Chicago

Into the Lyons Den...
After we finished up with the church history stuff, we headed to Chicago to visit the Lyons! As a family, we have never been to Chicago. It was completely amazing. I know I post a ton of pictures...but I am a lousy writer!

These first few pictures were taken at/by Navy Pier. What a bunch of monkeys.



We took an architectual boat tour. I think an hour isn't sufficient. There is way too much history in that city to try and cram into one hour. The buildings here are incredible!


Still trying to get some better shots in...The city was filled with so many cool places to shoot, I was going crazy. Every now and then I could get Lexie to cooperate with me!

This is at Millinium Park. This is The Bean. What an amazing piece of art!

More shots of fun with the Lyons tomorrow....Thanks again to them for their hospitality!

Fourth of July

Back to posting the "TRIP" tomorrow. For now here are a few pictures of our Fourth of July. I think I have more fun pictures that I have not yet downloaded...maybe another day! Lexie was happy to be photographed, Chase on the other hand ran from me, until he discovered the flag could be a bat. He always has baseball on the brain.

Just a few pictures of that cute baby down the road! Spotted he and his mom doing a little shoot, and thought I would give it a try as well!

Just a little side note... I hate what blogspot does to my photos, they tweak my skin tones and flatten my colors!

Vegas

Dance Finals
Lexie's first year of dance teams has come to an end! We ended the year with her final competition in Las Vegas (not my favorite place.)
We brought Lexie's friend Olivia with us so she could see Lexie dance and share in the fun.
Here are some silly pictures of them with their VEGAS MONKEYS!

Lexie did a tap duette this year to "Route 66..." It is such a cute/fast dance. I love it! So does Lexie. I think tap is Lexie's favorite!

My pictures of Lexie's tap number came out so terrible, that I didn't even bother trying to get her doing her lyrical number. Of course, NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY! It sure would be great to have one of those lenses that the sports photographers use....

Church History Tour

Hannible- Otherwise know as the town of Mark Twain
Here we had the opportunity to explore the caves. These are the caves that Mark Twain roamed himself and used in his Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer stories. We even saw where Jessie James signed his name on one of the cave walls!
Because of the flooding we were unable to do the riverboat cruise. This city was hit pretty hard.

Hanging out in Hannible at the RV park enjoying some yummy dessert!

Church History Tour

Fun and Games in Nauvoo
This is where the kids got to play all the pioneer games. They really enjoyed all the different games they had to offer! We had to pull them away from here, so that we could go take an oxen ride. Too many things to see and do, not enough time!

I don't think the pioneers had a ball quite like this. Tanner picked this up at the amusement park, and it became a fast favorite among all the kids.

Lauren became Chase's best friend! She was sooo good to him. She played Nintendo DS with him, pioneer games, and basically took him wherever he wanted to go! He wants his friend Lauren to come to our house and play with him, he really misses her.

Church History Tour

The Flood
Here you can see how the water has moved over the railroad tracks.
This picture was actually taken out the car window (while moving.) This is just off to the side of the bridge that takes you from Kiokuk to Nauvoo. The bridge was actually washed out, and the National Guard came in and packed enough dirt/rock etc.. onto the road so that cars could pass.



This is a little picnic area in Nauvoo by the river. As you can see, all the tables are under water.

Church History Tour

Nauvoo {Day 3}
Well, it is going to be awhile before I can post the pictures from Day 2. Sooo, onto Nauvoo!
The first picture shown is a pretty good representation of the flooding we witnessed. The Mississippi was at an all time high. I have numerous pictures of the flooding and will post those another day. It was amazing! Anyway just wanted to give you an idea of just how bad the flooding was for some!

This statue is of Joseph and Hyrum Smith on their way to Carthage, looking back at the city of Nauvoo for the last time.

The beautiful temple of Nauvoo. And I mean beautiful! The inside of this temple is incredible. Fortunately, the adults were able to go and do a session, and the youth were able to go and do baptisms for the dead! It was such a great experience for all of us!
This marks the spot of where the Smiths are currently buried. They were originally buried under the building in the next picture. But after the big flood of the Mississippi some years ago, the grave sites had to be moved.

We took the kids to the cute little storehouse for some ice cold root beer. Some of the kids found a cute hat as well. Lexie and Haylie ended up with the same hat, and wore them for the majority of the trip. They looked so cute!

After a long day of exploring the city, we headed back to the RV site for some yummy dinner and fun. The kids had a great time playing, all those boys needed were a few sticks and they could play for hours!

I have some more great pictures of Nauvoo and the flood, stay tuned!