Beautiful Nauvoo

After living in Illinois for over a year we finally found a weekend to visit Nauvoo! Despite the 90 degree heat and the bugs, we loved our time there. We traded off watching Ethan so we could each attend the temple there, which was a lovely experience. There's certainly a sweet feeling in that town where so many people sacrificed so much for the Lord they loved.

Sterling with his ancestor, William Clayton's, gun. At the printing press. If I'd lived in Nauvoo, this would have been my job!

The enormous praying mantis on our car the next morning.

At the Land and Records Office searching our ancestors' plots of land. Sterling and I had ancestors who were neighbors!

The riverbank where the wagons were launched when the saints finally had to leave their beautiful home.

"Trail of Hope" leading to the Mississippi River.

Oxen Duke and Dawn honored us with a wagon ride. Ethan did not enjoy it.

Girl's Camp 2010!

Our neighbor, the snake. He spent a lot of time in the bathroom, but at night he and a friend came to join us in our cabin. We had a rat, too. Way to live up the wilderness experience!

I loved the wholesome Wisconsin air so much that I hiked all afternoon my second day there. You gotta love going to Girls Camp as a leader! I got to be bossy at bedtime and irritatingly cheerful in the morning (I belted "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" to wake up the girls--bwah-haha!), help a little here and there with classes, and still hang-out with my adorable girls and enjoy all the odd/funny camp moments first-hand (I even painted my fingernails green in support of our group whose mascot was the Green Giant--not my idea...). It was hot, buggy, snakey, and ratty, but I had a great time!

The News!

Sterling has been offered a position in Atlanta! Much as we love Chicago and have enjoyed living here, this position will be SO much better for us (it's a real actuarial position), and we're looking forward to living close to family. Ethan and I leave on September 1st, (Sterling's driving our stuff down a few days later with his dad) and there's so much to do before then!!!

Biking in Michigan

So as not to live a too sequestered life in boring ol' Chicago (wink), we decided to jump ship for an afternoon in July and do a family bike ride in Michigan. Our bikes weren't exactly ideal for our 8-mile trek, but mine did have a basket (which I placed my camera in because you must have something in your bike basket!) and both came complete with bells! (Plus, the town was proud to boast that it was the home of Prancer the movie. What luck!) We loved it, Ethan hated it, and now I know that southern Michigan looks exactly like Illinois.

103 Stories High!

Our Chicago Bucket List is slowly getting shorter. On Saturday we finally went to the SkyDeck at the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower. We paid $30 dollars to wait in a two-hour line (no one told us it would be so long) where we were herded like cattle in dark, hot rooms, spent a whopping 10 minutes looking down on the city, but did get these pretty cool shots. One part of the floor is glass and actually juts out of the side of the building so you can see straight down from the highest man-made point in the United States. Ethan was fearless! The verdict? Not worth it if you have a toddler, but an interesting experience nonetheless!