nauvoo

On Monday of last week, Sverre threw open the door and announced that he thought it would be a good idea to drive to Nauvoo on Thursday - So, we took a chance on what could have been a disastrous 14 hour drive with 5 kids and ended up in Illinois - and we are so, so glad we did - it was a really great trip, the kids were dang good on the drives and we thought Nauvoo was beautiful and inspiring.

picnic on the Mississippi

Jane spent most of her time with the dirt, they became very close

and these were the looks I got when I made her stop playing in the dirt and come be a part of our family

Snow cones at the sweet county fair before the Nauvoo Pageant (which was awesome)

Cheetos, donuts, soda pop and twix bars were the menu items of choice for this picnic - it made for one of my favorite memories of the trip -not just because of the menu,(but that OBVIOUSLY helped) but just eating in old town Nauvoo, not having anywhere to be and not caring that Sierra's feet were mud-crusted and imbedded with 2 day old dirt droppings

Sverre talked our innocent daughter, Abby, into dunking themselves in the beautiful, but nastily dirty Mississippi river - check out those bugs that swarmed to our head light - Abby was a good sport and they will forever have the dunk in the mississippi bond that none of us chickens will ever enjoy

We ran into our great friends, the Smiths, from Idaho there - SO fun to see them - their family is doing the pageant there -we love these people and i'm not just saying that, Allyson, because I know you are reading this:)

These were the rock star "if we drive through one more corn field I'll die but I'm going to stay silent because my parents keep telling us we're being so good" kids on our 14 hour drive

we loved this trip