Indiana, Here We Come!!!

We left for Indiana on July 8th, and returned on the 17th. Here are a few of the highlights from the trip...

While we were in Indiana we took a trip to Nauvoo. We stopped at Carthledge jail on the way.



In Nauvoo we learned how to make rope,



We got to dress up as pioneers,


Walk on the Trail of Hope (this is the trail that the people of Nauvoo walked on as they were leaving Nauvoo.) At the end of the trail is the spot on the Mississippi River were they crossed.



Looking out onto the Mississippi River.





and, we visited the temple.


This is the view from the windows of the house that we stayed in, in Nauvoo. Breathtaking, wouldn't you say?




After returning from Nauvoo we spent a day at the world's largest children's museum. The kids had fun digging for dinosaur bones,





The kids were able to build things with Curious George,


Learn about exercising,


Sit on dinosaur eggs.


And ride on the carosel.



We also got to tour the Purdue campus with our personal tour guide Christina. The kids favorite parts were the water fountain shaped like a lion and the fountain that people play in.



The kids did actually play in the fountain, here they are trying to get dry.


All in all I would say it was well worth going. The kids were terrific on the airplane rides, they learned a lot about the pioneers and Joseph Smith. They had fun spending time with each other and getting to know their cousins better. This vacation would for us would determine if the kids were old enough to travel, and we think they are. Thanks for all the fun Christina and Jon, we missed you being there.

If You'd Like One

On Sunday in WY while we were getting ready to leave Linda was putting together some stuff for her ward on Being Prepared. One of the things she had was a cookbook with many recipes to make only using items from food storage. If anyone is interested in having a copy of this, let me know. We have to return it to her on Tuesday when we leave for Indiana so let me know by then.

Back to Reality

So now we are home and this is what I have to clean up today...



This was taken after I had already put away some stuff and done two loads of laundry. Thank goodness for large capacity washing machines or I would be doing laundry for days to get this all done.

Question: How does a person go on vacation and come home without so much extra stuff? I don't think you can. Even more so if you have kids. A word for anyone going to WY this summer. Take an extra trailer with you to bring home all the stuff you have left at Bruce and Linda's home over the years. We almost had to leave one of the kids behind to bring Brads stuff home.

Thanks for the good time Bruce, Linda, Christina, Ezra and Anika. We'll see you guys next week in Indiana.

Fun Day in the Sun

On Friday we went to the pool with Christina and her kids. Brooke and Kennedi thought they were too old for the "baby pool," but when it was time to go they were the ones we had to drag out of the water. The kids had fun splashing in the water and trying to coax Ezra to stay in the water and play.

Today was the Lovell fun run . I also convinced Linda, Christina, Brooke, Kennedi and Trista to join in the fun. Everyone had fun and clapped extra hard when Linda won for her age group.

In the early afternoon we walked over to main street so we could watch the parade. Luke really liked the horses. He kept saying, "I really like the horses, look at the horses, they are so great!"

Towards the evening Brad took the kids fishing in the canal where they each caught a fish except Brooke. She got frustrated and gave up after an hour and a half.

What to Do...

Everytime we get to WY we always ask ourselves, "What is there to do?" I told Brad since we probably wouldn't be coming up here again (at least for a while) that we should do some things that we haven't ever done. So, this is what we did:

We went to Devil's Canyon. It was a great! I love the view from here. I don't think the kids appreciated it as much. Brooke kept asking what everyone was looking at. She didn't get it.

We drove through the wild horse range. Brad told the kids whoever saw a horse first they would get a slurpee, so they started making things up. Every bush on a far away mountain was a horse. Then when I actually saw a horse the kids couldn't see them. They were kind of far away so they were hard to see, but they did get to see them.

We saw three different groups of horses for a total of around ten wild horses. It was cool. On the way back out of the range these horses were running along the side of the road. The grey horses are the females, and the tan horse is the male. This was also something I had never seen.




Later that day Brad and I took Luke golfing. He did pretty good for such a small guy.

What a great day!!

The Next Day...

We had to check out from the hotel at noon, and Linda, Kennedi, Christina and her kids were suppose to meet up with us to go swimming at the mineral pools. We ended up with some time before they got there so here are some of the things we did while we waited for them:

You may not be able to tell what the small brown things are, but they are buffalo. There is a road that you can drive on and see many buffalo.

We parked the car and walked around some small ponds that were made by the mineral water running through. The water looked dirty to me, but Trista and Brooke had to stick their hands in to see what it felt like.

This is the Swinging Bridge. The bridge is made to swing back and forth. When Luke first stepped onto the bridge he turned around and wanted to get of. He didn't like the way the ground moved underneath him. But before we left he was running back and forth across the bridge faster than Brooke and Trista.

On the other side of the bridge there was a small walking path that the kids had fun running on. They were excited about the catus plants that they saw, and that they could get very close to the edge because there was no fence to keep them in. That scared me a little bit because my kids have a hard time recognizing danger (like me) and don't know when to step back. Brad made the comment that we would never see that in Utah because everything is fenced in.


After we saw all these cool things we finally did take the kids swimming. They enjoyed the slides the best, but just being in the water was also great for them. Brad bribed me into going off the high dive which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and Luke asked me to do it again, so I did. When it was time to go the kids were all very sad, but also very ready to get to our destination and out of the car for awhile.

A Day in the Car...

On Tuesday evening our family left to visit WY one last time before Bruce and Linda move to Utah. We saw some interesting things a long the way. These windmills were new to us. I thought these were so cool. They kind of remind me of something you would see in a sci-fi movie.



Brad and I agreed that more places should have windmills as an alternative sorce of energy.

Later on in our trip we stoped at the South Pass Rest Stop to strech our legs.




After South Pass, when we were all back in the car, I turned around and this is what I saw:

Kids don't think anything of traveling anymore. Car rides used to be long and boring with nothing to do but stare out the windows. Now you just pop in a movie and before the kids know it an hour an a half has past by. I am so grateful for electronics.

From there we went to Thermopolis. We got there at 12:00 midnight and stayed at the Holiday Inn. The kids like staying hotels, seeing new things and having small adventures.