Vacation - Wyoming

We made it to Rock Springs, WY, about 8pm Monday night.  Kim and Pat wanted us to try their favorite sushi in Rock Springs, so we had a yummy sushi dinner.  They just moved to Rock Springs this past January from Rawlins, WY.  We got to see their new house and their awesome garden.  It was fun to hang out with my little sister and have the cousins stay up.all.night.long....

Tuesday morning we headed out for our last leg of the trip to Grand Junction!

Vacation - Mount Rushmore

We woke up early in Nauvoo Sunday morning.  Our original plan was to just drive on to Colorado...but, I had another idea.  I plead the case that we were sooo close to South Dakota (12 hours drive) we should just go to Mount Rushmore - when else would we ever get a chance to see it??!  I'm so glad Tj is so willing to go along with all my crazy ideas :)  I love that man!  The kids were whining like crazy when they heard what I wanted to do.  Too bad they don't have a say!  We left Nauvoo around 8am and got to Mount Rushmore about 9pm Sunday night.  The drive was beautiful - we live in such a beautiful country and I am so glad we did this drive and got to see so many beautiful sights.  We drove through the Badlands of South Dakota, we joked they were the "misbehaved" lands.  It was good times!

Monday morning we woke up and headed out to Mount Rushmore.

The kids ended up loving it there.  I'm so happy they enjoyed it - because it was about a 17 hour detour to our trip - yikes!  We walked around the park, took a tour from one of the guides and looked around the museum and watched a movie there about the man who had this crazy idea to carve huge heads into the side of a mountain.  Then it was back to the car for the 8 hour drive to Wyoming to stay with the Lionbergers!

Vacation day 2

We got up early Saturday morning and left Indianapolis and drove to Nauvoo.  The GPS got a little confused and had stopped working and we didn't realize it!  That gave us a good 30 minutes to an hour detour!  I guess Nauvoo is just so out in the middle of nowhere it couldn't figure out where we were.  We didn't really even have cell reception there either.  We stopped at a rest area in Illinois - the rest stops there were really nice - so beautiful too and the weather - oh my!  Perfect!

We finally got to Nauvoo about 3pm Saturday.  Everything was closing at 6pm, so we really rushed around the town trying to see as much as possible.  It was so beautiful and the weather was just amazing.

That night we went to the Nauvoo pageant.  Remember how I keep saying the weather was perfect??  Well, it was FREEZING that night!  And, it's the end of July and I didn't pack one single warm piece of clothing - for anyone!  We had to steal the little blankets off the end of our beds from the hotel to wrap the kids up in.  But, they were just little decoration things, they didn't even cover their whole bodies!  So the older kids were wrapped in those, I was huddling with my diaper bag and Tj was holding Bristol in the car seat on his lap trying to keep warm.  Thank goodness I had a light blanket to put over Bristol!  Before the pageant starts they have a little fair with all kinds of fun games for the kids.  Tyler loved tug of war!

 Brenalee tried to do the stick walk - Tyler wasn't about to get on those things!

 The pageant was amazing - so beautiful and moving.  Seeing the Temple in the background was awesome.

What a wonderful day we had!  We didn't have near enough time - we'll have to go back someday!

Vacation! Day 1

We left for our long journey West on Friday, July 26.  Tj had to work in the morning so we didn't get out of Blacksburg until about 1pm on Friday.  We ate lunch and we were off!  We got to Indianapolis around 7pm Friday night and stayed the night there.

5 months!

Bristol is 5 months old!

Love this little cutie!  I still can't believe how lucky I am to have this sweet little baby. 

Pool time!

It was such a nice warm day I decided to blow up Bristol's float and hop in the pool with her.  It felt so good.  She really enjoyed the water.  She'll be a fish just like her siblings!

Photo bombed by Elly!

Pioneer Day Celebration

The Activity Day girls had a fun Pioneer Day celebration at the church in honor of Pioneer Day.  There were all different kind of stations set up - make your own butter was so much fun - especially because you got to spread it on some yummy homemade bread when you were done!  There was panning for gold, make a yarn doll, and all kinds of other games.

 Brena and Livia

 After Scouts was over, they came and joined in the fun.

Science Camp

Virginia Tech was hosting a science camp and I'm lucky I found out about it!  It was for two weeks from 9am-3pm and they would feed your kid lunch - and provide transportation!  The cost? FREE!  It was awesome.  I hoped it would help Tyler like science a little more.  I don't know if it did or not...  But, he says he had a good time, so I guess that's all that matters.  The last day the parents were invited to come see what the kids had been working on.  They all had a challenge from the beginning to build a house that would consume less energy/save energy.  Then they had to present their projects to a panel and answer questions.  The panel consisted of three professors from VT and another college, I would have been a little intimidated by them!  I mean it's like going and presenting a thesis!  But, they all did pretty good.  Tyler was a little shy as is his nature.

 Tyler presenting his house.  It used solar and wind power.

Gymnastics Camp

Brena wanted to go to a gymnastics camp.  They were so expensive I told her this was the only camp she would be able to do all summer.  She didn't care, that's all she wanted to do.  We signed her up and she went to camp Monday-Friday 9am-5pm!  She had a blast.  She LOVES gymnastics.  The last day of camp the family was invited to come watch them perform.

 Bristol, not too interested in what Brenalee was doing.

 And she jumps across the tramp and...

 into the blocks!  So fun!

 She practiced this back bend kick over for days a few weeks ago and finally was able to go into the back bend while standing, then kick over from the back bend.  She was so determined to do it!  Because this is something above her level she got to ring the bell at gymnastics.  She was so proud of herself.  When the bell is rung at gymnastics, everyone stops what they are doing and watches the person.  Then they all clap.  It was fun to see her do that and see the pride in herself.