Storm Chasers

We had a pretty major thunderstorm last night, it held off long enough for the kids to get through 2/3 of their swim lesson and what a swim lesson it was! Silly did a real back float all by himself and held it for at least 10 seconds. Cakes did her first real jump dives! Mr. Tyler, her teacher, was very proud of her. She was way at the other end of the pool and I couldn't quite tell if she was about to cry or just adjusting her goggles a lot. After class she wasn't feeling too hot, I think the fear of what she'd done finally hit her. Too bad I brought my camera Tuesday instead of Thursday!

This was last week at their outdoor, morning lessons.

She couldn't practice dives last session because we were outside, which is shallow. She made up for it yesterday! She said she'd tried it one more time since Scott missed it.

After swim lessons we came home for dinner then went cruising around some nearby neighborhoods in the storm. Cakes asked me what makes thunder and lightning, Silly answered, "Jesus!" Guess I'll have to tell his Sunbeam teacher about that one.

Bedtime Stories

Night before last Cakes walked to her room with a water bottled while Silly followed behind her saying he was thirsty. I told him Cakes had the water bottle and she would share with him. He whined, "No she won't! She will hear me and then she'll wake up and snatch it from me!" Apparently he's had a few experiences with that.

Last night all three of the kids were in various places on the trundle bed. I closed the blinds and the curtains, turned the night light on and the ceiling light off. As soon as the light went off Bubba started to sing! He knows I sing songs when the lights go off. When I started singing to him he was sooo happy. What a cute little guy.

On a sad note, he's only nursing once a day, first thing in the morning and then he doesn't care anymore. Even then he's not all that interested. It had to end some time.

Other Nauvoo Highlights

Attempts to get the kids to act like statues:

  

Maybe they'll be more cooperative next time?

Silly saw this seal and said, "Why's that girl petting that lion and that sheep?"

He really liked the stove in the Red Brick Store too...

I'm sure I don't want to know how, but their rock candy kept reappearing throughout our trip.

Fittingly, I have a picture of Cakes in the bakery. The round box on the table is a spice box that belonged to my ancestor, Simeon Adams Dunn.

Scott likes to make things a little more authentic.

Philip at Carthage Jail looking scared.

We had fun, and learned quite a bit from the teamsters, on our little ox-pulled wagon ride.

The Temple!

I had been to Nauvoo a few times before, but not since the temple was rebuilt so I was really excited to see the real thing, not the scale model in the middle of an otherwise empty site. We took some large group shots at the temple, and as soon as my dad sends posts or emails them I'll share. A small group; my parents, aunts, uncles, sister, her husband and a few cousins with their spouses, were able to go into the temple. It was awesome. I told Scott that was on the list of things I wanted to do. He thought I meant just on our trip, but I meant my "things I want to do sometime in my life" list. (Am I too young for a bucket list?)

Apparently the temple had some impact on Cakes, because this is what she drew during church:

She drew this one, then decided she wanted to give one to Papop, so she drew another one. She showed it to everyone at our family talent show that night. I think it's pretty cool!

After church we stopped by the temple again for some individual family pictures. Be warned if you ever go there: it seems to always be painfully sunny in front of this temple, at least it was during our visit.

And I guess Scott must've really like the temple too, because he wandered off on his own one night and took some really nice pictures like this: