nauvoo, part deux

welcome back! last we saw our heroes they were heading to bed after a wonderful nauvoo pageant. the next day was sunday so we were off to church in the morning. after sacrament meeting the entire family of 45 headed over to the temple for pictures. it's a good-looking group. :)

after pictures, we let claire and everett take a quick tour of the outside of the temple. claire was a little upset that she couldn't go inside, but all the pretty flowers on the temple grounds kept her satisfied. we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging around the campground socializing and playing games.

that evening we circled the tables around the campfire and had a big family talent show. there was some wonderful music, brilliant kids were put on display, cool things were made, and many other fantastic talents. the video may be a bit long, but there was just too many fun talents to leave out. after the talent show, we all enjoyed some yummy smores.

the next morning the kids all got their last chance to play together for a long while while the adults broke camp. we said our sad goodbyes as group after group left. right after lunch we said our final goodbyes and hit the road back to st. louis. we made it to denver for our stopover before finding out our last flight was delayed two hours. it made for a fun experience as we all sat around talking and playing in the airport. we finally got to salt lake at 2 am, my awesome brother picked us all up again, and we were finally back in our own beds at 3 am.

it's sad to think that it'll be so long before all of amber's family is together again. this was a big one. family came from all over the world for this one. it really was special. and while amber and i have come to the conclusion that camping is not for us (we hate bugs! - see amber's poor leg in the last picture), it was worth it to make some great memories with those whom we love so dearly. 

nauvoo, part one

nearly a year and a half ago, amber's parents were called to serve a mission to the nauvoo temple. as mom and dad's mission draws to a close, the entire mcclellan clan decided to gather together with our parents for a family reunion. and when i say entire clan, i do mean nearly everyone. which is a lot. all eleven kids (including amber's brother all the way from taiwan) were able to make it, so this was a big moment. back in my younger years, i was lucky enough to do the whole church historical tour thing and had been to nauvoo. i unfortunately can't recall too much of it as the years have pillaged my mind (and sadly blessed my gut with far too much bounty - stupid years!) 

our trip began very early thursday morning (3 a.m. - good gravy it was early). 12 of us utahns decided that driving just wasn't going to work for us, so we would be flying. my brother (at stinking 3 in the morning) was kind enough to use his big ole van and drop off most of us at the airport. bless that good man. now this trip marked a lot of firsts. this was claire and everett's first time flying, which claire was pretty excited about. she had talked about it for months leading up to the trip. this also marked amber and i's first time flying together. we learned a lot about each other. :) we had a quick stopover in denver, before flying to st louis. in st louis, we rented a 12-passenger van and drove the remaining 3 hours to nauvoo. it was a fun experience.

we pulled into nauvoo and headed straight to our campground to find most of the family already gathered. it's always so great to see family, especially when it's been so long. we set up camp, explored the campgrounds a bit, and got comfy.

the next morning we headed into town and caught a fun, children-friendly play. the kids loved it. it was especially fun seeing one of our nephews get pulled up on stage as part of the show. we then headed over to this area where they had lots of pioneer games to play. this was probably claire and everett's favorite part of the whole week. :)

we spent most of the afternoon playing around at the campsite. the kids loved the little towel swing their uncle set up!

in the evening we headed to the little festival they had back in town. we danced, colored, made dolls, raced in gunny sacks, rode in a pushcart, and watched a puppet show. it was a very fun evening. we then headed back to camp to get some sleep.

saturday morning we got the full nauvoo tour on a horse-drawn wagon. while fun, it was a little bit long for our liking. after our wagon tour, we headed down to the lake to play for a bit. that afternoon, all the adults went and did a session in the nauvoo temple. it was wonderful seeing nearly everyone in the temple. that evening we went and watched the beautiful nauvoo pageant. it was a late night so both our young ones fell asleep at the pageant (everett took a little bit more work than claire, but they both were out by the end). our week continued, but because of the length of this blog, we'll pause here and continue with part two after a word from our sponsors. :)

Pioneer Day

One of the reasons I love living in Utah is that Pioneer Day is a whole new holiday. An extra day to  do fun things and visit with family. :) This year we went to the Spanish Fork parade in the morning. One of our old singles ward friends was able to save us a spot last minute (thanks Emily!) and we had a pretty good view of the parade. Claire was mostly excited about the idea that candy would be thrown her way. Sadly we learned that unless we let our kids stand out into the street where we didn't want them to, you don't get much candy. :(  We were able to snag a couple pieces once though and I think she was happy with it.

We went back home after the parade and Scott got some sleep so that in the evening we could have more fun. We walked around the fair grounds in Spanish Fork, and visited family and got ice cream at Maceys and tried to waste some time until the fireworks started. They don't start the fireworks until 11 pmish. Late. :) Our kids had fun though. Around 9:30 pm, we headed to the sports park and the young ones played on the softball field with cousins. There were personal fireworks going off all around us and Claire and Everett got super excited about them. They then turned off all the lights at the park and it was so dark, but then our big show started right above us, and it was awesome.  :)

FHE to the Grotto

We've been wanting to take our kids on a hike for a while now, but we also worried we'd end up having to carry them the whole time. We decided to try a short hike for Family Home Evening up in Payson Canyon, to the Grotto.  It was the perfect first hike for our little ones. It was short and easy, lots of pretty trees and plants. They saw rocks and bugs and a waterfall. It was fun. I don't think they loved the waterfall at the end or taking their shoes off and getting their feet wet (I think the water was cold and rocks were rough on their feet), but they loved walking across the bridges!

After our hike we got some ice cream at Maceys, and decided to eat it at the splash pad. Our kids were already plenty dirty from the hike and then eating their ice cream so they got to play in the water and get a little wet as well. We had such a fun evening. :)