Nauvoo Post 1

The last weekend in July my family and our BFF family headed down to Nauvoo to catch the pageant.  If you live anywhere remotely close whether you are LDS or not this is a wonderful product, go if you have the chance it is free fun!  Anyways, Nauvoo is so much fun, it's very simple and the spirit is just indescribable.  I was really excited to share it with people we love.  My friend N and I are "two peas in a pod" according to her husband..It is awesome it was like we were separated at birth.  Her husband and Mark are like two little boys when they get to play together so it worked out perfectly!  Plus all my kids love them.  Oh anywhoo, you get the point we have a butt load of fun together.  We got to stay right in Nauvoo this time and even got R's Military discount, even better.  The weather was awesome.  Again I don't know what it is about that place but every time I go I just love it more and more.

This was where the original bakery was, when they started excavating they found the original foundation to it, that is so freaking cool.

 The Family Living Center has a lot of great activities to learn more about how the pioneers made what they needed to survive, like bread, candles, rope, rugs some of the basics.

This is MJ's future wife..

 Here is how the make the rope...

 Mark is a great "supervisor"

 Bryn is also a great "supervisor"

 Then we ventured on to Pioneer Pastimes..so we get to spend time playing like the pioneers.  I am pretty sure they didn't have water fountains. LOL.  This kept him busy for a good 10 minutes.

 Bryn found all the kitchen stuff and went to town! She loves to play babies and kitchen, even by herself.  She plays independently really well.

 A  got all dressed up!  I love all the little dresses and bonnets.

 As soon as he found this wood he went pyro crazy and started to build a fire!  A little boy walked by and accidentally knocked it down and Brecken got so sad he said "Oh my poor fire!"  Well good thing he built it again.

 Of course Mark enjoyed having a man to play with.

 Miss competitive wanted to beat her daddy at the bear races, ok her competitive side doesn't come from me..

 N and L had fun "trying" to walk on the silts.

Here is my little pioneer woman...all grown up.

Late 4th Parade

The kids were playing in JJ's room and then all of a sudden Jaylee comes out and said "Take a seat, the parade is about to begin!"  Then the 3 come out like this and were just giggling and singing and jumping around.  It is the cutest thing ever to me when they find an activity that can involve all of them, especially when they have that much fun together. OHHHH I love it.

Little Birdie

The kids came in the house and said look mom we found a bird.  I was like sure ok, well they sure did!  I did a bit of research online and the whole you can't touch a bird or the mother won't take it back is a myth.  I also called some animal rescue place out in California and they verified that... I also learned that some birds eat meat and some eat more grain type food, so when you save an animal make sure you know what it is so you can feed it the right food.  We tried leaving it outside to see if a mother would come to it, never happened.  It just kept ending up in the street.  So we "saved" it.  We put it in a box and tried feeding it different foods..The kids loved it, it was a lot of work to try to take care of it. By the end of day two it died.  The kids gave it a proper burial in the front yard and even made a headstone for it.  I am betting it would have died either in my house or outside either way.   We tried, nature took it's course.  Jaylee lost her mind when he died she balled forever, it was a good moment to explain life to her a little. RIP Little Birdie

Back at Grandma's

The weekend after Mark's parents left we headed to my mom's.  It was my Grandma's birthday, so we were able to celebrate it with her.  Somehow these are the only pictures I got of our 3 day visit.   The kids love to wrestle on my mom's bed.

Getting back to a "new" normal

I am so far behind, but it is so important to me that I have a record of my family.  Plus if I ever lost any of my pics this kind of serves as a back up and also my journal.  As of right now we are trying to get everyone on a new schedule so life has been insanely hectic as usual.

We need YOUR PRAYERS

Monday the 12th of September my best friends husband was in a motorcycle accident.  A car failed to yield and hit him, luckily he was wearing a helmet.  This has been the worse experience of my life.  To watch someone you love be in so much pain is heartbreaking.  I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers, and I know no one that looks at this blog even knows this person, but please pray for him, pray for his family and if you can we are having a huge fast on Sunday for a complete healing and restoration to who he was.  I have been blessed with wonderful people in my life, all of the people I have met along my journey have helped me understand who I am better, and I am just so thankful for all of you who have been in my life.

Pool Time

We have a pool pass so we decide to have Mark's Cousin come up here and we could all go to the pool!  Of course it started to get cloudy and kind of rainy, but I love those types of days at the pool because no one else goes!  I was so excited to have help because we had been going to the pool like once a week and I have no pictures of any of it!  The pool is hard enough by myself let alone trying to take pictures!  This is the perfect pool for us though, it has the "little" pool that has a ton of toys that get you wet and it's zero depth, a few fun slides, a big pool with a high dive and a crazy slide, and a lazy river!  We love to spend as long as Bryn will let us.  She is the boss when she's done she's done.  So we had fun sharing with our life with Mark's parents.

 Jaylee's was obsessed with holding her daughter!  She wouldn't put her down!

 Giving sugars...

 Yep still holding her!

 That's Ivy, Mark's cousin.  We had a really great time finally getting to meet her.  She lives an hour away from us, and is in our Stake but we have managed never to meet up until now.

Want ONE

Yep these things are awesome on road trips! Mark's dad put his on our car and it was sooo nice!  It mad the drive that much less crowed!  So because it's his baby he had the kids clean it for him when we got back from our weekend getaway. 

Fort Snelling

So because Minnesota like shut all the government down all the state parks where closed...Pretty much anything funded by the state was closed..sucky!  This was like a cool old for right on the river..didn't learn much about it because it was closed..Sorry.

How to keep a baby HAPPY..

With CANDY of course!  Yes anytime Bryn got upset we bought her food! That looks like a face that LOVED IT TOO.

Nickelodean Universe

Oh my goodness Nickelodeon Universe was so much fun!  It was perfect, it was indoors so the temperature was perfect and the lines were super short and geared toward my size of people!  I loved it.  Mark even enjoyed taking off for awhile with miss dare devil and they rode the "bigger" rides.  It was so great to have Marks parents there to help.  Wayne just kind of took charge of Miss Bossy Pants aka Bryn and he rode whatever she wanted with her!  It was great.

 The log ride was awesome..for and indoor park this place was GREAT!  Seriously it was comparable to Splash Mountain..I thought anyways. 

 Second ride of the day was Jaylee's choice spinning swings.  I am not sure what made me think I could ride this, I get motion sickness swinging on our swings at home!  Yeah it was not a good way to start off the day. What's up with that as I get older I get more and more motion sickness...Either that or with each child?  I hate it.

 Brecken has really bee into Blue's Clue's lately so this was perfect!  He could make Blue go up and gown and honk a little horn! 

 Bryn was so funny, the minute that the ride stopped she immediately started screaming because she wanted to go again!

 My little dare devil loved this one!  Brecken on the other hand...not so much.  They had to actually stop the ride to get him off!  Jaylee thought that was kind of funny!

 Trucks..now this was more his speed.  Look how into it he was! 
                                      
 Jaylee even enjoyed driving!  Bryn just loves to keep moving!

 This was a fun balloon ride..Best part I had help!  So each of the kids had their OWN adult! Oh that just makes life so much easier.

 The kids got to meet Dora and Diego, I wasn't there for that :(  Bryn had a major blowout so I was on a mission for new shorts and got lost in Gaps sale they were having!  Seriously it sucked me in!

 This was Brecken's favorite!  He is all into trains right now!  He rode this thing over and over...if you look really hard in there you can see Wayne tucked in the corner!  He is suck a trooper! 

 This was just a random picture from one of the balconies at the mall looking into the park. There were a few big rides that went all around the inside!

It was such a fun time.  I am really glad that the kids got to have those Memories with Marks parents.  It was a new little adventure with them. 

The Aquarium

We got to Minneapolis one a Friday evening and stayed until afternoonish on Sunday.  It was the perfect mini getaway.  We had semi-decided what we were going to do, we just weren't sure when.  So after checking into the hotel we decide to go check out the GIGANTIC mall. Seeings how the Two things we really wanted to do were both there we decided to get knock the aquarium off our list.  The kids loved it.  Brecken was always running ahead of us being the crazy boy he always is.   They had a few little touch and feel pools that the kids loved.

 Breckens favorite were the Seahorses and the jellyfish.  I am not so fond of the jellyfish because when I was 8 I got stung hard core in the Gulf of Mexico and still have really bad memories of it.

 "oh they are so pretty!'  Brecken

 Jaylee is my mini mommy.  She just takes charge sometimes.  In this situation it was super helpful because Bryn could not figure out what she wanted to Miss Mommy took her hand and just started to explain everything to her.  That made her quiet happy!  What a great big sister.  Those are the moments, I tell ya.

 Pat and JJ just loved this little fish lips guy.  We ended up doing fish lips a lot after seeing that.

Wayne and Mark where there I promise I somehow managed not to get any pictures of either of them..  It is crazy going place with kids that just like to run around.  We all kind of went through the aquarium at our own pace.