Visit to the Aquarium

Today we went to the Aquarium. It was quite interesting and we had a lot of fun. They had a lot of different species of aquatic life, some local and some from around the world.

I'm always fascinated by jellyfish. At first we thought the jellyfish were changing colors, but they are illuminated by a light that changed colors as they swam around. They look pink in this photo, but they're really just white.

There is a shallow pool where they allow us to touch the sting rays. Spencer and Harrison leaned all the way in to touch them and got all wet. Keri liked to just touch their tails. I thought they were a little slimy, but it was cool to touch them.

Spencer and I especially liked the bright colored fish in the coral reef exhibit. We liked the orange clown fish that looked like Nemo.

Even though the Aquarium is still growing and only has a few exhibits, we had a lot of fun. We'll be going back a few more times.

Swimming Lessons

Keri, Spencer and Kaylee are taking swimming lessons in a backyard pool this year. They are doing well and having a lot of fun. Kerianne took these photos at their lesson today.

Here's Kaylee taking a deep breath before going under.

Here's Keri swimming and working on taking side breaths.

After the lesson they get to relax in the hot tub. Here's Spencer kickin' back takin' it easy.

Best friends Lexi and Kate are in the same class. They all have fun together.

Home of Sliced Bread

While waiting at the stop light in Chillicothe, Missouri a couple of weeks ago, we saw this painted on the side of a building and quickly snapped this photo. Later we looked it up and sure enough, someone invented the bread slicing machine here.

The things you learn while on a road trip.

Scout Camp

I took Harrison with me to the Varsity Scout camp again this year. He was able to participate in many of the events even though he isn't old enough to be in Varsity Scouts. Among the most fun events were climbing and rappelling. I knew Harrison had done rock climbing so I wasn't worried about that, but I wasn't sure what he'd think about rappelling. He did it like it was no big deal. We rappel off a tower about 45 feet high and it takes about everything I can muster to do it.

This was Harrison's first time to shoot a shotgun. He also shot the rifle and worked on his marksmanship so he can earn the rifle merit badge.

We made arrowheads by scraping glass and we learned about Indian and Mountain Man crafts and tools. At the end of camp, there was a flour war where we threw paper bags filled with flour at everyone. It was a blast. We had such a great time.

I enjoy being the Varsity Scout coach and I'm glad I get to take Harrison along with me.

Nauvoo Trip

We just got back from our road trip to Nauvoo. We had a fantastic time. There was such much to see and do and it was fun to go from place to place and see all these new things we've been reading about. Seeing my parents in Nauvoo on their mission was so cool - the kids were so excited to see them. Kerianne's parents came with us and we all had a great time together. We took over 1400 photos and I could talk for hours about our trip. Don't get me started :)

Our trip started by two long days of driving. We finally reached Independence, Missouri and toured the Visitor's Center there. They had some interesting history and exhibits there. We then walked across the street to the Community of Christ's temple. They open it to the public and they have a museum inside with some artifacts I've never seen or knew still existed. There's a vacant corner that's marked Temple Lot. I don't think we know where the temple is supposed to be built.

The next stop was Liberty Jail which is a short drive from Independence. They've built a visitors center around the original foundation of the jail and recreated the jail there. It was so interesting to hear about everything that happened there. The missionaries were excited to see us, I don't think they had many visitors that day. I think reports of the flooding in the area kept a lot of people home.

From there we went to Far West. This is where Joseph Smith dedicated a temple spot and the four original cornerstones are still there. You go down these little winding roads through the Missouri countryside and come up to the spot at the top of a hill. It was so quiet and peaceful there. They had a memorial and little parking lot and that's about it. We had the place all to ourselves.

Kerianne and I both have relatives who died in Haun's Mill, so we had decided we'd like to go there, or at least try. It's not marked on any map, so it's a little hard to find. There's conflicting reports of whether there's anything there or even a marker and it's on private land. We didn't make it all the way there, but we got to within a few miles of where we think it is. There was a sign that pointed it out and we stopped and took some pictures of the area.

Our next stop was Adam-ondi-Ahman. We visited two locations there, including the lookout point and Tower Hill. I was really impressed with a feeling that something very special happened there. It's a beautiful valley with trees and fields. The area of Spring Hill is also marked. It was in this area that we saw a lot of the effects of the flooding that had occurred in the area. There were some corn fields under water and mud on the roads.

From there we drove across Missouri and saw some interesting non-Church sites that I'll blog about later.

We pulled into Nauvoo around 3:00 on Thursday. We went directly to the Boot Shop where I knew my Mom was serving that day. It was so neat to see her. She gave us a tour there and we talked a while. Then we went to check into our Hotel and met my Dad there. He'd been mowing lawns and watering flowers. He gets different assignments every day and does all sorts of things. That evening we saw the show "Rendezvous" where Mom and Dad played "Jed and Annie." That was really neat - I never thought I'd see my Dad acting. They did a great job and we really enjoyed the show. After the show we went to the old Nauvoo Burial grounds and found Kerianne's ancestor's listed on the memorial. The kids found and chased fireflies there too.

The next two days were spent touring the other sites in Nauvoo and seeing as much as we could see. There are many old homes and businesses that have been restored or recreated there and they were all so interesting. We got to see where they made bricks, the blacksmith shop, the gunsmith, and the print shop and post office. My Mom had asked the kids if they could sing the musical number for a missionary prep meeting in the Seventies Hall and they sang on Friday morning. That was neat. Friday night we went to Carthage and toured the jail there. It was June 27th and the anniversary of Joseph and Hyrum's martyrdom.

On Saturday we went on an ox cart ride and had fun learning about ox teams. Kerianne and I attended the temple with her parents. On Saturday night, my parents were in the show "Sunset" which is a really fun musical variety show. Mom played "the gal down the road" in one number.

We had a great time there and the kids were sad to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa. Spencer was especially sad and wanted to stay longer. He said he'd miss the shows and the fun places we'd visited.

After Nauvoo we went to Winter Quarters which is near Omaha, Nebraska. They have a Visitors Center there and a Pioneer Cemetery and monument there. It was very interesting and I learned a lot about the history there. We also walked around the temple there.

On the way home we stopped at Kerianne's brother's house to see Brady and Christy and the kids. We had a great dinner and smashed pennies on the train track. It was fun to see them.

There's nothing quite like spending 9 days in a van with your kids. I highly recommend it. It was so long and so much driving, but it wasn't ever terrible. The kids were really good and quiet most of the time (probably thanks to the Nintendo DS and the DVD player). It was a great trip and I'm so glad we were able to do it and spend time together. Check out some of the photos.