Here we go....

Ok, I know, I know. But I finally did it. I will try to sum up as much as possible so as not to bore you. Here we go......We had a great time driving across country to visit family in Utah. We were never bored--there was so much going on. We had Sadie's (my niece) baptism, Taylor's (my nephew) baptism, Joshua's (another nephew) blessing, family pictures, my birthday party, Kaitlyn's birthday party, Luke's (nephew) 1st birthday, saying goodbye to Ryan (nephew) before he went to the MTC, the balloon launch and the stadium of fire. That list doesn't include all the family and friends we visited and the stuff we did together as a family. The time went by so quickly! Thanks Laura for letting us crash with you guys. You were great hosts! We were sad to leave so soon, but we had 11 days out there so it was time to go. Thanks everyone for helping us have a spectacular trip! We love you and miss you all!

Me and my girls at my 30th birthday party
Part of the fun chaos at my birthday party

(we're all in brown because we had just finished taking family pictures)

Kaitlyn's 3rd birthday
Kaitlyn loving the cake Grandma Veach and Aunt Laura made
Katy and cousin Sophia playing with their babies My best friend Cindy met us at Thanksgiving Point.

Here she is with her youngest son, McKay

McKenna riding at Thanksgiving Point.

We used to take her all the time when she was a baby.

Jacob and his horse

Kaitlyn riding a horse for the first time

My brother Steve and his family at his son Joshua's blessing

Our family at the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point

McKenna and Katy digging up dinosaur bones

With Grandma and Laura at the balloon launch

Family pic at the balloon launch

Joseph being tickled by Pappy

Jon, Laura and Luke at Luke's first brthday party. This was taken AFTER the cake. See Laura's blog for the before pics

The kids having fun at Luke's birthday

Nauvoo

Ok, we are just going to start with our trip to Nauvoo. Mark had never been before so I thought that driving across the country was the perfect opportunity to go. We packed the kids in the car and away we went. We ran into construction, a terrible storm, flooded out roads near the Mississippi River, and a navigation system that had a difficult time compensating for those washed out roads. But we finally we made it. We stayed there for about 2 days, but would have loved to stay longer. The kids really didn't care too much about the whole thing. In fact, the 3 younger ones were awful everytime we got out. They whined during the wagon ride, threw a fit at the blacksmith shop, ran under the ropes at Brigham Young's house, and so much more. In fact, Mark and I had to start taking turns going into places while the other one waited with the kids in the car. McKenna was good though and I even took her through Carthage with me. I think she enjoyed it although she didn't fully grasp what was there. Anyway, here are a few pictures from the Nauvoo leg of our trip:

Kaitlyn wearing the "human yoke" to fetch water
McKenna wearing the yoke as well
The boys being teamsters
Us with the Marbles. Elder Marble taught my parents the gospel
Nauvoo Temple at night
Temple with Joseph and Hyrum
Nauvoo Temple
Carthage Jail window where Joseph fell and the well
where he landed

McKenna by the well
Carthage jail interior. Window on left where Joseph fell,

bed where John Taylor rolled under and was shot

The boys on the wagon ride
The girls on the wagon ride
Everyone watching a movie in the car
Laura--this is for you. This quilt was made from linsey-woolsey

in the 1800's. It looks brand new. It was beautiful!

Joseph's Mansion house

I have a million more pictures but won't bore you with them. If there is anything in particular you want to see, just let me know. I will update again soon with the Utah part of our trip!

Too much

Ok, I have to admit that I have been avoiding this blog because I have sooooooo much to post that I don't know where to start. We returned from our awesome Utah trip on Monday, and I have a ton of pictures to share. I am not going to do that at this moment because I need to be at the store buying toilet paper right now. But I just wanted to let you know I am still alive and will post some pictures soon. In the meantime, please send me your email addresses so I can invite you to my blog because we will be making it private very soon! Email me at markandjulia at gmail dot com. Thanks!

Family History, I Am Doing It........

I really don't have much to blog about today. Life has been fairly calm, which is alright with me. It has given me a chance to start working on family history again. I have to thank Becky for getting me re-inspired. Unfortunately, my children seem to get neglected while I am digging up names. For those of you who have never entered the realm of family history, it is soooooo addictive. Especially now that I have access to ancestry.com again I can do it for hours. Right now I am working on Mark's mothers line and I am hitting major snags. I am only back to about 1850, and things are a mess and there is very limited information. HELP!

Everyone is getting excited for our little jaunt out to Utah. The kids and I did some shopping today for some road trip supplies. I had to buy a new cooler, and if you want to know what happened to our old one....just know that story involves Mark and shrimping. That should say enough! Anyway, we are excited to see everyone and to celebrate all the fun stuff that will be happening while we are there. Wish us luck with 4 kids on a 2100 mile road trip!

Fathers

I hope all you dads out there had a terrific Father's Day! We had a good day here. Mark got home from church at about 3:30 and we immediately headed over to my in-laws house. We had dinner at Aunt Dianne's house with the whole gang and then headed back to Mark and Susan's to visit. The kids had a great time playing foosball with their daddy, and McKenna tried her best to keep Grandpa awake while she read to him, but to no avail. Joseph walked across the room all by himself and was very proud, and Kaitlyn spent most of the evening running around in her underwear with a Scooby-Doo sticker on her chest. We gave Dad his presents the evening before because we knew we wouldn't get to see him at home much on Sunday, and we were right. But I just wanted to take this opportunity really quickly to say thanks to all the "dads" in my life. I have been blessed with great men in my life--my father, my father-in-law, grandaddy, and my husband. Each has helped me differently, but all very importantly. Thanks, I love you all!

Change, growing up, and the like

It's funny where life finds you sometimes. Just when you think you've got everything figured out, something inevitably changes. And I have found that change is one of the few constant things in life. Mark and I had tentatively planned on him finishing his Master's degree next March and then finding a job out West and let them pay for his PhD. Our second choice was to stay here and just barrel right through his PhD. Now, a random change of subject........I don't often feel very grown-up. In fact, I usually don't feel much older than my YW at church even though I will be 30 this year. I still can't say I feel OLDER, but lately I have been feeling a lot more grown up. The Lord has a way of helping us grow and change in unexpected ways. Now to tie all of these thoughts together; here is a picture of our ward's new 29 year-old bishop.........

Weekend Wrap-up

Jacob (in yellow) dancing with his class at their musical program

Mark and Daniel power-washing our house

McKenna at field day Kaitlyn watching McKenna--she prefers the basket to the actual seat.

Glad we spent all that extra money on a double stroller! :)
Mark with Sam

Joseph after he found the bag of oreo's.

We had a busy weekend as usual, but filled with different things for a change. McKenna doesn't get out of school until next Friday, but her field day was this past Friday. Mark and I and Katy and Joseph were able to go and watch. She was really glad we were able to come, especially because there were probably only about a dozen other parents there from the entire K-2 grades. Anyway, McKenna had a blast and is really excited for the last day of school when they have the water slide party! Later that same evening, we all went for a light dinner at a ward member's home. The kids had wanted to stay for a while, but I had promised Miss Sheri (Jacob's teacher and another ward member) that we would puppy-sit for her. I was trying to use this puppy as a tool to convince Mark that he doesn't want a dog and they are a lot of hard work. He grew up with yellow labs (which is what this puppy was) and is dying to get one for the kids. Well my plan backfired--the dog was a complete angel and Mark didn't even have to get up in the middle of the night to take her out. He still wants a dog!

We worked outside ALL day on Saturday. We mowed, weeded, cleaned up, watered and even power-washed our house and our neighbors house. Our neighbor Daniel rented the power-washer and he and Mark scrubbed the house down to keep that blasted HOA happy. In between all that we managed to help a member family unload 2 truckloads of their stuff into their new home not 2 miles from here. They have a daughter who is McKenna's age so they are both thrilled about that. It's nice to have members of the church living close. (Please no derogatory remarks from you folks in Utah.)

Mark and I were crazy busy at church on Sunday as we both had to teach--Mark to the Elders and High Priests and me to the YW and still had to watch Joseph because he won't go to anyone. I even had to leave in the middle of my lesson to wipe Kaitlyn's behind because there is only 1 nursery leader and she couldn't leave the other kids. Craziness! Then Mark went out with the missionaries for a couple of hours and when they got back I fed them a roast and we then took the leftovers to my in-laws house. I will have to say that one of the things I love the most about living here is the fact that I get to have the missionaries in my home A LOT! I remember only having them once or twice growing up in Utah, so we really enjoy having them over now.

The best part of the weekend for me though was Miss Sheri telling me she is going to teach again in the fall!!!!! For those of you I have whined to about Jacob and school, you understand just how wonderful that is. For those of you who have no clue what i'm talking about--just know that it is an answer to a prayer!