April 11: DAY 4

Today we got up very early. We all felt so much better. It's amazing how fast the body can heal itself and how much you can get done when you feel good. We packed up the car and checked out of our hotel.
But before we could hit the highway, Brandon decided that we all needed to try a "WAFFLE HOUSE!" He had been to them many of times while on the road, and he felt that everyone needed that experience. It was actually pretty good. A little suspect maybe...but good. I had cheese grits on the side...can't go wrong with that:)
Then, we hit the road and started heading towards Nauvoo. On our way, we stopped in Independence at the visitors center. We wanted to just run in and out but one of the Senior Missionary guys talked us into going through a presentation with one of the younger Sister Missionaries.  We couldn't really say "no," so off we went to this movie/testimony thingy. Let me just tell you...that day may have strengthened my entire families testimonies forever!!!
As we went through all of the videos about family and the presentations about Independence, after each one, Sister Cleveland would give us bits and pieces of her testimony. By the end of the tour, we had been there for a couple of hours. And in that time, discovered that this most adorable Sister had lymphoma cancer and it was terminal! She had been a cheerleader in H.S and discovered the first lump in her armpit. There were many others to follow. She has been in and out of remission many times, and now they are just trying to help her maintain a somewhat normal lifestyle.
I couldn't help but think how hard it must have been for her parents to let her go serve a mission for 18 months, when they don't even know how much time they have left with their sweet daughter. My girls were so motivated by her. Not to mention they were able to connect with her and she let them see her great sense of humor and her tremendous amount of faith and love for the gospel.  (Last night, we wrote letters to her for family night. We all want to keep track of her.)
Anyhow, this turned out to be one of our very favorite spots on the trip because of Sister Cleveland. It's weird to think if that Senior Missionary hadn't basically thrown us together, we would have missed out on that awesome experience!
As we were leaving, the missionaries asked us our favorite hymn and they would sing it for us as we left. Easton yells out "JUSTIN BEIBER!" Ha ha ha...we all laughed. Sister Cleveland said "We aren't allowed to sing "baby, baby." The kids thought that was cool that she knew his songs.
We took pictures together.  And then headed down the road for 4 1/2 hours to Nauvoo! Let me just tell you, Easton and Chance asked "WHEN WILL WE BE THERE" about three thousand times. Finally, we had to start threatening to make them walk!
We had to drive along the Mississippi for quite awhile on our way into Nauvoo. And after quite awhile, we came around a bend, and there was the beautiful Nauvoo Temple! It looked glorious! We were all so excited to finally be there!  We drove through town and found our cute log cabin.  It looked about 500 years old on the outside, but was very up to date inside!
We settled in. And then drove down to Main Street and ate at a diner. We all had grilled cheese and tomato soup! It was a comforting way to end the day.  Tomorrow we would be touring Nauvoo!

Sister Cleveland and the Mackay's! 

 Don't let that little innocent face fool ya... we cherished the moments that he slept and quit asking questions for five seconds:)

 Our first view of the Nauvoo Temple.

 Our little log cabin.  Perfect fit for our family. Brandon and I had a bed in the kitchen part of the cabin, the girls had bunk beds, and the boys had a loft! So, so fun. I even had chicken curtains over my kitchen sink...heaven I tell ya!

 Notice: Easton is actually "licking" the sign! Gross! This is where we ate the first night. It took only about an hour to get a grilled cheese and tomato soup:) But it was delicious after a long drive.

BEST PART OF THE TRIP...LOTS AND LOTS OF FAMILY TIME! PRICELESS.

April 9: DAY 2

  Today was simply amazing. I woke up early with my boys and we snuck out of our room and left the others to sleep.  We went to the lobby and watched a "good morning" puppet show.  Then we went into a little bakery shop and grabbed juices, muffins, cereal, and Brandons "red bull" to take back to the room.
  When we got back, it was about 8:30 and the boys did a pretty good job of waking everyone up.  We ate breakfast super fast so that we could spend a little time at the waterpark before going out on our tour!
  The waterpark opened at nine, and we were right at the doors. I chose to sit out and take pictures because we could only be there for an hour and I didn't want to have to blow dry my hair and hold everyone up! The others had a ball. And the boys were able to get out some wiggles before they had to ride in the car most of the day.
  After we went back and got ready, we headed out to tour. Our first stop was about 2 hours away to "Adam-ondi-Ahman." It was gorgeous there. The kids didn't really grasp it, but as they walked back to the car and left me behind a bit...I stood still and just listened and tried to feel the peace of that land.
  We jumped back into the "Kia" and headed to "Jamesport Amish Community." We ate lunch at an Amish restaurant, then went to a candle store (which I love because it reminded me of my Granny's candle store that I grew up in) and Brandon had Easton on his shoulders and hit his head into the ceiling fan twice! Again, E was crying and we were all laughing hysterically.  After the candle store, we went into a bath and body place and the girls wanted to buy some home made soap and ear candles.  As we purchased our items, the lady said "have you been to any Amish stores yet?"  We thought we were in the stinkin' Amish stores already.  She explained that they were about 5 miles down the street! Ha ha ha...we're so dumb!
  So off we went to the outskirts of town to see the "real" Amish stores.  They were so cool. Pantry's, book stores, bakeries, and a cheese cottage.  While Brandon waited in the car at one of the stops, Chance decided to vomit. When the girls and I came out, there was red barf all down the side of the KIA. Ewww
   Chance was green. It was so sad. But still, we had to move forward. We grabbed some bags at one of the stores and off we went! Our last stop in Amish country was the quilt store. Each child chose a small baby quilt to take home. They thought that was neato.
  Everywhere you looked, there were buggies and horses. And signs that said "SHARE THE ROAD" with a picture of a buggy. It was so cool. I loved it there. All the open land, the peace and quiet, the simple life, and the animals. All the baby creatures were out:) And the Amish folks were so, so, so friendly.
  Next stop was "Far West." As we got there, Chance puked in a bush. But besides that, it was beautiful too. We were the only ones there. It was weird to think the Saints had been there and so many cool things were introduced to the church at that time.
  Our last stop was "Liberty Jail."  We pulled up to what looked like a plain visitors center... and I was thinking "where's the stinkin' jail?"  As we walked in...Chance puked in the tulips.  Then we went in and a Senior Sister Missionary who was from Layton, Utah named "Sister Sinclair" gave us the tour. She told us some cool facts and stories about the jail first. And then led us through a door to a huge room with the jail right in the center.  It was so cool. The kids were so fascinated.  As you moved around the room, different little recordings turned on and told you about all the different stories that took place while Joseph Smith and the other men were in the jail.  It really made it come to life for all of us. Quite emotional. One of the men's wives had a baby while he was in there for those 4 months. It took her two days to walk to Liberty with her newborn baby just to show his daddy through the tiny window with bars. I can't imagine. I just can't.
  On our way back to the hotel, I started feeling really queezy and I could feel myself going green. I thought it was because I had to ride in the back because we had given Chance the front and I was just super car sick.  Then Addie started to feel ill.  By ten o'clock that night...all 5 of us were sick and throwing up.  We had one bathroom...and let me tell you...it wasn't pretty! There were garbage cans being used to their fullest! WORST NIGHT EVER! But we pushed through it...oh yes we did!

 The boys could play Nintendo in our room. Super fun!

 I promised everyone a picture of this...Brandon and his mini-van!

Do I really need to say what he's doing here???

Our Spring Break Vacation: Kansas City, Nauvoo, St. Louis

I will be doing several posts about this trip. I did a lot of journaling each day, so I am planning on doing a post each day that we were there. There is just too much information and too many pictures to fit it all into one post! So hang in there, if you want to read all about it...great. If not, too bad:)

April 7th:
Let me start out by saying... the night before we left to go on our vacation, Easton came down with a terrible case of the flu. He literally barfed every 30 minutes all night long. So yay, I was already exhausted when we left the house to go to the airport. And I was totally stressed about flying with a sick kid.  But, he made it all the way to Kansas City without an incident. Phew
However; he did nearly kill the stuardess when she made him put up his tray and it broke his silly putty creation. Oh man, he was so mad at her...good he was strapped down:) He was a riot on the plane and everyone around us was cracking up. He even made up the funniest songs and was singing them so loud for all to enjoy!

April 8th: DAY 1
When we arrived in Kansas City and stepped outside of the airport, the weather was so warm and humid. Oopsie, I kinda told my whole family to pack like we were still going to be in Utah. All of the info that I had gathered, said that is was cold, rainy, and icky in those parts! But au' contrare....it was warm and gorgeous!

Next, we headed to the parking garage to pick up our SUPER NICE, DELUXE, ELEGANT...Kia mini van! Yep, it was a looker. All silver and sporty...not! It was filthy inside and Brandon was a little ticked, since the rental car was the most expensive part of the whole trip! We made a complaint to the attendant as we pulled away and he gave me the number of his boss who we could call to leave a complaint.

Then, off to our first hotel. Brandon and I knew that we would have to add a few "bells and whistles"  to this vacation or the smaller kids would go nuts just touring church sites. So Brandon found this awesome place called the "Great Wolf Lodge" and it had a huge indoor water park. It was the perfect way to start out. As we walked into the grand lobby, the kids were flipping out. There was a huge fireplace, taxidermy animals everywhere, a build a bear station in the lobby, and a huge glass window that looked out into the waterpark area!

Brandon waited in line to check-in for no less than 25 minutes. He was starting to go red in the face. I, on the other hand was trying to keep the kids off of everything and busy until we got assigned a room. Meanwhile, Easton decided to do one last BARF...lucky I had a bag! Ewwww

We got our room. Then headed across the street to a huge outdoor mall to find a place to eat. We settled for a BBQ spot and did a little shopping afterwards. Addie tripped and fell into a flower bed in front of a bunch of people, some lady screamed when she saw her go down,  and we all died laughing. That was a highlight for the day! Then we went back to rest so that we could get up and do a little sight seeing the next day! After all, Clark Griswold had our trip all mapped out...we had places to go and people to see!