Nauvoo

We had the opportunity to go to a sealing a couple of weeks ago for some friends of ours in our ward. They choose to be sealed in the Nauvoo temple, how cool is that?! My trial came when trying to find a babysitter. We decided to go up and come back all in the same day, which put us in the car for about 7 hours total. I did finally find a babysitter and she was gracious enought to come with us on our trip! When we arrived, Derek asked her if she brought her diver's licence. She said she did, so he gave her the keys and said, "Have fun in Nauvoo." I hadn't ever thought of that! I was just grateful to have someone watch our kids. What better place to let a teenager loose with your first, second and third-born! Speed limit:5 and enough wholesome activities to keep you busy for days. She did awesome and Derek and I were able to do a session before the sealing!

I have never been to a temple sealing before where they bring the children in to be sealed to the parents. The second they brought those two little girls in, I lost it. I'm pretty sure there wasn't a dry eye in the room. A box of kleenex slowly made its way around. I thought for a couple of days afterwards about how I could explain the joy that was felt in that room that day. The only thing I could think of to relate was how you feel when you watch a long lost child reunite with a parent. My heart just brimmed as I watched this family reunite spiritually with their Father in Heaven. I will forever be grateful for the opportunity we had to be there with them!

Here are some pictures I took of them after the sealing and on the temple grounds. It was a bit humbling to try and capture what was so very special about that day. I was also reminded that I'm really not very good at children's photography. But I am my own self critic and I'll share with you my favorites here! There was another family sealed that day who were all cousins to our friends, hence all the children!

Every time I walk the steps up to the front door of the temple, I always feel this multidude of angels who were there long before building this great House to the Lord. This time was no exception! Here are all the children from both families coming out of the temple.

Here are our friends! Meet Anna, age 6. Here's Becca, age 3.

Anna got a frown on her face and little Becca played along! I couldn't resist capturing this!

The day happened to be some 94 degrees outside with some nice humidity to suit. We stopped by the local convenience store and picked up ice cream cones for our family. I looked over to see my sweet Tanner. Honestly, I don't know WHY I'm still in shock, he's always been this messy, I guess I just hope....maybe someday....okay, maybe not.

BYU's Vocal Point happened to be performing that night. I asked our babysitter if she'd like to stay to see them, or go home. Super dumb question. NINE handsome LDS college guys who can sing and dance. They happen to have taken first place internationally too! It was a FABULOUS concert. The best part was letting our kids run and dance around on the grass behind the chairs through the whole concert.

I caught this picture as the sun was setting over the Mississippi River. The statues depict Jospeh and Hyrum Smith as they left Nauvoo for the last time.

TV Station

I had a prego moment and showed up this morning for the TV station field trip instead of tomorrow morning. Fortunately, Michelle Linn, the news anchor, saw us out in the parking lot, let us in, and gave us our own private tour anyway! I was so embarrassed! Both she and her co-anchor, Jeff (the weatherman) were super cool and made us feel right at home.

We arrived in enough time for them to show us around their little studio and explain what a teleprompter is, what the cameras and extra screens around the room were, and why the set is the way it is.

There were a few minutes while Michelle was getting her act together, ha ha, so the tech guys upstairs started playing with what showed up on the screen. They put up a dolphin, a wasp, Thomas Jefferson's head, etc. Michelle had them stand against the green wall so they could see themselves superimposed with each image. The kids swam with the dolpin, and flew with the wasp. Here they are flying through space!

Then they asked us to be super quiet and they went on the air!

They were on the air for just about 2 minutes for a short break inbetween the Morning Show. Michelle reported on the power outage from last night's storm and Jeff gave a very short blurb about today's weather. In fact, it was so short, he was off before I could get a picture of him in action!

Afterwards, Michelle showed the kids how the green wall worked. Here they are trying their hand at Jeff's job. Pointing!

Then Jeff tilted the camera a bit and made them all as tall as the weather graph.

Michelle gets up about 12:30am and arrives in the studio about 2am. They work to prepare news blurbs and present broadcasts thoughout the early morning hours. Then they go home about 9am. Tanner asked her if she ever has breakfast for dinner and she said, "no, but a lot of times I'll grab a burger or a slice of pizza on my way home. So, I have dinner for breakfast!"

Michelle has 3 children ages 4, 2 and 1. I asked her how she likes her job from a mother's point of view. She said she is grateful for the schedule that allows her to be with her kids during the day. She goes to bed with her kids about 6:30pm which gives her a full day with her family and time somehow sufficient to have a job too.

They told us how they've trained the cameras not to film anything that has the royal green color in it. Then they brought out a long piece of green cloth to make the kids become invisible!

At the end of our tour they took us up stairs to see behind the scenes. Here we found a rather small room covered in gadgets and monitors from floor to ceiling and a smiling crew! These were the guys who had all the fun with kids on the screen. I think the kids made their day!

Michelle explains how the head sets work so they can communicate from upstairs with the tech guys and directors, to downstairs with the news anchors.

Colin took one look at this sound board with all its buttons and knobs and went WILD! It was all I could do to keep him away from it. This would be a perfect job for him!

In the end I am very glad we came on the wrong day. This field trip was a huge treat for us! Even though we don't have a TV, the kids loved it!

These boots will go a walkin'...

Yes, that's just what they'll do!



Yes, this little guy is officially WALKING!! Glory BE! At 16 months and 3 weeks old, he now lets go of a piece of furniture and slowly puts one foot in front of the other. Yep, pretty soon here, we're going to be twinners in the waddle department! He still prefers all fours to get somewhere FAST, which he does amazingly well, but I gotta give him credit, he's been practicing an awful lot these last couple of days on just two.

I caught this picture back in June. How he LOVES to spin those wheels!

Where's Emily?

I got a call from my sister yesterday morning. "Do you realize that you haven't blogged in TWO months? Where have you been?"

Then last night I got a call from my mom. "You haven't posted anyting for TWO months! What's up?"

I guess I can't complain about getting phone calls!

Sorry to be lost in cyberspace, but I do have a few good excuses. I really HAVE been trying to "keep it simple", which has meant that blogging has somehow gone out the door these days. I promise I'm not lost forever and am slowing making my way back to the blogging world.

However, depite my lack of internet presence, I have noticed that my blog hits have remained nearly the same each week. To those of you who stop by faithfully each week, I don't know who you are, but thanks for not giving up on me!

Emily