St Louis City Museum

 

The way home was an adventure (so was the way out, but that's another story)... We hit that big April snowstorm that closed I-80 and made I-70 hard to drive on.  It stunk because then we had to skip our planned visit to Jer's sister Mary and her family that live the I-80 way.  We also had to skip our planned visit to Nauvoo, so we stopped at the St Louis City Museum instead.  My sister brought us here 6 years ago and we fell in love.  This time our kids fell in love too.  A 3 story jungle gym made from found/salvaged parts and made into a work of art.  It was great this time because I wasn't pregnant and could participate a lot more in the climbing and other activities, but some of the climbing areas made me feel claustrophobic and Evelyn was too small for some of the bigger activities so we had our own little adventures for part of the time.  This first picture is the 3 story slide that the kids wanted to do over and over again.

 

Isn't Grandpa such a good sport!?

 

This freaked me out at first, but Evelyn is our climber... she'd climb up where the big kids did and slide down the ramp like a slide. 

 

This is the giant hampster wheel next to a series of mirrored walls.  My personal favorite part.

 

A swiveling "chair"

Hot Cocoa in the hotel room after

 

Trying to see how fast they could get it to go

 

 

Indianapolis Children's Museum

Monday, Marg took us to the Children's Museum.  It was so fun to have time to just play and goof off.  This was the Hot Wheels exhibit.  You can see Evelyn on the top putting her car down the ramp before she goes down the slide herself.

Checking out the geckos

Being superwomen...

Dad can fly!

This was way cool... You drove it by pedalling.

Ice Cream Parlor

 

End of the day parade

Ice cream at The South Bend Chocolate Company.  Yummy.

The Real Bumblebee

Evelyn and her bunnies

The Chihuly exhibit

Jer and his dad laughing about some of the model train tenders being backwards in the train exhibit.  I never would have noticed.

Matt's Family farm

 

On Sunday Matt showed us his Dad's farm.  Matt's dad has 23 new calves and one of them was about an hour old when we got there.  So cute to see it teetering around and small.  We had hot dogs, marshmallows, and ran around the woods.  We played pig sticks, Matt and the kids knocked over a dead tree, and just got plain old dirty.  It was so fun.  Thanks Matt and Bill!

first day

 

Our first day in Indiana... we were already so tired that we took the day off... Marg was sick as well so we cleaned for the baptism, slept, played with cousins, and Joe especially was excited to play Killer Bunnies... We told him that we would after we were done cleaning.  He kept trying to speed things up by saying things like, "Wow!  Look at how clean it is in here." and "If you think this is clean enough, raise your hand."  But my favorite thing that he said was when we were driving out with Jim and Judy, Marg and Matt didn't tell their kids... and when we got their and Joe saw Jer he said, "That's just what we needed."

 

 

The only thing that I regret is that we drove through Kansas after a big ice storm and it was amazing!  But I didn't take any pictures.

 

Joseph's Baptism

 

 What a neat experience!  We were invited to go to our cousin Joseph's baptism in Indiana.  We thought, "Heck, we've never visited Matt and Marg's house and we just got our tax returns..."  So we went.  It was so neat to see Joe's priesthood holding dad take his son down into the water and perform this saving ordinance.  It was neat to hear how clearly his Grandma and Mom explained God's plan for us and how we can become like God.  It was neat to see Joe's Methodist Grandpa and Catholic Grandma give the opening and closing prayers.  And it is always neat for me to see my kids and their reactions to the situation.  Sam sang the baptism song like a pro and Ada had a little tear on her cheek.  I asked her if she was okay and she just said that she was happy.  The Spirit can touch the heart of a five year old or a seventy year old.  It was a great time to be reminded of that. 

 

It was also really neat to see how well prepared Marg and Matt were.  It's always a little nerve wracking to plan, prepare for and perform programs.  I just hope that I can be as prepared in two years when it's Ada's turn.  I loved the insert that Marg put into the program, it explained what Joseph was Covenanting with his baptism. 

 

WHAT I PROMISE:

 

1.  I will follow Jesus and always remember Him

2.  I will keep His commandments and repent of my sins

3.  I will stand as a witness for Him at all times and love and help others

 

 

WHAT HEAVENLY FATHER PROMISES:

1.  He will forgive my sins

2.  He will give me the gift of the Holy Ghost

3.  He will give me eternal life with Him in the Celestial Kingdom

 



I will always remember my baptism day.  My dad smiling at me as he helped me into the font, my mom helping me dress into dry clothes afterwards, the warm Spirit testifying in my heart of the covenants I was making with my Eternal Father. 

 

Well done Joe!

 



 

I had to include this... Jer was the "nursery" while we were getting set up.  They played and sang and danced.  Too cute.