Kindergarten

Today was Blake's first day of kindergarten. He was excited to go, but was a little shy when we got to school. He goes from 8-3, although he has to be in his chair at 7:50. His teacher is Mrs. Robinson. None of his good friends are in his class, but he does know one girl, Claire, from church who is in his class. He is looking forward  to recess so that he can play with his friends.

We walked to school. Dylan and I dropped him off in his classroom and then they had a breakfast for parents. It was crazy how many parents were crying. It was a pretty happy day for me (I don't understand the crying), but a sad day for Dylan. They say that each other is their best friend. Dylan will go to preschool one day a week starting next week, which will be fun for him to be able to play with some friends. 

Mrs. Robinson is the teacher that was our little guide on the day of Blake's testing and I thought she was great. She has been teaching kindergarten for 11 years and has 2 little boys. Hopefully Blake will love her. His school is really into security of the kids, which is great (sad at the same time) but also kind of a pain.

I don't know if they do this in other states, but since it is so hot here, the kids are required to have a water bottle at their desk that they also take with them to recess. Dylan and I will leave soon to go get Blake and then come home and swim! Hope everyone else has a great first day of school!

Carthage, Temple, and Rendezvous

We started our adventure on Monday with a trip to Carthage. Aaron's folks were given permission to give us a tour. 

Here are the boys in front of Joseph and Hyrum, who were both killed while in Carthage Jail.

Grandpa had a replica of the keys to the dungeon cell, so we got to open it up.

Then we went to the room that Joseph and Hyrum were martyred in. While Grandpa was telling us the story and giving the play by play about how John Taylor then rolled under the bed, Blake (who was sitting right in front of the bed) looked under the bed and said to Aaron, "Dad, there is no one under the bed."

The window to the left is the window.

This is the door and the bullet hole from the bullet that got Hyrum.

Dylan and Aaron standing below the window.

Our tour guides did a great job.

We then drove back to Nauvoo, changed clothes and went to the Nauvoo temple.  Grandma, Grandpa, and Becki watched all the kids while Meesa, Chelsea, Alma, Adam, Aaron and I went and did a session. When you walk out of the temple doors, this is the view. It is on a bluff that overlooks the Mississippi River. The temple is beautiful inside and outside. There is some amazing history. Thank you for watching our kiddos so we could go!

A statue of Joseph and Hyrum on their horses.

After the temple, we went to dinner, then went to see the Rendezvous, which Grandma and Grandpa were in.

Amy and Gregg are right in the middle.

They had their own scene. They did a great job! This was their second time doing their scene.

The boys with the stars of the show. Meesa and gang were going to leave early the next morning, so we said our good byes after the show.

Sunday and Sites

Sunday morning we went to church and then came back to Grandma and Grandpa's for food and fun. We tried to get a picture of the kids with Grandma and Grandpa.

(Avry, Mia, Zoey, Keely, Dylan and Blake)

The gang playing a "friendly" game of croquet.

Grandma, Grandpa, Meesa, Aaron, Blake, Dylan and I went to do the Community of Christ tour. We saw the Nauvoo House.

We saw the final resting places for Joseph, Emma and Hyrum.

We saw the Homestead, which was the home of Joseph and Emma.

We then saw the Mansion House, which was Joseph and Emma's home. They had a lot of visitors so they built a larger home and then added on a hotel wing.

This is the Smith family cemetery with the Mississippi River right behind it. We learned that they built a damn in Keokuk, which was the city that our hotel was in, to help raise the level of the river because it was too low for all the barges to get through since there is limestone on the bottom of the river in that spot. The river now is about 3 times the width as it was in Joseph's time. This problem of barges not being able to get through ended up being a blessing for the saints because they would have to unload their cargo in Nauvoo and the saints would help them take it down the river a little. It brought business for Nauvoo.

Here is the Red Brick Store, which is a store where Newel K. Whitney took very detailed records of what people bought. There was a place in the back where the bishop took care of tithing and then the upstairs is where many meetings took place, including the Relief Society. The store still functions as a store and you can buy several things, including their famous root beer.

Driving and Baptism

Last Saturday, we woke up early and hit the road at 3:30am to go to Nauvoo to visit Aaron's folks on their mission and to see some other family. Blake was super excited to go so he didn't fall asleep in the car until 5am and then once the sun was up, he thought it was morning and didn't want to sleep anymore. We had a bunch of surprises and movies to keep them busy....and snacks. They did mostly great and Aaron's flight got in on time the night before.

One of the many bridges. Pretty sure this one was in Missouri.

We made one stop in Joplin and then arrived at our hotel a little before 3pm. We then went to Aaron's folks' house for dinner. Just 3 days earlier they moved from Carthage to Nauvoo. They, well, probably it was only Amy, who stayed up all night packing/unpacking getting ready for all of us to come. It worked out well that they got the transfer when they did, but it meant a lot of work for them. After dinner, we went to the church to see our niece, Ellie get baptized.

Here are the folks who were there:

Meesa and her kids (Trevor had to work)

Chelsea and Alma and their kids

Adam and Becki and their kids

Including Grandma and Grandpa, there were 21 of us. (Alma's sister and her family also came from Omaha for the baptism. Her little baby was 3 weeks old...that's a very nice aunt!)

We know that we have tall kids. The doctors keep telling us this, but well, we really noticed it when they were with their cousins. Gavin (the one in front of Amy in the green dress) is 4...Blake is 5. Ellie is 8. Gavin and Ellie aren't short kids either.