Nauvoo Trip

Nauvoo 2009

We left Sunday night and drove straight through to Winter Quarters. We stayed there that night and toured the vistors center the next morning. The next night we stayed in Kansas City. Wednesday we visited Liberty Jail, Far West, Adam - Ondi -Ahman, and Hauns Mill. We staid in Nauvoo from Thursday through Sunday at the Hyrum Smith Farm. All 25 people fit comfortably and it was fun to have everyone in one house. In Nauvoo we visited shops, stores, and learned games and activities that the pioneer were involved in. Thursday morning we drove to Carthage Jail. That afternoon families kinda split up and did their own thing. We took our family to a little play that was put on in the Cultral Center by the missionaries. Friday was our temple day. We had a session at 8 a.m. for the adults and a baptism session at 6:30 p.m. for the youth. During the day we visited the gun smith shop, the bakery, and a home. Saturday morning we had a handcart pull scheduled. It was kinda drizzling rain, so we put on our hoodies and long pants and headed out. The trail they sent us on was completely muddy and we were all covered by the time we finished the first up and down hill. The trek was 2 miles and by the end Mattina and I were walking behind the cart train, and she told me that she would rather be in Disneyland than Nauvoo... (all summer we have been talking about our trip to Nauvoo with the same excitement that we did Disneyland last year, and I guess in her mind they were going to be similar, but handcarts in the rain and mud was NOT Disneyland in her mind:)
There are so many incredible memories from this trip. I really need to sit down and write them all down. I think that Matt and I have narrowed our favorite down to baptisms in the temple. We had 4 endowed males and 3 endowed females, they (the temple workers) showed us what needed to be done, and we basically did everything. The spirit was so strong and amazing there. The workers that did stay in the baptistry were full of stories and wisdom. It was also amazing to watch the fathers get to baptise thier teenage children. The spirit was incredible!
We staid in Omaha Sunday night and attempted to leave early Monday for our 14 hour drive that day. We were in a three car caravan entering the freeway and the middle car suddenly lost ALL power. We pulled over to the shoulder behind them and turned on our emergency flashers. So, there sat three cars holding 12 people on an on ramp that people were speeding onto during rush hour traffic. Matt and I sat and watched in horror as we had a million close calls where people noticed at the last second that we were there and moved over into the other lane... Heavenly Father was watching out for us! A miracle happened and they wiggled the right wire and regained power after just about an hour of fiddling. We were off and the car worked the rest of the day! It was a fantastic trip with many wonderful memories. We will treasure those forever. Now, we are packing like crazy, cleaning like crazy, and just plain going crazy:) Hopefully we will close the loans Monday and get the keys to our Syracuse home Wednesday. Life is BUSY!

We are having a BABY and it's a ....

BOY!!!!

Mattina went with Matt and I to the ultra sound yesterday. On the way in she and Matt were still debating boy or girl. When we got into the room Mattina told the technician that did our ultra sound that she wanted a girl. The Tech was very cute with her and said, "just think, if it's a boy you won't have to share your toys or clothes or makeup..."
The baby was curled up with his legs pulled up under his tummy so we got a good shot of his bottom and manly parts. Definanlty a boy:)
The tech wanted the baby to stretch out so she could get a better view of the heart, she tried to shake the baby into moving... Later Mattina told Grandma C. that the doctor "tickled our baby."
Back in the car Matt asked Mattina what we should name our new baby... she announced
"Franky" (That is the name of a character on a movie she saw recently:) Then she said that it was mommy's baby so she could name it. Sounds good to me:)

We have a week and a half until we have to be out of this house... I am finally feeling better, so we are going to box everything up like crazy the next few days and try and get a POD or storage unit to store it in. We are hoping to move alot next Wednesday - Friday and move into the new house Friday and Saturday... This is crazy... I can't imagine doing this very often.