Summer Adventures

Some of our adventures since we've been back from Utah include:

Going to Belle Isle with Jason's parents

There was a nature preserve/zoo there.

Detroit River overlooking Detroit from Belle Isle

 Playing outside

Catch with Abuelo

 Swimming lessons

Only two lessons for my kids this summer, but they did well!

 Making crafts

Karissa was the mastermind behind these robots.

 Playing with friends

A little celebration for Logan's birthday since we missed his party.

Tennis lessons for Austin

 Babysitting class for Victoria

 Quidditch at the library

Karissa was the goalie. She was the youngest and smallest and insisted on wearing a dress and flip flops, but she still managed to block a few goals.

Victoria was a beater.

 Being goffy

 Going to Kennsington Lake

This is what we call the "beach" in Michigan.

The water was refreshing! All four of my kids played in it long and hard!

Going to the Summit for games, crafts, and swimming!

Victoria has a good spin on the football.

Austin had these hula hoops rolling well!

Karissa and Erik play well together!

Besides all these fun adventures we have gone to the movies to see the dollar show, once with Gramms, once without her; the older three have gone to the Park Program so I can have a small break; some dentist trips, including filling of cavities; piano lessons for the girls; and we pulled weeds at the church.

Some not-so-fun adventures have been: trying to rid our couch of Yoda's urine smell that he left us while we were gone. Yes, our new couch. He was sick and not ready for us to be gone and had some problems. We've been nursing him back to health some natural ways in the hopes that they will make a bigger difference than the antibiotics he was taking before. I'm waiting on my new foam cushions to come in the mail. After about 5 washes, the last being in pine sol and making the best difference, I finally got the smell out of the covers! Using a solution of 2 cups vinegar and 2 cups lukewarm water with 4 tablespoons of baking soda, two times, I got the arm smell-free as well! Cat urine is not impossible to get rid of, but almost! The other impossible battle for me is my poison ivy. I got it the day after we got back from our vacation as Jason, Abuelo, and I were clearing out some shrubs. (They didn't get it.) I know there is poison ivy near there, but didn't think I actually touched it. Well, apparently I did. I had it pretty bad for two weeks over many parts of my limbs. I have some new spots that came up the other day, even though I haven't been near the plant and it's dead now. I think my body wants to try it out in every place on my limbs before it's really over. Ugh! I'm just used to being itchy now...

Another 5 1/2 weeks of summer!

City of Joseph

We have been determined to get to Nauvoo one of these summers since we drive so close to it from our big trips out west. It's really not that far from us anyhow, but it's hard to find the right amount of time to go. On the way home from our Utah trip, we stopped by Colorado Springs to stay the night at Jason's parents. They had planned to go on our trip to Nauvoo with us, so we just spent the one night there. We got to see Jason's sister Auburn and her family that evening, which was lovely.

Since we had seen Palmyra a few years back, Kirtland this last Easter, and were on our way to to Nauvoo from Salt Lake City, we had to stop by Independence, and the surrounding church history sites, to make the tour complete. Independence was also a good stopping point. We can only drive so long in the car before we need to stop for the evening/night! And boy were we ready that night! The girls were riding in Gramms and Abuelo's truck and the boys were in the van with us. We were getting ready to get off our exit, among some traffic. The boys were about finished so I was looking for things to distract them, when I saw some clouds swirling in a different sort of way outside the window. There were many clouds in the sky in different levels, depths, and colors, but these particular clouds were swirling. I said to the boys, "Look at those cool clouds, they're swirling!" I guess Jason had been looking at some other set of clouds that were also swirling, in an ominous way. After my comment, he quickly rolled down the window to listen and heard the tornado warning sirens. He instructed me to check the weather on my phone, where it said there was a tornado warning for the exits on the freeway where we were! We got off and sheltered at Lowe's for about 15 minutes. They dismissed us when it was safe, but we later found out that a tornado touched down on the same street where we were staying that night! It caused some damage to the Plato's Closet there. Austin was disappointed to have not seen an actual tornado that day when we drove the whole day through Kansas! I assured him that we didn't really want to see one!

The long-awaited dinner at a bbq joint in Kansas City. This was just after the tornado incident.

Independence, MO. temple, owned by the Church of Christ.

visitor's center play area

visitor's center Christus 

We also saw Liberty Jail and the four cornerstones at Far West. It's only a 4 1/2 hour ride from there to Nauvoo, though it did seem longer since it was later in the day after sight-seeing.

Nauvoo was great! I've been two other times and they were both really hot and humid! Not to mention all the mosquitoes that come with that kind of weather. We weren't there during pageant time either, so it was less crowded. We'll go back another time for the pageant. We enjoyed some other shows that we might have overlooked had we gone during the pageant.

I really enjoyed going to all the shops and homes and learning about how the pioneers lived. I also enjoyed that at each place they applied a principle to our lives now.

The kids enjoyed the wagon rides with the horses and the oxen. They also enjoyed playing at the play area, called Pioneer Pastimes. They played there for hours both days!

Ride that took us past all the main sites.

Erik played house and enjoyed feeding this baby. This tough boy can be sweet, too!

Wooden toys 

 

Oxen ride

We saw the fireworks on the fourth from the temple, overlooking the Mississippi River.

I love the temple!

Round II- Reunions

Do you remember what I wrote about last time? I don't really, even though it was just last week! The last pictures I posted were from our hike to the Y.

The day we hiked the Y was a busy one. My Aunt Terry had arrived the day before and went with us on the hike. My Uncle Craig and his family also arrived, so we went up to his hotel in Park City to enjoy his nice pool there.

Uncle Craig with two of his sons, Dallas and Austin, Natalie, and Karissa next to Craig's grandchildren, Maggie and Tucker.

I forgot my suit, so Erik got to swim with Grandma.

Karissa (8), next to Keala (5), who is a hair taller. You can tell which one's dad is 6'7" (not to mention the height of her mom!) 

Went rode the gondola with the kids before leaving Park City.

  That night we went to my brother Derek's for a movie on his outdoor movie screen. The kids mostly played in Derek's fun yard, but they watched the end of it.

The next day, Jason arrived!! We saw the Conference Center with him that day.

Overlooking the Salt Lake Temple

 We also got to enjoy dinner with my Aunt Karen and some of her children and grandchildren.

Daniel, Kate, Layla, Kallie, Karissa.

Kate and Aunt Karen

 The day of the big reunion finally arrived. My mom and Jim and others from the committee worked very hard to bring my grandfather's grandfather's descendants together. The kids dressed in Danish and/or Viking attire in honor of the Lunds and helped serve. They worked very hard as well.

Karissa pouring water.

Victoria in front of the family tree. 

Erik, ready with his shield on the Viking ship.

The main helpers.

Some of the group, the kids were done by then.

 On Sunday, it was back to Derek and Missy's for dinner with the Gordon Lund family (my mom's dad).

These kiddos performed a skit about the courtship of Grandpa Gordon and Grandma Joyce. When the woman is an identical twin, the story becomes very interesting!

Checking out Derek's camper. 

Most of the group, minus a few and my Uncle Mark's family.

I think we finally managed to get my siblings and our families with my mom and Jim.

Last, but not least, we went boating one more time at Jordanelle. 

Beautiful morning

Missy, Derek's wife, is amazing! She drove that boat for hours for us!

Cousin ride!

Thanks everyone for a great stay in Utah!!