Claire and Jane completed their first season of swim team and did an awesome job! I was so excited for them. It made me cry almost every meet to see them swim their hearts out. I was obnoxiously loud and William tried to put enough distance between him and I so people wouldn't know for sure if he was with me. He likes to impersonate me and tease me relentlessly. I can't help it though. When my girls are swimming in a race, my cheerleading spirit comes out and I cannot hold back. Claire and Jane improved by leaps and bounds over the short six week season and even got ribbons at the final championship race. Can you tell I am slightly pleased with their efforts? Go Claire and Jane!!!!
July 19th we loaded up the van and drove to Nauvoo, IL to visit the historic sights, go to the temple and see B and Papa who are serving a mission there. We also happened to see lots of youth from our Stake when they came up for Youth Conference. It was so fun to see all the kids I used to dance with when I was young women's president. My mom, sister Betsy, nephew Eli, and niece Meilani met us in Nauvoo and from the moment we arrived until we drove out of town, we were busy. We saw lots of shows, visited most of the historic homes and sights, danced at the Frontier Country Fair, saw the pageant, went to the temple, cooled off in B and Papa's apartment while eating delicious vittles and enjoyed the spirit of Nauvoo. I think we were there during the hottest week of the year and probably sweated enough to lose several pounds, but it made us appreciate all that the pioneers endured that much more. One of my favorite activities was walking "The Trail of Hope" and listening to the actors who portrayed the pioneers who had to leave Nauvoo behind. It was very moving. This was my third time visiting Nauvoo, but my first time going since the new pageant. It was a whole new experience because there weren't masses of people everywhere. Now that the pageant runs all month long, the visitors are spread out and don't all arrive at once. We didn't have to wait in any lines to see the sights and could easily get tickets for all the shows we wanted. When we left Nauvoo we drove to Carthage and were able to tour the jail where Hyrum and Joseph Smith were martyred. My testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ was strengthened and I am truly grateful for all that the early pioneers endured and suffered. Nauvoo is such a special place. The kids wish we lived there. Did I mention they wore their Pioneer dresses Grandma C made? Everyone kept asking if they were in Pageant. They looked like they belonged there. I can't wait to go back again. We loved it!
Mom, Betsy, Eli and Meilani, drove back to Missouri with us and stayed a couple of nights. We went swimming at the local pool and rode the roller coasters at Silver Dollar City. Mom and Betsy even helped me out with my Pioneer Sharing Time for Primary. We all wore our Pioneer clothes to church for the 24th of July and then told pioneer stories, sang pioneer songs and even turned cream into butter and ate it on homemade bread. It was such a hit! Monday morning they drove out of town with Claire in their car and took her off to California.
On the way, they stopped in Utah where Claire and Meilani got to spend two nights at Grace and Mary's house. "Lucky!" Jane says. I hear they stayed up, with permission, until 2:30 in the morning dancing! Aunt Julie is a lot nicer than me for sure.
Thursday, they made it to California and Claire got to stay the night at Uncle Neil and Aunt Anikai's house. Friday morning, Meilani and Claire got to go to the beach with Meilani's young women's group. I told Claire she had to go in the ocean for me. She ended up going in up to her chest, but said it was freezing! The girls also set crab traps and Claire caught an 8-inch crab that was poisonous because it is mating season for that species. She gladly put it back in the bay. I spoke with her tonight and the only thing she seemed bummed about was Uncle Neil said she had to take a shower after coming home from the beach. She didn't seem to see the point. I assured her it was for the best.
Since Claire has been gone, we've done a whole lot of cleaning up. Jane didn't think it was too fair that all the company left and she got the fun job of cleaning. We've just been playing so much that everything seemed to pile up. I think we are pretty caught up by now though. We've been to the pool a few times, William and I went on a date, he bought me a cute new skirt and shirt, we had a tri-ward potluck and tomorrow is my last day of sharing time for a c0uple months. My next job to tackle is to A) learn everything there is to learn about Scouting and B)organize a closet and get the mending done.
Whew! Time for bed. I am looking forward to a day of rest tomorrow. I am truly grateful for Sundays.
Have any of you read "The Goose Girl" by Shannon Hale? You should. I couldn't put it down.
