Memorial Weekend

We had a GREAT memorial weekend, I hope you did too! We took a family trip down to Nauvoo Illinois. Nauvoo is a city that has great historical meaning to me and my church. This was the last weekend that Andy had before he started work, so we wanted to go to the temple. We have 3 choices; Nauvoo, Chicago, and Minneapolis, all of which are 4 hours away. Chicago is our official temple, but we haven’t been there yet. I can’t wait until we go. I’ve never been to Chicago, and it’s always fun to go threw a temple for the first time. Anyway we decided Nauvoo was more in our budget, so we went there. We left Friday evening after I got off work. –Ryan came and picked up the girls and finished packing, so when I got home we left. It was REALLY nice. We got to our hotel late Friday night so we just checked in and got some sleep. Saturday morning Ryan and I took the girls to the park to play. We wanted them worn out so they’d take a good nap for Andy. While we were there we decided to walk to the temple grounds and show the girls the beautiful temple. Ryan and I were just having a conversation when he said (sorry about this, just spelling it doesn’t work when your typing) Hell no. Kaitlyn immediately says Hell no daddy, hell Ryan. Oh man! She sure is repeating EVERYTHING right now. I teased Ryan that it was a GREAT place to teach Kaitlyn that word-on the temple grounds. And yesterday I was really stressed out. I was late getting somewhere and had lost my keys so I said oh crap. Kaitlyn says oh crap, mommy Kaitlyn say oh crap. It was all I could do not to laugh. I guess she taught me my lesson. Ryan’s not the only one who has to watch their mouth. Oh crap, I mean dang it. Lol. Anyway Ryan and I went to the temple while the girls took naps for Andy. It was SO nice to be in the temple again and the Nauvoo temple is exceptionally beautiful. When we got back to the hotel this is what we found:



Kaitlyn asleep on the floor with her head on the mattress we brought for the girls. It was so cute. She was so tired but didn’t want to take a nap until finally she just collapsed. So cute. Andy said Em took a short nap and then spent the rest of the time trying to wake up Kaitlyn. Sounds like a typical nap time to me! After that we went to see some of the sights. First we went on a carriage ride around Nauvoo. Kaitlyn loved it because it was pulled by Princess Bell horses. Lol, she’s only seen part of that movie and she remembered that Bell has a horse. Too cute. I was just glad she liked it. After wards I wanted a picture of everyone by the horses. Poor Kaitlyn was scared to go near them, that’s why she’s making a funny face.



After that we went to the visitor center and watched the Missionaries do a play. It was great with lots of singing and dancing, my favorite kind! Well Ryan wasn’t to excited about it so as soon as Em started squirming he took her out. Lol, he always uses the girls as an excuse to leave! Well Kaitlyn saw that Daddy left so she spent the rest of the show going in and out to visit Mommy and Daddy. Oh well. She did like it, just ONLY when they were singing AND dancing. If they were talking or just singing she was out of there. I guess I can’t blame her she is only 2. After that we got some dinner and then went swimming! Don’t worry no pictures of that, you don’t want to see a 7 mo pregnant me in a swim suit! It was fun. The girls had a GREAT time, and it was cool because we saw some friends who were there too! Coreina lives in Lancaster too. She goes to the other branch though, so we don’t see her as much. She has 3 children; Jake who’s just younger than Em, Mya who’s just older than Kaitlyn, and Jaden who’s 5. Kaitlyn was so excited to see Mya and Jaden. She just loves them! It was fun to hang out with them while we swam. Ryan and Coreina’s husband even like each other, but they would never admit they’re friends. Boys are so funny! Sunday we went to the local ward. It was HUGE because of all the visitors, the gym was even full. It looked like a stake conference. It was a really nice meeting and I felt the spirit strongly there. After church we got our camp set up. We decided to camp Sunday night to Monday. We only have one tent, which is fine, except there was an extra boy with us! We were going to have the family sleep in the van (take the seats out and lay down a mattress we brought) but all the stuff from the van wouldn’t have fit in the tent plus Andy. So the 4 of us squished into a 2 man tent and Andy got the van. It made for some tight sleeping arrangements, but that’s half the fun of camping. Once every thing was set up we headed out to Carthage. This is a where our first prophet was killed by a mob. The missionaries there have a nice tour they do. You get to watch a beautiful movie with journal entries from people who knew Joseph Smith. This was Andy’s first time to see any of Nauvoo or Carthage. Emily and Kaitlyn didn’t do so well during the movie and the next step was tour. We started out with everyone, but it was too much for the girls. We really wanted Andy and the other people on the tour to feel the spirit so Ryan and I took the girls out while Andy finished the tour. This is the girls playing by the statue of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.



I really wanted one of them together, but it just was impossible! These were the best shots of my attempt at a sister picture.




They played there for a little while and then decided to play with Kaitlyn’s ball. Kaitlyn thought it was so cool that Daddy could kick the ball REALLY high. She and daddy had fun playing ball and Emily just played in the grass.



Kaitlyn throwing the ball to daddy



And Kaitlyn in the grass




When the tour was finished we decided to go to a Frisbee golf coarse. There was a really cute playground next to it that the girls and I played on. It had a bunch of different things made of wood. There was a mini-train, a small airplane, a tractor and some other things. They were REALLY cute. Andy got a picture of the girls in the plane, so when I get a copy I’ll post it. After a while Kaitlyn decided that she wanted to play with Daddy, so we found Ryan and Andy and Kaitlyn got to play disk golf too. She was SO cute! She couldn’t throw very far but she didn’t care. She just had fun playing with Daddy. At the end of the coarse Ryan and Andy were just practicing throwing and Em decided she wanted to throw to. So cute! She pretty much just dropped it, but she dropped it with feeling. Ryan was so proud of his girls wanting to play with him. When we got back to camp we got to meet our neighbors. They were really nice and Ryan and Andy got to play ultimate Frisbee with them while I got the girls to bed. They did NOT want to sleep. Lol. It was about 10 before they finally were out. Crazy. We got to make smores and sit by the fire and chat with our neighbors. It was really nice. The dad had just recently retuned from Iraq so we got to hear some great stories. I thought that was especially nice because of the holiday. On Monday we went to see some more of the sights. There was a new memorial to the pioneers who died on the trek that I hadn’t seen before. Ryan and I found some of our ancestors on there. It was really cool. The memorial is right before you get to the Mississippi were the pioneers crossed. The girls loved looking at the water. Here’s our family were the pioneers crossed the FROZEN Mississippi (I can’t imagine how cold it must have been!)



Em thought the rocks were delicious! She even wanted to share with me, she’s so sweet.



Kaitlyn and then my handsome Ryan




Ryan and Andy were skipping rocks and Kaitlyn tried too.



We went to lunch and ran in to Coreina and her family again and then we headed home. It was a great weekend, but very exhausting. I needed a vacation to recover from my vacation. I think I’m finally starting to get back on top of things.