Saturday Road Trip

We had a tiny little family outing on Saturday because:

1) Baby X has been to a new county every month he's been alive and we needed to go somewhere in October to keep his streak alive (B's idea)

2) Last week we told Buddy we'd go to Fritz's while B ran the marathon, but then we decided it would be horribly crowded, and we didn't know when to expect B or his brother to finish and we didn't want to miss them, so we ended up not going and promised him we'd go the next week.


PS in her conductor's hat.


Watching for a train to go past.


Umm... no, I'm not wearing a hat.


Look at crazy eyes... we keep telling her that just because her head is looking at the camera, it doesn't mean her eyes are and that she needs to look with her eyes or she ends up looking crazy in all of our pictures... like this one.



3) Our kids have never been to Liberty Jail.


4) The new temple site for the Kansas City temple is near Liberty Jail so we drove by and saw where that is.

5) B needed some stuff from Sam's Club and there isn't one in our town.

I love the carts at Sam's Club that fit two kids up front. And it cracks me up that Buddy still wants to sit there... he's huge next to Baby X. We kept telling him that he was going to have a growth spurt while we shopped and get stuck in the cart forever.

Nauvoo

Sorry that it has taken so long to post again. I can't get my pictures to upload and that, obviously, is the basis of this blog. These are pictures from a trip to Nauvoo, IL the first weekend in August that I've finally been able to upload.

* * * * *

We were supposed to go to Utah this summer for a family vacation/reunion of sorts. My parents have a cabin in the mountains above Cedar City they built in 1969 or so. Now they are getting ready to build a new and improved cabin in the same area. So far it's a driveway. We were going out to see my parents, possibly my brother's family, and the new cabin. But the way dates worked out, we were going to miss my brother's family, and there is not yet a new cabin to see. Add to that the gazillion hours in the car to get there, the fact that our car is a lemon, the cost of gasoline, the cost of missing a week of work... we ended up going to St. Louis and Nauvoo instead.

Our kids were reconciled to this idea because on the other two occasions that we've visited Nauvoo (or Nannoo, as Boy christened it on this trip because it's hilarious to them) it's been off season. Either September or April. And off season, the pioneer dress-up area is closed. Knowing that she would be able to dress-up like a pioneer in Nauvoo about made Princess Sparkley's summer.

Here are the pics:

Princess Sparkley and Boy in front of the Nauvoo Temple

Princess Sparkley finally got to dress up in the pioneer girl clothes


Princess Sparkley, new pioneer outfit


I think it would break her heart to know she'd probably wear
that one dress for months if she was a real pioneer girl


Have you lost count of the costume changes yet?While Princess Sparkley is dressing up, Boy and Daddy are playing pioneer games.Cute Boy spinning a top.



Princess Sparkley and Boy riding "sheep"



Princess Sparkley and Boy in front of Schofield's Bakery in Nauvoo.
We've done this picture every year, I need to track down the other versions to post.



We had a bet on the drive from St. Louis to Nauvoo that whoever fell asleep had to kiss an ox. Only the girls fell asleep. We refused, but Daddy kissed one on the head.


Pretending to drive a covered wagon.

Adam-ondi-Ahman

On our way for a quick weekend trip to Des Moines, Iowa (because we'd never been, B needed counties, and school was out) we stopped at Adam-ondi-Ahman in Missouri. Here are pictures of Boy and Princess Sparkley. Mostly Boy just climbed on rocks so that he could jump off of them. It was about two weeks ago, towards the end of Sacrament Meeting at church that B claims Boy turned into a little Boy. He just started wrecking stuff of Princess Sparkley's for no reason. Since then he's been pretty boisterous, wild, and a bit reckless... jumping off of rocks, etc.