create a poem in memory of the occasion and now, 5 years later, have decided it's time to share it with the rest of you (but actually, I just found it again for the first time in years so I figured I might as well pass it on).

And so, in memoriam:

Ode To a Toad:

"As a tadpole you lived in a humble abode,

Your life was just great as you grew to a toad.

A hotel lawn in Nebraska was once where you lived

Until one day you met a young Idaho kid.

He loved you so much to his home you were towed,

But died in his pillowcase where you'd been stowed."

RIP July 2015