July 27, 2005

July 27, 2005
Wow! What a long, fun, hot week we had with my family! They had a heat wave and several days the heat index was between 110-115. I bet they will never come visit again. Of course the exact day they left a cold front came through and dropped the temp to a gorgeous 70! Figures!

Well, we left last Tuesday after Bob got off work and met my parents and my sister and her 3 kids in Nauvoo. We were just in time for the pre show and it was so awesome!! They had tons of people dressed up in pioneer clothes. They had dancing, crafts, handcart races, stick pulls, stilts, a bagpipe band, log sawing etc. We had so much fun. We even saw some old friends from Flagstaff- what are the chances of that?? Anyway, the kids went on the handcart and Marisa helped pull. They only went a little ways and she thought she might die. Gave her a good idea of what it might have been to cross the plains. Yuck! Bob creamed me at the stick pull- I went flying. We really did have a great time.

Then they had all the children march with the bagpipe band to take the American flag to the stage. Then we got to see the Nauvoo temple pageant. It was so cool. It was such a beautiful setting with the temple set up on the hill in the background. After the pageant, we drove to Bob’s parents house. They were so sweet to do a "bed and breakfast" for all of us! Plus, we felt extra lucky to have all 4 of our parents in the same place at the same time.

The next day, Wednesday, we went back to Nauvoo. My parents and sister did a temple session while we took the kids on a wagon ride with horses through Nauvoo. It was so flippin hot. We were all drenched in sweat! After the fun ride, we took the kids to the area called "Pioneer past times". We had a fun picnic lunch, let the kids play in the sprinklers, and played all sorts of fun pioneer games. Then we picked the other up from the temple and went to the Nauvoo fudge factory (a must do!) And then took them to the Mississippi river to the pioneer crossing and where Marisa had been baptized. We let the kids get in the river to cool off and we skipped rocks. Then we drove back here with my family to Iowa. That night we watched "The Pacifier" and I laughed hard again. I just think it is such a fun movie!

On Thursday, we took an easy day. Everyone unpacked, we did grocery shopping, laundry, etc. That night we watched "Ice Princess" . We let the kids run in the sprinklers and play with the hose- they were out there for several hours having an absolute blast.

On Friday, we went to see "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". We all enjoyed it a lot. It was so fun to go all together. When we came home, my mom gave all the kids t-shirts from the movie. It was a hit! We did a fun Mexican food evening with home made tortillas, kid friendly margaritas, and homemade guacamole dip. Yummy!! After that, us girls went clothes shopping. I really should start my own business designing clothes. We had fun and finally found Marisa some skirts that fit and look adorable!

On Saturday, we went to clean the church and the kids played in the gym where it was nice and cool. Then Bob and I took our kids (not Alayna-we finally had a babysitter) to go see Star Wars III. It was so awesome!!!! Even the kids loved it. So we decided we will have to see all 6 in a row at Christmas. Anyone want to come???

On Sunday, it was the hottest it had been all week. It was just awful. But it was fun taking the family to church. That evening we did a sing though of the Messiah (to prepare Nina and I to come sing in it in Utah next April). We watched home videos, make chocolate chip cookies, and watched the movie "Handcart" (which was cool since we had just been to Nauvoo and pushed one!)

On Monday, we went to visit the Amana colonies. It is a city of German immigrants who settled here around the same time the Saints moved to Salt Lake. We went to see many stores. We went in a bakery, chocolate house, fudge factory, lace shop, kids toy shop, Christmas store, etc. It would have been much more fun if it hadn’t been so hot!!! We did have lunch at a German Restaurant with authentic German food. Bob and I split a German Schnitzel meal which was excellent. Then we went to the Holiday Inn which has an indoor waterpark. We got 1 hotel room so people could hang out if they didn’t want to swim. It was so nice since it was indoors and we probably spent 4-5 hours there. The kids were going crazy in it.

Yesterday my family headed back to Tennessee and of course the temp dropped. It was so fun to have them here to visit and spend time with. Sorry this is more of a log of what we did. Today I am running off all our newsletters since we got married to make copies for each kid. Figured I should get caught up now. Our love to everyone!!!

PS- Just a reminder that if you want to see any past newsletters you have missed, they are archived on the side.