The Past Month & A Half...

NAUVOO!

June 23rd-28th

My family took a vacation to Nauvoo at the end of June.  We haven't been on a family vacation in a long time, and it worked out perfect with Nate just getting home from his mission!

It worked out cheaper to have my parents fly Delta with the boys and I on Frontier, so we left at different times and arrived only an hour apart.  It worked out pretty good. 

And here we are, just rarin to go!

 Ha ha.  He really was excited... 

 

We rented a Town & Country minivan to drive from the Omaha, NE airport to my cousin Emily's in Coralville, IA, and down to Nauvoo, IL and back.

Lovin' the minivan... 

 

We found a pretty nice hotel in Des Moines to stay in, called Wildwood Lodge.  I loved the "northern woods" themed decor throughout.  We would definitely recommend it to anyone going through Des Moines!

 

We also played in the pool that night.  It was a pretty neat pool, with a waterfall and rock hot tub.

 

 On Thursday we drove to my cousins Emily & Jaron's house in Iowa.  We planned to hang out and enjoy a day with them before heading down to Nauvoo.  

While waiting for lunch to be ready, Jeff, Nate, and Tanner went out in Emily's backyard to play on the halfpipe that Jaron built.  They were riding skateboards and having a hard time dropping down into it off the edge.   

On Jeff's second attempt he fell at just the right angle on the ramp and...

Basically, this is what an elbow is supposed to look like: 

This is what we discovered Jeff's elbow now looked like:

 My cousin Jaron (who built the half pipe mind you) is an orthopedic surgeon... So he was able to get us into his clinic to see him instead of having to go to the ER.  

 He told us that Jeff had dislocated his elbow, without breaking any bones in the process!  He said popping it out without breaking off the olecranon process was very rare, and he was very lucky.  He put it back in place and got Jeff wrapped in a semi-cast and sling.  Jeff said it was the worst consistent pain he's ever been in.  (And he's torn ligaments in his shoulder, broken bones in his feet and his tail bone, sprained ankles, etc...)  

Thank goodness for Percocet, he's feeling much happier here...

 We spent what was left of the evening just hanging out with Emily and her 3 boys and letting Jeff rest.  We still enjoyed our visit!

 

On Friday we explored Coralville a bit, and then headed on down to Nauvoo, IL!  By the time we got there it was dinnertime, so we ate at the only place open we saw, which was Hotel Nauvoo.  (Where we were staying, conveniently...)

 Afterwards we walked around the Temple to see it at night...

 

  

Saturday we were able to do a session in the Nauvoo Temple!  It was a really neat temple.  We also were able to see a few artifacts inside from some of the original members there.  Way cool!

The rest of the day Saturday we spent exploring the sites of Old Nauvoo and the Joseph Smith Historic Site.  I'll just let the pictures do the talking:

 

A senior missionary running the blacksmith's shop is from Utah and  used to shoe horses in his younger days.  So he showed us all how to make a little horseshoe and Tanner won it! 

Another senior missionary who had only been there 6 days turned out to be my mom's junior high music teacher!  Small world...

(P.S. Jeff and I do it wrong...)

 

Watching the show Sunset on the Mississippi and Vocal Point was there too...

 

 

 We ran back into a nearby town to get food (since nothing was open in Nauvoo...) and on our way back the bridge over the Mississippi River was open for a huge barge passing through!  It was cool to watch, something we'd never seen before.

Oh, and that's the moon shining through the clouds!  It was pitch dark when I took the picture, but a 5 second shutter on my camera made the moon look like the sun!

Sunday morning we went over to Carthage to see Carthage Jail and to be there on the exact day, 166 years ago that Joseph Smith was martyred.

 

 We took the tour up through the jail, and saw the room and window Joseph fell out, and the bullet hole in the door that killed his brother Hyrum:

 

 Afterwards we finished seeing a few sites around Nauvoo that we missed on Saturday, and then headed back up to my cousin Emily's in Coralville.

(Trail of Hope)

While hanging out at Emily's Jeff and I went outside to try and catch pictures of fireflies.  I was really excited to see them on this trip, because I'd never seen them before!

 

 In this one I left the shutter open for about 20 seconds and the firefly moved 2 times across the pavement!  So yes, it's the same bug...

 

Monday morning we headed back to Omaha to the airport.  We were on separate flights again, but arrived in Salt Lake within 15 minutes of each other!  Pretty good huh?

 

Jeff's Elbow Aftermath

Once he got the brace off we were able to see all the bruising and swelling...

 It's looks much better than this now!   He has a brace now instead of the cast, and he is able to work it a little and lift very light things.  Thank goodness he didn't break anything! 

4th of July Celebrations

July 3rd & 4th

To celebrate the 4th of July this year Jeff and I went up with Rick and Marnae to the intramural field next to the Stadium to watch the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire!

 

Since the 4th of July was on a Sunday we didn't do a whole lot, but I still had fun dressing up in red, white, and blue for church...

and making patriotic cookies!  

I love holidays!

  

You can just call him Jim Craig...

July 5th

I'm liking this chaps and cowboy boots thing...  : )

Jeff and I went on a mountain horseback ride with Nick and Leah Cutler, one of Jeff's best friends from Lehi.  (They're the ones we play polo with all the time...)

It was a lot of fun!  Jeff even rode with his arm in a cast and sling!

 Once we got up pretty high on the mountain behind Alpine we stopped, made a campfire, and Leah cooked us bacon and biscuits!

 They even brought their adorable 2 month old baby!  It was her first horseback ride, and she did a pretty good job!

 After we ate Nick, Jeff, and I rode up higher to see the views.  We got up to where we could see both sides of the point of the mountain!  Here we're just above the Draper temple with Kennecott in the background:

Jeff did really well with his arm.  He couldn't use it, and the bouncing hurt sometimes, but otherwise it wasn't too bad.   He could even gallop a bit as his horse followed along behind Nick and I racing... (Nick won, dang it.)

And here's me being a dork up on the mountain...

We can't wait for the next ride!

NATE'S HOMECOMING

July 11th

The weekend of July 11th I was able to go up to Boise with my Aunt Kathy, Uncle Drew, and cousin Megan for Nate's homecoming talk.  Jeff unfortunately had to work, but it was a fun little overnight trip for me, and I enjoyed being there to support Nate!

He did a great job on his talk too!  Everyone was commenting on how well he did.  My grandparents and a bunch of the extended Wright family were there afterwords, it felt like a mini reunion.  Tanner entertained us all with his ukulele and guitar...

I had to get a few family pictures before we left!  It was quite a struggle at first, waiting for my dad...

It's great to have you home Nate!

CAMPING IN FAIRVIEW

July 16th-17th

I wonder if this will become a tradition?

Jeff and I have gone camping with Amy and Tyler up to Ty's family's cabin lot in Fairview for 3 years in a row now!  His family has a cabin lot that they never built on (because of a dream about the cabin sliding off the hill...)  So we basically bring tents and camp in a permanently reserved spot by a lake!

The nieces and Ty's family weren't there this time, just Amy, Tyler, Rick, Marnae, and us.

Amy and Ty brought the kayaks and we rowed around the lake a bit.  Jeff actually did pretty good with his arm!

 Most of you have heard of bobble-head dolls, yes?  Well, Jeff created what we call bobble-bum kayak:

Ha ha.

The sun in the water looked really cool off the side of the kayak...

We also hiked off the road to a little waterfall that was gorgeous!

And of course, a jumping picture!  Pretty good for a timer I'd say... it was only our second try!

Thanks for inviting us along!