Adam's Chicago Trip

Adam was born in Chicago and is a big fan of the Bears.  Joe has been promising him for years that he would take him to a Bears game.  This year, he found that the bears had a Thursday night football game, so Joe got tickets for it.  They had a great few day trip:

 They shopped along Michigan Avenue.

 They went to Blue Man Group and sat near the front:

 

 They had brunch at the Signature Room of the John Hancock Building.

 

 It was great for Adam to see all of the places where we lived when he was born, and they had quite a blast!

Braces!

Guess who got braces?  Here is the before pic:

 

I think he looks completely teenagerish with them on.  He's supposed to keep them for about 18 months, but already (6 weeks in) we can see big changes.

First Day of School 2015

The first day of school has come and gone.  The kids weren't as stressed about starting school as I thought they would be.  In fact, Ellie, Nate and Michael were looking forward to school because they were getting bored of being home.

Adam is in 8th grade.  He's at the same school as he was at last year.  This year he has TV broadcasting and theatre as electives.

 Michael is in 6th grade.  He is also at the same school he was at last year.  He is still playing percussion this year.

Ellie is in 4th grade.  This is the last year for her at the elementary school.  She has the best teacher ever- Mrs. Upshaw, and we are super excited that she will get high energy quality learning.

 

 Nate is in 2nd grade.  I cannot believe that he is in 2nd grade, but I am excited for him, he's going to learn so many things this year.

Nauvoo and Carthage, Illinois and Independence, Missouri

The same day that we visited Chicago, we drove over to Nauvoo.  Nauvoo is one of my favorite places, it is so pretty and peaceful there.  We hurried over so that we could see the pageant.  Right before we saw the pageant, there was a very fun variety show that the missionaries out on.  I think that was our favorite part about all of Nauvoo.

The next day, we went and saw Carthage Jail.  Michael was especially interested in the bullet holes in the doors.

The next day, we went back to Nauvoo and toured through some of the houses and went on an oxen ride and also had a tour with a horse drawn carriage. 

In the sculpture garden.

Its hard work to get a picture with this kid smiling. 

 

We made it to Independence, Missouri in time to see the tour of the jail there.  The sister missionary that led the tour was surprisingly accurate with her historical details. 

The next day we toured the Community of Christ temple.  The sanctuary is very beautiful inside.  The goal of that church is to pray for world peace, and their temple is a good representation of that.

There was also another church there.  I never realized that there were several breakoffs of the Mormon church in Independence ( I think we saw 3 different churches there).  The church that owns the lot where the temple was to be built is called the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Temple Plot Church. 

After that, we went and saw Austin and Koni in Oklahoma, and then made it back home.

Overall, it was 6300 miles, 24 different states, 2 lost teeth (one in New York City at a pizza place) and one broken windshield- on the last day :(  .  We had a really good trip, and for the most part we all got along and the kids traveled really well together.  I don't know that we will do this particular trip again, but it was fun to see all of these sites.