It all started Friday at about 8am. The kids and I got up, got dressed, had breakfast and headed out the door. Kaitlyn and Rachel got to go hang out with their cousins while I went to pick up my books (school starts in a little over a week) and went on my annual shopping trip. Missouri has a "tax holiday" weekend every year just before school starts and all the stores have huge sales to go along with the tax savings. So after I dropped of the kids and picked up Emma, we headed off to the stores. A couple hours later, I had new clothes for everyone in the family and had saved a whole bunch of money. Spent a whole bunch of money too but not nearly as much as I would have. ;) Once the shopping was done, we headed to the mall (no I wasn't shopping at the mall, can you say ZOO) so that Jessica and I could swap kids. So I headed back to my house with 5 kids instead of 2 so that we could start packing for our trip. Between laundry loads and dinner and making sure no one got killed, I got most of the packing finished before Jeff walked in the door from work and we loaded up the van.
We got on the road later then we had hoped to, as usual, but we made it to Columbia around bedtime to drop off the kids at my brother's house before going the rest of the way to St. Louis (Thanks a million Andi!!!! You are a lifesaver!!!) for our ward's youth baptism trip. We stayed with Angela Friday night and then were up bright and early again to go to the temple. We never get to spend enough time with the in-laws so we were up way to late and didn't get a whole lot of sleep but managed to make it to the temple about the same time as the youth.
It is always fun to spend time in the temple with the youth. Our kids like to sing songs in the Chapel while they are waiting and it is awesome to just feel the Spirit as they sing. I was able to prepare some family file names from Jeff's side of the family and Jeff got to do the confirmations for all of those names. We had a great time but had to leave a little earlier then the youth so that we could head up to Nauvoo for our friends sealing. So back in the car for another 3 hours. Emma was with us and it was fun just to goof off with her as we drove. We made it to Nauvoo with enough time to meet up with Angela and Dave so Emma could watch their kids while the adults went in to the sealing. The sealing actually ran a little late so it was nice not to have to worry about our kids and whether or not they were getting too hot out in the heat and sun or any of that stuff that mom's worry about (Thanks again Andi!). It was nice to have some time to catch up with some other friends that were there for the sealing. The sealing was awesome! Wes and Melissa got married just a couple months before we did and it was a day that we have all prayed would come for a long time. They have 2 beautiful girls and it was the first sealing that I have been to with children. It was a wonderful experience.
After the sealing, we went with Emma to do some more baptisms so that she could experience the Nauvoo temple as well. After that, Jeff took Emma and I on a date to the Hotel Nauvoo for their famous buffet. The food was really good and it was nice to just sit and relax for a little bit before getting on the road to head back to Columbia and to my parents house.
We had originally wanted to try to make it back for church but decide it was better not to push it so enjoyed the morning chatting with my parents. Once we got home, we had a couple hours to rest before we headed over to a farewell for one of our missionaries. We have 6 boys out on missions from our ward as of tomorrow! So now we are finally home and ready for the bed. I would say that I am looking forward to a slow week but as I was typing, Jeff was updating his schedule and...well...we might get to come up for air on Friday for a little bit.
Cari
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