Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to Dad!! While I am sad that I can't be there to celebrate Father's Day with him today, I'm glad that I could at least see him this week. He is such a great dad and is one of the most wise people that I know. Poor Dad has had to overcome some serious health struggles, but has always been positive and courageous. Thank you, Dad, for always being so loving and encouraging and for always giving good advice. You are a wonderful example to your whole family! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful dad. I love you, Dad!!!

And I can't believe that tomorrow is my niece Camden's 10th Birthday--Happy Birthday, Cam!! You are growing up so fast and are such a sweet, wonderful girl! 

Bonus Trip!

Last night I returned from a fun-filled BONUS trip to Utah! I had the wonderful opportunity to fly to Salt Lake City on Tuesday for a job interview at the Church History Museum for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Wednesday. Since I flew back to Springfield on Thursday, it was a quick but VERY FUN trip! After Mom picked me up at the airport on Tuesday, we had a yummy lunch at one of our favorite places: Archibald's at Gardner Village! Later that afternoon we had a fun visit to the Barrett's, then a fun visit with Grandma, and yummy Thai food with Dad later in the evening. 

The next morning we got up bright and early, and Mom drove me up to Salt Lake City for the big interview. It was actually a series of three interviews which spanned three hours, but the time flew by because everyone at the museum was SO NICE, and I felt good about how everything went. Since we were already in SLC, Mom and I decided to have a little fun.  

It's harder than you might think to take a picture of yourselves and get the Salt Lake Temple in the picture too! By lunchtime things were pretty busy downtown, but Mom and I went up to the Garden Restaurant at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and had a wonderful lunch with a great view of the city.

After lunch we headed back to Utah Valley and stopped to see Grandma one more time.

And that evening we had the Barretts over for a fun dinner and movie night. Dinner was extra tasty and featured, among other delicious items, lil' smokie pigs in a blanket dipped in J Dawgs sauce. Yummmmmmmm.

The movie night movie was, very appropriately, "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian."

On Thursday morning before heading to the airport, Mom, Dad, and I went for a nice Flag Day walk. Here are Mom and Dad with some of the flags in the background.

And here are Mom and me with some beautiful flowers.

And Dad and me in the cool neighborhood gazebo. It was such a beautiful day! As always, it was sad to leave, but I was so grateful for the opportunity to be there--even just for a couple of days (we sure fit a lot of fun into those two days!)--and to have the job interview at the museum. I should find out about the job within the next couple of weeks. Please keep your fingers crossed for me! On my way to and from Utah I flew through Dallas--so I was there on Tuesday and Thursday; and I just found out today that on Wednesday they had tornadoes in Dallas--yikes!!

Cardinal Dad

This evening Greg and I enjoyed watching the birds on our back patio. We saw this pretty dad Cardinal with his little baby. You can see that the baby's feathers are just starting to turn red.

Then the CUTEST thing happened--the dad Cardinal started picking up seeds from the ground and feeding them to his little baby!

This guys looks like he enjoys being a dad.

Family Fun!

We just had the most fun week EVER!!!! On Saturday Mom, Dad, and Rich flew into St. Louis, and Greg and I took them to their first-ever St. Louis Cardinals game. It was a beautiful sunny day, but it was very hot.

Unfortunately the game was pretty rough for the Cardinals. In fact, the most exciting play was the very first play of the game, and it went downhill from there. But the COOLEST thing that happend was when one of the MC guys came around and was asking people where they were from. He asked Richard, and when Richard answered, "Utah," the guy said, "Utah???? Well stand up!" (I guess that Utah sounded like a pretty foreign place!)

And then they featured Richard on the JUMBOTRON in front of 45,000 people saying that he was from American Fork, Utah. It was so cool!! He is totally famous.

We had a man in front of us take a picture of all of us, and it wasn't until I put the picture onto my computer that I noticed the funny lady behind us :) Since the Cardinals were getting creamed by the Phillies we were able to leave a little early to avoid the big crowds and traffic jams. We made it home to Springfield, and the Spikes and Lily got to meet Dad and Rich for the first time (they met Mom three years ago when she came out for a visit). Everyone got along quite splendidly!

 

On Sunday we got up bright and early for church, and then after church we had a fun picnic on the shores of Lake Springfield.

After our picnic we headed home to regroup, and then we went to see Abraham Lincoln's Tomb and some of the war memorials at the cemetery. It was a very nice pre-Memorial Day activity.

On Monday (Memorial Day) we met up with our friend Alice and a couple of her family members who were visiting for the holiday, and I took everyone on a tour of the Military Museum. Richard especially liked the new F-16 trainer in the museum lobby.

Here we are with Santa Anna's leg!

 

And here we are in front of the museum. One of the most significant Memorial Day-related artifacts we saw at the museum was John A. Logan's frock coat--because it was John A. Logan who issued the offical order that created Decoration Day (now Memorial Day) back in 1868!

That afternoon while Dad took a little rest from museum-ing and Greg did some BBQ preparations, I took Mom and Rich to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum--always a big hit! That evening we had a wonderful Memorial Day BBQ with our cute friends the Atkins.

On Tuesday morning we met my friend Susan at the Lincoln Home, and she gave us a wonderful tour. Here I am with Rich, Dad, and Mom on the back porch where A. Lincoln used to stretch out and take naps.

Here we are in front of the Lincoln Home.

And here I am with Susan--she is such a great friend! She went to lunch with us at the Brickhouse, and we had a really great time; although Richard's buffalo chicken sandwich had the BIGGEST piece of chicken on it that I have ever seen!

After lunch, while the boys went to the Korean War Museum, Mom and I went on a little outing to Del's Popcorn Shop to revive ourselves :) This is where I used to come with my friend Melissa when we needed to be revived on those long, hot Living History days at the Lincoln Home. After our downtown adventures, we spent the evening relaxing and just enjoying being together.

On Wednesday we took Mom, Dad, and Rich to see Sarah, Joel, Eliza, and Leo in Carbondale! On our way down south we stopped in the cute little town of Lebanon, IL and ate at this very quaint restaurant: the Tapestry Room. It was a great discovery!

The kiddos have gotten SO BIG since the last time I saw them! Here is Leo wearing Eliza's sunglasses riding his Thomas bike. It was so fun to hear him tell us all about Thomas--his favorite train in the whole world. He was a little shy around all of us until someone mentioned Thomas, and then he realized we were okay people :)

Here are the kiddos chilling with Uncle Rico.

And here is Leo with Grandma. So serious! :)

And here we are celebrating Sarah's birthday together (hooray that we got to see her on her actual birthday!).

Eliza and Leo had some crazy cool light-up glasses. They were so happy to see Grandpa and Grandma! (Leo's name for Dad--aka Grandpa--is "Punka.") Greg and I enjoyed spending the night with everyone there in Carbondale.

On Thursday we had a fun picnic at a cool castle park. Unfortunately the picnic got a little wet when a thunderstorm hit, but it certainly made it exciting! And luckily we were able to eat our food before the heavy rain came.

After lunch we enjoyed visiting the SIU bookstore where Eliza found this cool "rocking Saluki" to try. SIU's mascot is a Saluki--a type of dog. We just had SO MUCH FUN with everyone! I was really sad when Greg and I had to leave to head back to Springfield on Thursday afternoon (Mom, Dad, and Rich spent the day with the Agates today, and then the Agates will take them back to the airport in St. Louis tomorrow). But we are so glad that we got to spend a few wonderful days with everyone! Thank you for the funnest visit ever!!!!

Armed Forces Day

Yesterday at the museum we celebrated Armed Forces Day! But the people in charge of our events forgot to publicize them in the newspaper, so we didn't have very many visitors. But it was still a good day. The most interesting addition to our typical lineup of military vehicles was the armored personnel carrier.

Who hasn't wondered what the inside of an armored personnel carrier looks like?

Good thing I didn't have to drive it around though!

Today when we got home from church, we found packages of cat and dog treats scattered throughout the house. Can you spot Tiger Lily's route to the top of the fridge to retrieve said treats? We are running out of places to put things where she can't get to them!