First Week Of School

We all survived the first week of school. Dylan had fun, but also missed his buddy. He helped me make food, which was a huge hit for him.

We also went to the park and ran lots of errands.

But it is still really hot, so we can only play for so long. So everyday after picking up Blake from school, we would come home and swim. One day after school, we went to Cohen's house to play and another day we went to Ashley's house to play and another day we went to the park. But we always would come home after friends' houses and swim. So hot! Friday we had Cohen and his family over to swim.

Blake told me that there were some mean kids at school. They weren't mean to him, but to someone else. So I reminded him that if he is nice to others then usually others will be nice back. He responded, "Not with Joseph Smith. He was really nice to everyone, but some guys were mean to him. They even killed him!" 

Not surprising, Blake took awhile to adjust to school, but by Friday he was more comfortable. There are 6 kinder classes, which means that they have to split one class for what they call their specials (PE, Art, and music). Blake's class is the class that is split, but it is fun because he gets to do specials with his friend Cohen's class. 

Welcome to public school, in Blake's folder on Friday he had his first fundraiser. These were annoying when I was going to school and even more annoying as an adult.

We are excited for a long weekend!

Missouri Sites

Thursday morning, we left around 8:30 headed for the Missouri sites. We first stopped at Adam -Ondi-Ahman. This place is really an intriguing place to Aaron and I so we wanted to make the stop, even though it is in the middle of nowhere. We told the boys that we were going on a hike...that made them excited.

You can kind of see the vast valley behind ninja Dylan. It is huge.

We then stopped at Liberty Jail. Joseph Smith was held here for 8 months. The jail had very low ceilings so they couldn't stand up straight.

One of my favorite sections from D&C was written in this place. Very cool place to visit.

Our last stop was Independence. We went to the visitors center where we watched some fun videos. Does anyone know who this is? For all of you who were at our wedding, she might look familiar. She caught the bouquet at our wedding. Now she just has 2 weeks left on her mission. Sister Wood is great and we are glad that we were able to hunt her down. Her parents are coming to pick her up and then going to stop in Nauvoo before heading back to CA, so we told her to hunt down Elder and Sister Johnson (aka Grandma and Grandpa). We then stayed the night in Joplin then drove the remaining 5 hours Friday. It was then time to get unpacked and ready for school to start. We had a great trip, but it is nice to be back home.

Wednesday in Nauvoo

Wednesday morning, we went over to Amy and Gregg's to say good bye to Adam, Becki, Mia and Zoey because they had to head back home. We attempted to get a picture of the kids. 

Gavin (just turned 4), Dylan (will be 3 in October), Mia (turns 5 in November), Zoey (turns 3 in September) and Blake (turned 5 in April)...gives you some perspective on heights of the kids.

We took Gregg with us and went on a carriage ride. It was a tour with stories of more of the back country of Nauvoo.

This is a memorial to a man who was building a well and died.

This is "Inspirational point". Joseph Smith would come up here to think. You get to the top of the hill and you see the Mississippi river. On the way up the hill is where they filmed a lot of the movie "Testaments".

I can't remember the name of this tree, but crazy thorns. They would use these as weapons. They are poisonous too.

This is the room that Sarah Granger Kimball started the idea of Relief Society. They sewed shirts for the men working on the temple in this room.

This is the printing office. Blake got to help! We also went to the bakery  to get a delicious cookie, Lucy Mack Smith's house, Brigham Young's house, and the boot shop.

When the kids needed a break, we went to the pastimes park. They have games that they played back in the pioneer era.

This park is a huge hit for the kids.

We then went to the Seventies Hall. Dylan was done for the day, but we wanted to make this stop. I did this with the rest of the group, while Aaron, Gregg and Alma went to Lands and Records to get a lot of info on  his ancestor, Benjamin Franklin Johnson...Aaron's 4th (?) great grandpa. They even had a map of his plot of land. 

Back at the Seventies Hall, Porter pretended to be teaching.

Upstairs they have many artifacts. One is a piece of a star stone that was on the original temple.

That is the star stone on the temple...can't you tell...sorry it is blurry.

After we went walking and found Benjamin Franklin Johnson's plot of land, we walked by the homes of the temple missionaries....thought this was an interesting name.

We went back to Amy and Gregg's house where we had dinner and the cousins played. The kids really liked being with their cousins. It was a lot of fun to see everyone and to see Nauvoo and Carthage. There are some amazing and sad things that happened there. We are so glad that we were able to make the trip.

Tuesday in Nauvoo

Tuesday morning we woke up to rain. It was fabulous because it washed off all the bugs on my car, but sad because we wanted to visit all the sites that day. We started at the visitors center and got tickets to go on the wagon ride.

We had to wait for the rain to stop, so we went to visit the blacksmith. It was interesting, but I had to exit with Dylan to go get snacks. They made us all some fun rings that we were able take home.

Finally the rain stopped, so we went on our wagon ride/tour. Don't let Blake's jacket foul you...it wasn't cold. It was cooler then Texas (doesn't say much) but it was humid! It actually was nice weather...considering it is the summer.

The wagon ride was great because we went by all the sites and they gave a brief highlight of each site so you knew which of the sites you really wanted to do. We heard some fun stories and got to see this view of the temple.

After the ride, the kids were able to pet the horses and Blake actually did. He only did it for about 1 second, but he still did it.

After the wagon ride, Amy and Gregg had to leave to do their last day in Carthage.

Blake really wanted to go get a brick, so we went and saw how they made bricks. He did get a brick and he was happy.

Dylan was a bit young for these tours. He was usually playing games on our phones.

Here are Porter and Blake outside the brickyard.

We went to the Browning Home and Gunsmith Shop. His son actually is the one that got all the patents and made Browning guns famous. This was a cool place for the boys.

I didn't get a picture of everything, but we went to John Taylor's home and the post office.

Then we went to the Log School.

The kids all got a little chalkboard to do some math and to keep them busy. Then we got some food.

After lunch, we did the drug store and the Family Living Center. Blake was able to help make rope. He even got to take the rope home that he made. He learned about pottery, rugs, and barrels. We then went to the pastimes park so the kids could play because they were all bored, but we got there and it was closed, so the kids just ran around and the adults talked.

We made one last stop at Wilford Woodruff's home. He had 8 fireplaces...this is the only thing that Blake remembers about the house.

We were all really hungry so we went to the Hotel Nauvoo to have their yummy buffet. We all ate plenty. Afterwards, we went to find a weather vane that my brother, James, told me about. The kids ran around and played while we hunted.

Then we found it...on the top of some building behind the Mercantile. This is similar to the angle Moroni that was on the original temple.

Playing with cousins is the best.