A FAIRly great week

This has been a fun and BUSY week! On Tuesday Greg and I went up to Peoria for one last Peoria Chiefs game. It was the perfect evening for baseball, and we got to see the Chiefs' pitcher set a new stadium record for number of strikeouts. We also won a free burger at Hardees because the pitcher struck out one particular player three times!

On Thursday I was able to participate in the annual State Fair Twilight Parade with the museum staff and volunteers! I got to ride in the Humvee this year, which was good because the crowd got a little rowdy as we neared the fair grounds.

Here is the HUGE crowd inside the fair grounds.

On Friday two of my favorite Lincoln Home friends--Matt and Melissa--visited me at the museum! Melissa works in Richmond, Virginia, and Matt works in Independence, Missouri, and I have missed them SO MUCH! Greg and I had fun at dinner with them and some of our other Lincoln Homies that evening.  

Yesterday was my last day of work at the museum, so to celebrate Greg and I went to the State Fair with our friends Rose and Chris after work. Greg tried something new this year--fried cheesecake, which apparently looks like a Twinkie (as does most of the other fried food at the fair).

Look who Rose and I found!! But what was Abraham Lincoln doing in Ethnic Village? I suppose it wouldn't be the Illinois State Fair without Lincoln! And you will notice that I am holding a large and very delicious watermelon lemonade--my new favorite drink.

And here is the butter cow because we have to have a picture of the butter cow every year (and this year there is a butter girl too).

We had a great evening at the fair!

And since yesterday was my last day at work, I took a picture of my Mormon War display, which is now out on display in the museum. It was a good last hurrah for my time there. I did enjoy working at the Illinois State Military Museum, but I am so excited for my new job in Utah and our new adventures there that I don't mind leaving this museum. This has been a very busy week, and I think it will keep getting more busy until I leave!

Last Sliders Game

On Friday I found out the date when I will start working at the Church History Museum! I will start on September 4, so I'll actually be leaving Springfield in about two-and-a-half weeks to give myself a little time in Utah before I start work. So Greg and I realized that we have a lot of things that we need to fit in before I leave! Our first order of business was attending one last Springfield Sliders game.

It was a beautiful, perfect evening for baseball.

And the Sliders even won (which is kind of unusual)! We have enjoyed going to Springfield Sliders games, Peoria Chiefs games, and St. Louis Cardinals games, but luckily there are some good baseball teams in Utah too--and there is always BYU football!

A Blast from the Past

What a great last few days it has been! We've had a couple of blasts from the past around here. First off, on Thursday Greg and I headed to Charleston, IL to visit some of our favorite friends: the Stowell Family! The Stowells were my adopted family while I was at graduate school, and I'm so glad that we have stayed in touch. It was wonderful to see them again!

Here we were in 2008 just before I left Charleston.

And here we are four years later in 2012--everyone is all grown up! We had a great time eating Thai food and catching up on everything. I couldn't believe how grown up all of the kids are! It will be sad to be really far away from them when Greg and I move to Utah, but hopefully we'll be able to visit each other every so often. It was SO FUN to see them!!!

Greg and I also had to stop by campus to visit the bookstore, and of course I had to get a picture by Old Main. I really did enjoy my time at EIU. We also stopped by to see two of my great professors Mr. Riccio and Dr. Small. We had a wonderful visit with them.

On our way home we saw something that we hadn't seen in a long time: rain and a rainbow! Too bad none of the rain fell in Springfield--everything is SO dry here.

And then this weekend we had another blast from the past when our two wonderful friends David and Teal came to visit! They were in St. Louis for a wedding, so they swung up to Springfield before flying back to Washington. We were able to get together with a lot of our fun Lincoln Home friends and reminisce about the good times that we had when we all worked at Lincoln Home (before things went downhill).

We went "Looking for Lincoln" at the giant Scheels store in Springfield. :) It was great to see David and Teal, and we're glad that we'll be a little closer to them when we move to Utah!

A Visit from the Bowles

This week Greg's parents came to visit! And we got a new air conditioner! So it was a good week. Greg's parents arrived on Monday, and on Tuesday evening we had a nice time attending the flag lowering ceremony at Lincoln's Tomb. Although it was REALLY hot outside! At least we weren't wearing wool uniforms like the 114th Regiment soldiers though. And at least the house was nice and cool when we got home that evening :)

Here are the soldiers in front of the Tomb. The flag lowering ceremony is so neat!

I had to take a picture of this man's shirt--it made me laugh :) Words to live by . . .

Also this week I put together a new mini exhibit display for the museum. When I discovered the "Mormon War" cannonball in our collection, my boss told me that if I could find something else to go with it, I could create a display about the Mormon War. So I was going through our artifact records, and I discovered that we had a pistol that belonged to the Adjutant General of Illinois during the Mormon War period, and that he was involved with the troops who were sent to Nauvoo to "keep the peace"! I couldn't believe it when I discovered the link to the Mormon War!

So I put together this display, and my boss really likes it, so he said we can find a place for it in the museum. I'm really glad because it seems that the Mormons in Illinois kind of get glossed over in Illinois history--but with the Nauvoo Legion and the Battle of Nauvoo, the Mormon period is a significant part of Illinois military history.

So we had a fun week here hanging out with Greg's parents--we had a nice visit to Tuscola to do some shopping on Thursday, and then they left for Iowa on Saturday. This coming week should be busy and fun as well. It is also going to get really hot again this week, but luckily we have air conditioning now! And coming up this week is Pioneer Day--one of my favorite holidays!!

Nauvoo and Big News

I have some big news: on April 7, 2012, I applied for a Museum Educator job at the Church History Museum for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. In May I had a phone interview for the job, and then in June they flew me out to Salt Lake for an in-person interview. Then, this last Wednesday something amazing happened: they called and offered the job to me!!! I couldn't believe it! It was such a good offer that I accepted it on the spot (and Greg and I had already decided that I should take it if it was offered). So we will be moving back to Utah! We're not exactly sure what the time table will be yet, as the Church is still deciding what my exact start date will be. But I will probably be heading out to Utah sometime in mid-to-late August to start working. Greg may need to stay here in Illinois for a little while to get things squared away with selling our condo, but then we'll make the big move out there. We will miss our dear friends here in Illinois, but we are very excited to start a new chapter in our lives and for this wonderful opportunity!

On Thursday we had the opportunity to visit our favorite place: Nauvoo! I was especially happy to be there and to think that my new job will be to tell people about the history of the Church--how cool is that? Greg and I were able to visit the Nauvoo Temple first thing in the morning, and then we met up with our friends Colby and Michelle and their cute kids who were visiting from Utah. (Colby was one of Greg's missionary companions.)

We had a wonderful day touring the city. It was pretty hot, but it was beautiful, as always. Here is one of my favorite views of the temple: from behind Jonathan Browning's home and gunsmith shop.

And the lily pads were out on the river!

We saw this new store on Mulholland Street and knew that we had to take a picture because we are, after all, a pair a Bowles! We had a wonderful visit to Nauvoo--we even discovered a new lunch spot. We asked one of the missionaries in town what he would recommend for lunch, and he said that we should try Pete's Place. It is a funny little burger joint on the outskirts of town by an RV Park. It looked a little scary, but the food was great. What a fun day!

This week we will get a new air conditioner--it's been pretty hot at our place! But we have AMAZING friends here. Tonight there was a knock on the door, and it was our friends, the Atkins, delivering a portable air conditioner, a giant fan, and some popsicles. They are so sweet, and now we will be able to survive until Tuesday. And this week Greg's parents are coming for a visit, so it will be a great week! Greg informed me today that I have not stopped smiling since Wednesday--I am just so excited about the job :)