Rise & Shout the Carters Are Out

We do stink.

2012-01-08T19:45:00.000-08:00

A couple months ago I wrote about about how our family stinks. It was a blog post entitled Do we stink? , written on July 10 2010 for anyone who wants to refresh their memory- for those who don't I will sum up. Rick went to David and Megan's house and enjoyed the clean scent there so much that he came to the conclusion that we stink. He obsessed about this for a while, and to this day he always buys me a scent related items anytime a gift is expected of him. Candles and smelly lotion might seem like good romantic gifts for your wife, but knowing they are because my husband thinks I stink kind of kills the romance. He was convinced that we stink but just couldn't tell because we were used to our own smell, and others were too polite to point it out to us.

Well last July we went on a trip to Oregon as we were traveling home Rick hit upon an idea to settle once and for all if we stink or not. We were to walk in the door after being gone for 2 weeks and take a big whiff. If it stunk they we would know we also stink, if not then we were ok. We walked in and sniffed. I about threw up. I was horrified thinking that is how we smell. Well the smell came from a dishwasher that had gotten stopped half way through the cycle and the water had started growing mold and slime and a putrid odor, that combined with the garbage someone, who was assigned, forgot to take out, left our home smelling like a sewer.

Well ever since that experience anytime we come home from being somewhere overnight I make a point to walk in and take a long whiff. We went to Soda Springs for New Years last week and came home and, like always, I sniffed and once again I almost lost my lunch. I walked straight to the dishwasher opened it up and saw clean sparkling dishes and no water on the bottom. I was relieved but realized I had waded through water to get to the dishwasher. THere was water on the kitchen floor, there was water in the halls, there was water in the carpet in the computer room, water in the bathrooms and water leaking down through the ceiling into the basement. It was drain water from where our kitchen sink was overflowing as the dishwasher drained, so it was pretty putrid.

We contemplated cleaning it up but decided we didn't really want to so we called our insurance and they sent out a company to restore it - "like it never happened" - or so their ad promised. Well they tore out drywall, baseboards, carpet padding and linoleum, they drilled holes in the walls and set up about 15 huge fans and a couple dehumidifiers. They told us to keep them on as much as possible and it would be dried in a day or two. They said if it was too noisy to deal with we could turn them off while sleeping or something. Well I vowed we would leave them on every second so we could get it dried and the fans out of the way. The sooner the better I thought. For the next 5 days and nights they hummed, or more accurately screamed, but I never touched the on/off switch. It almost drove me over the edge - they were so loud and so hot. It was 80 degrees in my house with the windows open - in January!! But after 5 long days it finally dried.

I am not sure how they got their little "like it never happened" slogan because my house definitely still looks like something happened. There are holes drilled all along the bottoms of my walls, the carpets are cut up, the base boards are torn off and there are big sections of walls with no drywall. I have been waiting for the insurance adjuster to come to inspect and figure out how much they owe us so we can call in a contractor. The guy has called several times and promised to come out twice - still haven't met him. He is super nice but I am kinda starting to wonder how professional he is. The first time I talked to him he kept pausing and then apologizing saying he wasn't following our conversation well because traffic was bad and he was paying attention to the traffic and not me. Well I am glad he didn't wreck but maybe he should have pulled over to call me instead of call me while driving. He called me again the next day and after a couple minutes of repeating word for word what he said the day before he paused and said - "I feel really dumb for asking this but have I talked to you before" I guess he hadn't made any notes on our file - probably because traffic was so bad, so he had forgotten our conversation. I had to laugh because it was pretty evident that he had his little script down pretty good because it really was almost word for word what he said the previous day. Well he promised to come out Friday morning but I haven't seen hide nor hair of him - hopefully he didn't make a call on the way over to my house and wreck.

So I just took a break for typing this to go in and put my kids to bed. I walked into Rachel and Anna's room and waded through the piles of books, dvd's wii games and other assorted items that used to be on the shelves in the computer room but are now strewn about the girls room awaiting the time when the carpet is fixed and we can put them back where they belong. Over the last week I have put them all back in the boxes multiple times but for some reason they continually get dumped out. Probably because there are so many boxes filled to overflowing that the kids have to move them, or jump over them or sit on them to watch tv and play the wii in there since it too got moved into the girls room during flood clean up. The room is truly stuffed to the gills. The closets are all blocked so the kids can't get in there to put the toys away (how the toys keep getting out is a mystery they can't explain since they swear there is no way into the closet to put the stuff away) My daughters room is often cluttered and even pretty frequently messy - although we usually get it cleaned up every day or two. But it has never been anything like it has the last week - it is way beyond a disaster.

I can't imagine how and more importantly why the whole neighborhood packs themselves in a 10x10 room that is strewn with stuffed animals, naked barbies and clothes more than a foot thick, (And that is just the tiny areas that is not filled with boxes, Rubbermaid totes filled to overflowing and extra furniture) so that they can play wii or watch tv on a 10 year old tv with lines all over it and no sound system. Yet they do - yesterday Taylor and Dallin had a couple friends over, the girls had 2 friends over and Ryans friend all came to watch Diary of a Wimpy Kid and watch each other play wii. Really. It completely baffles me since I know every single one of the friends that were over here have a nice flat screen tv with a wii hooked up to it hanging on their wall in the basement. Yet there they were, sitting on the beds, boxes of books, the barbie house and each other all crowded around a fuzzy tv.

So back to the story - I walk in the room and saw there was clean laundry stacked on the dresser - a frequent and somewhat acceptable occurrence. I opened the top drawer to put a stack away and notice a corn dog sitting on top of a pair of skidded up underwear. Yes a corn dog and poopy underwear in the dresser drawer, have you ever heard of anything more disgusting. No wonder our house stinks. No wonder we stink. Upon further investigation we learned that the kids needed a snack during the Wimpy kid movie. I guess the trash can wasn't as a convenient as the dresser drawer for disposing their half eaten corn dog - or maybe the trash can was just too full of wrappers from the 2 boxes of gogurts the kids had snuck in there to eat while watching their movie. I found the gogurts when pink goo shot out form under my foot as I inadvertently stepped on a half eaten one hidden under some toys. I just had a thought maybe I should feed my kids lunch - they may not feel the desire to sneak food in the bedrooms if I did. I will have to try that. I really do have a problem remembering to feed my kids lunch on the weekends or summer. I figure they can just open the cupboard or fridge and eat something when they get hungry like I do.

Anyway back to my story - so I throw away the corn dog and poopy underwear and dump the top layer of clothes in the drawer into the laundry and go back in to put Rachel to bed. ( A little side note here - I wasn't sure how to spell poopy so Rick told me to google it - the urban dictionary had me rolling - I guess I know where my kids get their love of potty humor) Rachel is a great sleeper - she crawls in her bed- head hits the pillow and for the most part she is dead to the world till about 10:00 in the next morning. Which is wonderful except for the fact that her bladder in not such a good sleeper and needs emptied before 10:00 in the morning. Thank goodness for pull ups at least when we have them - which tonight we don't. I considered what to do- I searched everywhere I could think of for a spare diaper and come up empty handed. It is 10:00 at night so I am hesitant to call a neighbor to borrow one. With all the mess and stink and the dryer that takes 4 cycles to dry I am just not crazy about the prospect of adding another load of wet sheets and blankets to my already 5 to 6 loads of laundry piled up in my laundry room (laundry was completely caught up Friday evening and it is Sunday night just so you know). So I striped the bed and spread some garbage sacks out on it and made her sleep on them. I have to sleep on the trash she said. I think she was actually pretty amused by that because she went around and told everyone and then jumped in bed and wiggled around a bit to hear the plastic crinkle under her. I went ahead and covered her with a couple baby blankets although I didn't want to since I know I will end up washing them in the morning but since it is January I felt it would be cruel to make her sleep without any blankets.

So as I covered her up and started to walk out of the room and it hit me what a loser of a mother I am. We live in an absolute pig stye- my kids have to sneak food into their rooms, and horde it in their drawers because I fail to feed them, they sleep not on sheets but trash bags in a bed they have to wade through ankle high junk to get to. I felt proud of myself for feeding them fruit today - even though it was apple pie, but know there is no way in the world I could even come close to feeding them 5 fruits and vegtables a day like Megan does. I was feeling pretty depressed as I turned out the light but then as I started to walk out of the room I caught what Rachel was humming to herself "I have an excellent Father.... I had the best day with you today." and I realized that even if we were messy we were happy. The neighborhood kids do choose our house to hang out in for a reason, and its not because of what we have, but because of who we are and how they feel when they are with us. At least I hope that's why.

Mop, Janitors and Washers

2011-09-02T08:54:00.000-07:00

Don't wash your mop. If it stinks don't use it just throw it away. Because there is nothing worse than a whole house that smells like dirty rag. It is funny how a little thing like a mop can cause me so much stress.

It has been about 3 or 4 years now since I got my mop. I hate it. I guess it is an ok mop, as far as mops go. Rick bought it for me. It is pretty big and came in a huge yellow bucket with a ringer thing. It looks exactly like the one the janitor at my elementary school use to push around.

I was out of town when Rick bought it. I came home and saw it and almost started to cry. We needed a new one, the old mop was awful it really was. After I was done mopping I had to sweep my floor to get all the little strands of mop that had fallen off. I was down to maybe 20 little strands left. It wasn't worth using, that is why I just filled up my sink with hot water and ammonia got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed it. It worked but I hated every minute of it. So I wanted a mop, a swiffer mop to be exact. I told Rick this, he shrugged his shoulders, I took this as approval. So I was saving my pennies to buy one.

While they aren't that expensive I just couldn't make myself spend the money for one. I went to Walmart on two separate occasions for the sole purpose of buying myself a swiffer mop. Put it in the cart and walked around for awhile. That was my downfall because as I was walking around I saw other things we needed so I put them in my cart. After awhile I realized I had more stuff than money. So I put back my wants and kept my needs and went home found a rag got down on my knees and started scrubbing.

This went on for a couple months. Then I went on vacation. When I got home there was the new bright yellow mop bucket with built in ringer. Apparently Rick decided to mop the floor while I was gone. Went to the closet to get the mop and found the stick with 20 strands of yarn and went down to walmart and bought me a mop. He was pretty proud of it. Not only the mop and bucket but the fact that he bought me such a nice present. It was nice I guess, even cost more than a swiffer, but it wasn't' what I wanted. I wanted a swiffer like my friends not a big yellow bucket like my janitor. See, happy smiling housewives with beautifully decorated immaculate home and well behaved children use swiffers. Old, grumpy, fat men with blue coveralls and a wad of keys hanging off their belt use big yellow mop buckets with the built in ringers.

So for the last few years I used the big yellow bucket and every time I drag it out of the garage - because it it too big to fit in my utility closet with the broom - I think of the swiffer I almost had, and my janitor. It is to big for me lift up into the sink and even if I could it wouldn't fit under the faucet. Same thing with the bathtub. So I have to stand next to the sink and use the little squirter hose and try and aim it so the water hit the bucket and squirt. It takes a long time. Which gives me time to reflect on how much I hate my big yellow mop bucket with built in ringer. The mop is so big that it is hard to get all the water out - even with the built in ringer. I am not a small weak woman by any means but it is still pretty hard for me to squeeze the water out. So after awhile the mop starts smelling like dirty rag. You know the smell. Then the kitchen smells like that. Well it got to a point the whole house smelled like dirty rag every time I mopped. I had to plan my mopping around this - making sure I gave myself plenty of time to air out the house before any guest might arrive.

So last week as I was cleaning off the jam and soggy sticky fruit loops that had stuck on my feet as I was walking around my kitchen I decided it was time to mop. So I drug out the mop bucket and looked for a candle to light, it was then that I had a brilliant idea. Why not just not throw the mop head in the washer. So I pulled off the head and stuck it in the washer with hot water, laundry detergent and 2 scoops of oxi clean. I was so excited about the prospect of a clean mop I was smiling like a housewife with a swiffer.

A couple hours later I went down to get the mop. Opened the lid and gasped. There floating in the washer full of scummy water was 1000's of little strands of mop. It stunk too - like burning. I broke my washer. I quickly went upstairs and logged on and typed "Help - my washer won't drain" good old google quickly returned 615000 results in 0.19 seconds. Amazing. After reading several sites on washer mechanics I headed downstairs to repair the washer. Which would have been a lot easier if I could have gotten the top of the washer. I tried using a sturdy putty knife to pry the top off. I slid the knife (actually it was a pocket knife since I don't have a putty knife but it was sturdy) in between the lid and sides and bumped it with my fist. Nothing happened except my fist hurt. I tried for about 1/2 hour and then called Rick. He was frustrated with my questions, I could tell. I could also tell by his polite upbeat suggestion of, "just wait till I get home and I will fix it for you - babe" that he was in a public place where others could be listening in. So I waited.

I didn't say anything about the washer till after dinner. We then went down together and started working on it. He picked up a screw driver wedged it in between the lid and side and bumped it with his fist. The top popped up. We spent the next couple hours trying to figure out how to clean all the strands of mop out of the washer and the drain hose. We broke out the wet dry vac we bought 2 years ago at the Home Depot black Friday sale. It has been sitting in its box on a shelf in the garage waiting for a moment like this. It worked great we sucked up all the water in the washer that hadn't drained and all the water that spilled on to the floor as we tried to clean out the drain hose. And then we sucked up all the water that came gushing out when we forgot to hook the drain hose back up before we tested the washer. It was my job to hold the hose and suck up the water as it came out while Rick was trying to fix the washer. I felt like the hygienist at the dentist office holding the hose sucking up your spit while the dentist drills.

We had about exhausted our washer repair options when we decided to try and clean out one other hose. I stuck my finger in the hole and found a little propeller thing with a whole bunch of mop strands wrapped around it. The propeller couldn't turn. This was the problem. As soon as we freed the propeller thing and cleaned it all out the washer worked like a champ. Yeah!!! my washer was fixed. My mop on the other hand was not only stinky it was a big lump of wet fuzzy strands of yarn. I threw it all away.

Next morning I found a rag got down on my hands and knees and started scrubbing. Rachel asked me what I was doing. I told her mopping the floor. She asked me why I wasn't using the mop. I told her the whole story. She said, "hmm why don't you just order one on the Internet". That is a brilliant idea. If I ordered one on the Internet I wouldn't have to walk around Walmart with a swiffer in my cart thinking about all the other things we needed more than a swiffer. I might actually buy it. Problem is now I have decided I don't want a swiffer. I want a hardwood floor.

July 11

2011-07-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

Laundry. That is pretty much all I did today. We cleaned out the rv, checked our mail and went grocery shopping but laundry pretty much consumed me. Rick worked from home - I didn't know he had planned this but it is probably a good thing since he wouldn't have had anything to wear.

I did about 9 loads so far with about 5 or 6 left. The problem is my kids are outside running through the sprinklers, and making snow cones so that means I will have at least 1 more load of wet towels and sticky clothes to wash too. It never ends.

July 10

2011-07-12T06:13:00.000-07:00

We stopped at Applebee's for dinner at Rock Springs. The food was great - the waitress terrible. The biggest problem with this was when we got back in the car at 9:00 with 3 hours left to go we just didn't feel like driving. About 1/2 hour later is was fighting to keep my eyes open and Rick asked me if I wanted to drive, which means he is really tired to because he rarely asks me to drive. I told him I was too tired. He said he would try to push on but just about then we saw a Truck Stop coming up. I said, "lets just pull in - go to sleep and drive the rest of the way in the morning. " Suprisingly he pulled in. We had a bit of a hard time finding a spot, there were a lot of trucks there but we finally did and we pulled out the beds and were asleep in 15 minutes.

About 4:30 or so the trucks started firing up and heading out, this of course woke me up. I laid there for a few minutes and realized I wouldn't be going back to sleep. So I just got up and fired up the rv and headed out. Rick came up a few minutes later when he realized we were moving to find out what was going on. He went back to bed for a while and I drove till about Salt Lake before anyone else woke up.

Anna woke up first, looked around and realized she recognized where we were. She was so excited she woke up everyone else. I switched and let Rick drive at the first Springville exit, that he would be the one to drive us in and I also needed a few minutes to gather the kids's clothes and stuff so we could hurry in and take showers and make it to church on time.

We pulled in the driveway at 7:45 and made it to church at 9:00. It was good to be home and start the rest of summer but I wish we could have had a couple more weeks. All in all the trip was wonderful, too short with too much packed in. I would have loved to be able to take the whole summer. One thing I realized is that for 6 weeks we could just separate ourselves from virtually all responsibilities and focus on the most important part of our lives. Our family, our church and our country.

Mormon Hancart Site

2011-07-12T06:11:00.002-07:00

For some must push and some must pull and some must count some must sleep. We all have to do our part I guess. Today we visited the Mormon Handcart Site in Wyoming. It was incredible, it is right near Martin’s cove and the sweet water crossing. The stories of those handcart companies are absolutely unbelievable and the feeling was there. Once again the church did an incredible job putting together a site where you could learn some history, feel the spirit and experience a little taste of what those pioneers did. We started out by watching a little movie on the handcart companies and then we went on a trek. We got a handcart and loaded it with our backpack full of snacks and a couple bottles of water. We each had seven “stations’ and rotated through. We had 3 pullers, 1 pusher, 1 counter and 2 riders. Rachel fell asleep about ½ way in and took a little nap in the cart. We decided to make an “odometer” like the pioneers did by tying an orange sack around one of the spokes and had someone count it every time it got to the top of the circle. We walked 1817 revolutions, we estimated each revolution was 12.5 ft for a total of 22712.5 ft or 4.3miles. It took us almost 2 hours. It was incredible. The kids loved it – surprisingly enough because it was hard work. About half way through we got to a fork in the road, one way was a great big hill the other was the road back to the visitors center. I wanted to go back to the visitors center and Rick wanted to go up the hill. We weren't’ sure where the hill went but guessed we would have to come right back down it. We took a vote and up the hill we went. Sometime my family is truly crazy. We got to the top, turned around and went back down and took the other fork back to the visitors center. But I am glad we pulled the hill, it was the hardest part of our trek and it gave the kids a chance to really struggle and feel a little bit more like the pioneers would have felt.

As we came in the missionaries gave each of the little kids a book that they carried around to the different places at the site and got stamped. If they collected enough stamps they got a little necklace to take home. The kids loved running around collecting the stamps and I loved hearing the stories. I couldn’t help but think what a wonderful place to have a family reunion. At one point we saw a couple who were older – not super elderly- but maybe 60’s pulling a handcart together. It really touched me- which surprised me. I realized that they were out there by themselves and choose to participate in this experience that was obviously physically taxing them. They weren’t doing it with their kids or grandkids or as a ward activity or anything. I was impressed. I pictured my parents out doing that and it hit me that even if that wasn’t my Dad’s idea of an afternoon of entertainment he would have done it 150 years ago because just like the pioneers they have the faith and testimony that would have driven them to Zion.

We took a couple hours longer than planned at but it was so worth it, I would have liked to stay the rest of the day and longer. We left around 6:00, with a little more than 6 hours left to get home, ½ bag of marshmallows and a 12 oz bottle of Gatorade, the rest of the day wasn’t looking to appealing. I was hoping the kids would all crash and sleep for a couple hours. No such luck. The are higher than a kite driving us crazy. Rick put on his headphone and is doing his best to block them out. Taylor and Dallin are reading and trying, sometimes unsuccessfully to ignore the younger 3 who are building forts in the back bedroom and pretending they are cats meowing and rubbing up against Taylor and Dallin. I have to say the boys are doing a better job of ignoring the “cats” then I would. On one hand I am glad the kids are having fun and getting along so well but all the noise and commotion is hard for Rick to drive with and isn’t making my headache feel any better.

July 9th

2011-07-12T06:11:00.001-07:00

We got in pretty close to midnight last night with the gas gauge on E. We thought about getting gas but were tired enough we decided to go to bed and get it in the morning before we headed out. Too bad we forgot all about the gas until we were sitting in Alcova Wyoming watching a pair of osprey (I think) and trying to get a signal for our gps to show us the way to the Mormon Handcart site. Then all of a sudden I remembered we forgot to get gas. Rick face registered shock and he put the RV and gear and headed into town. For those of you who haven’t been to Alcova it is about 50 minutes out of Cody and 1 hour out of Rawlins. There isn’t really any town in between. Alcova boasts a population of 100 permanent residents. We hadn’t noticed a gas station on the way in – we were praying we just overlooked it. Luckily we had. We rolled in found out the gas was 3.95 a gallon. It was 3.40 in Cody where we were supposed to get gas, but since walking 50 miles with a gas can wasn’t worth saving $26 to us we just went ahead and filled up.

We stopped at Independence Rock for a quick look. Our quick look turned out to take a little over an hour. The kids ran off to run up the Rock. The scampered up it like little mountain goats. Rachel wanted me to go with her so I said sure – as we started I figured out pretty quickly I wasn’t making it up – way to steep for me. So we went back down. Rachel though went around where it was a little less steep and ran up – I decided I better follow her to make sure she could get up. We got up ok – sweating like a pig but ok. But one look down and I realized I would either have to live on top of that rock or find another way down. So we walked across it to where it looked a little more gradual. It took a while to make our way down to where we were almost there and then found ourselves facing a 30 ft drop. We went back up. We found a rattler under a little outcropping but luckily spotted it before we got to close. It took us a few tries but we finally found a way down on the opposite end and opposite side of where we went up. Anna suggested that if we made it back to our RV alive we better say a prayer of thanks. There was couple minutes I wondered if we would be praying that day. But we of course made it and now next time we play Oregon Trail and pass Independence Rock we can write, “I stood Here” on the rock. Do you know why it is called Independence Rock – I didn’t , or at least I never thought about it. The pioneers on the Mormon, Oregon and California trails all passed by the rock and knew that if they didn’t reach it by July 4^th they wouldn’t make it over the mountains before the first snows fell. I am learning something new every day – cool huh.

July 8

2011-07-12T06:09:00.000-07:00

I guess all the pictures I had seen of Mt Rushmore were just close up of the presidents faces because I thought it was just a big granite mountain in the middle of the desert, or at least an area like he badlands, with 4 presidential busts. I didn’t realize the mountain is in the middle of a beautiful forest with trees, lots of them. I was up making dinner as we were driving up the mountain. We had been in badland country and that is what I expected, when the mountain came into view all the kids started cheering so I came up front to see it and I was shocked. There were trees. I love trees and forests and green. It was beautiful and the faces were magnificent. In a movie we watched on Mt Rushmore it said the builder wanted to carve something as colossal as the American dream and magnificent as the American spirit, well I think he succeeded. It is pretty cool.

We got out and walked around and took some pictures. There were people everywhere and I wondered if we could get a very good of just us with the faces. I thought we just need to be higher so we don’t have the crowds in or the bottom half of the mountain in our pictures. Then I saw our rv and thought – that is higher. So I had Rick and all the kids, except Rachel- who was being a handful, climb up on top of the Rv and take the picture. They thought t was great fun to climb up there, no one fell off and Rick said the picture looked good so it was a success.

We walked down to the visitors center and the gift shops, there were more gift shops there than I think I have ever seen at an attraction. I hate gift shops. We took a lot of pictures, went to a ranger talk in the sculpture about how the faces were made. It was pretty interesting, amazing that someone could not only conceive such an idea but then be able to design it and then calculate the exact amount and area to place the dynamite in order to blow out the rock that was covering the face. Amazing. We then went though the museum and hiked up the presidential trail.

Anna has been so excited to see Mt Rushmore, she was assigned to give us a report on it, so she researched it and feels like it hers. Her report was very interesting, she told us there is a vault behind the mountain where some documents like the Declaration of Independence (not the real one obviously) are on display. So she looked and looked for the vault. We never found it. We toured the museum and watched the visitors center movie.

We went in as many gift shops as I could handle. Rachel really wanted a postcard and sat quietly in the movie so she earned one. So I took her into the shop to buy it, she had it all picked out. It wasn’t in the first shop we went to, or the second shop. It was, naturally, in the farthest shop. I assumed she would choose one of the 35cent post cards – she didn’t. The one she fell in love with that was 2.50. I really didn’t want to spend that much on something I had my doubts would even make it back to the rv but she talked me into it. We went up to pay and found out he didn’t talk credit cards. Well we had $34 dollars in cash and the camping place we were planning on staying cost $32.50. I wasn’t sure if they would take credit cards or not so I wanted to save at least $32.50 (hopefully there wouldn’t be tax on top of that). So I told Rachel she couldn’t get that one – it broke her little heart. She was devastated. The cashier tried to help her find a similar one that was cheaper but she just had her heart set on that one – it had fireworks and that is why she liked it. Well after about 10 minutes of crying and trying to sell her on another one I finally told her I would count to ten and if she hadn’t chosen one we would leave. I got to 10- twice- and so I picked up sobbing and started for the door. She said “ok, ok, ok” I will get another one. I put her down and as her feet hit the floor she turned off the tantrum, she stopped crying and started smiling, she ran over grabbed another one and just like ran over and paid for it herself just as happy as could be. She proudly carried her postcard and receipt around the rest of the day. She was careful not to lose them. Her receipt did get lost at one point – but fortunately receipts aren’t all that hard to find. It is a good thing she can’t read and all receipts look pretty much the same.

Well we had seen all we wanted to see by about 6:00 pm. The lighting ceremony starts at 9:00 so we debated what to do. Some wanted to wait some wanted to leave. So we took a vote. 4 to 3 – leaving won. So we headed out. But Anna, Ryan and Dallin hadn’t spent all there money and since this was our last stop to buy souvenirs we had to go back to the gift shops. I didn’t think I could handle stepping foot in a store, especially with Rachel, so she and I went for a walk. We walked around for close to an hour. I took a lot of pictures of her – she loves to get her picture taken, all alone without the other kids. She is quite the poser. Anyway a group of Japanese girls were watching her. She was really hamming it up for the camera and they were eating it up. They smiled at her and waved and she smiled back and they took a picture of her. Well then she wanted a picture of them. I told her I wasn’t going to go over there and take a picture of a group of girls I didn’t know. But I let her hold the camera and take it. Finally they came over and ask if they could take a picture with my little girl. I said they could and so they each took their turn taking a picture with her. I wouldn’t let just anyone do that- but these girls, and one guy seemed innocent enough. Plus we had seen them earlier each getting their picture taken with Miss Mt Rushmore so I figured they just liked pictures with cute girls. Rachel also had to get her picture taken with “the Mt Rushmore Princess” we had to stand in line to do it. I thought it was kind of weird – actually really weird – that so many adults wanted their picture taken with miss mt Rushmore. She was cute but I wasn’t super impressed. But there were a couple groups of oriental people, old and young and then a couple groups of senior citizens. Even the old men wanted their picture taken with her. I doubt she was more than 15. But they ran up and put their arm around her while their wives were snapping pictures. Weird. Anyway so let Rachel pose with these girls. She loved it. Absolutely loved it. After they left Rachel said – now I am like the Mt Rushmore princess. It still surprises me how many people come up to me and comment on how cute Rachel is. When she was a baby I couldn’t leave the house without strangers coming up to look at her and comment. It really was constant. She is really beautiful – but I still think it is odd people comment on it so much. While we were waiting we ran into one more person who liked to watch Rachel. It was a young man – maybe 25, and kind of rough looking. I felt like he was following us around, closely. Every time I looked over my shoulder he was there. Well Rachel wanted to ride the elevator so we went over to do that. He followed us. I ignore it but as we were standing there waiting for the elevator to come I got really nervous. I told myself I was being sily since we were in a public place. I just didn’t want to be alone in the elevator with him. So right as the door opened I picked up Rachel and said, “let’s go potty first” and ran in the bathroom. She of course screamed I don’t have to go. We walked in the bathroom that was right next to the elevator. I told her I just wanted to wait till that man left so we could ride all by ourselves. She thought that was a fun idea and giggled because we were being sneaky. Well she peeked her head out of the bathroom to check if he had left. He was gone we came out. But as we came around he was standing in the elevator holding the door open. I picked her up and went back in the bathroom. That kind of freaked me out. No one else was around. Why would someone stand in the elevator and hold the door open – it had been awhile. Anyway he finally left so we came out. We saw him a couple more times – once he was sitting on a bench smoking. Rachel just had to comment on “there is the man from the elevator we ran away from and he is SMOKING” she can be such a delight.

Anyway we met back up with Rick, the kids had successfully spent all their money so we headed back to the RV. I was a little disappointed at not seeing the lighting program but at the same time I was relieved at not having to hang around for a couple more hours. Rachel was wearing me out. Also it would have been a really late night by the program was over at 10:00 and we got to our campsite – about an hour away.

Well it was early enough that we decided we would just keep driving as long as we could. The kids turned on a movie and we just pushed on. With the help of the 5 hour energy drink we brought for emergencies we made it to Cody Wyoming, about 3 hours further than planned. We pulled in a Walmart parking lot and crashed. It worked out great because we didn’t have to scrape together the last of our pennies for a camp site – it was cool enough we didn’t need the AC and it is fast and easy to stay at walmart. I did have Rick run in and buy a gallon of water and I stood in the shower and washed me hair by dumping the water over my head. The campground in the badlands didn’t have showers and I really needed one by the time we got there – another day hiking meant I was desperate. I would have just used the shower but with no water hookups I was afraid we would run out and we need to have enough water to make it through the day. Since we had planned at staying somewhere with hookups we hadn’t bothered to dump or fill up the night before and we are running pretty full on the one and pretty empty on the other.

July 7th

2011-07-12T06:04:00.000-07:00

July 7^th

Prairie's that stretch out for miles, rolling hills of wheat and farms with row after row after row of corn. That pretty much sums up Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. There was nothing but prairie until bam we crested over a hill and the rows of corn ran right into huge rock formations of the badlands. The abruptness of it surprised me. It was beautiful. Reminded me a lot of Goblin Valley and the rocks of southern Utah – except you could still see corn in the foreground.

Great Faces, Great Places. So far South Dakota has got it right. We have seen some pretty spectacular sights in South Dakota. One of which was the famous Corn Palace of Mitchell South Dakota. We started seeing billboards about the time we crossed the border from Minnesota and decided a palace made of corn was something we had to see – plus it was free and what could be better than that. The also aggressively advertised coffee for 5 cents at the Wall Drug. What a deal, if we were coffee drinkers we would have stopped. Anyway the corn palace turned out to be a huge community center for sporting events and the like that wasn’t actually made out of corn but was decorated with 1000’s of ears and stalks of corn. It was pretty darn cool. Each year they choose and theme and then decorate the entire outside of the building with murals depicting that theme made entirely of corn. They were still building some of the murals – it was pretty cool to watch them cut the stalks with a miter saw. There was a lot of corn there. The building must double for the states food storage. Inside they sold everything corn related. The kids had a great time browsing in the gift shops and begging us to buy overpriced junk. That is one of there favorite parts of the trip.

We also saw the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder. That may not seem like much but to the biggest Little House on the Prairie Fan ever it was quite the find. Anna was pretty excited too – she has started reading the little house books and has talked a lot about them during the trip – comparing their life to the things we have seen about the life of the pioneers.

We also stopped by the ranch store and bought some peanuts to feed the prairie dogs. It was pretty cool. They were everywhere. And they were pretty friendly and would let you pet them if you were really slow and calm. I touched one – it took me a couple tried to muster up the courage to touch it but it wasn’t too bad. I just kept telling myself they were more like dogs than rodents. All the kids liked to pet them and Dallin was especially good at it. Rachel on the other hand had most of them running away from her the second she came near. She was just too loud and moved too fast but she finally managed to pet one.

We reached the Badlands just about ½ hour before the visitors center closed so we ran in to get our passports stamped and then found a RV site. As were were pulling in a big motor home cut in right in front of us. I just knew they would get the last spot. Turns out there were two spots available but he was too long for both so we got our pick. The campground is nice except for the bugs and the lack of showers. The mosquitoes are really bad. I am getting eaten alive and they itch like crazy. My legs are on fire. It would help to take a shower – but there are none. I might end up trying the RV shower after all. We made dinner and ate it outside on the picnic table – it was then that I realized how beautiful it is. The setting sun lit up the rocks and brought out spectacular colors. The hills are stunning the look almost 2D – like someone put up a movie set or something. They are really cool. We had considered skipping the badlands due to time constraints but I am so glad we didn’t. It is one of South Dakota’s “great places” to be sure.

Tonight we went to a ranger program on the rock formations of the area and the paleontologists and their finds. This area used to be full of prehistoric mammals that have left there record thought the abundant fossils. Tomorrow we are excited to go hiking and scout around for fossils – who knows maybe we will find the next fossil that leads to the next “big pig dig”.

The Missouri

2011-07-12T06:02:00.000-07:00

The mighty Missouri has exceeded her bounds and is lying right in our path. Water is covering roads, bridges are out and fields full of corn are submerged. It is an amazing, humbling and devastating sight. There is so much water and even more sandbags. Every town we go through has sandbags stacked along it streets and up against all the stores. People are evacuating as their fields lie under the river and the water continues to rise, approaching their homes.

We first heard about the flood from a fellow RVer at Carthage Jail. He just mentioned the detours he had to take to avoid the Missouri. So we got online and started looking. Much of our route, Highway 29, is closed. With the help of the internet and a couple senior missionaries we have thus far been able to avoid closed roads. We have seen a lot of county side from little two lane roads. In some ways it has been nice to see the farms and tiny Midwest towns up close. Fields of corn as far as the eye can see is a sight everyone should see. But obviously we aren’t making very good time and our RV doesn’t fit as well on a two land road as it does on a divided highway. At one point we were told to take the old Lincoln highway as a detour. The man who suggested it told us it might be a tight squeeze for us to get through a tunnel with our RV, but if he said if we couldn’t make it through the tunnel to just keep going another 15 minutes and there would be a slightly bigger one. So we get to the tunnel, 11’ 1” the sign said. We have never measured our RV but I had looked up RV specs on the internet and for models similar to ours the heights ranged between 10’3” and 11’3”. So we were a little nervous. Rick wanted to try it. I didn’t. Luckily looking out at the road we could see water covering it just a few hundred feet past the tunnel so we kept going. The next bridge had a clearance of 12’3”. We were more comfortable with that but we still did pull over and I jumped out ran ahead and watched as Rick inched through to make sure he wasn’t going to rip the AC off. We had plenty of room. We got a lot of stares and honks as cars whizzed by watching us crawl under the bridge but we made it fine.

We camped a little earlier than planned, we were exhausted and weren’t sure where the next place we could camp was. There was state park, Browns Lake State Park, right off the road so we decided to try it. We were hoping it wasn’t flooded but figured we could always just keep going if it was. Everything was open so we pulled in and camped. The place was swarming with mosquitoes and friendly campers. We had 2 men come over and meet us and offered to help us if needed. The electricity is great, the water is murky and the bathrooms are dirty. But since the only thing our RV doesn’t have is electricity it worked out just fine.

July 6th

2011-07-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

July 6 –

Today was spent avoiding the Missouri and learning about the early Saints in Winter Quarters and the Mormon Battalion. That was a part of Pioneer history I wasn’t as familiar with. It was extremely interesting. I think some of our children our visitor centered out. They all go straight to the missionaries, they stick out their hand and say “Spanish Fork, Ut”. The missionary laughs shakes their hand and says “so your from Spanish fork”, then the kids, at least the three youngest, rush over and get as many of the little pass along cards as they can before we stop them. Rachel had a hard time sitting for the tours today, in fact at the Kanesville tabernacle, the largest log cabin ever built, she ran in and ran straight up on the stage. The Elder who was giving us the tour must have been the most patient old man I ever saw. He laughed and said are you going to sing and dance for us. He shook his head and said, just sing, and started to sing “I am a child of God”, Rachel didn’t want to be outdone so she ran up and started to sing “Nephi’s courage” the both steadily increased the volume to be heard above the other. I was a bit mortified to have my two kids, (both who looked like messy orphans at this point in the trip) up on change singing primary songs at he top of their lungs. The missionary just smiled, clapped when they were done and turned to me and said. Don’t worry I have all day – they can sing as long as they want. Well I thought one number was enough. I got them down and he began the tour. He was telling stories and explaining the history and Rachel was dancing on my lap. Before starting the tour I suggested everyone use the bathroom like I always do, but either she didn’t use the bathroom or 15 minutes is as long as her bladder could make it today because she was really dancing. I got up and started walking out. The Elder said, “Don’t worry ma”m I will wait for you. So they waited for me while I took her to the bathroom. The tour was actually really interesting. Rick remarked we need to come back with out the kids so we can hear the complete version and really pay attention without interruption. The missionaries do a great job of telling the stories and the history and then relating it to our lives. We also watched a movie on the Mormon battalion and I learned a lot, it was a moving story. I guess we have seen enough visitor center movies that the kids know to go in sit down and pass me the box of Kleenex they always have sitting on the ends of the rows. Anna likes to take a couple too and says –“ just in case we feel the spirit ”

The Winter Quarters visitors center was also really neat. It was set up like a trail you walk through and see different presentation on how the pioneers lived and traveled. I also learned a lot there. We got to dress up like pioneers when we came in which the kids loved. They also had a bronze exhibit depicting different scenes from the life of Christ which was wonderful. As we were leaving the missionary asked us what we liked best about visitors center. Ryan spoke right up and said, “I think it is amazing that we always feel the spirit when we come to them”. The missionary was a bit taken back- it sounded kind of funny how he said it- but he is right. It is absolutely true.

2011-07-12T05:58:00.000-07:00

July 5^th

So I didn’t really understand how far those early Saints had to walk. Reminds me of Moses and the children of Israel wandering around the wilderness. I kind of always just assumed they left Palmyra and headed west making a few stops to establish cities along the way but mostly following a direct route west. I didn’t realize that they first went all the way west to Independence and then east to Nauvoo and then west again to Winter Quarters and then finally on to Salt Lake. They made little settlements all over the place and there are still monuments all over the Missouri/Illinois/Iowa /Nebraska area depicting the saints and the influence they had over this region. And these weren’t short distances. I feel like I have been zig zagging across the Midwest forever and I am going 65mph and not carrying everything I possess. Although Ryan reminded us that we are kind of like the pioneers in that we are traveling in our “home on wheels” too. Our RV is probably 10 times as big as their wagons and we certainly aren’t carrying everything we own in it. We all have plenty of room for our stuff and a nice place to sleep every night. The AC alone would make it a million times better than a wagon. Also the bathroom is a big plus. We aren’t wadding through mud and our rv is completely water and bug proof. Boy am I glad I was not born a pioneer. Kind of. If the spirit we feel as we watch depictions of their lives is anything like how they felt actually living it – I might trade.

So today we visited Independence and Liberty jail. The sacrifices they freely gave were enormous. The Liberty Jail was described as a temple prison which blows my mind. And Joseph and his friends endured it well. My little trials sure pale in comparison and it is not very often I endure them well. The kids sat well for the tour, which surprised me because they were pretty off the walls before. The church does such an impressive job of creating an atmosphere where you can not only learn but feel the significance of the events depicted. It continually surprises me the difference between our church and the Community of Christ. We have been to three areas owned by the Community of Christ now and they are all so different than the church sites. They are more like a business and less like memorial. We came to late to take tours of the Nauvoo and Indigence sites so we just walked around ourselves and read signs. The differences were enormous. Even a simple things like the landscaping. We walked around the grounds of the Community of Christ temple. It looked more like an office building than a temple – except for the huge ice cream cone swirl on top. There were rocks and bushes and trees but there were also weeds all over. Then we walked across the street to the visitors center . Even that was immaculately clean and orderly. The grounds were beautiful with flowers everywhere and not a weed in sight.

The whole community of Christ church just really saddens me. These people used to have the fullness of the gospel and they gave it all up. Now the avoid talking about Joseph smith, don’t use their book of Mormons and deny the existence of God and Christ as two separate beings. I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that they can say Jospeh Smith was the founder of their religion but have thrown out so many of his principle teachings. And the one of the most devastating parts of that is the fact that they did it largely for money and acceptance. One of the sister missionaries told us how many of the older members were leaving the church as they see so many changes being made and that most likely the only reason they have totally renounced Jospeh Smith is because of these older members who are probably big tithe payers. Rick was saying he can’t understand why they are holding on to sites like the Jospeh Smith home in Nauvoo or the Kirtland temple. Why not just sell them to the church and totally separate themselves. I would think our church would pay them a pretty penny for such sites.

One of the sister missionaries in the Independence visitors center told us that all the missionaries were a bit nervous for this weekend because the Smith family was having a big family reunion and that as part of it one of the LDS members of the family had arranged to bring the family there to the Independence visitors center. There have been prophecies that the Smith family would find their way back to the church and that the visitors center would play at part in that. Elder Ballard said the time is now. Now they are coming and the missionaries are feeling the pressure. I can’t help but think Jospeh must be devastated that his children weren’t raised with the fullness of the gospel under the leadership of a true prophet and with the privilege of priesthood authority. Someday I am sure that prophecy will be fulfilled.

The community of Christ seems less like a religion that worships God and more like an organization to promote peace. Which of course there is nothing wrong with promoting peace in the world, that is a great thing, but there is so much more they could have. The early saints gave so much but those that left the church when Jospeh died seemed to give them for naught. I guess that is why enduring to the end is an essential part of the gospel. It doesn’t’ do a whole lot of good to suffer through the first half of the trail and then stop without making it the summit.

July 3rd and 4th

2011-07-12T05:55:00.000-07:00

“The Church is True, The book is Blue,I love Nauvoo. “ I had to laugh at the tons of blue shirts we saw running around with that little saying. I guess a family reunion or a youth group with a creative shirt designer was visiting Nauvoo. But Nauvoo was wonderful. Hands down the best part of our trip and the best part of that is that the kids came up with that. I loved Nauvoo but even more I loved that my kids loved Nauvoo.

We pulled into the beautiful city a little before 10:00. We were pretty nervous about finding a place to camp. We had called around and most everything was booked up. 4^th of July weekend and the Nauvoo pageant did a pretty good job of filling the place up. We called the Nauvoo Rv Park and the guy said he had an open spot he asked our name and said he would save it for us. So we were hopeful but with only the name Carter, no cc #, we weren’t sure he would really hold it all night. It was kind of hard to find but after taking a late night drive through an old cemetery, and a call to the place, we finally found the place. The camp host came out on the road and waved us in with a flash light. A little gravel lot with a few trees, and about 20 spots for RV’s. But the host was really nice and helpful, the electricity powered our ac, fridge and computers and there was a bathroom with warm showers and relatively little dirt and bugs. We called the place home for three days. The guy must have thought us crazy because we initially told him we would be there 1 night, but we ended up adding 1 more and then one more night. We just didn’t want to leave.

We went to the 11:00 church. I have been to meeting where the gym was filled and people were sitting on the stage and spilling into the halls but it has always been a conference not a sacrament meeting. They said that visitors outnumbered members more than 2 to 1. They had to have 2 sacrament tables set up, one in the front and one in the gym. Even with that it took a long time and about 20 deacons to pass the sacrament to so many people. It was quite a site and quite a feeling to stand with them all and sing the patriot hymns and hear the testimonies that Nauvoo has such a special way of strengthening. We thought we would do the primary and Sunday school a favor by not staying and adding to the already overwhelming numbers. So did many visitors it looked like. Rachel especially had a hard time sitting still during sacrament meeting and two different people came up to me afterwards and commented on how much energy she has. I know they were trying to be nice and she is amusing to watch but pretty much they are just saying “your daughter causes so much commotion we just couldn’t help but be distracted by her the whole meeting” Which is unfortunately the truth. It is a good thing she is so cute so at least people are generally amused and not annoyed with her distractions. We also had a couple people ask Rick if he was there to be in the pageant, I guess his scruffy beards lead them to that conclusion. So we left the church went to the temple and took pictures. The temple is beautiful and powerful. I would have loved a painting of it that we saw in one of the shops but at 700 I decided to pass it up although Rick offered to get it for me.

We decided to spend the day touring Carthage. We stopped for lunch at a roadside picnic area on the banks of the Mississippi. The kids were scared of the bugs shoved a few bites in and ran for the protection of the rv. No wonder so many of the saints died- “ mosquito infested swamps”, could still be used to describe that rest area.

To walk across the lawn where Jospeh lay dead, to see the bullet hole in the door and to think of the blood shed and sacrifice made was an extremely sombering experience. I learned a lot about the events of the day and understood more the significance of it all. We are all so blessed to have such a legacy.

Sunday evening we went to a Sunday Sociable which I really enjoyed. Ryan and Rachel enjoyed running around in the field behind us and coming up into our row disturbing our neighbors countless times during the performance. I told they kids it was a play – I wasn’t so sure what it was- I was a musical. It was Broadway type songs tied together with a little story of life. I loved the music the kids did to for about the first 2 songs then it was, “is this only going to be singing”.

Monday morning was the 4^th. I woke up early anxious to get over to the visitors center and stand in line for tickets. I wanted to be there before it opened so I could be first in line. I waited around till about 6:45 and then ran over. I didn’t want to wake the kids that early and figured I needed a like jog anyway so I ran the 1.5 miles to the visitors center. It was a nice little run except for the fact it felt like 1000 degrees outside. Doesn’t it ever cool off in the Midwest. By the time I got there I was number 10 in line. We waited about 15 minutes and they opened the door. I was able to get tickets to everything I wanted.

We started the day in historic Nauvoo with listening to the brass band which the kids loved. I was surprised by how much Rachel liked it and cried to follow them around. We watched the play “Just Plain Anna-Amanda” in the cultural hall. The kids were pretty leery of this since I said they would like the Sunday sociable and it didn’t turn out to be their favorite thing. But this they LOVED. It was really good. Rachel got called up on stage at the end, she adored the attention. She loved the actors dressed in period costumes and afterwards went up to give them all a hug and get her picture taken with them. It was fun that several of them remembered her name and even remembered her later that evening when we ran into them again at the next play we went to. I guess Rachel is pretty unforgettable with her deep blue eyes and fiery personality.

After the play we went and saw some of the houses and shops, learned how to make rope, bread and barrels. We watched them weave flax into linen and learned to make boots, bricks and wagon wheels. Then with our souvenir brick and rope and our prairie diamonds on our finger we headed over to take a carriage ride.

Max and King two huge Belgium horses took us for a pretty bumpy ride through the Nauvoo countryside while a teamster told us stories of the early saints and testified of the contributions their lives made. He mentioned Edmund Nelson in one of his stories, I leaned over and whispered to the kids that I thought Edmund Nelson was one of our Great Grandpa’s. I guess Ryan didn’t hear me that well because he kept saying “that is our great grandpa” pointing to the teamster telling the story. Rachel and Anna picked it up and the whole wagon heard the kids discussing our Great Grandpa, I tried to correct them a couple times but I think they left really believing our Great Grandpa took us for a carriage ride.

We also went to the play “High Hopes and Riverboats” another excellent performance put on by the performing missionaries. The kids were really excited for this program and weren’t disappointed. The church does a spectacular job putting these kind of things on.

We went to the Hotel Nauvoo for some dinner. I really enjoyed being in an old hotel and having a delicious meal surrounded by so much history. The kids liked the food and loved that it was buffet but I don’t think the staff liked us to well. At least I am sure they weren't’ too happy with the mess we left behind. There was a missionary couple we came over to chat with us they commented several times on their way in and out of the buffet how well behaved and cute our children where. They must have either been being sarcastic, or they were deaf and blind and missing their grandchildren because our kids are anything but well mannered. But it was a really nice meal.

When we arrived in town and learned the Pageant started Tuesday we were pretty disappointed we would miss it. We discussed staying till Wednesday morning but were planning on leaving Monday night and just didn’t think we could make it home on time if we did. Then we found out that Monday night was the dress rehearsal which worked out wonderfully. We went to that and just left Tuesday morning.

The Pageant was excellent and because it was the dress rehearsal instead of the performance there was a lot less people there. We arrived about 8:20 for the 8:30 performance and were only about 10 rows back. The kids were kind of disappointed we were going to the pageant rather than the fireworks but by the time the pageant was over I believe they were glad they went. The Pageant was spectacular I don’t think Rachel really ever got the fact that they were actors and not the real people. When Jospeh smith was introduced Rachel eyes got real big and she said really loud “I saw Jospeh Smith, I really saw Jospeh Smith” I tried to explain it was just pretend and he was just acting but later when King Follet died she said, again really loud “is that Jesus, THAT’S Jesus” I again tried to explain. A few minutes she again ask “so how did he get here, did he just float down” I think she still really believes Jesus was there.

The pageant also featured some bagpipe players that Taylor and Dallin were fascinated by. They went over and talked to them and have now both moved bagpipes and lessons to number 1 on their birthday wish lists. The bagpipes were impressive especially playing “Praise to the Man” that has become a family favorite – it is such a powerful song.

As we got back to our Rv I had Rick pull around to a dark corner of the lot and I pulled out some sparklers for the kids. They had a great time running around the deserted parking lot waving there sparklers around yelling freedom. I just prayed we wouldn’t been seen and we wouldn’t light any cornfields on fire. But I was so happy to see my kids so happy.

As we were driving back to the Rv park one of the kids said, “How come we didn’t do much to celebrate the 4^th of July today”, I laughed and said – we did and started singing the Star Spangled Banner. Rick joined in and then Dallin and then the other kids, as the music started to swell I heard Taylor in the background saying “Nauvoo was my favorite part of the trip” Just then the temple popped up over the hill and it hit me hard how blessed I truly am. I really do have it all.

2011-07-12T05:53:00.000-07:00

July 2^nd

Originally I hadn’t planned on going to the arch, St Louis is just not in a direct line with the rest of our trip. But Rick assumed we were and when he realized I hadn’t planned it he insisted. He said it just isn’t something we can miss. He was right. It is spectacular.

We left David’s house Friday evening and headed south. We were close enough to Louisville we wanted to swing by and see the temple there. Rick also really wanted to hear some Kentuckians speak – he likes their accent. He said is sounds sexy. Well I heard the accent alright, but to me it was far from sexy, kind of cute I guess but not sexy. Maybe we weren’t far enough south. I talked to a couple different people in Walmart in Louisville. They were really nice and did have an accent. Rick was asleep in the RV so he missed it.

The Temple was, like all temples, beautiful. It was pretty small and in a really petty little area , down kind of a country road with trees and a little river. The kids ran around a bit and we took some pictures and Rick tried to get into the church next door and then we left. We then headed toward St Louis.

As we crossed the river and the arch came into view I had to do a double take. It was amazing. I have of course seen pictures of it but in real life it is much more impessive. There were airplanes flying around it – like an air show- doing little tricks and dives and fly by’s as we crossed the bridge. As we came into the city and near the arch it became apparent the whole city had decided to come to the arch that day. It is right in downtown St Louis and it was busy. Traffic was heavy and there were orange cones blocking roads everywhere. The airshow, blocked roads and red, white and blue draped everywhere told us something was going on. St Louis must think the 2^nd of July is independence day. They were having their city celebration. Maybe it went all weekend.

Anyway we were a bit nervous about finding a spot to park. Downtown cities don’t have a whole lot of ouside parking and we can’t park in a garage at least if we want to keep our AC unit on top – which we do. When we made our arch reservations the ticket lady said it came with free parking at the arch. Problem was it was a garage. They do have a rv/bus lot she told us – problem is it is under water. So we drove around a bit and found a public parking lot that was completely outside. It took a lot of careful maneuvering and several 10 pt turns but we got her in. It was $10 a space – we took up 2 spaces. $20 bucks to park was a little hard to swallow when we could park for free in the arch parking garage if we just had a car.

We parked and got out. I wanted to get back in. I think it may have been the hottest I have ever felt. And I have lived in Arizona. It was blazing hot and wet. The sun was intense and the air was thick. We walked the several blocks over to the arch. There were bands playing and food vendors set up everywhere. The airshow was still going on and people were spreading out blankets and picnics and preparing to spend the day. We walked down to the river and saw the free parking lot we could have parked in. Well we saw the tip of the sign anyway. It was covered in water. The river was very high and very fast. What kind of surprised me was to see how much debris was flowing in it. There were big logs and branches and all kinds of stuff all over the place. It looked like the log flume.

We got in the security line to get down into the arch. It felt wonderful down there. In fact Anna comlplained it was too cold. Too bad for her. Our ticket time was 3:50 so we timed it to arrive about ½ hour early. We got there about a quarter after 3:00, perfect so we thought, just enough time to go to the bathroom look at the gift shop and go it. We hadn’t realized that we had passed into the central time zone- it was only 2:15. Luckily the arch has a spectacular museum on the westward expansion. So we explored that until it was time to go up. The museum was really pretty cool. They had little dressed up dummies who would move their hands around and talk, telling a little story or history tidbit. Rachel loved them, she watched all of them a couple times. She kept trying to talk to them and would hold her hand out for them to shake. I told her several times they weren’t alive but I don’t know if she ever believed me or not. She just looked at me like I was crazy and said, “He is moving and talking mom” They were pretty life like.

As we got in line for the tram the people ahead of us had byu shirts on so Rick struck up a conversation with them about BYU. Turns out the people in front of them were members too. Kind of suprising there would happen to be 3 mormon families all in a row in the line for the St Louis arch. It was fun to talk to them. And Ryan gave them an earful all about our trip.

The little tram to the top is just that – little. There are 5 seats and they are pretty cramped. We all got in one. It was a cozy and a bumpy little ride. The top was packed, it was wall to wall people. We heard that the tickets had been sold out that day – so we knew it would be busy. We got got over to the window and looked out. It was cool. You could see everything. The airshow was still going on, it was pretty impressive to watch the airplanes fly by from the far up. We rode down and looked around a little more outside. We watched the airplanes and debated staying for the band and fireworks. The band was the Steve Miller Band which I would have enjoyed and Rick really wanted to stay for. The kids wanted to go, it was really hot, and we were a bit nervous about trying to maneuver our rv out of the city and figured after firework traffic would be a nightmare so we opted to leave. We stopped and got snow cones on the way out. Turns out getting on the freeway was a breeze. We were about 20 minutes out of town when we remembered we hadn’t stopped by the St. Louis temple as we had planned. We didn’t turn around – I was pretty disappointed we had forgotten it but we just didn’t want to go back.

June 27 -July 1st

2011-07-12T05:51:00.000-07:00

June 27 – July 1^st

This week we spent with our Jeff and David’s families. It is funny how the last couple of days I have been worrying about how I was going to feed and clothe my family. I can’t imagine how the pioneer mother must have stressed about that. It really bothers me not to know how I can feed them or when I will be able to wash their clothes and we have walmart at almost every exit. Anyway for the last couple days I have thought if we can just get through these days we will be at Jeff’s and then everything will be ok. Even though our trip was going wonderfully and we were having a great time and hadn’t encountered any really problems it is kind of a nerve racking thing to be 2000 miles from home in a 12 year old RV. We pulled into Jeff’s parking lot around 9:00 Sunday evening. He had dinner ready for us and then we all crashed in his basement. We were pretty exhausted having gone pretty hard all day.

The next day Stacey took us on to campus and we went to a life science museum and learned about evolution and dinosaurs. Then we grabbed some pizza at a little campus shop and Jeff took us on a tour around campus. He showed us some cool building and best of all (according to him) some waterless urinals. He choose a pretty cool school. We rode the bus which the kids loved – we need to get more public transportation out our way. We had dinner at a nice park by the Huron river for fhe. We took a little walk and played on the playground and battled some attacking geese. It was a great dinner and a fun evening. The kids had a great time playing out at Jacob’s sandbox and with his toys.

The next morning we went to Detroit to tour the Ford Rouge Factory. Rick was really interested in seeing them make cars. I went with Jeff a couple years ago but it was during a time when Ford was experiencing rough financial times and couldn’t keep the factory running full time – we happened to come when they weren’t making trucks. This time they were. It was pretty cool to watch the trucks come together. I have to admit I would never want to be an assembly line worker – I can’t think of a whole lot more boring to do then stand there all day screwing things in over and over and over again. But I guess they make pretty great money for doing it.

Wednesday morning we took off for Beavercreek. Benjamin opened the door for us and said he didn’t know where his mom or brother and sisters were. We waited for a them for a few minutes and they finally came walking up- they had walked down the corner to wait for us – but our gps brought us in the opposite way. We then all loaded up the RV and went to play putt putt at Dairy farm. We played a great game and I came really close to getting the winning score – I guess it helped that I skipped a few holes. After the game we got ice cream and went to the petting zoo. The kids have been so excited to see their cousins. They have loved playing with all of them. Anna loves the little girls and “mothering” them around – she did a pretty good job too. Rachel tried to but she pretty much ended up just making them mad. Rebecca and Abbi were both darling, we kind of miss having a baby at our house.

After golfing we had a surprise birthday party of Uncle Jeff. He and Stacey arrived just a few minutes before we got in from golfing. We had a delicious dinner and played games. We had a three legged race, egg toss and a relay where we had to fill up a jar with a quarter cup measuring cup – running the cup of water across the lawn. It was the Hoopes’s against the Carters. Things we going ok – well they were about to win and our jar was only ½ full when Rachel decided she wanted to win even if it meant cheating, so she ran over and dumped their jar out. What good sports I’ve raised. We then had a piñata.- now we do piñata we don’t do a whole lot of swinging it around with a rope – no wonder ours are so easy to break. We finally got it open and the kids gorged on candy the rest of the night. We had cupcakes and Jeff got a couple presents.

Thursday we met David for lunch at a Chinese Buffet. He had wanted to go to an Indian Buffett but the kids won out and we opted for Chinese. They put us back in our own room. We had a great time eating and talking. Megan then took us to see the Airforce museum and the Wright Brothers museum. Rick was pretty fascinated by the planes. They all look pretty much the same to me but I still marvel at how such huge chunks of metal can get off the ground. It is pretty amazing what we have accomplished in the world of transportation.

After dinner we watched the God’s Must be Crazy. I hadn’t seen it for years. My kids and Rick never had. I think the all liked it – at least they laughed pretty hard. What a good movie with a great moral.

Friday David took the day off and we went canoeing. We went 8 miles down the little Miami river. It was a lot of fun. We took 4 canoes – David and Megan and girls in one, Jeff’s family, Rick, Rachel and I and our little kids and then Taylor, Dallin, Benjamin, Ryan and Josh went in the other. I was a little nervous sending all those boys in one but I figured we could always save them if needed. They did a great job, probably better than me. We saw lots of turtles which successfully avoided getting caught. We did pull over for lunch and then to try out a rope swing. David, Jeff, Rick and Ben were brave enough to swing into the river. Not me – I am pretty sure I couldn’t support my own weight enough to get off the tree over the water. So I stayed put in the canoe and cheered them on. It looked like a lot of fun though.

We got home packed up, had some dinner and pulled out around 8:30. We had hoped to get out a little earlier but it wasn’t too bad. We made it to Louisville with no problems and found a walmart to sleep at. We were told us it was a really pretty drive – and as far as we could tell in the dark – it was. The next morning we woke up to a really pretty little town filled with some friendly, cute sounding people.

June 26

2011-06-26T07:21:00.000-07:00

We made it to church today – a real sacrament meeting. We pulled in the parking lot about 5 min early so we sent Taylor and Dallin in to get t seat while Rick got dressed. Then the rest of us walked in – we were maybe 2 minutes late. They were having the opening announcements and the first thing I heard while walking through the door was something like, “while we do have a sign that says Visitors welcome we need to be careful to be vigilant in watching who comes into our meetings and keeping and eye on them. Also keep your children close we don’t want to have any problems – if you see any suspicious activity make sure and report it. The timing was perfect – we walked through the door as they were counseling the ward to be wary of strangers . I felt like turning right around and leaving. I don’t think we look to scary, well maybe Rick- he is up to a 4 week beard now. I kind of felt like I should pull out my temple recommend to prove we were legit members and not there to steal their children. Anyway the meeting was ok. I wasn’t super impressed with their speakers – which was the seminary class – but it was ok. We left after sacrament meeting. We had debated staying for the whole meeting but we didn’t feel to welcomed and we were ready go see Kirtland. Turth is I am guessing we had more of a spiritual experience in Kirtland than we did at church.

“Historic Kirtland” was really an neat place. It is interesting to note the different feelings you, (or at least I) felt at the Kirtland visitors center, the Palmyra sites and other church sites versus the feelings at the Kirtland temple. The temple was neat, I really enjoyed seeing the building and learning a bit more of its history – but for the most part the spirit simply wasn’t there. Except I have to say at one point while we were sitting in the lower court listening to our temple interrupter talk he said something like, while the early saints didn’t get to enjoy their temple for long it remains a memorial of their sacrifice and faith.” I really did feel the significance and importance of that statement. The rest of it was more like a a history lesson than a spiritual experience. Their was just something different about the missionaires who gave us tours and the tour guides of the Community of Christ. It is hard to describe but I guess it just comes down to the spirit. The tour guides, or temple interrupters just seem like hired employees doing there job while the missionaries seem more invested in it. I don’t know who to describe it but for those who have been to both – my guess is you already know what I am talking about . It is interesting to- that there have been some presentations I have been to at National Parks (not a lot- but a couple) that have given me the same feelings I felt at say Palmyra or the Whitney Farm. I think because, like I was telling our children, our countries freedom and the sacrifices made to become a freedom are sacred and came through divine intervention. I hope my children could sense that and feel the importance and significance of those who have come before and sacrificed so much for the many blessing they enjoy today.

After leaving Kirtland we drove straight to Ann Arbor. We pulled in around 9:30. Jeff and Stacey had dinner for us. We tried to be quiet and get the kids to bed rather quickly but we succeeded in waking both Jacob and Rebecca up. After getting the kids to sleep and taking the rv over to park at their church we visited a bit and went to bed close to 1:00 am.

June 25

2011-06-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

Today was our Canada day. We went back into Niagara and then walked across the Rainbow Bridge into Canada. We didn’t get our passports stamped- what a disappointment. Funny thing is Canada is just the same as the United States- the kids just couldn’t understand that. Well the same except more expensive. Rick told the kids the could buy a suveniour so we went shopping. We went to store after store – the kids had a blast looking at Canadian things and trying to find something we could afford. Ryan, and Rachel just wanted the cheap plastic toys you could buy at the dollar store – we finally agreed since the main goal was to make them happy and the toys were a lot cheaper than tee shirts or something. Dallin got a shirt, Taylor got a hat, Anna got a key chain and Ryan and Rachel got squirmmals. Rick and I got chocolate.

The falls from the Canadian side are pretty cool – again so huge. I think they have a better view, although like I heard a tour guide say, the US side tries to make the falls a little less commercial buy making them in park with grass, trees, walking trails etc while the Canadians built the city right up to the shore. Our little jaunt across the boarder was short and sweet but fun.

We walked back across the bridge to find a turnstyle blocking our path. We needed to pay .50 cents a person to get into the US. While that is not a lot of money- it was more than we had. We had credit cards and 1 $20 bill. It only took quarters. There was a change machine but it didn’t take twenties. We stood around a while deciding what to do. Anna had the perfect solution – we can just all walk under the turnstyle like we did at the subway. Finally someone came in to see if there was a problem. They must have a camera in there of something because we looked for someone to ask and couldn’t find anyone. They took our $20 and after about 5 min they came back with change. 5 minutes isn’t that long but it was long enough to wonder if they were coming back or not. So we got back in the USA .

We went back to our RV had some dinner and took one last look at the falls then we headed out to Kirland. The drive was only about 2 hours but I was exhausted so it felt much longer. The kids watched a movie and Rick drove. We were staying at the Heritage Hills Family Campground. We called to make sure they had a site and they said they had a couple left but we better reserve because they fill up quick. So we did. We told the kids if we got in early enough we could go swimming because they had a pool. The campground was out on a dirt road a couple miles from nothing. When we pulled in Rick and I both laughed and thought there is no way this place fills up. Well we found out we got the last “good” spot. According to the old couple who runs it they have a couple good spots – a couple “crappy” spots and the rest are permanent residents. So we pretty much were staying in a mobile home park. It was kind of sad to look around and see all these families living in something not a whole lot larger than our RV. I can’t imagine how awful that would be. They didn’t have a pool like I supposed but a roped off portion of a pond. There were a lot of ducks, mud, and scum on the pond so jumping in for dip didn’t seem to inviting. The kids ran over and played on the little playground but it was cold enough they were asking for jackets. There were fires burning all over the park – I can’t imagine “camping out” permanently. You would perpetually smell like smoke. One thing the this has reminded me how blessed we are to have the home we do although there are some states I would gladly transport that home too.

June 24

2011-06-24T07:19:00.000-07:00

June 24

Our back bedroom is filling up with laundry – all of our laundry baskets are overflowing. So we decided we should try and find a laundry mat. So when we got to Batavia where the walmart was we plugged “laundrymat” into the gps. It took us to one – how amazing is that. Anyway we gathered up all the laundry, it took 3 of us to carry it in, and we were stopped by a nice old lady who said it was too late to start laundry. So we left, on the way back to Walmart we saw a sign for another laundrymat. We stopped, they were open till 11:00 (it was like 9:30) so we went ahead and went in. It was gross and expensive but we decided to do a load of two anyway. That was a mistake. The laundry didn’t get very clean, it took forever to dry and we ran into a lot of rif raf. We turned on a movie for the kids to watch in the Rv and Rick and I went in the laundrymat. Rick had to go out and sit with them when two suspicious looking cars pulled in the parking lot right next to the RV. Pretty sure they were using the Rv to block their drug deal from main street. Anyway we got the laundry done (not clean but done) and back “home” to our Walmart parking lot site by 11:30. The kids were pretty much all asleep so we just threw some bankets on them and went to bed.

It is amazing to me that Rick can sleep in till like 9:30 in a walmart parking lot. You start getting a lot of traffic noise and people coming and going by around 7:00-8:00. It is hoping by 8:30, but Rick and the kids slept on. So I went in to walmart and did a little grocery shopping. I got a box of donuts from the Duncan Donuts store and woke the kids up to eat them about 9:30 – when they were almost done with the donuts the went in and woke up Rick so he could have the last one. He may have still been asleep at noon if we hadn’t woke him.

We took off for Niagara Falls as soon as we were all ready. We had a bit of a hard time finding where we wanted to go but when we finally found a parking spot we were pretty excited to be there. You can see the mist coming up from the falls from pretty far away. In fact it looks like smoke from a fire when you are coming into town. I was so impressed by the sheer power of the water. There is just so much – so much water, so much power- so much noise. It is incredible. We walked along the falls trail and took a bunch of pictures and watched the seagulls for awhile. Then we went on the Cave of winds tour. It was pretty cool. Dallin has been looking forward to going to Niagara Falls so he could get a rain poncho. He heard they had them there. He was absolutely thrilled when he found out they gave them out to everyone who went on the tour. Even better they even gave out new shoes for us to wear. So we got all dressed up in yellow rain poncho’s, and cheap plastic sandals. And headed out to the falls. Looking at the falls from their level is a lot different then from above. It is pretty amazing. At the bottom there was the “hurricane deck” where you can stand under the falls and get soaked. The force of the water was termendous. I loved it and the kids were pretty impressed too. It is interesting to see how many different people come to tour the falls. We heard lots of different languages and saw a lot of different cultural dress. There were lots of Muslims, Indians, Japanese and even quite a big group of Mennonite people as well as the regular mix of Americans.

We decided to head to our campsite around 5:00. We typed it in the GPS and headed out. We were following the directions and found ourselves on the bridge to Canada. This can’t be right we thought but couldn’t figure out how to get off it either so into Canada we went. Luckily we had our passports and birth certificates because we had planned to go into Canada tomorrow. I was terrified we were going to be searched. Which normally wouldn’t be a problem –but Mark gave me a little box and ask me to take it to Jeff. He didn’t tell me what it was and I didn’t ask. But I have this sneaking suspicion it is a gun. So when the boarder agent ask if we had any weapons or firearms and Rick said no- I felt a little guilty. I figured why would they doubt Rick – they won’t look. Just then Ryan speaks up and says “Yeah we do – we have weapons”. I could have smacked him. Luckily the agent ignored him and he let us in.

We found a campground, not the one we intended to go to but the GPS did lead us to one. It was pretty expensive and tacky looking so didn’t stay. We drove around a bit and looked at Canada and headed back to the USA. The kids were excited to go back to the USA, they sang all kind of patriotic songs like “Coming to America”, “God Bless the USA” etc. They are so weird sometimes.

We drove around for maybe an hour before we were able to find the right campground. New York really needs to work on its GPS directions for State Parks. We overheard some other campers commenting on how hard it was to find the place too – so we knew it wasn’t just us. The campground, 4 mile creek, was right on Lake Ontario. It was actually only about 15 miles from the Falls but we drove around in circles looking for it. It’s a pretty nice park. Lake Ontario is huge. Once again the sheer size of it amazed me. We could look across the lake and see the skyline of Toronto. Other than that it looks like the ocean – water as far as you can see in all directions. There were even waves. The kids had a great time collecting old dirty bird feathers and little pieces of rocks and shells. They are getting quite the collection of “treasures”.

June 23

2011-06-23T07:18:00.000-07:00

June 23

I have wanted to see Palmyra and the Sacred Grove, well -forever. I have really looked forward to this. And I wasn’t disappointed. When we pulled into town the toll booth attendant asked us if we were here to see the Mormon sites. He told us to be sure and go to the sacred orchard. We kind of laughed at the “orchard” but I knew why he listed it as a can’t miss spot. We had talked to the kids about being reverent and respectful and for the most part they were. We went to the smith Farm, Hill Cumarah, the temple and the EB Grandon printing press. I was really impressed with all of it. The sister missionaries who took us on the tours of the printing press and the Smith Farm did a great job telling us stories, sharing their testimonies and helping us feel the spirit. It was a really good experience. I felt the spirit and I think the kids did to.

Taylor is proud of himself for making the sister missionaries journal. She was telling us about EB Grandon and told us his name was Egbert B. Grandon. She told us we were going to play a guessing game and see who could guess his middle name. Her first hint was it started with the letter B – then she said it is “not a very nice word for someone who isn’t very nice” Taylor got a kind of shocked look on his face and said, “you mean the B word- the swear word”. Thank goodness he didn’t actually say the word. The sister turned red. No, no, no – I didn’t mean that word.” The Elder sitting across the room cracked up. Everyone kind of laughed and she said that was one she would have to put in her journal. My kids have a knack for embarrassing me.

The Sisters were really good to play to the kids but sometimes my kids can be so weird. When one of them shook our hands Anna told the joke, “are you cold” – “no then why are you shaking”. That was ok but then Ryan wanted to get in on the jokes so when he was shaking her hand he said. “Where do you live, (in a house) Where do you go to the bathroom (in the toilet), What do you use to wipe (toilet paper) to which Ryan says - I use my hand. I almost died. You just don’t tell missionaries potty jokes. My kids used to be shy but lately they have really talked to strangers a lot – and for some reason they have a knack for saying something kind of awkward – and often off topic. Rachel sure had a lot of comments that kept the sisters laughing. But I was really proud that for the most part they knew all the anwers to the questions they were asked and knew a lot of stories about Joseph Smith. They seemed interested and learned a lot. It was an experience I hope they never forget.

We stopped for lunch at the Chill and Grill. It was a little roadside hamburger and icecream joint off the main road. The missionaries suggested it. Other than being a little more expensive than we had planned and not taking credit cards it was really good. They had great ice cream and the servings were huge. The biggest problem was that we didn’t have very much cash, paying for lunch left us with a handful of change and maybe $12. We were a little nervous because we knew we would have toll roads to pay. Turns out we made it to a Walmart to get cash with $2 to spare.

June22

2011-06-22T07:17:00.000-07:00

“Dad makes better sandwiches, but you give me more chips,” says Ryan. I guess we all have our strengths and weaknesses. One of mine isn’t driving – at least when it comes to RV’s. I hate driving the beast. Rick had been hinting the last couple days that it was my turn, I put him off for a while but promised him today I would drive. So I drove, all day. And I hated it, all day. About 1 of the 7 hours was on freeway the other 6 were on tiny little backroads with lots of pot holes, narrow shoulders, curves and hills. It also poured most of the day. My knucles were white from griping the wheel, my face hurts from clenching my teeth and my eyes stung from holding back the tears. Which didn’t always stay held back. I was stressed and overwhelmed and terrified most of those 7 hours. But I was successful. No one died, I didn’t fall off the road I didn’t harm any person or property. On the other hand Rick is a good driver (except for that little incident in New Orleans, where he ripped the mirror off someone car and dented in the door) but today he played stewardess. His job was to tell me where to go, feed the kids, set up their games/movies, read scriptures with them, keep the rv clean. He did a pretty good job except for the cleaning up part. The Rv was an absolute disaster when we arrived. Like Junie B Jones says I don’t want to toot my own horn but I think I am better at playing stewardess than Rick. I guess that’s what makes us such a good team. Together we can do anything – even make a pretty decent lunch.

We started out the day by going to the Joseph Smith Birthplace in Sharon Vermont. We debated wether or not we should go because it was a couple hours out of our way. But we decided to go, and I am so glad we did. It was really pretty neat. Vermont is beautiful. I am not sure why the Smiths wanted to leave, it looked like a wonderful place to live. I really enjoyed the scenery and the visitors center. The missionary asked us if we wanted to watch a movie, again we debated. I knew we had Joseph Smith movies in the rv and I thought we should just watch it on our way and hurry it along but we decided to watch it. We were the only ones there so we went into the theater and all got cosy. The movie is a new movie (about 6 weeks old) called Joseph Prophet of the Restoration. It is a lot like the last movie with the same name – in fact they kind of just reworked that movie. I really liked it and the kids all did to. I was impressed by how the focus and watched it. It was a nice morning.

Being in Vermont we thought we should buy some syrup so we went in search for some real maple syrup. We found a working maple farm and cheese factory called Sugarbush Farm to visit. It took a little while to get there and if I would have know what the roads would have been like I would have never stopped but it was really cool. We learned how to make cheese and syrup. We tasted lots of different kinds and syrup, cheese, jams and other sauces. They were really good and we bought a few. The kids were in love with the syrup and have been begging for pancakes all day.

We had decided to stay in a State Park about 1 hour south of Palmyra. The problem was our GPS lead us all over these tiny hilly backroads through absolutely beautiful thickly wooded forests to a locked gate. It was almost 10 at that point and we figured there was no way to find another park that night so we were stressing a little bit but decided to just get back on the road and keep driving. Well the locked gate kind of was a breaking point for me and the driving. I just decided I couldn’t possibly back that huge thing back out onto a road so I got Rick to do it, he took the wheel for the rest of the night. Luckily that didn’t end up being to long. As we went to get back on the freeway I spotted a sign for the park we had just been to. The sign pointed the other way. We decided to try it out. Turns out the park entrance was on the other side, the gate we got to was the back gate. We got in the park and found an open site. The The site we came to first was grass, we wanted a gravel or concrete site so we started to circle looking for one. But then decided it was late enough we would just take the grass site. Turns out that was pretty smart. There was only grass and dirt sites and since it poured all night the next morning all the dirt sites were mud bogs where the grass sites were pretty soggy but nothing like the dirt sites. We got out ok which may not have been the case if we would have gone with a dirt site. The campground was really beautiful, we got in so late and left pretty much as soon as we all got up and showered that we didn’t see much of it but what we did see was amazing.

June 21

2011-06-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

Every chat thread I have read about visiting Boston always says – don’t drive in Boston. So we didn’t. We drove into the T Stop and rode the T. Boston has done a great job with it’s subway system. It is so much easier to navigate than both the metro or the subway. It is cheaper and cleaner and just nicer. It was very convenient. On the way back we got in around 5:30 on the night of a Red Socks game which made the train PACKED. It was shoulder to shoulder people when we got on – Then more and more people got on at each stop. Being in such close quarters made it so we had an audience for my kids. And they took advantage of it. Ryan especially. He struck up a conversation with the lady next to us and told her all about our trip, his friends, the Rv and even our church. He said, “do you know not everyone loves everyone – because Satan doesn’t love us at all.” I was mortified. If he wasn’t sitting on my lap I would have tried to pretend I didn’t know him.

Boston is a such a neat city to visit. It was pretty busy and the perfect temperature. We walked along the freedom trail for awhile, had lunch and road the ferry over to the USS Consitution. The kids have been watching these movies called Liberty’s kids all about the revolution. It was neat to hear them talk about things and people from the revolution. History is so cool. I think I wil be a history teacher when I grow up. Actually I’ve been thinking my dream job would be to be park ranger. You get to move around the country working at sites with national significance teaching people about imprortant historical events and areas.

We got back to our Rv around 7:00 and hit the road we made it to about 1 hour outside Sharon Vermont where we found a Walmart and spent the night. Walmart parking lots get the job done – but it is really nice to have a park with electricity. This trip has taught me how dependent we are on electricity. It is really nice to be plugged in.

June 20

2011-06-20T20:20:00.000-07:00

I am freezing. I am sitting on the beach the sun has set and I am shivering. My family is insane. They are running around playing tag, digging in the sand and swimming. Yes swimming. I am surprised there is not ice chunks floating in the ocean the water is so cold. But they are having fun – crazy but loving it. We hit the beach first thing this morning ( by 8:30) and played till about 10:30 then we had to check out of the campground. We drove up the coastal highway through New Hampshire and into Maine. It was fun to see the coast and all the little beach towns in between. The road wasn’t the best for RV’s so we didn’t go as far north as we planned but we saw what we wanted. Coast, lighthouse, fishing villages, beaches etc. We had lunch at a little seafood place. The food was expensive and disgusting. According to the kids anyway. I thought it was expensive and probably cooked well for seafood but I am definitely not seafood lover. We wanted to try it though. We ordered fish and chips, crab cakes, clam chowder, and a lobster. The crab cakes were kinda gross, the fish was ok, the clam chowder was good and the French fries were excellent. The lobster was ok. When we got it and I took the cover off the plate I kind of froze. It was like a whole lobster with antennae’s and eyes and everything. I had forgotten you had to like crack it and get the meat off. Neither Rick or I had ever done it before. We weren’t sure how. Rick wanted to ask. What I don’t understand is how can he ask how to eat a lobster when he won’t even ask for directions after we have been driving in circles for almost an hour (I am not sure if I mentioned our GPS app crashed and we have just been relying on my navigating skills – which don’t posses). I was too embarrassed to walk up to someone and say “excuse me – how do you eat this” so I just started cracking and picking pieces out. I know you are supposed to eat the tail and the pincher things. So I started there. It wasn’t my favorite but it wasn’t too gross either. If you dip it in enough butter it is pretty good. The stomach is pretty gross looking- it didn’t’ take a lot for us to guess you didn’t eat the green gooey stuff. So we made everyone taste it and called it good. We made everyone have one bite of everything before we let them eat the fries. Then we went back to the RV and had some pbj’s. We went to look at light house. It was pretty. It is kind of out on an island maybe 100 feet from shore. The kids had a great time running around all the rocks on the edge of the shore watching the boats, the seagulls and looking for crabs. I spent a lot of time yelling at the kids to back up – I just knew some was going to fall in the ocean. I chased Rachel out on some rocks and when we got back to where everyone else was I saw Dallin soaked and holding Rick’s camera. Oh no – I thought – why would Dallin have Rick’s camera. He is pretty careful with that thing. I just knew Rick had to hand it off to him when he jumped in to save someone . I envisioned someone falling in, Dallin trying to help and getting wet and Rick jumping in. Well we did have a tragedy. Ryan was sobbing like world was ending. His flip flop fell in the ocean. He was carrying on about how he loved those flip flops and they were so “beautiful” yes my son said his flip flops were beautiful. When I told him it was ok we could buy some more. I said they are just flip flops we got at Walmart for $2. He started crying harder and said “uh huh we got them at Kmart”a they don’t have Kmart here. Well we watched the flip flop for a few minutes as it continued floating out t see. Ryan really wanted us to go in after it or ask the fisherman to get it with his boat. He was crying so hard I felt kind of bad saying no way – but I was not getting wet for a flip flop. Even a beautiful one. So we headed back. We had to make a stop at a grocery store, the stop and shop, and lucky us they had flip flops – even more beautiful then the one’s Ryan had before. So all is well.

We decided to take I 95 back so we didn’t have to brave the narrow roads again – it was a lot faster. We made the kids watch the countryside on the way up so they could see the Northeast but we let them watch a movie on the way back. I did however make them watch Pete’s Dragon – since it had a lighthouse and a town similar to those we visited. My older boys sure complained when I told them, especially when they saw that it had a lot of singing it it. “Not a musical” Taylor whined about the second song. I love Pete’s Dragon – but they, and Rick had never seen it. That made me feel like a failure as a mother. I did notice though when we stopped at the store and gave the kids the option to stay in the rv and watch the movie or go in it was the oldest three who could pry their eyes off the screen long enough to answer me let alone come in to the store. It is a good movie- and the kids are convinced the lighthouse in the movie is the very one we visited today.

We stopped at Duncan Donuts and got a dozen donuts. It is really unfortunate Donuts don’t come in 14- no one wants to have just 1 but 5 is too many extra for Dad to eat. We decided to stay at the same State Park we stayed at last night. We pulled in around 6:00 and the kids headed for the beach. I cleaned up a bit and came over. I have been sitting here shivering while typing. My fingers are about to fall off and my teeth are shattering so I am glad I have come to the end of the day. Now that it is 8:30 and the sun is down I will go talk Rick and the kids into going up and having some dinner. Some night we might just have dinner before it gets dark. It is just so hard to waste day light eating –not when there are so many fun things to do.

June 19

2011-06-20T20:19:00.001-07:00

Anna, Rachel, and Ryan woke up early this morning ( oh yeah) I heard a lot of commotion and whispering than Anna came in and pulled on my toes and told me to get up and help them make breakfast in bed for Dad. What a nice thought but highly impractical in the Rv. Plus all we had was cereal and milk. So we let Daddy sleep in while the kids colored some father’s day cards and I got ready for church.

My kids are so lucky to have such a wonderful Father. He works hard and plays hard. He is kind and funny, committed and compassionate. He makes me happy and motivates me to be better. I am extremely lucky to have him. I am also very blessed to have the Father I did. Sometimes I wonder what I could have possibly done right to be so lucky to have such a wonderful family.

In the fall of 2009 some Cambridge saints were enjoying Stake Conference when the fire alarm went off. That has happened to me before. If it was anything like the meeting I was in they probably just sat there for a minute trying to decide what to do. The leaders probably didn’t want to interrupt the meeting by sending everyone out but probably didn’t want to be responsible just in case it was the real thing. So they probably debated a bit and then decided they better evacuate. Well as they all went out into the parking lot they were probably really surprised to see smoke pouring out of the roof. The building burned pretty significantly. That has got to be hard to see your building burn. Well they saved what the could and started rebuilding. They got it finished up just in time for us to attend there rededication. It was a really nice meeting with President Eyring doing the dedication and President Packer speaking. But really what are the chances that both weeks we try and go to church they are not holding sacrament meeting. The church really should post that kind of thing on there website. When we do find a ward – we kind of expect they will be holding sacrament meeting. The kids were pretty happy about it because church was supposed to start at 11:30 and the dedication started at 10:00 so we missed most of it. And the kids didn’t have to go to primary which everyone but Rachel hate going to in a strange ward. So everyone was happy. The church was right next to the temple so we went over and took pictures and walked around a bit. It is one of the best landscaped temple I have ever seen – and Salt Lake is pretty nicely landscaped. It really was beautiful. After church we went over to Lexington and Concord. The kids wanted to know why we were going there on Sunday. I explained (hopefully not rationalized) that were were visiting a battleground where many people lost their lives for our freedom and that makes it a sacred place. We reminded them about how we had been reading in the Book of Mormon about Nephi finding the promised Land and Heavenly Father telling him it was a special place reserved for those who were righteous and only people that He lead there would find it. We talked about all the prophecies about how Go d would lead us to the Americas and then help us win our freedom from England and set up a free nation. So the birth of our nation can be seen as a sacred thing worth learning about and remembering on Sunday. Plus what else were we going to do all afternoon in a 30 ft Rv. I really like the minuteman park. It has some really nice presentations and feels like a special place. We watched a presentation on musket loading and shooting, walked part of the trail where Paul Revere road and went to the visitors center. It was a really nice day.

We had a bit of a hard time finding a campground in the Boston area so we decided to come up North to Salsbury State Beach. It is right on the New Hampshire boarder. It was a nice campground on the beach. We got in right as the sun was setting so we ran over and took a look at the beach and then went and had some dinner and went to bed. The kids were so exhausted the fell asleep before their head hit the pillow – which has been the case almost every night.

June 18

2011-06-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

Google maps tells us it is 3 ½ hours from New York to Plymouth. It is not. It took us close to 6 hours. Admittedly we did sit still on the free way for a good part of that. I have never seen so much traffic. The other thing is google maps routed us through the Holland Tunnel. It is against the law for an RV to go through a tunnel (because we have a propane tank) so a nice police man rerouted us. Which was a great thing because even though the tunnel was more direct it went through some downtown which isn’t the most RV friendly route. We got to Plymouth around 6:00 took a look at the rock and walked around a bit. Rick had never been there before – I think I spent so much time preparing him not to be disappointed that he was actually pretty impressed. It was a lot better than I had lead him to believe. Plymouth is a cute little town and it was fun to walk around and look at the boats. We decided to stay at the Wompatuckit state park. It was really pretty – I know I say that every time- but it was. It was very densely forested – in fact we had a little bit of a hard time getting into our Rv spot because the tree branches hung so low we totally scrapped the top pulling in. We were afraid we would knock the air conditioning unit off but other than saw off the branches we didn’t see any other way to pull in. So we just did it and all was well. It was getting dark when we pulled in- by the time I made dinner and we got cleaned up it was dark – and dark in a densely wooded campground is DARK. Anna needed to go to the bathroom so I walked her there. It was a stupid idea. We didn’t bring a flashlight- another stupid idea. We got lost and just ended up forging a trail through the forest. I was pretty scared we would meet a bear or a cougar or a raccoon. But we made it back alive and so far no poison ivy or ticks so I think everything is ok. Rick and I had a hard time sleeping because we were freezing. We didn’t bring a lot of blankets since it is the summer and haven’t needed any thus far but it got pretty cold. In fact this last week I have heard a lot more complaining about being cold than hot. Not so the first couple weeks of our trip.