Temple Square

From the roof of the Conference center. You can actually see the building Dave works in behind the temple here.

Inside the conference center that seats 21,000 people.

I love the expressions on their faces in this picture. It is like they are truely in awe.

The kids were "off track" for three week so one of the things we did was go downtown and tour Temple Square and go to lunch with Dad at the Lion House. Tyler, being in middle school, couldn't come and we missed him there with us but the kids had a great time. They kept saying, "Thank you so much for bringing us, Mom". I figured I'd better take them when one of them looked at me this last General Conference and asked' "Is that real, Mom?" (speaking of the conference center when they spanned the center).

Escalante

For UEA weekend we went camping for 3 days down to Southern Utah to a place called Escalante. It was so much fun to take the kids and the weather for hiking was perfect...67 to 70 degrees. I honestly had so much fun with the kids!

This is on our way down to some slot canyons called "Peek-a-boo canyon" and "Spooky canyon". It was about a 2 1/2 mile hike. The kids liked this one more than the hike we had done the day before. We stopped for lunch in a place called "Devils Garden" where we were surrounded by some "hoodoos". They are so cool looking.

Here is Ryan in one of the slot canyons.

I said it was perfect weather for hiking during the day but the nights got a little cold....32 degrees. Here we are warming our buns over the fire:-)

This was a yummy beef stew we made in our dutch oven. We made super yummy bisquits too!

And, of course, we had smores:-).

This was a 6 1/2 mile hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls. BEAUTIFUL! It was so cold at the waterfall though...at least 20 degree colder.

4 of the 5 kids (one fell down on the way up and was needing some love) at the top of some rocks on the hike in (which, btw, they all did AWESOME on!).

Mountain Man Breakfast; sausage, onion, hash browns, pepper, salt, cheese and eggs

They were even better than the picture looks like they are. So fluffy and warm....mmmm!

Roasting hot dogs!

Good food, great company and beautiful country. When's the next camping trip?!?!

Made my heart happy

This morning, before we said family prayer, I took a moment to remind the kids what today is and we briefly talked about it. As I reminded the triplets, who were only 6 months at the time, the room became very solemn and some tears were shed. It was a very touching moment with my kids and I am grateful that in a world where everyone seems to have forgotten compassion that my kids have sympathy and love for those they don't know. I am grateful for the Gospel to help teach them those things because I would be so lost without it and without the help of many of the primary/sunday school teachers that help reinforce what they learn at home.
Our heart and prayers go out to those who lost loved ones 8 years ago today. GOD BLESS AMERCIA!

Saying goodbye to friends is Omaha

Jeff and Laurie Anderson. You two ROCK! We miss you already.

The girls with Calista Gregory.

The Gregory family (Jason, Megan, Calista and Serena) who we thank for throwing this together on such short notice. LOVE YOU!

Megan...my main girl:-) I can't say enough....

We loved the missionaries and will miss having them in our home so often. Elder Hemmingway and Elder Trim.

Sweet Kimberly Huffner.

My party girl, Kimberly Patterson and Trinity Moore who has the most beautiful smile and never stops smiling.

HOLLI BESSE! Thanks for being the kind of friend I knew I could trust with everything.

Some of my girls; Kaylee and Brinley Bingham, Megan Wilson and Kate Huffner. You guys are awesome!

The three Dave's:-); Dave Patterson, my Dave and Dave Moore. Motorcycle buds.

Amazing Angie Blad.

Wendi Fenton. I looked up to you in many ways.

We missed some of our other favorites at the party. I'm too scared to start naming for fear of missing some of you. We love you and are blessed for having the short time we had to get to know you. Come visit us in Utah!

Our quick trip to Nauvoo, Illinois

Being only 6 hours away, a trip to Nauvoo was a MUST before leaving Omaha. With only 2 1/2 day to do it in, we met my parents who had served a mission there a little over a year before and toured our little hearts out. Thank goodness mom and dad were there to show us around so we could see the "best parts" in the little time we had. We had a lot of fun and learned some interesting history.
Here we are outside of Carthage Jail.

My mom, Jenna and I standing at the window Joseph Smith fell out of when shot.

The bullet hole that went through the door and struck Hyrum Smith.

The temple is HUGE and beautiful. We didn't get to do a session...next time:-(.

It was fun to watch the kids catch fire flies. They loved Chase. Here he is with one on his face and one on his shirt.

The kids loved learning about how the kids learned in school back in the 1800's.

We checked out a realative (Nicholas Welch) who was one of the body guards for Joseph Smith's body when they went to bring it back.

Nauvoo has a special spirit about it and we all felt it. It was very rewarding as a family to see.

Singing with Aunt Karen

One thing we REALLY miss about Omaha is going over to Uncle Paul and Aunt Karen's house and listening to her play the harp or the piano and singing. It was alot of fun! The kids really miss them. We also miss Karen's good cooking:-).

A new beginning...again

So, I thought I had better post something before I miss the entire month of August.
We are in our home. We are in South Jordan, Utah and are on day 4 of unpacking. It seems to be going really slow. I was 85% unpacked in Omaha in 3 days. Ugh!
The kids are all adjusting really well. They have all gotten to spend time with old friends and they all have already made new friends. This is the 3 week of school for Ryan, Chase, Meagan and Jenna and the first full week of school for Tyler.
Dave is loving his new job and I am still busy trying to unpack and find classes (gymnastic, guitar, Tae Kwon do, soccer, ect.) for the kids.
We have been able to visit lots of family and friends in the last month. Thank you to Mom and Dad Schell for taking a long side trip from their trip to Nauvoo last minute to watch the kids during our first house hinting trip. Thank you to Mike and Riss for taking care of our girls for nearly 3 weeks so we could house hunt. Thank you to Mom and Dad Boden for watching our boys for nearly 3 weeks and to Seantylle for helping clean up the mess Chase made in the car from car sickness. Thank you to Marge for letting Dave, Ty and me stay at her house for the grueling 1 1/2 weeks it took to find a house. Thank you to Brady and CeCe, Mom and Dad Boden, Holiday Inn, some place up in Park city (forgot the name), and Craig and Claudia for letting us stay with you until we could get into our house (on August 21st). Thank you for all your prayers and support and all your patience with us changing our address, phone numbers, and email lots over the last year. This one you can mark in permanent ink:-)!
Love to all. I'll post pictures once I find the camera:-).

In the mist of it all...

Well, since last I posted we have been to Nauvoo and back, been out to Utah to look for a house and back and we are 80% packed and ready to leave for Utah in 6 days. Uh? Where you ask? Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot to tell you. I HAVE NO IDEA! LOL! I am only laughing at this point because I don't know what else to do. We did not find a house when we were there and are not sure where we are going. As of now our plans are for Dave to leave with the kids to meet his parents at Lake Powell and I (and maybe one other child) and Bella (our dog) leave for Utah and stay with Aunt Marge and look for a home. We will be looking in to an Extended Stay Hotel and hopefully that is all we will be looking in to. We could be looking into leasing a furnished apartment month to month until we find a home. I am only nervous about this because I don't want the kids to have to change schools. SO, now our prayers turn to finding a house before school starts.
Things are so crazy but I stop every once-in-a-while in the mist of all the craziness and think of how blessed we are. There are friends and family members who are going through harder times than us right now and our thoughts and prayers have gone to them many times. I feel selfish for all my complaining about the stressful situation we have been in. Maybe that's why I can laugh....because I know that we will be okay and that is nothing compared to what others are having to endure right now.
I am not sure I will be posting for a while so...adios. Until we...have a house again:-).

WHAT A BLESSING!

5 days on the market and the first person through made an offer. If everything goes will we will be out the week of July 20th. We are on our way to Nauvoo to meet my parents this weekend and then Dave and I fly out to look at houses July 6th, 7th and 8th. CRAZY! We are so grateful that we sold the house so quick and realize the huge blessing in a market so bad. Our prayers now turn to finding the right house and the right place for our kids in Utah. Thank you for all the prayers on our behalf. We are sad to leave friends behind and are excited to see old ones. LOVE TO YOU ALL!

3rd time is a charm?

After fasting and prayer we have decided to move back to Utah. We will be moving (for the 3rd time in a year) as soon as our house sells. Dave will start mid to late July. We have made some good friends here that won't be forgotten (who BETTER come see us in Utah) and are excited to get to see some of our dear friends in Utah again. Keep us in your prayers to sell the house quickly. As Chase would say, "Peace out".