Catchin' Up! (its been a while!)

So much has gone on so I figured I better take a few minutes and catch everyone up!!

The girls and I went with Melinda's Family to the Utah Valley Llama Fest. What an event that is! If you are interested, it is held the 3rd weekend in July in Spanish Fork at the Lotus Temple. (It was a really beautiful temple. We even got to go inside a look around) They had a Llama rodeo, a petting zoo, food and music. It was a ton of fun! Here are a few pictures...

Then on Pioneer Day, Melinda & Rod marched with their Army Unit in the Day's of 47' Parade. We had Reid sleep over and we went to SLC and watched the parade. It was fun! I enjoy stuff like that. It did start to get pretty hot - then it was not so much fun! Here are a few pictures from the parade...
I LOVE THIS PICTURE OF MELINDA WAVING!!!
After the parade, we went and met up with Richard & KayeDawn @ Fort Douglas for "family day". It was fun. There was games and food and prizes. Reid was not feel ing too well, so I brought him home while Melinda & Rod finished working.

Fair Days in Heber always starts off with a derby, and for the last 6 years we have made it a bit of a tradtion. The first year it was on my birthday. Part of the fun is getting together, having dinner, cake& ice cream and then heading to the Derby. This year was by far one of my favorites! The rain made it so fun! At first it was a bit discouraging, but it let up and cooled down the hot evening. Melinda & Rod came up for it and they ended up leaving early. Shortly after they left, the rain stopped! (too bad they didn't stay!) At one point, we noticed all of the people's hair around us was standing UP!! Straight UP! (the lighting was a tad-bit scary) But over all I think we all had a great time! I don't know what it is about cars & trucks crashing that is so fun! I LOVE IT! Someday I think I'll drive my Honda in the Herby Derby! now that would be an AWESOME birthday!!

So there's a bit of an update...there will be more to come!

LOVED Nauvoo

Okay you fellow bloggers that have been waiting for an update on the Nauvoo trip….here we go. I think I’m going to need to explain myself after 5 hours of sitting at the computer. Over 5 days I took 388 pictures! That would take forever to download all of those! So what I did was I tried to go through important/fun/exciting things that I thought you’d want to hear about. (I left some of the boring ones out, but if you are interested, let me know and I’ll give you a private showing!) Kick back, grab a cold drink, a bucket of popcorn and scroll on down through our trip to Nauvoo, Illinois. I did a post and a slide show to go along with each post. What I did was tried to go from the time we got there to when we left...So I hope its not too horribly confusing…if so give me a call and I’ll do my best to clarify! Enjoy! :)

Off to Nauvoo, Illinois

The flight to St. Louis was lovely. The girls love flying and it just makes my ears plug! We got a rental car and for $3/day more we got to upgrade from a chevy cobalt to a ford fusion. Totally fun to drive. (horrible lower back support & uncomfortable seats…I don’t recommend buying one!) The girls posed for a picture by it. We had a 3 hour drive to get to Nauvoo from St. Louis. I had TBS by the time we arrived. (tired butt syndrome) We stopped in Troy, Missouri for dinner at a Carl’s Jr. As we were pulling out of the parking lot there was a semi-truck with a ramp coming out of the back. Upon further inspection…it was a pizza place. So funny! I've never seen anything like that before!

Once we got to the house we hung out with my sister& her family. It was awesome! Lots of late nights & early mornings!

Nauvoo Quilt Festival

Little did I know that the Nauvoo Quilt Festival would be in town when I was! Janine, Mom & I went over to the school that was on the same block as the house and walked through the quilt show. They had classes and prize drawings(none of us won) There were a lot of quilts from Utah, but none from our quilt guild in Heber. There were a lot of antique quilts and one looked like a photograph. One of them was made by a mother for her daughter, using all of the fabrics from all of her clothing from her first year. Way cool idea! There was one that a man made for his wife for Christmas but needed her to quilt it before he could give it to her. (sweet huh?) Anyway, that was a fun addition to our trip. (or at least I thought so)

Cousins

My sisters kids and our kids get to see each other about one time a year. I was so happy that they had such a good time together. They played well and just had fun. I think we’ll miss them until next weekend when we meet up in Moab!

"Our Pipe Band"

“OUR PIPE BAND” consists of Chucky, Tika, Carsun, Kaeliann, Kaden, and MaKenna. Chucky really plays the pipes, Kaden and MaKenna are usually the drones (making a “wuuuuuuuuuh” sound and Tika, Carsun and Kaeliann hold their head up, plug their noses and hit their necks with their fingers. They even had a crowd come and watch them as they were doing it in the back yard of the house we stayed at! The passers by were impressed with the talent!

More to Tackle

A few more things we tackled in Nauvoo were: Homemade bottled root beer from the “Community of Christ” gift shop. It was pure enjoyment. After drinking; Kyle, Janine & the 5 kids performed as a root beer bottle band. Then we headed off to the Browning home & Gunsmith shop. There is a gun in there worth over a half million dollars…wowza! Kaden, Kyle & my dad enjoyed this stop the most. There was a beautiful garden in the back of the house and I think that maybe the girls quite enjoyed that part! We also went to pioneer school and basically played MAD-GAB. She had us try to figure out words from the spellings that the pioneer children did. These days we call it “sound spelling”! So she showed us a word: “shouzse” - give up? The answer is shoes. Or: “cubordse” - answer is cupboards. It was pretty fun. We all got an A+. We went to the printing press and to the post office. The kids and Kyle all tried out a yoke. It was empty, of course! It is pretty amazing how much technology is a factor in all of our lives. What a difference with newspapers and the postal service between now & then! We also took the kids to do some pioneer activities. They pulled each other in a hand cart, did log-sawing and just had FUN with their cousins! Oh, and by the way, Janine and I convinced mom to plop herself up into the hand cart for a quick jaunt! We had fun….made mom a bit nervous, and it was well worth it. Hopefully she enjoyed herself!

The Nauvoo Pageant

The Nauvoo Pageant is part of why we went to Nauvoo. My dad is in the Nauvoo Pipe Band. They start the Nauvoo Pageant and then have a part in the pageant towards the end. We went to the show both Friday and Saturday night. It’s pretty funny cause by 9:00 in the morning half of the seats are covered in blankets and taped off for families of the casts, or just people who want a good seat! (we had one blanket and a man gave us some duct tape!) On Friday morning we watched the pipe band practice and taped off our seats. The pageant was so amazing. I’d have seen it a 3rd time if it was on another day we were there. I loved it! The music, the story and the acting was great! I even saw a friend who is in the “blue cast” as a stage manager. Imagine that. I had Janine take a picture to document it! So if you go to Nauvoo, make sure you go during pageant time (July-Aug) it’s highly recommended!

Carthage Jail

Sunday we all slept in…thank heaven! It felt so nice! We got up and headed out to Carthage. It was about a 30 minute drive from Nauvoo. When we got there we ate lunch and then went on a tour. We watched a little video about the history of Carthage Jail. It is where Joseph & Hyrum Smith were martyred. The Jail had such a somber mood. It is such a beautiful area. We all really enjoyed it. There is so much history there! I didn’t realize that the jailers family also lived in the jail. I had always imagined it so much more prison-like. On our way back to Nauvoo, Kyle got a flat tire. Thank heaven there was a gas station & a DQ right there! Kyle & I went to Keokuk, Iowa’s Wal*Mart to get a tire repair kit while everyone else ate ice cream and told jokes. I think we all pretty much just enjoyed each other’s company.

Some COW!!!!! :)

For those of you who know my OBSESSION with COWS…this one’s for you!

I know an OX is not truly a COW…but close enough I say!! I kissed an OX today. “gary” was quite friendly. I tried to just say hello and talk a little to “gabe” but he was a tad-bit grouchy. I sang them my little cow song. It goes something like this…”oh some cow and you want to go-wa la doodie and la-donda oh you little cow…” I could have stayed with those oxen all day if they would have let me. The 2 men that were there were probably certain that I was “on something”, but I wasn’t I was just overjoyed!! Tika & Carsun were so embarrassed, but gary & gabe made my day! (that’s why they get their own post& slideshow {below})

Busy Day in Nauvoo

Monday Dad only had Piping practice in the morning. So we tried to get as many things seen as we could, because it was really our last full day in Nauvoo. We went to the Family Living Center, where we were able to learn about different things in the everyday life of a pioneer. We made a rope, learned how to make candles, bread, rugs and flax. We also went to the Brickyard where the kids each got a souvenir Nauvoo brick. The kids really enjoyed all of the different things and I hope that they also realize how lucky we are today.
We also went on a Carriage ride pulled by 2 gi-normous Clydesdale horses. It was called ‘ The ride to Inspiration Point’. It was so beautiful. So peaceful. It took about 45 minutes and my butt was so sore from the oh-so uncomfortable benches. I loved it. I think it is one of my favorite things we did.
Monday we also saw a program called “Just Plain Anna-Amanda” It was put on by some of the younger service missionaries. It was geared for a younger audience, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Towards the end they asked Carsun to come up on stage. They had her SHOUT her name and then they sang a song about just being you. As we left the theatre, I took Carsun’s picture in the better light and as we walked away they all yelled goodbye to Carsun. Then one of the girls shouted, “You’re important!” Carsun said, “I was only a little embarrassed, cause I’ve been on stage before!!”
We went that night to a show called “Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo” It was put on by the Senior Missionary couples. I tell you what…I have not laughed that hard in quite a while! Later in the evening, we went to “Sunset by the Mississippi”. It was a whole lot of singin’, dancin’ , and laughin’. It was a beautiful setting. The sun set behind the stage area, the crickets chirping and fireflies lighting up the night sky… just a great time!

Farewell to Beautiful Nauvoo

Well, we left Nauvoo at 7:45 am for our 3 hour drive back to St. Louis. I love the mountains of Utah, but I LOVE all of the different shades of green that they have in Illinois. They could make an addition to Crayola Crayons’ Green pallet!
My Mom is staying until Saturday and my Dad is in the Pageant until July 27. My sisters family & us girls all left the same day. So we decided on our way out of town, we would stop and take some pictures of the beautiful Nauvoo Temple.
Halfway to St. Louis, my sisters car had a tire blow out and they made me continue on for fear I’d miss my plane. The girls and I got to the airport, (I made it…all by myself!!) and about 20 minutes later, my phone rang. It was my sister and they had just arrived! We all met up for lunch and had just enough time to catch our flight! After a 3 hour drive, a 1 ½ hour flight, a 20 minute potty break in Albuquerque, and another 1 ½ hour flight, (with a baby shrieking & screaming & crying ALL but 20 minutes...ugh!) we finally made it back to Utah. Good, dry Utah!

The Girls are OFF...

Tomorrow morning the girls & I are headed to Nauvoo, Illinois. So, just so you know, I haven't forgotten about all you fellow "bloggers". I'll be updating y'all on the trip next week!

DADDY ~ DAUGHTER FISHIN'

Justin decided that he wanted to have some daddy-daughter time with Tika & Carsun. Last night we got the boat all set up and set the girls' alarm clock for 6:00am. (They were not "bright eyed OR bushy tailed") They took some cereal in a baggie and off they went to Deer Creek! They had a super fun time, and they even brought some fish home to eat for lunch! (better luck than last week!) I sent the camera with Justin in hopes he'd take pictures for me to do a post and lookey here... He did a great job!! (I think the girls helped out taking pictures, too!) They caught 4 walleye and Tika was oh-so proud of her perch!

Do you like the "pose"? eeewww....fish guts...:)Justin is quickly becoming a pro at filleting fish!