Indiana

Evan turned 8, which was a great excuse for us to take a road trip. We had planned to drive, but then Dallas found us a great deal on plane tickets. I was trying to coordinate with my dad before I booked them, but then at the last minute Chloe asked if we could drive. Sophie was all for driving, because even though she hates being in the car, and even though it was a great deal, driving was still cheaper -- and Sophie is about the cheapest person I know (and there are a lot of cheap people in my family!) I was all up for a road trip, I don't mind driving, and it would give us a little more to do.

So, we hit the road. We took three days getting there, stopping in Cheyenne the first night. We got to spend some time with Grandma & Grandpa, and play with the cousins. We didn't do much of anything but drive and stop for gas and food on the second day. Chloe saw a pioneer museum she wanted to check out, but we decided to do it on the way home so we could get to the hotel with plenty of time to swim and relax. It was perfect -- I soaked in the hottub while the girls swam. The third day was our longest drive, but we still made a couple extra stops to make the trip worthwhile.

First we stopped to see the Walter Cronkite Memorial at Missouri Western State University. The girls are freezing outside in this photo, but inside there was a very nice display. Sophie asked me if someone would make a memorial like that for her when she died. I told her if she did something awesome, to which she replied, "I already am awesome!" No shortage of self-esteem there.

Our next stop wasn't much farther down the road, in Marceline, Missouri we saw a sign to visit Walt Disney's birthplace. We tried to go visit it, but the signs out on the highway failed to inform us that they are only open from April to October. We still bothered to get out of the car to take a photo.

We got to Indiana late Wednesday night (the 14th). On Thursday we hung out with Jessica, her mom and sister -- who also came for the occasion, and Daphne while the other kids went to school and Dallas went to work. He came home a little early, though, to take me to Chicago. I've wanted to go there since I was a kid, but then my interest kind of waned as I've discovered I don't like big cities as much as I used to. I still wanted to check it out, and this was a great opportunity. We went to the temple, then had a late dinner before my parents flight came in at 11:00 PM. Dallas had gotten us a hotel so we wouldn't have to drive back to Indiana so late. Meanwhile, the girls got to babysit their cousins so Jessica could go play volleyball.

Saturday was Evan's birthday. We had cornmeal pancakes for breakfast, followed by some gift opening. Later that afternoon, we celebrated by going to a moon exhibit they were having at Purdue. I helped Sophie fill out her quiz sheet, it was a little difficult, so she could get a prize (a pencil and an astronaut charm). Then we got to go bowling! I have lost my skill I once had, but it's still fun. Afterwards we went to dinner at a place called Literatos. It was so delicious, they seriously need to open up a few more. I had a sandwich with eggplant, zucchini and beets! It was to die for. Evan made a very good choice. Then we went home for a Mary Lou's Donut "cake."

Sunday was the BIG day, Evan got baptized! They were going to do it on Saturday, but then decided to make his birthday and baptism two separate celebrations, so Sunday it was. I was asked to play the piano for it. His two grandmas gave the talks. He had a super good turnout. I think he felt loved.

Monday was kind of a lazy day. Jessica babysits some kids, so they were there for a bit, but mostly we just sat around. When it was time for dinner they asked where we wanted to go. Can you guess what I said? I don't have any problem eating at the same place more than once a week, so back to Literatos it was. Come on, it's not like I'll get it again anytime in the foreseeable future. This time I had the fig & pear pizza. And then FHE treat was Red Mango :)

Tuesday we headed to Indianapolis. I've been there a few times in my life, but this is the first time we stopped at the Motor Speedway. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures on this trip, but I definitely took more than I needed to here. Everyone wanted a turn posing in the racecar.

Afterwards we got to go check out their new temple being built. They officially announced the date for the dedication (Aug 23) just the Sunday before, so it's coming along. It will be nice for them to have, and not have to travel to Chicago. Then we had lunch at Panera -- I was able to squeeze in 3 meals there on this trip, so that made up for Albuquerque. I think Dallas likes it there as much as I do. I ordered their new broth bowl, with quinoa, lentils, brown rice, tomatoes, kale and spinach. So much good food all stirred together!

Wednesday morning we left Indiana. My parents flew out later that day, but we had to hit the road early. I was trying to leave plenty of time to stop and do things along the way. There are several family history spots I would have loved to spend some time at, but I didn't have that much time to go dig through libraries, and it was a bit cold to wander through cemeteries so the only stop we made was at the Abraham Lincoln Museum in Springfield, IL. We spent a little over two hours there, and that was good. There are several more sites to see, but that was not the purpose of this trip, so maybe some other time.

We spent that night in St. Joseph, Missouri so we had an extra long drive to Cheyenne the next day. The Kangs were gracious enough to host us one more time, but I was so dead tired by the time we got there that I don't think I was a very gracious guest. I just wanted some sleep! I did just fine while driving, but once I stopped it really caught up with me (plus we just "gained" another hour crossing into mountain time zone at the Wyoming border) so all I could do was yawn. Then Friday we made it home -- shortly before Brandon did. I was hoping to get everything put away, some shopping done, and have dinner for him, but just putting things away wore me out. Luckily, he didn't eat much while we were gone, so there was still enough food for us to have some dinner.

Brandon started a new job the day we left, so he was able to use all that extra time to spend learning his new stuff. He's enjoying his work (which there is plenty of!), and he's become a new man. No more business casual clothes, no more clean shaven face. We'll see how long that lasts, but for now he is having fun with his new freedoms.

Oh, and if you don't follow Chloe's blog, you should. She has way more fun pictures than I do.

Christmas and New Years: 2015

I like to spend Christmas at home -- and apparently I get my way. My girls asked if we could go to "grandma's" for Christmas, and I said "we always go there." And then I thought about it, and realized that we hadn't been for a really long time. So, we decided we could make the trek this year. There's usually a houseful around the holidays, but everyone went for Thanksgiving this year, so Chloe & Sophie had Grandma to themselves -- just the way they like it. Brandon took the whole week off, so we were spoiled having so much time with him. It was a really nice time.

We went up to Afton on Tuesday, getting there just after they had returned from a full day in Idaho Falls. On Wednesday we went and visited my grandma who is now living in a nursing home there in Star Valley. We took her a gift from Libbie, and spent pretty much the whole time helping her try the different outfits on. Wednesday evening we held a little Christmas Eve program. The girls had prepared some talents to share.

Chloe played "Joy to the World" on the piano.

Sophie brought her harmonica and played two songs: "Silent Night," and "Home on the Range" -- a special song she picked out just for her grandpa. I spontaneously decided to participate, and played a little "Christmas is Coming."

Grandma read a story that had little nativity pieces to go along with it, and then Grandpa read the Christmas story out of Luke.

Pajama tradition continued -- they always get a new pair of pajamas to open on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning we made the kids wait until after breakfast, everyone was dressed, and my dad went and got Grandma to spend Christmas with us, to open presents. But... we did let Chloe open one special gift. She had bought her GoPro camera a month ago, but didn't have quite enough money left over to get any memory for it, so it was kind of useless. Luckily, Aunt Nicole came through, and her parents were smart enough to guess that is what was in that package, so we had her open it first thing that morning. She was all excited, but once she got the memory in she realized the battery was low! Poor girl. She was able to hurry and get it charged before we were ready to open gifts.

Opening gifts -- Chloe is about to open her quilt Grandma made her for her new room. And can you see her pillows she got on the couch? She's gonna have a whole new bed!

Sophie got bears and owls, what more could she ask for? Oh, and lots of books! That's her carved bear that my mom got her in Albuquerque, and the stuffed bear I got for her at the fort in Bluff. She fell in love with him, and I thought I could sneak him as a gift to put a smile on her face. She named him Oliver, for me :)

Chloe with her new bedding, and lots of hair stuff! Plus, showing off her GoPro.

My dad wanted to take us sledding while there, but I think we let him down. The girls just weren't into it, and I hadn't come prepared for that. They were happy to just go out and sled on grandma's "hill" she made.

My parents got a new fridge for Christmas. I got a really bad photo of it -- but I'm including it here because my mom had asked for one. Sorry, this is the best I could do in that tight space!

We got a ton of board games for Christmas, and I believe we played all of them while still in Afton. Good thing we love to play games together.

For New Year's Eve we continued our tradition of going to the EVE celebration on Temple Square. This year we invited the Stephen's, which makes it so fun. We got there a little early because Chloe wanted to have time to take some pictures of the lights before it got dark -- but turns out it was a little too bright to capture the pretty lights. We still had fun walking around for a bit before the night began.

Here we are in the tabernacle, all spread out, to save a seat for when our friends got there. We sang our hearts out at the Broadway show tunes sing-along. It's my favorite event of the whole year. Chloe was actually the very first person to get the microphone, but of course she bombed. She wouldn't sing a thing! Luckily I got a turn, but it was on "If I Were a Rich Man" -- not exactly the best song for me to sing, but at least I tried!

Afterwards we got a semigroup shot.

And then Kellie took one with me in it :)

Then it got dark enough to shoot the pretty lights!

We went over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to participate in the FamilySearch activities they usually have, but they decided to cancel them this year. I'm not sure why, but it was a disappointment :( We weren't ready to go eat dinner because we were still waiting for the Stephen's dad to get off work and join us, so we decided to just go up to the top floor and look out at the awesome view. I could not manage to get an awesome shot of it, but here's something for the record books.

The girls just had fun hanging out with their friends, and Brandon, Kellie and I got to visit.

We spent some time in the South Visitor's Center before going to another Broadway show -- this time it was just the representatives from Hale Centre Theatre performing some songs from the upcoming season. Even though I didn't get to sing along, it was still fun to listen to them and get excited about the plays that are coming!

Then Quentin was able to join us, and we went and ate dinner at the Nauvoo Cafe. But during dinner we could tell Kiera wasn't feeling the best. We are a bunch of indecisive people -- but finally came to a decision that we should just go to their house and play some games. Vocal Point was the closing act for the evening, so that's really all we missed out on. They had canceled the firework show due to poor air quality. At least they were being responsible! So, off to Centerville it was! We had a ton of fun playing Telestrations and eating snacks, and then we turned on the TV to countdown to the new year and made toasts with sparkling white grape juice.

On Thursday we celebrated our new year and last day of having Brandon around (until the next holiday) by going to see "The Tree of Life" in Draper. And then we stopped for Jamba Juice on the way home. It was way too cold for me, so I passed, but I believe we rang in the new year on a very happy note.