Six Flags!!

One day in June, Nels took the day off and we went to Six Flags.  It was a great day and we all had fun!

The carousel ride was first.

Sofie was soooo excited.

Kira too.  Noah held onto Nels for dear life.  We were kind of worried about him and what he would be like for the rest of the day.

Matching girls.

We took the older kids on Dark Knight.  Then we all went on the balloon ride.  Even Noah.  And guess what?!  He was happy and had fun!!!  Surprise!

The boys rode in one balloon and us girls rode in another one.  At the end of the ride, the worker let Kira help open all the doors on the balloons.  So cute.

Then Nels and Isak rode on the log ride.  Kira didn't want to get wet, so she hung out with the littles.  We walked around and played with these wheels for a while.  Then ate some snacks.

We took pictures with the big red chair.

Then we went on a little kid ride called crazy bus.  Noah did great on it.  Then Noah really surprised us when he went on the boat ride with the other kids and loved it!!  Nels and I happily watched from the sidelines.

I took Isak and Kira on a two little roller coasters.  Nels let Sofie and Noah go on the boat ride again and again.  Then Nels took Isak and Kira on a roller coaster ride and I took Sofie and Noah on the little kid rides.

While we are waiting for our turn for the ride, I take pictures.  😀

We went on some more kid rides that the babies could go on including: crazy cars, cups and one last ride that all six of us got to go on at the same time!  It was a tree that we went up and down on.  Noah was so cute and in a great mood.  He would say, "silly bus", "fun tree."  I think he used humor to help him overcome his fear.

The boys matched too.  😀

We kept seeing these poop hats and the kids wanted them.  So the compromise...let's take a picture of you wearing them and leave them here.  It worked.  Phew!

This is Sofie.

We left the park around dinner time and ate at Steak N Shake.

Then we drove home.  I love this picture of Sofie.  She fell asleep in the middle of her coloring.  I think we wore her out!

All the kids fell asleep quickly after we started the drive home.

It was a fun day and I'm just thankful everyone was in a good mood!!  I'll end with this last picture of these cute six year olds.

Nauvoo - Day 4 and Last Day with Judson's

Day 4--

Melissa and I got to go to the Nauvoo temple together at 8 a.m.  It was a special time to just be with my sister.  I'm grateful we got to do that together.  It was pouring down rain when we came out of the temple.  Here's our view from the temple steps.  

And these words are on the temple above the entrance.

Selfie at the temple.

After the temple, we packed up our luggage and checked out by 11 a.m.  Then we went to Carthage and toured Carthage Jail.  It was still raining, so we didn't stay outside very long.  Here's a statue of Hyrum and Joseph Smith.

And here's the outside of the jail.

That's the end of our Nauvoo trip.  I hope the kids learned a little about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint's history and had fun doing it.  We sure enjoyed Melissa's family and our time in Nauvoo.  Plus the weather was great for 3 of the 4 days!

We ate lunch at Dairy Queen then drove home 4 hours.  We didn't even have to stop this time!

We ate dinner at Portillo's.  Here's me and Noah.

The Portillo's hats were a big hit.  Lynzie and Kira were best friends too!

Isak with two hats!

Isak and Tyler.

The three musketeers.  😀

Lynzie and Kira again.  😀

Day 5 --

The Judson's left in the morning to explore Chicago.  Nels wasn't feeling well so we stayed home.  

Before they left, Abi fixed Kira and Sofie's hair like Lynzie's.  They looked so cute!

I was surprised she could even get elastics into Sofie's hair!  So fun!

Later, Nels felt better so we decided to go on a little adventure of our own.  We went to a nearby hiking place called Nelson Lakes.

We hiked for 2 hours and went about 2.89 miles.

We brought the stroller and Nels pushed Noah 80% of the time.  Sofie did great hiking for the first half.  Then I carried her for some and then she got a turn in the stroller.  During her turn in the stroller, she fell asleep!  I'm glad we brought at least one stroller.  Although, we did have to carry it over some muddy spots.

At one point we somehow got off the normal trail and ended up on a single line foot trail with very high grass.  Nels is only a few feet ahead of Kira, but you can't see him in the picture.  That's how high the grass was!  It was crazy and a little scary to walk through.  We made it through and found the normal trail again.

But then Nels noticed ticks!  So we all stripped down the best we could...😬 and did a tick check.   We found a lot and were able to get them off.  But we missed one.  We noticed Kira had a tick on the back of her neck as we neared the end of the trail.  We were so worried.  We all said a prayer that she would be okay and that we would know what to do.  Prayers are answered!  Just as we were leaving the parking lot a forest preserve officer pulled up.  We talked to her about Kira's tick and she knew exactly what to do.  You use a credit card to gently push the tick out!  So Nels did just that and the tick came right out.  Kira was so brave.  She didn't cry or whine and she just listened to what we told her to do.  We checked Nelson Lakes off our list and we probably won't be hiking there again!

Day 6 --
We all went to Buttermilk for breakfast.  I just LOVE their breakfast.  I got the banana pie pancakes and bacon, spinach, potato with two eggs skillet.  MMMMMmmmm!!

Then we took the Judson's to Island Park.  The kids played and I got to ask Karl questions about coding.  😀

We took some pictures to send to Michael (Melissa's oldest boy) because he wasn't able to come on the trip.  We spelled W-E, then a heart for love, U!  WE 💙 U!

Cute, huh?!  Then we did a video and said, "We Love You!"

We walked across the foot bridge.  Aren't Melissa and Lynzie cute?!

We took some family pictures.  Here's the Judson family!  I forgot to mention, Abi and Sofie were buddies most of the trip.  Abi was awesome with all of our kids, but especially with Sofie.  It was just fun to watch the cousins become friends.

Here's our little family.

It was a sad, sad good bye.  Oh how Isak cried and cried and cried.  I mean hours of crying and being sad.  It took him two days to not be quite so sad.  We FaceTimed and that helped.  Thank you Judson family for spending some of your family vacation with us.  I love the memories we created with you!!!