Cartwheels across America

For two weeks this summer, our girls were enthralled with Olympic gymnastics and the US's run for gold.  Little did we know that Teyah, Aubrie, and Ellie would channel their inner "Gabby," "Jordan," and "McKayla" the rest of the summer as they then cartwheeled nearly everywhere they went.


As we traveled across the south, these girls were seen tumbling in St Louis, Missouri....

Lime Springs, Iowa...

Memphis, Tennessee (The Pink Palace)...

Nashville, Tennessee (Opryland)...

Louisville, Kentucky (Churchill Downs)...

West Lafayette, Indiana (Purdue University)...

Sheboygan, Wisconsin (Lake Michigan)...

and Birmingham, Alabama. Here's to cartwheels across America!

South to St Louis

We have started a fun tradition of joining Dave on his business trips and turning them into road trips. This summer, we turned a one day trip to Birmingham into a nine-day loop across the country! Our first stop: Hannibal, Missouri.

 Hannibal is where Mark Twain grew up, and this town was the inspiration for Tom Sawyer. The tourist town plays it up and created some scenes that help you visualize where Tom would have lived (Notice Tom's house in the background of this picture where he convinced his friends to white wash the fence). Growing up listening to tapes of the adventures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, I loved this stop! Seeing the town nestled on the wide Missisippi River, the caves, the buildings...it was like diving right into my imagination of where Huck and Tom lived. It proved to me that Twain's descriptives are clearly brilliant -- what an amazing author! I need to introduce my kids to his writing.

Stop 2: This was our first time visiting St. Louis. There are not many places that Dave and I have both not been to, so whenever we find one it is fun to explore it together. We were impressed by the Magic House, zoo, science museum, Grant's Village, and all the numerous fun children's activities offered. Classic family picture above-- there's always someone not feeling it!


This boy was all smiles at the fun fork lift at the Magic House. Everyone enjoyed the Magic House; however, Teyah had a bit of a mishap and got lost for just a few minutes in the climbing structure -- just a little drama!

The girls loved this replica of the Oval Office. Aubrie particularly loved giving a fake speech at the president's podium.

The free zoo was insanely busy, but definitely enjoyable.

Well, so maybe Teyah was a bit worn out from all the walking and people!

Grant's Farm was also particularly enjoyable. Good thing that kid was on a leash!


I loved seeing the Clydesdale horses close up and in their home. In my hometown growing up, these horses often visited our Fourth of July rodeo. They were always my highlight of the rodeo.

Seeing these horses was so exciting for me. Dave noticed my excuberance, and brought to my attention how much I have always loved horses. I loved them as a kid, but I haven't thought about it in a long time. When I was Ellie's age, I wanted to be a veterinarian, mostly due to how much I loved horses. My life certainly did not take that path, but I definitely still felt a connection to these beautiful animals.

The "goat experience" was another memory we will never forget in this family. We thought our kids would love the chance to bottle feed these baby goats. At first, Ellie tried to go with the fact that three goats were completely eating her dress!

But then the goats became a little more aggressive and not only ate their dresses, but started to jump up.

In a matter of seconds of entering the goat pen, three of our four kids panicked and started crying in total fear and desparation of the attacking baby goats!

Aubrie was tall enough that the goats didn't jump on her or eat her dress and had a hard time not laughing at the situation. Well, the others... not so much!

Daddy finished off the feeding job. If you look close, you can see where Teyah's dress is wet and eaten! To top it all off, when they came out of the pen, Kyler, Teyah, and Ellie attacked me, seeking comfort. I picked up Kyler and Teyah and hugged them. I then decided we all needed a drink of water to calm down. As I bent over at the drinking fountain, someone tapped me on the shoulder and told me my kids had left a present all over the back of my dress (from the bottom of their shoes). So at that point, I felt like joining the crying fest because I realized I was covered in goat poop and our car with a change of clothes was a walk, a wait for a tram, a tram ride, and another walk away. Needless to say, I was a bit stinky that day! Enjoy the moment below.

Annie revived!

While in Utah, we discovered Annie was playing at the community theater. We thought our girls might just like it.

 

Needless to say, we hit a home run. This summer will forever be known as "The summer of Annie." The re-creations of the Annie plays were incessant.  Nearly every day this summer we were treated to a new scene from Annie.

It brought me back to my childhood, when my sister and I also couldn't get enough of Annie. My sister, mom and I enjoyed seeing the Annie craze come full circle.

I think my favorite part of the Annie obsession is that the kids' plays now include music Enjoy a peak into the Annie highlight reel of 2012.

Utah memories

I had been planning to have some much needed manners lessons for my kids this summer, so I decided to organize it while we were at Grandma's house.

Aunt Lauren loved getting in on the dressing up factor, and pretended to be Mary Poppins, who was their manners' instructor. She cracked me up. I think I laughed the hardest though when the girls pointed out one of her manners' mishaps.

Ky-boy getting back to his cowboy roots.

Kyler loves his Great Grandpa!

The kids played and played and played.

Because we were there so long, Dave and I were able to sneak away for an overnight 12th anniversary trip to Park City.

My mom organized a very nice dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to honor and celebrate my Grandpa's 90th birthday.

We sure love this guy. His generosity has given all of our family a very wonderful life.

Teyah was just cracking us up. She would not stop kissing him. It went on and on and on to the point that we finally had to pull her away. She was just so excited and happy for him that that's how she knew to express it. It was precious!

My mom is pretty amazing how she cares for him everyday.

I can't believe how big our family is getting! 

After celebrating Grandpa's birthday at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, we found this fun spot to take a family picture.

We can't be close to this gorgeous building without snapping a picture!



Coincidentally, my dad and stepmom Debbie happened to be in Utah the same time as all of us. So, we were able to meet at a restaurant for some fun times.

It's not often that my dad and two siblings are all together. For some reason, we all independently chose to wear green that day!

Our week and a half in Utah was jam-packed and so much fun!

It's all about the Journey

 On our way to Utah for my grandpa's 90th birthday celebration, we decided to make a few memorable stop offs along the way to break up the long (21 hour) drive. Each time we make the drive to Utah, we try to mix it up and take different routes. This trip proved to be eventful.

 

Out of all the places our kids have been, I think Storybook Island is close to the top of their list.

I spy the monkey cage!

The fire truck was one of Kyler's favorites.

Snow White's house was surrounded by five little dwarfs. I can't stop laughing at Teyah trying to wink in this picture.

Storybook Island gave our kids a well-needed re-charge before driving through the backroads of Wyoming -- where we dodged antelope and deer on an almost a minute by minute basis in the dark. I grew up in Wyoming but this was like nothing I had seen before. It was insane and scary! We felt so blessed to finally arrive at the last hotel room in Casper that was extremely overpriced and extremely ghetto! But at least we were safe.

Not long after driving again the next morning, we saw a sign on the side of the road that said: "Martin's Cove." We immediately pulled a quick U-turn to check it out since this site has a sacred history within Mormon history. It was at this location, 500 pioneers who had trekked across the country in wagons and pulling handcarts faced the grimm reality that they might not make it to their destination due to severe blizzards and lack of food. After five days of desperation, the group was discovered by a rescue party from Utah who had brought food, supplies and wagons. Needless to say, this area carries a special place in our hearts and nearly brought us to tears as we experienced the special spirit in this part of the western frontier.

Ellie and Teyah enjoyed pretending they were pioneer children during our short stop but were glad to get back in our comfy Honda Odyssey for the remainder of the trip to Utah.

Perhaps, our kid's most memorable experience was hearing the story of the "prairie diamond ring" and being given a necklace made of the wood of a wagon wheel. This stop off was not in our plans, but was such a pleasant surprise. I loved that our road trip could be flexible.