Someday I'll laugh

I don't want to write this to complain, but because I know someday it will probably be really funny.

This is just a little bit of evidence of something that went completely wrong today. 

I woke up at 6:25 to feed Parker, then just stayed up because he had a doctor's appointment at 7:50am! When I called to schedule his appointment 2 weeks ago they said they bad one on the 27th at 7:50, or on July 12th! Great times, things will be crazy after Idaho, so I opted for the 7:50 appointment.

I fed Parker, then put him back in his bed because he will usually go back to sleep. All the other kiddos were still sleeping. So I jumped into the shower hoping Parker wouldn't fall out of his crib. It is still in its highest setting and he has learned to sit up and sometime he will pull himself up on things. I jumped out and threw my clothes on and ran in there. He was awake and playing, but hadn't tried pulling himself up to standing. I went to wake Broden up and he had wet the bed. Just in the time I was taking a shower! 

I picked out his clothes and fixed him breakfast. Then I threw in some toast for the girls and woke them up. Of course somebody didn't want what I fixed. So I got Remi cereal and Alissa toast with honey and bananas. Then we quickly got everyone dressed and in the car and to the doctor. We got there at 7:53, which is a huge accomplishment! Parker checked and healthy. Doctor listened to Alissa's breathing and confirmed that she probably has some kind of allergies. She has has a nasty cough for like 3 weeks, with no fevers, no change in appetite or urination and no drainage. None of us has gotten it either, so I figured it wasn't anything contagious, but wanted to be sure. 

From the doctor we walked down the hall to the shot room and Parker got his 2 shots. Poor boy! Then we went upstairs to Blake's office to get the peanut butter he had left at work. I didn't want to buy more, because we would just have to throw it away. We grabbed that and of course the kids wanted to see dad, who is in the middle of seeing patients. We said a quick hi then went to the car and came home. 

After getting swimming suits, goggles and towels and watching an episode of Dragon Tales(their new favorite) we were out the door for swimming lessons. Today was a nice sunny day. A little windy, but a great day to swim compared to last weeks over cast 64 degree weather. Remi went right in with her class and Broden refused to get in. So I put him in the water. He screamed and cried and his teacher pretty much ignored him. He did say I can just take him in the water but I'm worried it might bother you. Of course it won't bother me. (I didn't pay for swimming lessons for Broden to cry on the side). So he held Broden for about 2 seconds, then ignored him some more. So I sat on the edge holding Broden's hands so he couldn't just climb out. He would put his feet on the edge and brace himself and try to pull me it, so I let go of him and he fell backwards into the water and choked a little bit. I'm sure all the parents are sitting there wondering what in the world I am doing and why Broden is screaming at the top of his lungs. Or maybe they are just used to it because he did the same thing every day last week. 

So after fighting him for a couple minutes and him standing just out of my reach and splashing me over and over again I hauled him and Alissa and Parker back to the car and told him he had to stay there while I watched Remi swim. He proceeded to tell me that if I left him alone the police would come take me to jail because parents can't leave their kids alone. Where in the world did he hear that? So I left him for a few minutes to stand by the fence and watch Remi. Then I just moved the car by the fence so I wouldn't be arrested:)

After swimming lessons we came home and I let Remi and Alissa play while I finished the korker ribbons I was making for bows. Then I cooked lunch and we all got ready to head to some government office to get fingerprints for visas. I turned off the oven and just left the ribbons in to cook a little more while the oven cooled. 

When we got off the exit to go to the visa office I realized it was by the airport. Everything around there is flooding and the college world series is there too. Great, floods and expensive parking with 4 kids. Luckily none of the roads were closed. We pulled right into the parking lot and the parking was free. They had a huge cement wall, like 8x6x6 built around the whole building and sand bags stacked right against the building to be prepared for the flooding. There was a huge ramp that went over the wall and then you had to walk around to the door that didn't have sand bags blocking it. We finally got there and started walking in and there was a sign on the door that said no cell phones or cameras. REALLY?!?! I walked in and asked the security guards if I really had to take it back to the car and of course they treated my like I am a complete idiot for not knowing that before hand. So I took all the kids back out across the ramp and ran my phone to the car. Then we went back inside, emptied our pockets and went through the metal detectors. I headed to the desk I thought I was supposed to be at because there sign had the same initials as my paper. I wanted for 5 minutes and no one came. Then I went into another room and waited at that desk for like 5 minutes and finally someone came and looked at my paper. Oh that's the wrong paper she said. The paper was my appointment confirmation and said print this off and take it to your appointment. But apparently I needed something else, and I also realized as I was talking to her I probably needed our passports. She confirmed that I did, but I could just come back in without an appointment. 

So I hauled the kids back to the car AGAIN and we drove home. I ran inside and grabbed the visa packet Blake had all put together for me which had EXACTLY what I needed and I headed out again. If only I would have grabbed that in the first place. We got back to the building and headed back over the ramp and through security and they got us right in. They took my finger prints and Remi's. It took about 5 minutes and we were done.

When we got home things were going much better. Remi and Broden both took a little nap on the way home. I fed Parker and put him down for a nap and started working on making car seats more comfortable for a 14 hour drive. When I got that all done and the car arranged with vinyl and towels under the carseats I started dinner. Spaghetti and garlic bread is simple enough right? I got the noodles cooking and turned the oven to broil to warm up while fed Parker. I was sitting feeding him and started smelling something. My first thought, I should clean the oven, it smells like there is something in there. OOHHH NOOOO!!! There is. The ribbon I was doing earlier. I pretty much dropped Parker and ran to take the ribbon out before it started a fire and just barely made it. I think with 5 more seconds it would have been on fire. These are the pictures at the begging of the blog. We opened all the windows and turned on the fans and aired out the house and ate dinner. 

Now Remi and Broden are in bed and Parker is being fussy and Alissa is ready for bed. So I think I'll take care of them. Hopefully I won't have any more bad days this week. I think what makes bad days the worst is when the bad things are my own fault. It makes me so frustrated with myself. At least we are all safe though.

New Vehicle

We have been talking about getting a new vehicle to take with us to England. At first I thought we would just get something in England, but it's not cheaper there. The reason I wanted something else(preferably a van) was because our stroller doesn't fit in the back of the car when we have the back seat up, and when we have all 4 kids in the car we have to have the seat up. So when we all go somewhere and we want to take the stroller I either have to put it in the passenger seat or cram it in the back next to Parker and Alissa. Neither option is very safe. So we decided to look into vans. They seemed pretty pricey!

I thought it would probably just be cheaper to keep our Mountaineer and buy a really nice little stroller. The European kind that are comfy, but fold up really small. It would be easier too than getting a new car and worrying about licensing and registration and all the stuff. So I just was kind of set on doing that. Then we started thinking about a new van again. We also needed something to fit all our keepsake, important stuff in to take to Idaho.

We looked and looked and looked. First we thought we would get one with a salvage title. It was a great deal and a really nice van. But I felt really uneasy about it after we left. Then we test drove some more and looked and called and looked for about 2 weeks. Then last Sunday I thought maybe we should look at vans in Utah. We got on the computer and looked, just curious. And the vans there were MUCH cheaper and more options of what we wanted. We ended up getting a Toyata Sienna with 8 seats. We wanted the basic model because we don't want power doors which we have heard can be like $2,000 to fix if (when)they break and that is here. Everything is more in England and we just didn't want to deal with that. So we talked to my awesome brother, Tyler(I have 2 awesome brothers!) and he said if we got one he would drive it out for us. Monday he went and test drove 2 vans for us. One of them sold before we could buy it:( But another one popped up on KSL on Monday afternoon and we bought it on Tuesday! It it a 2006 Toyata Sienna with only 34,000 miles for $16,500!!!

Tyler picked it up for us on Friday morning and drove 13hours to bring it to us. He got here about 2:00am Saturday morning. We got to spend the day with him going to parks, walking the big bridge over the Missouri river to check out the flooding and eating yummy food! We are so grateful Tyler was willing to take a couple days and bring us our van.

Eden and Jenny

My best friend from high school lives in Lincoln and we have been able to get together a couple times. Alissa and her daughter Zaida are 2 weeks apart and Parker and her second daughter Divia are 2 weeks apart. It is so fun to see all the kids together. Especially Alissa and Zaida. It is like watching what it would have been like for Eden and I to play together when we were two.

Another Tooth!!!

Remi just lost her 5th tooth tonight!!! We were talking with our friends at their house about what the tooth fairy brings kids when they loose their teeth. They have heard of some tooth fairies bringing toys to kids when they loose their teeth. The tooth fairy has brought money to our house. I think Remi got $3 for her first 2, then $1, then $5!!! Tonight when Blake was laying by her for bed time she said she wants to ask the tooth fairy for a real live horse:) HHHMMMMM, loose a tooth get a horse. That seems logical to a six year old. I'm glad the tooth fairy has been around longer than 6 years.

I thought that was so cute. She has been talking about horses for a couple weeks and wondering when we are going to get real horses. It isn't ever will we get horses, or can we get horses. It is when are we going to get them. Some other things she says are when we have another girl...(I guess she thinks we are having another baby someday). Or something else I thought was funny was during soccer season they would check them to see if they were wearing shin guards. Then they would have the girls feel their ears to make sure they took out their earrings. Remi would always feel her ears and look around at the other girls. I don't think she even knew what she was feeling for. Then she would ask me sometimes, "Mom, when are my ears going to get pierced?" or "Mom, are my ears pierced yet?" while feeling her ears.  I guess she thinks getting your ears pierced is just something that happens. Just like your feet get bigger, your hair gets longer and you loose your teeth, you start producing milk, you all of a sudden have your ears pierced:) I don't think I ever explained what happens. I just told her you get them pierced when you get older. It wasn't until later that I realized that she took that as something that just happens. She is such a sweet girl and I love that she isn't so concerned with her appearance and things like earrings!

England Stuff

I just want to share a little bit about what is going on here. We madly preparing to move to England! Many people ask, "Doesn't the Air Force Move you?"

Hahahaha.....Yes, I guess they do. A moving company physically comes to our house and puts everything into boxes and takes the boxes where they are supposed to go.

In the mean time we
-Get medical exams and clearance
-Meet with a mental health doctor to get the final ok for the family
-Get TB shots for everyone
-get passport pictures for everyone at Walgreens
-apply for Passports(wrong ones)
-get new passport pictures on base
-apply for No fee passports at passport office on base
-Get on waiting list for housing in England at housing office here
-Submit our date we want to leave
-submit the date we want to ship our car
- Organize household items into what we want stored here in Nebraska and what we want shipped to      
England
-Decide what we want to store in Idaho
-Buy a car big enough to take our stuff to Idaho and convenient for traveling
-Sell altima
-transfer title and get notorized
-sell big car(Mountaineer)
-cancel insurance on Altima
-Get insurance on new car
-get new title and register new car
-cancel altima registration
-sell and give away what we don't need
-Figure out what we need to have for 2 months when we won't have anything
-get another copy of pictures for visas(on base)
-fill out visa applications for me and 4 kids(I feel bad for missionary moms! TONS of hard work for these and no help from passport office on base)
-submit dates for storage pick up
-submit dates for england pick up
-weigh car empty
-weigh car with Idaho stuff
Well that's all I can think of right now. This doesn't include all Blake's personal out processing stuff. If we weren't moving to another country I think I would have opted to do it ourselves:) It will be nice to be done with it all. The kids are being troopers while mom and dad are so busy. They are so good at taking care of eachother. Remi fixed lunch for them today and they went outside and had a picnic on our picnic blanket under umbrellas. It was so cute.

This morning Remi said something so cute. She was telling me how one of her friends held a spider. She said,"Mom, my friend held a spider in her hand. It was a scary spider, it wasn't even a daddy long leg, OR a mommy long leg." I guess not there are mommy long legs!

Being Committed

I was just reading this morning in the July 1011 Ensign and decided to share. I originally was just going to share with my family, but this is for my family, so I will share here too.

I love how President Uchtdorf talks about being committed."Those who are only sort of committed may expect to only sort of receive the blessings of testimony, joy, and peace. The windows of heaven might only be sort of open to them. Wouldn’t it be foolish to think, “I’ll commit myself 50 percent now, but when Christ appears at the Second Coming, I’ll commit myself 100 percent”?

I have thought about this a lot since we got married. I remember when we were talking to the temple Sealer before our wedding and how many times then, and during the ceremony he said that all the blessings were dependent upon our faithfulness. What a huge responsibility. I feel like our family has been so blessed with so many things and sometimes I wonder if I have the faith necessary to make it through trials that may come. I have had a couple experiences with our kids, or through watching others that helps me realize I need to strengthen my faith and be fully committed so that when trials do come I am strong enough to get through them, and 100% committed so I can receive 100% of the blessings my Father in Heaven has for me and my family. Especially when there are hard times.

Anyway, those are just a few of my thoughts. I remember the talk in conference from a while ago. Don't remember who it was by, or when, but it talked about sharing your testimony with your family. I don't think I will ever stand in front of you and say I would like to bear my testimony....(unless we are in church together).  But I did want each of you to know that I have one. I know that it is through Christ that we can make it through our trials, whether they are visible to those around us, or not. Christ knows what we are going through and he is there for us no matter what. He is fully committed to us and I love the strength that gives me. It has given me so much comfort as we prepare to move to England. It is overwhelming sometimes thinking about being so far from family, our country, our home and everything that is familiar to us. When I get overwhelmed thinking about this I try to remember to turn to my Father in Heaven in prayer and I have been comforted so many times by the love he has to offer. It just makes me that much more grateful and committed.

Brother I'm Committed by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Two young brothers stood atop a small cliff that overlooked the pristine waters of a blue lake. This was a popular diving spot, and the brothers had often talked about making the jump—something they had seen others do.

Although they both wanted to make the jump, neither one wanted to be first. The height of the cliff wasn’t that great, but to the two young boys, it seemed the distance increased whenever they started to lean forward—and their courage was fading fast.

Finally, one brother put one foot at the edge of the cliff and moved decisively forward. At that moment his brother whispered, “Maybe we should wait until next summer.”

The first brother’s momentum, however, was already pulling him forward. “Brother,” he responded, “I’m committed!”

He splashed into the water and surfaced quickly with a victorious shout. The second brother followed instantly. Afterward, they both laughed about the first boy’s final words before plunging into the water: “Brother, I’m committed.”

Commitment is a little like diving into the water. Either you are committed or you are not. Either you are moving forward or you are standing still. There’s no halfway. We all face moments of decision that change the rest of our lives. As members of the Church, we must ask ourselves, “Will I dive in or just stand at the edge? Will I step forward or merely test the temperature of the water with my toes?”

Some sins are committed because we do wrong; other sins are committed because we do nothing. Being only sort of committed to the gospel can lead to frustration, unhappiness, and guilt. This should not apply to us because we are a covenant people. We make covenants with the Lord when we are baptized and when we enter the house of the Lord. Men make covenants with the Lord when they are ordained to the priesthood. Nothing can be more important than keeping a commitment we have made with the Lord. Let us remember the reply of Rachel and Leah to Jacob in the Old Testament. It was simple and straightforward and showed their commitment: “Whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do” (Genesis 31:16).

Those who are only sort of committed may expect to only sort of receive the blessings of testimony, joy, and peace. The windows of heaven might only be sort of open to them. Wouldn’t it be foolish to think, “I’ll commit myself 50 percent now, but when Christ appears at the Second Coming, I’ll commit myself 100 percent”?

Commitment to our covenants with the Lord is a fruit of our conversion. Commitment to our Savior and His Church builds our character and strengthens our spirit so that when we meet Christ, He will embrace us and say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).

There is a difference between intention and action. Those who only intend to commit may find excuses at every turn. Those who truly commit face their challenges squarely and say to themselves, “Yes, that would be a very good reason to delay, but I made covenants, and so I will do what I have committed to do.” They search the scriptures and earnestly seek the guidance of their Father in Heaven. They accept and magnify their Church callings. They attend their meetings. They do their home or visiting teaching.( I have so much to do in this department. I am so good at talking myself out of following my promptings to call someone, or write a note or card, or take something to someone. Blake is my example in this. He is so good at thinking of others.)

A German proverb says, “Promises are like the full moon. If they are not kept at once, they diminish day by day.” As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have committed to walk in the path of discipleship. We have committed to follow the example of our Savior. Imagine how the world will be blessed and transformed for good when all members of the Lord’s Church live up to their true potential—converted in the depth of their souls and committed to building the kingdom of God.

In some way, each of us stands at a decision point overlooking the water. It is my prayer that we will have faith, move forward, face our fears and doubts with courage, and say to ourselves, "I’m committed!"

Camping

A couple weekends ago we got to go camping!!! We found a place about an hour away by a little town called Wahoo. I usually forget and call it Yahoo. We left as soon as we could get packed after Blake's work picnic. We drove out and stopped at a gas station for wood. They sent us to a guy's house a little down the road. We asked him if we could buy some wood and he just gave us some. The town with the gas station was so cute. I Think it was called Prague. It was just a little town in the middle of nowhere. I loved it though. All the yards were well kept, there weren't junk cars all over and I just thought it was perfect. 

When we got to the campsite we started our coals and set up camp. Then we cooked our tin foil dinners and ate them. After dinner we headed down the trail to the lake to fish. Blake took us off the trail to the lake and we got ATTACKED by mosquitos. We turned and ran as fast as we could with 4 kids, 4 fishing poles and a tackle box. We found a safer place to fish and fished until dark. The kids got to use their glow in the dark bobbers from Santa and loved them. 

We headed back to camp and started the dutch oven peach cobbler. While that cooked we sat around the campfire and had smores and just enjoyed being together. The kids were so happy and fun to be with. The peach cobbler finally got done around midnight. We ate it and Remi and Alissa went right to bed. Parker was already sleeping. Broden stayed up until 1 with Blake and I just enjoying the peace.

When we went to bed a storm came through. We had our weather alarm, but I had taken the batteries out, so I wasn't sure it was working right. There was a sever thunder storm watch, so there was tons of lightning we could see out across the sky. There wasn't very much thunder though. At about 3:00am the wind woke Blake and I up. It was blowing so hard I thought our tent was going to collapse. Blake had to hold the tent up by where Broden was laying so it didn't smash him. It only lasted like 15 minutes, then we went back to sleep.

The next morning we slept in until about 9:00am! Our tent was in the shade, so we didn't get so hot we couldn't sleep.  We had donut holes, muffins and sunny D for breakfast. Then we packed some snacks and drove to the other side of the lake. We tried finding a good fishing spot on that lake, but there was moss all the way around. So we drove to one of Blake's hunting areas. It has a lake on it. When we got there there were some men just leaving. They told us what they used to fish and gave Blake like $30 dollars worth of lures to fish with. After they left we didn't see another person until we returned to the campground. 

We spent the next 5 hours fishing, playing in the mud, watching birds, shooting the gun, taking pictures, eating snacks and just relaxing. The lake was in the middle of a field and had plenty of fish in it. The kids caught lots of bluegill. We were so relaxed the whole time. We didn't even have a watch to know what time it was and it was so nice to not have to be anywhere or be around anyone but our family.

Alissa was so funny. Blake told Remi and Broden they could shoot the gun. He said get your shoes on and find a water bottle and we can shoot it. So they did and started walking up the hill with Blake to shoot their water bottles. Alissa wanted to go too, so I told her to get her shoes. She put on her shoes and grabbed her water bottle full of sunny-D and headed up the hill. She ONLY had on her shoes. Other than that she was completely naked. I guess she followed my instructions, I never said put on clothes, only shoes.

After hanging out at the lake we headed back to camp and relaxed for a while, having water fights and taking naps. Then we packed up our stuff and headed home. It was such a fun, relaxing camping trip. I love spending time in nature away from people and just relaxing. It was the perfect break from the craziness of preparing to move!

                

Field Trip

 

Remi had her end of the year field trip the last Tuesday of school. She had been talking about going to the farm for weeks. She was SOOO excited!!! I took her breakfast in bed and got her all ready to go. The sun was shining and it looked like a beautiful day. I sent her out the door with her lunchable in a brown sack with farm animals drawn all over it.  She came right back inside and said she needed a rain coat. I looked at the sky and said she would be fine. She said her teacher told her she needed a rain coat because it was supposed to rain. So I grabbed her rain coat, luckily it still fits, and she was on her way.

They rode school busses to a farm and got to eat lunch outside. While they were eating it started pouring rain. So they went inside to a class room and someone talked to them. They got to see a pig and a chicken. She even got to pet the chicken! Then she said on her way home she got to see a horse in the field. She had tons of fun, even though it was raining and they didn't get to see very much. 

While she was gone I decided to make animal sugar cookies. They are a cow and pig in case you can't tell. The kids thought they were fun.

Field day

Remi had her last day of school on the Thursday before Memorial Day. It was their field day too. I wanted to go see her do the field/fun day events, but didn't really hear anything about parents being invited. So I loaded the 3 kids into the car to go for a drive to hopefully get Alissa to sleep. We drove by the school to see if we could see her. All the roads were too far away to see them doing anything. So we went into the parking lot. I drove to both sides of the school, but still couldn't see very well. So we parked and went into the field by where they were doing the events. I still couldn't see good enough. I did notice other people watching though, that were probably parents. So we just joined them and walked with Remi's class to see her do some of the Field Day events. We watched her do the gunny sack race, a water relay, and the football pass. It was fun to see her interact with her class mates.

She has done so well in school this year. Her teacher always talks about how well behaved she is. Her report cards are always good too. She is always at the level she is supposed to be for kindergarten. Remi loved her teacher Mrs. Sindelar. She learned so much from her and always looked forward to going to school. She will miss her school here and especially her teacher!

For the summer we wanted Remi to continue working on reading. Blake told her on Memorial Day that she would have things she needed to do every day before she could go play. Tuesday morning I woke up and Remi was sitting at the table making flash cards of the sight words of the first book she wanted to read. I told her I was going to be in the garage painting and to come get me if she needed something. When I went back inside she had gotten Alissa, and Broden breakfast and had gotten Parker out of his crib, changed his diaper and put him in his bumbo(I don't want to know how she got him out of the crib. He didn't cry though). I was shocked! Then when she asked if she could go play I told her she needed to get dressed and clean her room. She got dressed, got Alissa and Broden dressed, cleaned her room, did her hair and did Alissa's hair. She was amazing. This is how she has been all week. I am loving summer so far.

Remi has officially learned to read her first book without ANY help. This was her goal. Every time she learns to read a book she gets a prize. The prize she wants ever time is a miniature hand sanitizer from Bed Bath and Beyond. Her best friend had one on her backpack and Remi has been asking for one for about 3 months! The first book she learned to read was "Big Pig on a Dig". Next she wants to read "Go Dog Go".

I love having my helper home again and we have had so much fun together.

Where to go?

 We have known since probably August that Blake would have a 4 day weekend over Memorial day weekend. So we have thought some about what to do. A few weeks ago we thought maybe we should go to Nauvoo. So we started looking into hotels and what all there is to do there. We weren’t sure if that was our plan or not, so we also looked at other option. Thursday after Remi got home from school we were still trying to decide what to do. We thought maybe we should just stay in Omaha and save some money. We would go camping, on bike rides, Blake and I could go on a date. So that became our plan. Then we looked at the weather. It was supposed to rain and be cold the whole weekend.

So we were back to square one. What to do? There isn’t a whole lot near Omaha that sounded like fun to us. We just wanted to be outside and the weather wasn’t cooperating. So we went to bed Thursday night still not knowing what we would do the next day, but thinking we should just stick with our original plan. Friday morning Parker woke up at 5:30. I fed him and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I got up and started some bread, then went to the Wal-mart to get treats and some grocery’s we needed. I got home and we got all packed and left the house about 12pm, still not really having a plan, but headed for Nauvoo.

We stopped at Best Buy right by our house so Blake could run in and get something for the DVD player to play over the speakers in the car. While he ran in Best Buy I went and got gas. While I was getting gas I realized I had forgotten mustard and Mayo for our sandwiches. Also Broden started telling me he needed to go to the bathroom(we had them all go right before we got in the car) So we drove home(good thing because we left the garage door open. Broden went to the bathroom and I grabbed the mustard and mayo, then we headed back to get Blake. He got in the car and we realized we had forgotten the DVD’s for the kids. So we headed home again. So finally at 1:15 we got on the road headed to Nauvoo, or somewhere in that direction. We were going to drive a little while and have lunch at a park or something, but the kids were too hungry. So we just age in the car while the kids watched tangled. We decided to just go to a hotel in Des Moines and stay the night since hotels were so much cheaper here than in Nauvoo.

We arrived at the hotel around 3:30, changed into our swimming suits and went to the pool. This is the whole reason our kids like vacations and pools is so we can swim. We swam for a couple hours then headed to the room to get dinner. The kids also think that if you are swimming at a hotel you have to order pizza, so we did. It was a nice relaxing evening just doing what we wanted, when we wanted to. After pizza we relaxed and watched TV for a while, then headed back to the pool. We fell asleep Friday night watching the Animal Planet.

Saturday morning we got to sleep in until 8! We went down for a yummy continental breakfast then headed back to the room to watch How to Train Your Dragon on TV. Blake stayed with all the kids and watched that while I went and exercised. Then we all went to the pool to swim one last time. I sat in the hot tub with Parker for a while, then went to the room to get ready and pack. We checked out at 12 and drove to a state park close to our hotel.

It was raining, so we just drove around it, then ate in the car. Then we took a little walk to a bird blind that was set up in the woods. There were like 15 bird feeders in front of it and we sat there for about half an hour watching birds fly in to eat. There were probably 20 different kinds and some we had never seen before. There were rose breasted grosbeak, red belly wood pecker, red headed wood pecker, orioles, blue jays, indigo buntings(I didn’t see it, it is my goal to see one someday), cardinals, and tons of other amazing birds. I could have sat there all day. The kids were ready to go though. So we called the Ingersoll’s to see what their plan was. They said they were going to a garden near Des Moines then staying the night in Des Moines and heading to Nauvoo in the morning. So we pricelined the same hotel and  headed to the garden’s to meet them.

I think it was called Reiman’s Garden. It was a beautiful garden. At the beginning there was a butterfly building. The butterflies were very friendly. We each had butterflies land on us. They especially loved the girls bows in their hair. Then we walked through the rest of the grounds meeting up with Ingersoll’s for the kids to run around together for a while and to take a few pictures. I love gardens like this. There were walking paths everywhere and all different kinds of plants. There was one area that talked about how important bees are to pollinating and it had different ideas to get bees to live by your plants. One of them was just 2x4’s screwed together to make the shape of a house. Then they took a drill bit and screwed holes into them, for the bees. I would love to have a garden like this someday. I told Blake I would rather live in a shack and have nice fun outside things, than a huge house.

When we left the garden we stopped and got some KFC and headed to the park. It was just our family in the whole park. We enjoyed our dinner, then played tag and hide and go seek tag. It was so fun! Parker even had fun just laying on the blanket watching us. He would laugh whenever we were running after eachother in front of him.

When we got to the hotel guess what we did? Yep, more swimming with Ingersoll’s this time. We swam for a while then headed to the room for bath’s, pj’s and a movie. It was funny in our room all 6 of the kids were on one bet all huddled around the DVD player watching Spirit and Blake was sprawled out on the other queen bed, all by himself watching Animal Planet on TV. We talked with Ingersoll’s and decided we had loved our trip so far and would be fine going home in the morning because it had already been a successful vacation. So we tried getting a hold of the Hotel in Nauvoo to see if we could cancel our reservation, but they didn’t answer.

Sunday morning we woke up at 8 again and tried calling the hotel. We didn’t know if we should get packed and head to Nauvoo, to stay in the hotel we had held with the credit card, or relax, swim and head home. Finally at 9 we got a hold of them and they said they could cancel our reservation. So Blake took the kids swimming, then we showered, packed up and headed to a park to eat lunch and head home. I don’t think I am a fan of the no church on Sunday thing. Usually even on vacation we will go to church. I didn’t say anything this time, but I really missed it. I think we will always go to church on Sunday’s, no matter where we are. I need it to much to not go. Yes, it might be a sacrifice, but isn’t that what Christ did for us? Make a sacrifice?

So now we are headed back to Omaha. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough tomorrow to go fishing, or hiking or have a fire or something. Remi is all done with school and I am so excited to be able to do things at night and stay up a little later.