Spring Break: Part 2

St. Patrick's Day is also Jonas' birthday, so we had to fit some celebrating in to our day! We took the crowd out to dinner at a local restaurant across the river, The Hawkeye. Ethan ordered the special, Corned Beef and Cabbage. Truly, it was a mountain of food. It could have fed 3 people, at least.

Jonas got a mountain cake topped with dinosaurs. His cute cousins gave him a big soccer/beach ball and a catch ball game. He also got a new bike helmet and bell to go on his NEW bike!! He didn't get his bike until we got home, but still very exciting!

Cake and ice cream, everyone's favorite!
Baby Ruby still wowing us all with her beauty.
The next day we headed over to Carthage. The spirit at Carthage is amazing. I love the way my testimony is strengthened to learn about Joseph Smith's last bit on earth.




After Carthage we drove across Missouri and ended up near Joplin to visit Ethan's aunt and uncle. The kids love it when we go see them. We all do! They treat us like their own kids and make us feel incredibly special. We love them so much!

Spring Break

It was our Spring Break already a couple weeks ago and we decided to make the most of it! We headed up to Missouri to see Ethan's sister and her family who we haven't seen in almost 2 years!!! (Longer for Ethan!) Then rather than just hand out there, we all trekked up to Nauvoo for a couple days. We had such a great time!!!

Once we got to Nauvoo, we checked into our condos. We stayed at the Nauvoo Villas which are awesome!!! They are like little apartments with bedrooms, kitchens, laundry, everything! It was perfect. There are few things I dislike more than staying in a tiny hotel room with all 5 of my children, so bedrooms make any hotel stay indescribably better.

We didn't have a ton of time our first day since everything closed down by 5 pm. So, we played at the condos and ate pizza together. As you can see, they kids were happy as could be...

These two play off each other brilliantly. So fun to have such great (silly) siblings!
This adorable babe stole all our hearts. You can totally see why Bolton was son interested in her, she is gorgeous!!!
And let's not forget Eliza. She just sat and looked at the pretty baby for quite a while.
Ruby's so good, she even looks at the camera. Not bad for a 2 month old!
After dinner we headed back to Nauvoo to view Rendevouz! In Old Nauvoo. They have special seating for the kids at the front of the theatre, these kids braved the show together... well for a little bit at least. Eliza joined us in the back pretty early on and Levi went back and forth.
Do any of you recognize these two stars? (I realize that many of you don't... they are some dear friends from the good old days of Utah). They did an awesome job! It was so fun to see them, when Sister Taylor spotted Ali her face was priceless!
Oh how I love the Temple! I wish we could have done a session, but unfortunately our schedule and theirs didn't match up. At least we got to enjoy its beauty.
The next morning, St. Patrick's Day, we toured Old Nauvoo. This is the Dry Goods Store where they talked about all sorts of things, including the Post Office and the first "running" water. We thought it was funny that the mail delivery was so unreliable, that mail men would sometimes just choose not to delivery letters despite the effort and money people would put into sending it.

As for the running water, the young men got that job... they would fill these buckets at a well and then run up to the Temple site with the buckets yoked to their shoulders. Quite a big and important job.
We had lots of room and time to run and play. It was just what the kids needed after all that time in the car.

We also took a carriage ride to see what the area might have been like prior to the Saints building up the City Beautiful. We got to sing "I am a Child of God" a quiet grove and it was sweet.


After the ride, they let the kids pet the horses, can you tell who is excited?!!?


Daddy was afraid he'd be bald before the trip was through.
That day we headed over to the Nauvoo Bakery (in New Nauvoo) for lunch. Once again, you can see the kids had a delightful time just being kids.


These little sourgum cookies were super yummy!

We kept getting the little girls confused with each other from behind. They are so cute!




We met up with Sister Taylor again in the Print Shop! She was by far the most engaging missionary who taught us. Giving the kids a real hands on experience. Side note... My dad noted when he was there a year ago that in the print shop the capital letters were all in an "upper" case and the small letters were in a "lower" case. Anyone know if that's where the titles came from?

If you'll notice Levi's absence from the photo. He wasn't too into the whole Nauvoo thing. He refused to go inside many of the buildings as well as many of the pictures.
See, there he is being busy doing something else...

This is the Family Living Center where they teach you how to do a lot of fun things.
First up, making rope. The kids all got to twist it until it was nice and tight...

Then, those three pieces were twisted together to make a strong rope.
Best of all, they got to keep the rope they made!! Bryant and Conrad had a great time lassoing anything they could!
The final tour we were able to do was at the Seventies Hall. Elder Taylor was our guide here.

We stopped by the Blacksmith shop, but they were closing early due to a reenactment of the organization of Relief Society for the missionaries. Elder Taylor was portraying Joseph Smith and Sister Taylor was Emma. It would have been neat to see, but only the missionaries to got to take part. The Blacksmith did give us "prairie diamond" rings, though.

Our last stop for the day was the Trail of Hope down to the Mississippi River. Ali and Josh didn't join us for this part of the day, but we had fun and are glad we did it.

My boys love to climb, especially trees. Jonas ran as fast as he could to this one and begged me to take his picture. What mom could resist?
Bryant on a barge.
Tossing "pooh berries" into Old Muddy Water.

You would be amazed at how difficult it is to get a good family picture... these are the best of at least 12!

I love Nauvoo! The spirit I feel there is incredible. The Saints and the Prophet were amazing people. I'm so thankful for all they went through to build up God's kingdom.

More from this trip and the last week to follow soon!

Pursuing Excellence

Our Relief Society Presidency (actually, they just got released) found some old "Pursuit of Excellence" pamphlets in their closet and encouraged us to participate in the program this year. It is basically a grown up, spiritually focused Personal Progress program. For those who "a desire for excellence in {their} personal lives."

I think as women, and maybe in the church specifically, we do have that desire for excellence. We want to do the best we possibly can, at everything. I found a talk by Janath R. Cannon (then 1st Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency) that was given at the time this "Pursuit of Excellence" program was instituted (it is quoted above and below). The points I found most beneficial to me 1~ We have much good to do, but we can't do it all at the same time; and 2~ That we can't do it all perfectly.

The principle of free agency and choice is laid upon us by the Lord. Every day he sets before us choices—not only choices between good and evil, which are easy for most of us to make, but choices between good and good. “If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.” (See A of F 1:13.) But sisters, we cannot seek after all of them at the same time. To everything there is a season.

We’ve also been brought up with the maxim “If it’s worth doing at all, it’s worth doing well.” But Richard L. Evans once remarked that some things were only worth doing if they didn’t have to be done so well that they interfered with more important things. The setting of priorities is the key to a successful pursuit of excellence.

I learned awhile back, from one of you dear blogging friends, that while I can have a full plate, I may not be able to eat everything on it. What I mean is, I can take some of everything at the proverbially feast, but some things may only have a bite or two taken from them. Maybe I'll take some turkey, some mashed potatoes, some jello, a roll, green beans, stuffing, and even some pie. But I'm going to have to choose which of those things I actually want to finish because its not physically possible for me to eat everything on my plate.

Of course, this is all symbolic of things in life. I have a feast of roles to be filled and jobs to be done to put on my plate. I can take some house cleaning, some extra teaching mommy, some nutrition and exercise, some creative therapy, and maybe even some awesome wife, but the fact remains that its not physically possible for me to do all of these things perfectly. I can choose 2-3 on which to especially focus, and the others will have to wait until I can shift my focus their way.

I have a problem with prioritizing. I want to seek after everything "virtuous, lovely, of good report, {and} praiseworthy" and when I am unsuccessful at doing it all, I get discouraged. I have a tendency to take a few bites of everything on my plate and not actually finish any of it.

This is where the "Pursuit of Excellence" program can be helpful to me. Although, when I first went through and was choosing my goals I wanted to do it all immediately, I soon realized that I needed to choose a couple to focus on "finishing" (or at least getting good at) before moving on to the next one. The challenges/goals are divided into categories of Spiritual, Intellectual, Physical, Service, and Character. Some of the challenges are ongoing, like "Establish a physical fitness program, tailored to your needs, to help you reach a higher level of health." Others are things that come up every so often, but don't take a constant effort, such as "Attend the Temple at least once each month." The program encourages you to select a challenge and set goals, develop a plan to achieve those goals, account to Heavenly Father regarding your progress and "discuss your goals, plans and progress with an understanding and trusted friend."

I have taken the challenge to participate in this program for 2011. I'm really excited at the things I've been able to accomplish so far. I plan on sharing many of my experiences, and will probably even need your help with some of them. Below I've listed a few of my goals. These are the challenges that either require someone else's participation or I'd like suggestions on. If you have any ideas, or would like to help me with any of them, please leave a comment.

• Design and undertake a one-year program of extensive Church reading (Books by Presidents of the Church and other General Authorities or similar major gospel studies may be considered.) I would love your recommendations.
• Within your own family or another group, participate in a structured study of other countries. Prepare and present material about different countries and cultures. I think this could definitely be done online via blogging. Anyone want to do it with me? The timing can be discussed...
• Plan and undertake a reading program of uplifting, outstanding literature. The selection of books may reflect a variety of interests or may emphasize one particular theme. Again, looking for your suggestions... keeping in mind the words "uplifting" and "outstanding."

My Monday

While I wasn't quite at the "Excruciating.... horrific.... rather have shards of glass in my eyes" level of pain, I was in a load of pain yesterday and I actually went to the ER. Thinking of this bit kept me laughing, despite the complete waste of time my trip to the ER was.

Seriously, I just laughed each time someone new walked into my room and asked, "How are you today?" or some such small talk question. Um, really? Would I be here if I could answer that with a generic "fine"? And Ethan did drop me off, but it was better than driving myself.

I have no idea what was/is (I'm not in as much pain, but still hurting a little) wrong with my gut but I no longer have a fever and the ER ruled out "anything that would be an emergency." I left feeling more frustrated than in pain because they were rude, acted like they didn't care or didn't believe me that I was pain, and they didn't give me any information. I was told my lab work looked normal, hopefully it would go away on its own, and maybe "that fast was behind it." (Seriously, the doctor got really hung up on the fact that I had had a 24 hour fast Sat/Sun~ actually saying the words, "Why would you do that?" and "Ugh, I hate that.") When I asked the nurse what they actually checked with the lab work, she started flipping through papers and said a whole lot of nothing. But I'm not pregnant. I did get that much out of her. Sometimes, I just wish I could wear a sign that says, "College Graduate~ You don't have to treat me like an idiot." Anyway, it was a bad, bad day...

At least I had Brian Regan to help me through.