River Rafting down the Provo River

Shaun and I, along with four of our friends (Megan, Jason, Stacie, and Andy) went river rafting down the Provo River last weekend. It was a lot of fun. Something I would definitely do again.

We struggled a little bit in the beginning of our trip down the river, but once Shaun took over as captain we did a lot better. I was even able to help row.

We did have one scary moment. We were going to run into an island in the river and so in order to keep us for crashing into the island Andy jumped into the river, but it was a lot deeper than he original thought. We ended up running over Andy with the raft, but luckily he wasn't hurt and he was able to get back on the boat.

Farther down the river Jason starting a water fight with some boy scouts. We has stayed relatively dry up until that point. The boy (both in our raft and the boy scouts) seemed to have a lot of fun with it though, so that is all that matters right?

All in all the day was TONS of fun! I am SO glad we went. It makes me want to go raft something bigger!

Our Group (Andy, Stacie, Shaun, Me, Jason and Megan)

National S'mores Day

This year we learned that August 10th is National S'mores Day and to celebrate our friends, Stacie and Andy, invitied us over for a S'more party! It was a lot of fun. Stacie had bought a lot of different types of candy and things to make our s'mores with. The win of the best s'more is a Reese Peanut Butter Cup S'more! It is SO tasty! That is definitely how I will be eat s'mores from now on!

The spread of yumminess... 

Shaun roasting marshmellows

Me and my SUPER yummy s'more

a close up of the yumminess

Our Second Anniversary!

I honestly can't believe how quickly time has gone by. The past two years have gone by so quickly, but I have enjoyed every moment. I am so glad that I found Shaun and that everything worked out between us! I love him SO much!! He is the best thing that has happened to me. I look forward to being able to spend the rest of my life with him!

For our anniversary, Shaun and I spent the weekend in Logan. It was a lot of fun. We drove up friday night and went to Maddox in Brigham City for dinner. Once we got to Logan and checked into our hotel, we went and saw Despicable Me. It was a really cute show.

Saturday we woke up and started our journey to Bear Lake. Along the way we stopped at the Gossner's cheese factory to get cheese curds (YUMMY!) and then we also made a stop at the Pepperidge Farms factory, but didn't pick anything up there. Then we drove up through Idaho a little bit.

Our next stop was the Minnetonka Cave. We got really lucky and were able to get into a group that we leaving within 15 minutes of us getting there. (The wait when we got there was almost two hours.) Minnetonka Cave is 444 steps in and the same 44 steps out. The tour take approximately 90 minutes. Shaun and I were able to stay at the front of the group the whole tour, something I am very proud of.

Once we were done at the cave we headed to LeBeau's for a yummy lunch and then back to Logan. On the way to back we stopped at the overlook and took some pictures. Once back at our hotel we took a nap, which ended up being way longer than we had planned, but it felt SO nice!!! We then head to dinner and then to Wal-Mart, where we picked up Uno cards. The rest of our evening was spent playing Uno on our bed. It was TONS of fun!

Sunday, we went and took pictures around the Logan Temple and then started home. As we were going through Brigham City we drove by were the new temple is going to be built. I can't wait to go to the open house (yes I do realize it is going to be a long while before that will happen).

It was a really nice weekend away with just the two of us. I love getting to spend time with Shaun without all the distractions we find at home!

Thanks again babe for a wonderful two years of marriage! I look forward to many many more!

The Seven Dwarfs

"Bacon"

The view outside of the cave

Bear Lake

Family Vacation Day 7 and 8- The House and Drive Home

Friday morning we packed up the cars and we all headed to our various destinations. Byron, Kari, Tom, Chelsea and the kids all headed to Indiana (Byron and Kari's house) and Kim, Michelle, Shaun and I back to Utah. It was a long drive home, but it was also pretty fun. While on the road we listened to marriage talks and they gave me a lot of thinks to thing about. We spent Friday night is Cheyenne and then traveled the rest of the way home on Saturday.

It was a very enjoyable trip and I am glad we went. I got to get to know Shaun's family better and I got to see my nieces and nephews! I am looking forward to our night family vacation in 2 years.

Here is a little tour of the house we stayed in.

The Daugherty Mansion

Sun Room

The giant staircase I fell down the first night..

Living Room

Formal Dining room aka "The Computer Room"

Library

 

Kitchen

Staircase #2

Our room

Kim and Michelle's room

Tom and Chelsea's room

Byron and Kari's room

Sun Room #2

This is the only picture on the laundry room I took... We found a frog down there...

Back of the house

 Stan

 Lilly

James F. Daugherty

Family Vacation Day 5 and 6- Nauvoo, Carthage, Quincy & Keokuk

Wednesday morning, Shaun and I decided to head into Nauvoo by ourselves so we could do some exploring on our own. Plus I want to see if there was any chance of being able to go on a carriage ride to Inspiration point, which there wasn't... Since we weren't able to do that we spent some time looking around the visitor center. While there we watched the film "Remembering Nauvoo." It was an excellent film. I really enjoyed it.

Our next stop was the Brickyard, where we were told how they made bricks, which is actually a pretty cool process. At the end of the explanation we received our very own Nauvoo brick (exciting huh? :) ). Other building we visited were the Lucy Mack Smith Home and the Heber C. Kimball home. By this time it was getting really hot outside. It was 96 degrees, but with the humidity it was 106+, which made it not so fun outside.

After touring those to homes we headed up towards the temple. There were a bunch of shops up there to look through. We even found a frozen custard shop. YUMMY! Next stop was the Nauvoo Cheese Factory. It was really just a winery where they sold cheese. Not at cool as we were hoping.

Later that afternoon the whole clan (minus Chelsea) headed to Carthage Jail. I think that Carthage is an awesome experience.The spirit there is definitely strong. I could say more about Carthage, but I will leave it at that.

On Thursday the whole family headed to Quincy, Illinois for the day. Part of the group went to see Toy  Story 3 and the other part of the group (Michelle, Kari, Eliza, Shaun and me) went to the local mall and went shopping. It was a pretty small mall, with not a lot of shops, but it was still fun. Shaun and I found a game shop in the mall, where we ended  up having a lot of fun. The owner of the shop taught us how to play different games, two of which we ended up buying. (Ligretto and Ratuki). Once the others were done with the movie we headed back to Keokuk and had dinner at this pretty good pizza joint.

The rest of our evening consisted of getting things packed up for our drive home the next day. Tom, Kim, Shaun, and I did take a little bit of time to go exploring Keokuk. We ended up at the dam, where we were able to watch a barge get moved through the lock. It was actually pretty cool to watch. Nothing I had ever seen before.

Lucy Mack Smith House

Heber C. Kimball House

Us in front of the Nauvoo Bagpipe Band

The hole left by the bullet that killed Hyrum Smith

The Mighty Mississippi River

The Lock is full

 It's empty now and the doors are opening

and the barge is on the move...

Family Vacation Day 3 and 4: Nauvoo

On Monday, we spent the morning relaxing and checking out the giant house in Keokuk, Iowa we were staying in (pictures to come in last post about vacation...). That afternoon my Mother in Law, Father in Law and I were able to go to the Nauvoo temple to do baptisms for the dead (Thanks for the names Kari). It was a really awesome experience. Michelle and I each did ten names and Kim was able to do the baptizing and confirmations. It was cool. Another awesome experience we had was before we did baptism. All of the people that were there to do baptisms for the dead at that time met in the chapel and we had a little devotional by the Temple President! It was something I had never experienced before, but I am very glad I was able to.
Random fact: Did you know that the Nauvoo Temple has the biggest font? Well they do. It is 16 feet long and 12 feet wide.

After the trip to the temple we head back to the house we were staying in. That evening we had a BBQ and celebrated Shaun, Byron and James' birthdays.  It was a lot of fun.

Tuesday the whole family headed into Nauvoo. Our first stop was the oxen wagon rides. It was pretty fun, it was especially fun to see how excited our nieces and nephews got. After that we headed to the pioneer games area and had some fun. There was something for everyone to do there. After playing there for a while some of the group headed over to the Browning Home and Gunsmith Shop. The guys really seemed to enjoy it.  It was cool to see how they made guns back in the day.

Once we met back up with the rest of the group we headed to the Scovil Bakery and then the Red Brick Store. The second story of the Red Brick Store is where the headquarter for the church was, where the Relief Society was organized and were the first endowments were performed. Pretty neat!

Our last stop of the afternoon was at the temple to take pictures.

That evening everyone, but Kim, attended the Nauvoo Pageant. It was great the first time I saw it (two years ago) and was just as great this time. I am definitely glad we planned the reunion during pageant time. The main cast was really good.

 Bryon and Shaun making dinner

Kari and the Kids (Eliza, Emelie, Michael, James) 

Grandma and Emelie

The Gunshop

 The Nauvoo Bagpipe Band