Nauvoo

We passed by St. Louis, so that meant we had to stop at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard!  I have no idea how many times Craig has been here, but I do know that we stopped here when we were moving across the country to Manassas from Provo and I was 7 months pregnant with Bentley.  It was fun to come back again, and even more fun to discover that their frozen custard is still AMAZING.  Everyone was happy!  (We had hoped to stop at the arch, too, but tickets had already sold out, so we just pointed it out a lot as we drove by.  Oh, well.)

We also stopped at Wal-Mart before arriving at our AirBnb, trying once again to stock up on food so we didn't have to eat out for ALL of our meals.  I quite like their apple walnut salads, and I also managed to return the queen bedding we'd bought in Kentucky.  (Does that make me a bad person?  I feel slightly guilty about that...), so that was great.  I will say, it's hard to plan a meal for 7 people to be cooked in a kitchen you've never seen.  We got everything for chicken nuggets for the first night, spaghetti and meatballs (including Texas toast!) for the second night. 

The last few minutes of our drive were tense.  I got pulled over for speeding, but fortunately got off with only a warning.  And then we couldn't find our AirBnb!  We were just starting to be concerned that maybe it didn't exist and we'd been conned, when we figured out that we were driving on River Park Terrace Lane, and it was on River Park Terrace Boulevard (or something along those lines), and then we finally found it.  Phew!

This place was super cute!  A bit small for so many people, but all in all it worked remarkably well!  It had a tiny kitchenette but the one bathroom was large.  And there were enough beds for everyone, so no one had to sleep on the couch or on the floor.  It also was just a whole lot nicer than the cabin, so that made me happy.  Yay for bedding and towels being provided!  AND for having a washer and dryer!  We got all settled in, ate our chicken nuggets and salads for dinner, and called it a night!

A table that fits us all!  Amazing!

This tiny spiral staircase led to a loft with three beds for the rest of our kids.  It was tricky carrying a suitcase up these stairs...

Through the trees, you could see a red sun setting on the Mississippi River

This adorable bunk bed was right off the living area, so once Colton and Camille went to bed, we all sort of had to go to bed, too.  Which was fine by me.  And Craig and I had a bedroom all to ourselves.

The next morning we got up bright and early and headed into Historic Nauvoo!  We started out at the visitor's center where the kids did a scavenger hunt to win...  bricks!

We spent some time playing pioneer games

And dressing up in pioneer clothes (I was surprised that Camille hated it, but Ryder and Colton had a blast!)

We also went on a wagon ride, where Camille fell in love with the horses and spent the rest of the day plotting to own her own horse some day.  Good luck with that, Camille!

These were Belgian draft horses.  For some reason I always get really excited to see BIG horses still getting put to work.  I worry that we no longer need these guys and they'll die out or something.  My favorite is always getting to see Clydesdales...

We also got to try our hands at making candles, barrels, and rope!

We also got to explore the print shop, the gunsmith, the tinsmith, and the home of the architect who designed the temple, as well as where they cut the stones for it.  There was a lot to see!  (And at some point we headed into downtown Nauvoo to get some lunch!)  It was a LOT like going to Colonial Williamsburg.  You didn't learn as much history, but it was all free, so that was pretty awesome.  We drove to Carthage Jail before it closed, and that was really sobering.  The missionaries giving us the tour kept wanting to take our picture, but it felt wrong to smile all big and cheesy in such a sad place. 

Then we went back to Nauvoo to take pictures around the temple.

Obviously, this is rebuilt, but how did the pioneers build something like this without modern machinery????  Humanity is incredible.  (I think this all the time when I'm in Europe.  I'm so blown away by what people have managed to build and create.)

Craig got this great shot of the statues of Joseph and Hyrum Smith leaving Nauvoo

Everything pretty much closes at 5pm, so we thought we'd head home and make dinner at this point. But then we heard that there was a show called "Sunset on the Mississippi" at 6:30, so we decided to check it out. 

The show was SUPER fun-- so much energetic singing and dancing and fiddling!  But it ran about an hour and a half, and I was NOT expecting that.  The kids were so hungry by the time it finished!  Fortunately our house was very close, so we zipped home and got to work on that spaghetti.  There was no oven, but Craig managed to find a tiny little toaster oven in the back of a cupboard, so the Texas toast did not go to waste!   And, most likely because they were so hungry, everyone agreed it was the best spaghetti they'd ever had. 

Tiny kitchenette!  Kids using TV and books to distract themselves from their hunger!

  And that was our day in Nauvoo!  The next morning it was time to hit the road again!

Mammoth Cave

So, yes, we drove to Cave City, Kentucky, which is about 9 hours away, that first day.  We were staying at a campsite, but we had splurged and gotten a cabin, which was nice.  Unfortunately, the cabin did NOT include any linens or towels or anything, so that was a bit of a problem.  We should have been able to rent some, but the place was packed and they seemed to be out.  So we ran out to Wal-mart and bought the cheapest queen set we could find, and a couple of sleeping bags.  We'd brought two of our own sleeping bags, and Bentley had his blanket and said he would be fine on a couch with just that.  So that was almost roughing it.  We also got a bunch of food so we wouldn't have to eat out for every meal (although we did go out to a nearby Tex-Mex place that night).  

We let Bentley drive the first hour, and I got to take a nap!

This place got our food out to us SO FAST.  I was crazy hungry and ordered way too much, but it made for a nice lunch the next day, so that was fine.

The campsite had a lake and a pool, so we also went swimming that first night

Since there were no towels, I told the kids they could use the towels we'd brought for the pool OR for showers.  It was a little bit stressful for me.  I told Craig this felt more like glamping than I'd been planning for...

The next morning we headed to our first tour of Mammoth Caves!  Before we got very far, we spotted something in the parking lot that made Bentley very happy:

Bentley with a Bentley!

Our guide gave us all these warnings ahead of time about how you have to walk SO FAR (I think it was 2 miles?) and sometimes you can't stand up and there's even a passage called "Fat Man's Misery" that's hard to navigate...  He had me so nervous!  But I looked around and I was certainly NOT the heaviest person on this tour and I go hiking all the time, so I just assumed I'd be okay.  And it was no problem at all.  I think they were making the wrong people nervous!

Before you even descend into the cave, you get hit with this cool air, and in late June, it felt GREAT.

I think it was here that they turned off all the lights so we could see how dark it is.  Unfortunately, the woman near us had a glowing watch, so that ruined it.  Stupid technology.

It was super cool and we really enjoyed the whole thing, although when the heat and humidity hit us on the way out, we wanted to die.  But Mammoth Cave is awesome!  

We headed back to our cabin, ate some lunch, and swam in the pool.  Then Craig took all the kids to the lake where he had a reservation to jump on all their floaty things-- they called it the "wibbit" and unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of it.  But everyone had a great time.  I went back to the cabin and showered and took a quick nap.  And had a great time doing that!

Then we had another cave tour!  This time we were going down a thousand steps into a sink hole and then gradually climbing out in the one spot where Mammoth Cave actually has stalactites and stalagmites.  So it's the pretty part of the cave!

So that was probably even more fun than the first tour, but I think the first tour really gave you the feel for Mammoth Cave, if that makes sense.  Also on the second tour, the guide turned off all the lights, but THIS time, when some kid waved his glowing watch around, the guide snapped at him to turn that off, too, so we actually got to experience full-on, can't-see-your-hand-waving-in-front-of-your-face darkness.  And that made me happy.  All in all, we enjoyed all our cave tours immensely.  

Then it was back to the cabin for frozen pizza and ice cream sandwiches!  It was a good day! 

Good-bye Jellystone!  Some day I'll learn to stop trying to take pictures of my kids with the sun in their eyes...!

In the morning we packed up everything and drove to our next stop... Nauvoo!

Summer Visitors

Sorry I've been MIA.  We had a whole bunch of visitors (and all the fun that entails!) and THEN we were traveling!  So I've got a lot of blogging to do!  And since there's no time like the present-- I'll begin with my sister Natalie and her family visiting!  

The Richards were arriving on a Friday, but shortly after they got to the airport, they were informed that their flight had been delayed 4 hours.  So that sucked.  And they got in very late after everyone was asleep (even Craig, despite his best efforts).  But the news was full of stories of all the flights that were canceled that day, so I guess they were lucky to make it at all!

Anyway, we managed to hike Humpback Rock (and brought Adam along so he and Natalie can now be friends), so that was very fun!  There are too many great pictures, I'm sharing way too many here.  But I just can't help myself...

Colton is hilarious...

Such a cool spot!

We managed to get Adam IN a picture-- we don't just bring him along to be our photographer!

Smiths and Richards!

Bentley is also hilarious...!

I really like this picture of Craig and me (and for once the wind wasn't blowing our hair all crazy!)

And now you know where the name Humpback Rock comes from!

We also had the little girls all matching for church:

Claire, Camille, Nicole

And played a lot of games:

Natalie and I got to go see the new Top Gun movie, and Cameron and Craig took the big kids to see Jurassic World.  We got take-out from Mochiko and ice cream from our new Coldstone.  We had a great time together!

Before Natalie and company left, my cousin Anne and her family also arrived!  So for about 24 hours, we had 21 people staying in the house, including 15 children ages 15 and younger!  So it was a little crowded and very crazy but also really fun!

Lorenzo and Claire played so well together!

I had to show the Guzmans the CODE building!

Oh no!  Their van is bigger than mine!

7 pizzas to feed us all!

Me, Anne, and Natalie!

I was so pleased that we managed to get a picture with EVERYONE in it before the Richards had to leave!

Caleb showed Ryder and Colton how to blow up their shirts to look... like bullfrogs?

The Richards headed up to DC and then to Rachael's in Ohio (the Guzmans had just come from Rachael's!).  And we continued with the gluttony and movies by having a double date to see the new Elvis movie (bookended by a disastrous trip to PeiWei and a much more successful trip to Coldstone), which we all thoroughly enjoyed!  We came home to find Lorenzo like this:

I guess his brothers figured this was easier than actually putting him to bed!

Anne stayed up all night doing laundry and packing, and they headed out at 3am and drove all the way home to Dallas in a day.  We left around 9am and drove to Cave City, Kentucky for our first stop on our big summer adventure!