The One in Old Nauvoo

As you guys know, Ben and I were able to go with his family to Nauvoo as well as to some of the other church sites...and some not-as-churchy sites. We loved it. This whole summer for us has been one vacation to the next...and I'm not recommending that anyone quit their jobs...cause, gosh that would be dumb coughcoughnotthathatswhatwedidcough...but it has been quite the awesome adventure.  Here are the pics:
The kids favorite place was the Pioneer Pastimes. They loved dressing up like little pioneer children and we loved that they could be as loud as they wanted.

 Ben and I got to do a session at the Nauvoo temple. The temple is gorgeous-they recreated it how the saints would have made the original. So they had wooden stalls and faux candelabras for lighting.

 We got to go on a wagon ride that toured all of Old Nauvoo. We learned so much. The pioneers were so smart and resourceful.

 The place we stayed was right next to the river. We woke up to this:

 The missionaries there put on one heck of a play complete with singing, dancing and love stories.

 After Nauvoo we went to Worlds of Fun (its like Lagoon) in Kansas City. Ben and I skipped out early and went to see these kiddos. I was SO excited that we got to stop at my brother Spencer and Whitney's house. I know we saw them a whole TWO times already this summer, but I just can't get sick of them, so we signed ourselves up for round 3 with the Kansan Lifferths and we weren't disappointed.

 We stopped by the house of the outlaw Jesse James. These boys acted as the house's bodyguards. They never smile for pictures anyway, so it worked out for the best.

 This is the whole lot of us at Liberty Jail. Go ahead and count. 10 children. And we survived.

 Our next stop was at the Omaha Zoo in Nebraska. It was seriously the coolest zoo I've ever been to.
Here's Halle...remember how our laptop broke? I'm currently using my mother in law's iMac (or do you just say Mac? I don't know...) and I have no idea how to rotate pictures. So this is what you get.

 Some of the Pettingills. Little Bitty was probably my favorite person on the whole trip. She's so gosh darn cute and she sings on request. She goes, "La Laaaaa" complete with vibrato.

 Here's an animal pic to prove we were really at a zoo. Isn't that parrot awesome?

 Here'e Ben and I on the train ride.

Here's me at the aquarium, which was one of my favorite parts. They had a shark tunnel! It was awesome!

The trip was so good. I'm so glad that Mama Brown had the insight to plan this trip and take us all on it. We loved it!

The One for Idaho

Today, I feel like a true Idahoan.
Not to worry, I still claim Utah as my home state.
But today I picked a bunch of corn, straight from the stalk.
Then we shucked it.

Yeah, that corn was hand shucked.

Then I went and fed apples to a cow.

It was all very rustic indeed.
I would post pictures but I didn't take any...which is just as well because they don't believe in technology here in Idaho.

I was just kidding about that last part. They still love technology (as made famous by Kip, a local Idahoan).

But the corn really was hand shucked.

The One with the Farnsworths

After mine and Ben's weekend in Utah (p.s. the Girl's Camp trip has got me dreaming unhealthily about buying a condo in St. George...) we headed back to good ol' Idaho. The week's main event was the Farnsworth Family Reunion.

This is Ben's mom's side so it was right there on "The Farm" where my mother-in-law lives, next to Grandma's house and an Uncle's house. Perfect place for a party of this magnitude. Another upside was being able to actually sleep in a bed a night. What a blessing.

Uncle Ron was official party coordinator and he did a dang good job at making sure everyone had an amazing time. I'm positive he and his family had been planning for months and, trust me, it was worth all the planning and effort because it really was just that awesome.

We started the weekend out with some fun crafts. First I painted Ben's face. I'm pretty professional at it and I think I might make a career of it. I call this face "Earth Child."

 We also did some crayon art. You know, like the stuff you've seen on Pinterest. Mine turned out really awesome and I had some big plans for it...but then I left it out in the sun and it all melted together and turned out hideous. Oh well. Ben's was quite successful.

 Tiana's arranged her crayons expertly but was nervous about putting heat on it.

They had a train for the kids to ride on around the farm.

 The kids loved it and would beg to have someone drive.

 There was much swimming to be had...it was really hot. And 2 of the mornings we were encouraged to do a polar bear plunge. You'll be proud to know that I was one of the few who participated in BOTH plunges. Only like 5 of us did it each day. I don't have picture proof...(Tiana I'm counting on you for that;).

We had a pie eating contest. 

 My favorite part was watching Uncle Ron (on the right) peck at his pie with his chin to break his crust. It was hilarious.

 I think Heather wanted to do the contest just so she could spew half eaten pie at her competitors. But who knows for sure?

The pie eating contest promptly turned into a food fight. A preplanned food fight meaning they had prepared spaghetti with sauce, rice, jello and I don't know what else. Here are some flying noodles.

Here's Ben attacking a cousin. I participated at a safe distance by just taking pictures. Plus I'm not allowed to waste food.

This was my favorite picture ever. Tiana's face? Priceless.

Here's the crew after the fight. They got what they were asking for.

Anyhow...I was going to post a couple more pics...because we really did a billion other things...but then I changed my mind...because I'm lazy.

Forgive me.

The point is, the reunion was a blast. We had so much fun and I was way excited to actually have an official Reunion shirt!

We're currently completing Phase Number Who Knows What in our summer as we travel with the Brown family to Nauvoo and Missouri. We're having a blast and you can rest assured that I'll getcha a post on these crazy happenings...when I feel like it.

On a final note, can you believe Ben and I are flying to China in 11 days?? 

Craziness.

The One with Phase 2

I never posted about Phase 2 of my summer which happened about a week ago. Phase 2 was me going to Girl's Camp with my sister Leslie. She was nervous about being homesick...and, well, when you're jobless you don't really have any excuse not to go.

When I was a Young Woman, our Girl's Camps consisted of sleeping in a tent near some lake and crocheting scrunchies for service projects.

But this year they switched it up and headed to Las Vegas...to canoe 11 miles down a river. It was a blast.

Immediately following that awesomeness, I hiked the Subway (which is in Zion National Park) with an awesome group of friends/family.

Needless to say, it was an awesome week. But, unfortunately, I didn't take pictures...but my excursions can be summed up with this one:

Yep, that is a genuine Chaco tan line. My first one ever and I must admit it is a whole lot better than the running shoe tan line that I usually sport. Apparently, sitting in a canoe in 104 degree weather will do that to a girl.

You can also watch an awesome video of our Subway Expedition here. My amazing and very talented husband made it with our new Sony Action Cam...it's kinda like a GoPro but Ben says ours is better. Who's to say for sure? Anyhow, go watch it. It's pretty epic.