May and our Nauvoo Trip

The benefit of having Mckay's birthday on May 1 is that the month starts out with a bang!  This year Mckay wanted a pirate party, so I made my little pirate a cool cake and had way too much fun picking out fun party-ware for the event.  The best part of his birthday was having his Grandma England visit, along with his aunt Cassidy and uncle Cody.  They arrived late afternoon the day of Mckay's birthday, so we met them at Mall of America, rode a few fun rides, went to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, and then headed home for cake and ice cream.  It was so fun to watch Mckay during this whole day, because he knew that it was his special day, and he got so excited by the smallest things.  He really is a sweet, naturally happy little boy.  We love him so much!

 Cassidy, Jeannette, and I at the Rainforest Cafe.

We were sad to see Jeannette leave after two days, but were so happy that Cassidy and Cody were able to stay for almost an entire week.  While they were there, we went lots of fun places.  We took them to the Mill Museum, and, as you can see from the picture above, they were fascinated by how logs were sorted and floated down the Mississippi River.

In no time at all, Claire had wrapped Uncle Cody around her little finger.

This is a picture of Logan reading to Claire.  Being my current two-year-old, this little boy is often the main character in stories of exasperation and desperation.  I'm afraid that because of this, I don't always give him credit for his thoughtfulness and kindness. This picture is a good reminder of juste how amazing and sweet Logan is.

Towards the end of May, Mckay graduated from preschool!  This preschool was such a great experience for both him and I.  It took a lot of work planning and teaching these lessons, but I learned so much, and so did he.  I'm so proud of him and how much he learned and grew throughout this year.

Over Memorial Day Weekend, we decided to head down to Nauvoo.  It was only a six hour drive, and  we figured we should go while we lived so close.  I'm convinced that going over Memorial Day weekend is the best time of all, because it's the weekend that all the summer events open, but it's not overly crowded and it's not too hot.  We had a great time.  Above is a picture of Claire and I enjoying the wagon ride tour of Historic Nauvoo.

One of our family's favorite places to hang out in Nauvoo is the section for little kids.  I can't remember what it was called exactly, but it's where they have replicas of toys that pioneer children played and used.  We stayed there for hours, and the entire time Mckay and Logan had a blast.

Logan decided to rock the old pioneer-styled hats they had for kids to wear.  He also liked the rope-climbing wooden bears.

I haven't been to Nauvoo since the temple there was dedicated.  I wish we could have done a session, or at least gone inside, but we were able to walk around the outside as a family and feel the spirit and significance of this marvelous building.