Nauvoo

We decided for out June Weekend Adventure and camping trip we'd head to Nauvoo! Melissa, kids and I left for Nauvoo early in the afternoon and set up camp while Kendall and Ammon drove to Nauvoo after work. I was pretty proud of us women for setting up camp by ourselves! I think we did a mighty fine job!

That night we went to a Vocal Point concert in the Nauvoo Outdoor Theater. When we first arrived, there was a different program going on and we caught the last 10ish minutes of it. Kendall made popcorn between the two shows! We love Kendall's popcorn! We had a fun time listening to Vocal Point!




Another successful camping trip!

Ammon's First Father's Day

As you can imagine, Father's Day (and Mother's Day) this year have been a little tough on us. It was hard for me to know how exactly to celebrate this special day for Ammon. So here's what I did for him; enjoy the pictures!



The Sunday after Father's day we celebrated with the Dietz side of the family. We all had dinner together and I made Ammon's favorite Ice Cream Cake (last year, on "Husband's Day" Ammon said he wanted this cake every year for Father's/Husband's Day, so I had to make sure that happened!). I didn't think to take a picture of it, but man is it SO YUMMY!!!

Our Garden

Things are coming along in our garden. It always needs more work than we have time! But what we have done is looking really good!

Tremont Turkey Festival

My mom came and visited us and we had such a fun time while she was here! Here are some of the things we did:
Bike Rides
Gardening
Picnic at Safety Town with Melissa and kids and Carrie
Made Rhubarb Lemonade
Riverside Farmer's Market
Tremont Turkey Festival (pictures below)
BBQ with Dietz Family
Church
Drive through old and new homes
Movie in the Park
A day in East Peoria (including the coin operated guns at Bass Pro Shop, Costco, and grocery shopping)

On Saturday, we went to the Tremont Turkey Festival. The highlight of the festival was a little something called Bed Races. Anyone could enter to race a bed. There were some requirements, including the size of the bed, the bed had to be fully made, there had to be 1 person riding on the bed, and there could be up to 4 pushers. There were four lines in the race. The starting line, then finish line, and the two lines in the middle was where the Chinese Fire Drill took place. They had to be between the lines the entire time they were doing the Chinese Fire Drill. It was a lot of fun!

Picasa has changed, and I haven't figured out how to put in an embedded slide show yet, so I'll have to put in the pictures individually...

MEATBALL PARTY!!

We invited Kendall and Melissa's kids over for another sleepover movie party. This times theme was Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. Rigdon just called it a Meatball Party! We read the book, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, and started out the fun night with a giant food obstacle course. First they had to run the french fry to the ketchup. Then run with a pea between their knees. Limbo under the carrot, then carry the doughnut to the finish line! Staying with the “food” theme, we played Hi Ho Cherry O and Pizza Party. Then it was time to start the movie! I brought out our Spaghetti and Meatball Cupcakes. While watching the movie, I brought out more treats as they were shown in the movie. Enjoy the rest of the story through the pictures!

St Louis

Melissa and I planned an AWESOME weekend in St Louis! We all had such a blast! On Friday Ammon and I left early in the afternoon and went straight to the St Louis temple. When we were done, the Powell's were just getting to St Louis. We met up at our hotel, and Ammon and I went to the pool with the Powell kids while Kendall and Melissa went to the temple.

Saturday morning, we started our adventures by going to the Science Museum. We had a really fun time there. We picked up some lunch on our way to the City Museum. I don't have enough adjectives to describe the City Museum, but it was A-MAZE-ING!!! It's not the kind of museum where you go look at things, this is the kind of museum where you DO stuff! I think our favorite part was the outside area where you could climb on everything! I'll let the pictures do the talking! We were all sweaty and exhausted by the time we left! I would recommend this museum to everyone! We had from the age of 2 to 30 and we all had such a blast!



On Sunday we went to the zoo. The zoo is located in Forest Park - where the World's Fair was located in the early 1900's. It reminded us so much of San Diego! We had a really good time at the zoo! After the zoo, we grabbed some lunch. Haha, it actually wasn't as quick as it sounds...we went to 3 restaurants and all three were closed. We ended up having to eat fast food instead :( Then the Powell's left for home and Ammon and I went to the St Louis Arch. We wanted to go up it, but there was a huge wait, so instead we went to the museum there and walked around outside. Then we headed home too.



We had a blast in Saint Louis! What a wonderful weekend getaway!

Adventure Wall

For the past few weeks I've been working on an Adventure Wall. What is an Adventure Wall? Well it's a grouping of pictures - each one from a different vacation (adventure) we've been on. I bought a bunch of different frames from different thrift stores then painted them black. I decided I liked having a couple of picture frames different colors (one is red and one is blue) as accent colors. I even cut out and painted the letters myself! It's been a fun project and a long time coming!

**UPDATE** I needed a new picture frame for our Saint Louis adventure, so I went to the thrift store. While I was looking at the picture frames, I found a few that I liked. I grab the ones that looked good to me, even though I don't yet have an adventure for that frame! I decided to get the extra frames all ready for the next adventure we go on, including hanging the picture. But I've added a little note inside those frames "Awaiting Future Adventure." This way, I'm all set for our next adventure!