We've been home from our trip for almost three weeks now, but our vacation has continued non-stop since we've had family visiting the entire time.
Mariah was here with us a few days before everyone else arrived. One day we went to the county fair. Here are the kids inside a firetruck.
Then we waited in line for a train ride.
On the train ride...most of us enjoyed it.
Alex clung to Mariah the whole time!
We had to check out the big tractors.
Next we watched some chain saw carving. This guy was amazing!
There was a petting zoo with a very large sandbox.
Logan could have stayed in that sandbox all day.
Moo!! A lead in for the next day...
We checked out all the birds. These ducks won an award for tallest birds.
They had these signs all over in the poultry barn.
The kids climbed on a few dinosaurs.
They had a science tent with cool stuff for the kids. This was a swimming pool full of ooblick...oh how I love ooblick!
We checked out the tractors again because Logan hadn't had enough.
The next day was Cow Appreciation Day at Chick Fil A. We had so much fun dressing up last year that we did it again!
We were the ONLY ones dressed up at Chick Fil A...which is also in a mall here. I guess it's not as big a deal here as it is in Colorado. We had our free meals, though! And it was fun!
Some down time another day...
Mariah had her birthday while she's been here, so we had a surprise party for her a few days early while her mom was here dropping off her other kids.
Ariana helped me prep the decorations for the cake while I was visiting her two states away. The fondant loops for the bow and the tag survived the drive more or less and I was able to make a cute cake. Other than the fact that I got too much frosting on the bow, I was pretty happy with it.
Ariana made the tag, but it melted a bit on the drive and was slightly out of shape. It still looked awesome though!
We had dinner, cake, and presents.
"Heavy, heavy, hangover" has become a birthday party tradition in our family the last few years.
I love Mariah and Jim's faces in these pictures.
Annie was cuddling up with Bryce during the presents.
During the next week, we had lots of time to hang out.
Josh had these three doing all sorts of silly contests.
Bryce found out how painful it is to hold a story book over your head for a long time....so did the girls. Bryce won the somersault contest, though. He did 100 in a row!
We went to Carthage and Nauvoo one day. Here's a picture of the upper jail cell.
Everyone except me and Alex under the window.
Everyone except my mom on the temple steps.
Bryce and Logan helped make a rope in the Family Living Center.
Part way through the week, Kayla and her son came to visit as well. We discovered the two babies jumping on the bed together one night.
We went back to Nauvoo with Kayla to see more of the sites and the pageant. It was a crazy, HOT, fun, and exhausting day.
The kids enjoyed the pioneer games.
This is Kayla's son, Mason.
I think I was so exhausted after that day, that I stopped taking pictures because this is the last picture I have and it's been another week of vacation. Anyway, this week has been more hanging out than anything else because we haven't had enough vehicle space for everyone. We made it to a beach one evening which was very fun, and last night Jim and I helped at the pageant. (Our car also broke down on the way, so we're even more without transportation.) Tomorrow everyone leaves. It's been fun!
