Temple open house

A few weeks ago we met up with my sisters and their families and went to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house near Salt Lake. It was neat. Dylan has always had questions about the temple and was very excited to go see it.


We hung around outside for a bit while we waited for Jason to get there and took a few pictures.

Aren't they cute?...

Sisters...

Cousins...

Cassie was so excited when we told her we were going to the temple because she thinks the temple is a castle for princesses. Every time Nate and I go to the temple she asks me if I am going to be a princess, and of course, Nate tells her I am princess. Ahhhhh, isn't that sweet!! Just kidding!!! She recently got some new (new to us, anyway) dresses from her cousin and has been waiting to wear this "princess" dress. She decided the temple (or castle) was just the occasion for it. (even if it was over 100 degrees outside). She loved twirling in it....

And a cute family shot... (even if Nate's belt is missing...)

It was a beautiful temple and I am glad we got to take the kids through it before it gets dedicated. We are so lucky to be surrounded by so many temples.

We ended at Chili's where I had the best chocolate molten cake I have ever had and I can't stop thinking about it!!!!

Hiking

We went hiking a couple of weeks ago and what we wanted to be a 2-3 mile hike ended up being almost 8 miles. The kids did pretty good for such a long hike with so many hills to climb, but we were all happy to be finished at the end. It was long, and my back and feet hurt bad when were done.

Also, I had forgotten how beautiful the mountains were and I feel like I have taken them for granted my whole life. Michigan is so pretty too, but where we lived was so flat and not a hill in sight. So now every time I look out the window I just can't believe how pretty it is! I love the mountains!

The kids wanted a picture on every rock they saw...













Trying to keep up with Dylan. He would be so tired and need a break, so we would stop and within 5 seconds he was bolting off again. Why can't I have that energy?...

Nate never has the camera, except this hike. I guess he got a little camera happy because I found a whole bunch of pictures of this side of me...

The lake at the end of the hike...

I didn't see this happen, but I am guessing Nate is standing out on that log while taking this picture...

What a fun day together!

We're Utahns now

Okay, so sorry for no update in a few weeks. We made it to Utah and things are good! The drive out went pretty good, considering a few episodes of sickness from each child and even a bath in the McDonald's sink.


We stopped in Nauvoo for a few days and that was so neat! I even got to see the Hardy's and visit with them. They are serving a mission in Nauvoo right now and they just love it! They were like my second parents when I was in high school and I am so glad I got to see them!

The first picture is of Carthage jail (in the background). I took this picture and then my batteries died. So this is all I go that day. The jail is in the background and it was a very neat experience to go inside. Notice Dylan with his bucket? He carried that thing everywhere he went on this trip. He was a little worried about barfing again and even though he was feeling better, the bucket still came with us everywhere.

I forgot to take a picture of the Nauvoo temple in the day, so here is a random shot I took while driving by it at night. It was so beautiful, especially the inside. Glad I got to go through it.

We took a wagon ride through the woods to inspiration point and it was really neat. The kids really wanted a picture with the horses, so here we go...

Nauvoo was just a really neat place. I loved it. They had lots of little performance things through out the day and then a big musical called "Sunset by the Mississippi" in the evening. Lots of fun performances for all! It was cute to see all the senior missionaries participate just as much as the young ones.

The "Trail of Hope" was a really neat thing to do. It is a trail where the pioneers walked on their way to cross the Mississippi and there were also plaques along the path with some of their stories written on them. Really neat. You end up at the same spot where they crossed the river after being kicked out of Nauvoo.

And then we made it to Utah. I am so happy to be here! I was so sad to leave Michigan and such wonderful people, but I can't express the amount of joy I feel in being finished with residency! Seriously. And you want to know why? Well, there a number of reasons. Most of which include actually having a husband around to enjoy life with!!!!! I can't believe how much more time I have with him and the time we have to do things together as a family, hence my lack of blogging. I know it won't always be like this, but it has just been right nice. Right nice for sure.

We have spent time boating with Nate's sister and her family. They have been so good to us. And having cousins that want to play and babysit all the time is just fine by me.

Here is Claire at Bear Lake on one of our boating adventures...

We went out again today to Hyrum Lake and had a ton of fun too. I love boating with the family, it's so fun.

On the weekend of the fourth we had Candace and Tanya (my sisters) come up and stay with us. I know our house wasn't quite in entertaining conditions yet, but it was so fun. We went to the parade...

enjoyed some little rides (I love Cassie in this picture. She is in the middle)...

Eat lots of treats and cotton candy...

Getting ready for fireworks...



Laughing at Jason as he tries to be a part of the fireworks show (and yes, we did fireworks at 8:30pm)...

And eating Cafe Rio with the fam. I am so glad they came and we could just visit and enjoy each others company.

Another exciting thing in our life is the purchase of our new mini-van. You can sort of see it in the background of the last picture. We love our Honda Odyssey! The green machine got dumped off at the wreck yard as we pulled out of Saginaw for good. And the sad part is...we only got $200 for it. Our steering wheel in our new van is worth more than that. Seriously people. What is this economy trying to do to us? First our house, then the van.... just kidding.

I have also been spending time with this wonderful girl and her family and enjoying every minute of it. She has waited 7 years for my return to Cache Valley and alas, here I am. And today is also her special day. Happy Birthday Jennifer!

I have more pictures to post of hiking and such, but that can wait until tomorrow. I hope.

CrAzInEsS

What I am up to:

-packing
-taking care of 3 kids (and a husband)
-packing
-researching minivans
-feeding 3 kids (and a husband)
-packing
-trying to say goodbye to friends
-thinking about running
-thinking about showering
-waking up multiple times a night to a sick little girl (with tonsils soooo huge she can barely swallow)
-looking at the empty boxes wondering who is going to fill them
-spending 4 hours at the Honda dealership today, with 3 kids in tow
-staring at a house that needs to be packed up, but not getting there as fast as it needs to be
-preparing for in-laws coming tomorrow
-thinking about Nate's birthday on Saturday. Maybe something should be done about that?
-thinking about Father's day. Maybe something should be done about that too?
-trying to sell a van
-calling 12 different places to see if they will buy our van
-being sad that every place thinks our van is only worth $0-$200
-thinking of all the errands that need to be done before we move on Monday
-spending too much time packing one box so that everything will fit just right. Then emptying half the box and rotating things to fit better. Then taking everything out and starting over with a new box.
-looking at the piles of clothes lined up for the washer

And yet, here I am. Blogging.

3 things

1. The other night after I tucked Cassie into bed, I came out to the living room to get Dylan and found him like this. He was so tuckered out after a long day of playing outside, that he fell asleep while still kneeling from our family prayer. Silly kid.

2. I sure will miss these little curls! This picture isn't the greatest, but it shows how curly Cassie's hair can get after playing outside for 30 minutes. Her hair was straight before she went out. I don't think this will happen in the dry state of Utah.

3. Dylan has had so much fun playing with Madeline every day. She lives right beside us and it will be a very sad day when he has to say goodbye to her.

Mackinaw Island

A couple of weeks ago we had our last opportunity to explore Michigan and we chose to visit Mackinaw Island. What a fun place!


Highlights of the trip include:

• driving over Mackinaw bridge. It was so cool! This bridge connects the upper peninsula to the lower peninsula of Michigan. And, it is 5 miles long! How cool is that? A 5 mile long bridge. I thought it was pretty cool. And a little creepy.
  
  

• taking the jet boat/cruiser thing over to the island. Fun times. And cold on the way back, since we sat on top.

• just being on this cool island! There are no cars on the island, just bikes and horses EVERYWHERE. We got there pretty early in the day, so this picture doesn't show how crazy it got later. It was so funny to see business men in suits riding around on bikes. It really felt like we were living back in time, with cute little shops everywhere and no cars. I loved it!
  

• Claire took 4 naps while we were on the island. She loves this thing...
  

• renting bikes and riding around the whole island. It was an 8 mile ride. So pretty!
  

(notice where Claire is riding? we had maaaany comments about that. And about the size of our family. 3 kids is a big deal here, I guess. I Never hear the end of that.)

(notice the bridge in the background of the next picture. We are supposed to be posing with it.)

• So many historical things on the island that we wanted to see, but with kids it was kind of hard. So we just took pictures of the kids playing outside of them. This next one is a big Fort on the island. It also has a very loud cannon that goes off every once in a while and freaks everyone out.

Dylan being Dylan...

• eating fudge!!! I swear every other store was a fudge shop. And so good too. And a little expensive.
  
• eating ice cream. The kids had 3 ice cream cones in one day.
  
  

(the little city on the island is in the background below. Not a great picture of it.)

• looking at all the cool lighthouses.
  

• and just being with each other. Even if the kids wouldn't stop asking to go back to the hotel to swim every few minutes.

I am so happy that we have been able to see so many things while living here.

Sold!

We will miss you so much little blue house!!!!

But what a relief to have you sold before we move. Now, all we need to do is come up with $30,000 for the closing. Ridiculous. Seriously ridiculous. Gotta LOVE the economy!

Okay, so I could really go off right now, but I won't.