Sunday at Temple Square

Morgan really wanted to see the temple when we drove by on Friday night, so we decided it was a great Sunday afternoon activity. She doesn't remember at all the times we would go at Christmas and see the lights, in fact Tori vaguely recalls it.

Jordan loves the waterfall at the conference center. She likes waterfalls and one day wants to go see the tallest one in Africa!

View of the waterfall from the top. Doesn't look as cool that way. We learned that it circulates 6,000 gallons of water a minute.

The view of all the church buildings from atop the conference center is pretty neat. You stand straight across from the rooftop of the temple,

a great shot of the church office building (one day we will go back and take the kids to the top to see the whole valley)

the tabernacle building and visitors center,

and the Joseph Smith Memorial building, which used to be the Hotel Utah.

Peek-A-Boo! We see you!!

These pyramids are the tops of the skylights that shine down on the podium inside the conference center, the fountain sits directly over top the podium.

Inside the conference center, we got to go down almost to the very front this time and the girls learned about the podium being made of the oak tree that used to be in front of Pres. Hinckley's childhood home.
All the while Kordale was fast asleep and has no idea where his travels took him today.

Reunited

We got to see the Haymore's this past week, which we haven't seen since they left St. Kitts more then 2 years ago. Both families have some new additions so it was fun to get together.


All the kiddos: Josie, Morgan, Kordale, Jordan, Tori and Brooklyn.

Deja-Vu! Haley and I have a picture like this only we weren't at McDonald's, we were in my front yard in St. Kitts.
Thanks to McDonald's for putting up with us for 3 hours and letting the kids run and play. The girls even earned a gift card from another person there who was just happy to have some older girls to chase her grandkids.
We got to see the Strupp's also which we haven't seen since leaving St. Kitts and I took pictures only to discover there was no memory card in the camera! Lisa, you will have to bring Miss Nyah back to my house to play again!

Sunday Photo Shoot

Make a Smilebox collage

We finally got a nice sunny day and everyone agreed to have their picture taken. Tori wanted to be serious, but couldn't quite wipe the smile from her face.
Kordale didn't always want to look at the camera, so the girls decided to help him.
It was cold, but they all did great at humoring their mom and letting her take more and more pictures. We took pictures until Kordale was just worn out!

Book on wheels

I introduced the girls to the bookmobile this past week.
We were driving home after a discouraging time of trying to figure out where Jordan's basketball game was supposed to be and just so happened to see the bookmobile in the church parking lot.
The girls had no idea what it even was, I told them it's like a library that comes to your house A(that's what it did when I was little, stopped at the top of our driveway). With that just jumped out of the car and Tori ran up the stairs to the door and said, "what do I do? Do I just go inside?" We went in and they were elated! A library ALL to themselves and if Kordale started crying they didn't have to hurry and leave because you have to be quieter then church mice in the big library.
After nearly 30 minutes of taking it all in and picking through the books we left. Everyone had picked out a few books to read for the week. We know have something to look forward to on Thursday nights. Besides, acheivement days for Tori and basketball games for Jordan :)

Wanted:

one husband to be home when I run into situations like this one!

No snow shovel, snagged it from neighbor; no window scraper for car, used house broom (don't worry dad I finished off the broken handle), very grateful I had my snow boots and that I'm not afraid of manual labor :)

Another new home

It's not easy being on the move so often. We are all getting burned out on packing and unpacking boxes, trying to make new friends, getting used to new areas and all that jazz. However, the girls always seem to find joy in the new places we live.


We live quite a ways out of town this time. Chad hasn't seen our new digs yet, but we all know he will be in hog (make that cow) heaven!

Since they are right outside our door. The girls just "love" the aroma in the evening of the cows :)

We are surrounded by vast open fields and the river is not more then a stones throw away. It's of course frozen over this time of year.

The girls have LOTS of room to roam and play. They even found a small hill to sled down.

Trek West

We drove and drove for days on end. The kids all did great and we didn't have to many "when are we going to get there" moments. I wanted to get a picture of my view of the trip because it was countless of hours of staring at the back of a green box, with bikes hanging off the back end. However, I can't yet find the cord for my phone so those will have to wait until I find it.
We made a overnight stop in Page, Arizona and in the morning couldn't resist going to see the lake. It's when I woke up that morning and saw the mountains that I knew I was home once again. I love the beauty of Lake Powell and Morgan can't wait to go back in the summer when it's warm and practice her fish skills.

We made another stop along the way in Panguitch. Driving past the house I have so many childhood memories and then going to the Matthews house really took me back in time. I was not quite 5 years old when we moved to Panguitch and even though we didn't live there for a long time the Matthews family has always remained close friends. The girls had a blast in the basement of toy land just as I rememeber doing so many years ago. It was fun taking my children back to a place of my childhood.
Funny thing is we stopped in Grants, New Mexico where Chad spent some of his childhood also before moving to Texas. The girls thought it was pretty cool they got to see 2 places their parents once lived in as children.

Made it to Utah

After a 3 day road trip across the country, we have finally arrived at our new home for the next few months. We don't have internet just yet so I can't post any pictures from our journey, but hopefully next week we will back in the land of the living.
Until then, we love you all!