Summer Vacation

Beautiful Nauvoo

Mississippi River Warning: long, but this is my journal entry for the summer!

We made it home! What a fabulous solid two weeks with all six of us together!

We headed out Friday the 17th to Nauvoo, Illinois. Ryan's baby sister Whitney came with us and we drove straight 25 hours to see Mom and Dad (Sister and Elder) Torrie on their mission there. We got there Saturday afternoon and stopped long enough to say a quick hello, eat lunch, shower, and then started the 7 hour drive to Muncie, Indiana. We stayed with Bishop Boyce and his wife and daughter Emily and son Ryan. Thanks for letting us crash your place with only a couple hours notice!

and went to church to give hugs to our old ward members. Ryan had a reunion with all of the medical residents from his class. When we started residency in 2003 Brayden and Kate were the only children. At this reunion there were 16, I think. Crazy! Everyone looked great and we hope to have them all up here some time...HA! We stayed over night with our great neighbors Herb and Judy who took care of us when we lived in Indiana. They always had fresh vegetables, pork ribs, help with canning, and a warm smiley face! We miss them too! We drove the 7 hours back to Nauvoo and stayed there until Sunday evening. I can hardly remember all that we saw in Nauvoo. I have to admit that about midway through the week I had an emotional break down! It is so hard to catch the spirit of a place when you are trying to keep your kids from breaking all the fragile and antique items that are everywhere! "Stay off the chair"," just sit still and watch","don't touch that old medicine bottle","just sit still and listen", "no you can't have more bread", "don't touch that pottery", "yes that is Grandpa but you can't do his job"! AAH! It didn't help that the time had changed and we were lacking in the sleep department! But after a nice long cry to Beckie (sorry you had to get the whole low down), and Ryan forgiving me for blaming everything on him, a hug from Mom and Dad, and a full night sleep I was ready for the rest of the week. We watched Mom and Dad perform in "Sunset on the Mississippi" where they played their banjo, violin, water bottles, and danced for us all. They also put on a play called "Rendezvous" about people who were in Nauvoo at the time the Mormon's were chased out in the middle of winter. We took the kids to see a cute kids play with a puppet show called "Just Plain Anna Amanda" it taught the kids about being happy with who they are. It was one of the few times that the kids sat and listened and interacted really well!

They also enjoyed the little school and using the chalk boards to write.

Dad took us on oxen and horse rides and we had time to have nice meals together. The Pageant was a nice show as well. I don't remember all the details because I was trying to hold three of my four kids who fell asleep!

I can't believe the hours that Mom and Dad put in each day. Dad has to take care of the horses at the barn, and Mom helps feed the young performing missionaries. She also takes care of the gardens. They were wasted every night and still came to visit with us! Love you tons!Church was interesting with about 800 people in attendance. We stayed in a nice suite with Chass and Mitch and their family, Becky and Whitney were around too. The kids did lots of swimming with Brooklyn and Colby practicing their, "STOP, LOOK and ASK" from swimming lessons in early July. It was fun to celebrate Tyson's 6th birthday with the Grandparents. So Sunday night we took off for the 20 hour drive to Utah. We made it non stop, but at 1:30 in the morning when we stopped to fill up with gas I noticed that the van was making a funny click sound. I reminded Ryan that I had not had time to have the oil changed before we left-I won't tell you when I had it done last...Ryan checked the dipstick and sure enough it was dry. He bought two quarts of oil and after putting both of them in the dipstick was still dry. Yikes! He bought two more and after putting 1 and 1/2 in it was okay. Whoops! Lucky we stopped when we did and that our car didn't explode in the middle of Wyoming!
We stayed with Hilary and Armando a couple days in Logan and really relaxed. It was nice to just let the kids play with their cousins and not have to be anywhere or sit still. We did go to the park and swimming pool with Ashley (Pace's wife) and her son Tarek and Becky (Scot's wife) and her son Denton.We had a quick visit with Mel and Raeghn. The kids loved jumping on their trampoline, playing in the sand box, and Brayd riding the gator with Wayne. Those kids are so grown up! Raeghn looks great with her sixth pregnancy-good luck! After that we stayed with my parents. We went to Preston to say hi to my Grandma and Grandpa Jepsen then off to the Preston parade,then the carnival, and caught the last 20 minutes of the rodeo in. It was a nice night even though it was late getting home! Brayden wanted me to add that the kids got light up swords at the carnival. Brayden, Ryan, Alex, Armando, and Tyson waited in the Ferris wheel line for over and hour! They all seemed like they still had fun and were in a good mood! Friday we finally got all the family together for dutch oven potatoes and jumping on the trampoline. Shana is hilarious on that thing! Grandparents Jepsen came for supper and we just had a nice visit. We were originally planning on driving home Saturday, but remembered Ryan was scheduled for call Sunday so we left after supper Friday night. Ryan drove the first six hours to Helena, Montana and we stopped there because Brooklyn was waking up in discomfort. We stayed in a Days Inn for five hours then got up and fed the kids breakfast and headed the rest of the way home.
So here we are to today! Ryan was on call and I have seen him for 45 minutes all day! He left before I woke up and came home fora short nap. It is 5pm and almost time to get the kids ready for bed.
It's good to be home. This is how our new house has been coming a long since we were gone. This is the walk-out basement. It has been raining since we came home so not much else has happened.