Summer Almost Gone

The past few weeks have been packed with activities and mostly traveling.
Beginning July 20th we headed to Provo to have Trevor's wisdom teeth removed.  It was a quick trip and quite enlightening.  Trevor needed two regular teeth removed, plus his wisdom teeth.  After the xrays they found he only had 1 wisdom tooth that was even in his mouth.  so that meant 3 teeth removed instead of 6 :).  After the surgery which took all of 15 minutes; the real fun began.  Trevor was very out of it and we had to head to Walmart to get some groceries and pick up his perscriptions.  He was very unstable so we had him drive one of their electric carts.  The first thing he did was try to help drive and ran into some shelves.  As he became more alert he found he loved the cart and enjoyed backing up with the beeps and going in circles, often blocking the isles.  He was also very helpful by adding things to the cart as we went; especially any BYU paraphanelia?? he found.   We were glad to get in the car and head home.  He did well on the trip home, but had a very rough night and alot of pain over the next week.  So you know he was really out of it, we stopped in Delta at Hogi Yogi and he lamented he hadn't had their ice cream in a long time.  Spencer said you had it on the way home from the dentist - he was so made he couldn't remember it at all.

Driving his cart through Walmart

On Monday evening I headed to Arizona for my good friend Pam Williamson's funeral. I drove as far as Vegas and then on the next morning. It was also Richie's bday so I picked him and Kamry up from the babysitter and we went to lunch. Then I tired him out so much shopping that he didn't even want to go get ice cream. The heat really takes it out of you.

Happy 5th Birthday Richie!

Pam was the Relief Society President in Florence, AZ that I worked under and we became good friends. She has had a lot of health problems in her life, but has always been a fighter. She taught me many things about serving in the church and about how much she loved her family. She was amazing and we will all miss her.

Here she is with some of her granchidlren

The next day I drove straight home to prepare for a planned road trip with Cammie. We took off early thursday and drove to Colorado where we spent the night with Chelsea (and Gavin). Then drove the next day to Danette's house in Gallatin, Missouri. She and her family moved there the beginning of the summer. Her daughter Emma was getting baptized and Danette also was getting rebaptized. It was quite an experience. The baptism was wonderful, they had a few issues with the font and the plug wasn't holding so when they went to check before most of the water had leaked out, so they put the plug in and turned the water back on - problem water comes out very hot and has only one valve. They finally got enough water to make it work. Emma was to get baptized first, but she was really nervous - she doesn't like going under water and the water was hot. So they had Danette go first. Then it was Emma's turn I knew she was so nervous, I was afraid her feet would come up and they did - after tears they went for round 2 this time Lyndsey tried to step on her feet, but he didn't quite get the top of her head under - then round 3 feet up again - by this time she is very upset. She takes a bathroom break and comes back Round 4 a no go again and finally Round 5 with her mom holding her feet down and Lyndsey the front she is officially baptized. for one scared little girl it was quite an ordeal, while waiting for the 2nd one Danette began singing I am a Child of God and others joined in and you could feel the spirit calming her down. It was wonderful to see them all working together for the good of their little family (even a blended family).

We enjoyed two days with Danette's family and then headed off to Nauvoo on Monday. We arrived about 2 in the aftenoon and it was only open until 4. I really wanted to see the inside of the Nauvoo temple but we didn't have much time and Keva was with us so we didn't want to abandon her too long. I had two female names that needed iniatory so Cammie and I went in and each did one name for iniatory. It was a sweet experience and the spirit is very strong in this temple. I can't wait to go back and have an opportunity to do a session - next time. Afterwards we visited a couple of sites and then headed over to the Joseph Smith sites run by the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized LDS). We were priviliged to have a wonderful guide for the last tour of the day (She was an LDS returned missionary) - I know strange huh? She was very knowledgeable and really added a great spirit to the tour. Being the last tour of the day she let us into areas that you didn't usually get to see, like hidden hiding places in the house where Joseph would hide when others came looking for him for assorted reasons. After that we headed over to the outdoor theatre and saw a variety show put on by young and older missionaries who had just finished up the pageant in July. It was a great show with lots of fun. There was one guy that looked an awful lot like Geordan so I took his picture. We think Geordan should do this next summer it looked like alot of fun. Then we heard a Jazz concert by the BYU Jazz band. All good and a wonderful little stop on our road trip.

On Tuesday we headed to visit Cammie's sister for a few hours and then Kyle and Tami for the evening. Unfortunately Uncle Kyle was in Hong Kong, but we had a great visit with Tami and the kids. Tami took us to downtown Naperville for some traditional Chicago Pizza - soooo good. And their house, well what can we say Kevin's Lexus looked right at home there.

Wednesday we began the long journey home which took us two long days - we made a quick stop in Omaha to see Winter Quarters, but otherwise drove all day and alot of the nights. We had a great trip and wish we had had time to sight see a little more - maybe next time.

Home one day and then turned around and went to the Manti temple for our wards "Day in Heaven". There were quite a few there doing baptisms, sealings, and endowments. It is a beautiful temple and we had a wonderful time with our ward family.

                      A beautiful home in Naperville, Illinois.  Thanks for letting us drop by.

Geordan's Look-Alike

The bugs attracted to the lights during the Jazz Band Concert

Pizza at Lou Malnati's a famous Chicago Deep Dish Pizza Place

Looking over the Mississippi River from the steps of the Nauvoo Temple

And here we are the summer is almost over - and only 3 more days until Alex gets home - that will be the next post. Also we hope to move next week. We are just moving next door and will have a year lease, so no more showing the house. Life is great, all my family will be here this weekend, how could it be any better