Church

This past Monday, Sarah and Brittany got up EARLY and took off to girls camp, and so far, are having a BLAST!   Yesterday, I drove down to Camp Cary down in Lafayette, IN to join them for Bishop’s night and testimony meeting.  Bishop and I got down there at about the same time and ate dinner with the girls, had a great time together, and enjoyed listening to them bear their testimonies of what they knew to be true.  We have some incredible young women in our ward! 

It was hot and humid and so I decided not to set up my tent.  I ended up sleeping in the car which was very comfortable and I didn’t have to worry about a sopping wet tent to dry out this morning!  🙂

Today, I got up early and helped in the kitchen with breakfast.  I helped make pancakes (which tasted great) for 105 girls and 31 leaders, after which I helped do the dishes for all of them!  😐  I’m dished out!  By the time we got done with everything, it was time for the canoe trip (which was the real reason I was down there to help out).  Too bad I don’t have any pictures as we had a great time on the river! 

We put the canoes in on a slow-flowing river that was actually pretty shallow in many places.  I was there along with another leader there to help out.  We ended up canoeing about 9 miles, although since most of the girls had never canoed before, some of them probably paddled close to 15 miles due to going back and forth across the river, rather than straight down it.  We had a couple of snags where one canoe capsized and got stuck in the current under a log by bank.  It was all we could do to get it out and we were exhausted by the time we finished!  We had only one other such incident that actually ended up bending the bottom of the canoe a little bit.  I showed the girls how to empty a capsized canoe and get back in it when they swamped, and helped many girls out of too shallow water where their canoe got stuck.  When we finally came to the bridge where we finished the trip, there were shouts fo joy from the girls!  🙂  Although I was completely worn out and sore from the trip (I know I’ll be aching in the morning) due to lifting capsized canoes, pulling them out from log messes, and having a canoe all to myself (much more energy drain than having 2 people), I had a great time! 

After we got all the canoes back to camp, I changed clothes and left so I could get home before  dark.  I hit a storm on the way home that was so bad, I couldn’t even see more than about 15-20 feet in front of the car.  The lightning was so close and so bad that the hairs on my arms and head started to stand on end.  I’ve only had that happen one other time and it’s really creepy!  It didn’t last too long, and by the time I got home, everything was sunny and dry. 

While I was at camp with Sarah and Brittany today, Angela, the rest of the kids, and Ana went downtown to the field museum and had a blast!  : – )

There’s always new things to see whenever we go there.  Ana had a blast!  She said that her favorite excursions have been those where they have gone into downtown Chicago.  She comes from a small town and loves the big city feel.

Today we decided to take a trip to Nauvoo to visit the temple and to attend the Nauvoo pageant.  The weather was threatening when we got up but decided to take a leap of faith and go anyway.  We left home at 5:30am and drove down.  It rained like crazy for most of the trip down and we were a little concerned.  With the rain as heavy as it was (we later found out that many of the tollways were closed in the Chicago area due to flooding), Sarah didn’t really feel like driving!  🙂 

Angela and I attended a temple session at 10am and then met the girls and Rained like crazy the entire time.  Angela and I did 10am session at temple and then met the kids outside for a picnic.  It hadn’t rained too hard there so things were pretty dry.  After eating, Angela and the kids went and saw “Just Plain Anna Amanda” (a fun live production for the kids) while I went and changed out of my suit and saved seats for the pageant.  I just got back to the van when it started pouring huge raindrops!  Whew!  🙂

After that, we didn’t feel like being out in the bad weather, so we checked into hotel, and went swimming.  We had a fun time, except the pool had a huge amound of chlorine in it.  It felt like you were breathing bleach!  😐  Ben is like a fish out of water and we had to watch him close becuase he would just run and jump in anywhere, even if you weren’t there to catch him.  Once he jumped and we barely saw him.  He was underwater for about 3 seconds but came up laughing!  Yikes!

After we dried off and our eyes stopped hurting from the chlorine, we for quick dinner in Fort Madison before the pageant.  Sarah, Kirstyn, and the boys were starving and wanted McDonalds, so we stopped there.  We then kept driving and looking for a local place for myself, Angela, and Brittany.  Our patience paid off and we found the BEST place!  It’s called the Fort and famous for the original Wallyburger.  It was a real hole-in-the-wall, but we decided to try it out.  We were a little nervous going in there (corner, glass windows all around, 12 barstools, and 5 tables), but our opinion of the place changed quickly. 

We went in and Angela asked the patrons if the food was any good.  They had glowing recommendations and we started talking about where we were from, etc.  It turned out that they are a cash only establishment, and we didn’t know if we had enough cash.  Immediately, all of the people there said they’d pitch in to cover what we didn’t have!  🙂  Can you believe that?  It gets better, however…  We did find enough cash, but not enough for a tip and she said that she didn’t mind, just as long as we came back.  She even was ready to throw in a complementary order of fries!  🙂

We ordered 2 Wallyburgers and fries and while we waited, they offered us a sample of their pulled pulled pork and that was outstanding too!  We watched as they made the Wallyburgers and it looked GOOD!  The Wallyburger is a full pound of meat!  The patty is huge and after the cook put it on the grill, he covered it with a pan lid to keep in the juices!  He then covered it with cheese, onions and mushrooms.  YUM!

Angela and Brittany split one and I had one by myself.  I could only eat about half!  🙂  We had some great conversations with the folks there and as we got ready to go, the guy sitting next to me (Robert) bought us 3 pieces of pie to go (1 of each)…  pumpkin, strawberry-rhubarb, and cherry!  We couldn’t believe it!  We got his name and address and will send him something nice from Chicago.  🙂 

There’s not a lot of places around like that anymore!  We felt bad becuase we went in there to get food-to-go and ended up sitting down and eating, while the rest of the kids were with Sarah in the van!  🙂  Sarah wasn’t too happy, but we sure felt full and had a wonderful experience!  We’re DEFINTELY going back there again!

It was raining by the time we got back to Nauvoo and were sopping wet by the time the pageant started, but it let up a little and there was no thunder and lightning in the immediate area, so the pageant went on as planned.  It was wonderful, and we thoroughly enjoyed it!  The mosquitoes enjoyed eating us too!

About mid-way through the pageant, the rain stopped and things started drying out (including us)!  We felt the spirit, even though we were soaked.  By the time we got back to the hotel, we were wet and dead tired, but were very happy!

We’ll all sleep well tonight!  🙂

Today I got up really early and drove down to Bloomington/Normal, IL to pick up Sarah and Brittany and other kids from our ward from EFY.  This is one of my favorite things to do becuase when I pick them up, they are SO happy, on a spiritual high, and I get to hear for the first time, all the things that they did and the things that they learned.  It’s not the same to hear it the second, third and fourth times. 

They talked the entire way home and went on and on about how wonderful it was and that it was the best week of their lives.  It makes it totally worth the money to hear them talk like that.  They didn’t want to come home they enjoyed it so much (and it wasn’t just the social, it was the spiritual too).

Sarah's EFY Group

Brittany's EFY Group

 By the time we got home, they had talked themselves out and were pretty tired.  I guess their brains told their bodies they had to unpack and do some chores around the house before they could relax.  🙂

This past week has been much more relaxing than normal.  We didn’t kill ourselves with extra things to do and we did things like watched movies every evening after getting our work done, played games with the boys and Kirstyn, and just had fun!  It would be so awesome if we had more weeks like that mixed in amongst the crazy busy ones!  It’s great to have Sarah and Brittany back becuase they can help out with the little ones (especially for babysitting)!  🙂

Today we went to church where Mark had his mission farewell talk.  He did a GREAT job and he’ll make a wonderful missionary.  It was very funny because the ward almost doubled in size due to all of our families there.  The primary almost didn’t know what to do with 25+ more kids!  🙂

Sacrament meeting was one of the better ones I have been to in a long time!  Mark spoke and, as I said, did a wonderful job bearing testimony of the truthfulness of what he was about to embark on (Chihuahua Mexico, by the way).  The final speaker was the president of BYU Idaho, who just happens to be the Area Authority for Salmon as well.  His talk was fantastic and he spoke much of Mark and what he would be doing.

After the meeting, we went back to Mom and Dad’s house for a huge dinner.  There were over a hundred people there and we spent the afternoon eating, talking to friends we hadn’t seen in a long time, and relaxing.

Brittany even picked up a couple of new Facebook friends in the process!  🙂  There were so many people and so much food that they used the garage for the food line, and everyone found places to sit in the shade as much as possible outside.  What great support was shown for Mark!