HAPPY HOUR FRIDAY/THANKSGIVING

I know, I know, it's Happy Hour Friday, but I'm changing it up today.

I'm HAPPY it's Friday!
You don't know how HAPPY I am!
But I've also wanted to chat a little bit everyday about things I am THANKFUL for.
It IS the month of thankfulness!


So let's be THANKFUL and then we'll be HAPPY!


Today, I am thankful for my husband.
I've said it before but he is the greatest.
He completes me.

He's always looking out for me and he's always looking for a way to make my life easier. He's got my back!
Yesterday, one of my Post-it's was to the Boneheads, asking them to get their dishes IN the dishwasher, not just next to the dishwasher.  I was speaking of my lovely, wonderful sons.


Brian wanted the blogging world to know, "Oh I AM a Bonehead, but I do the dishes!" 
It's true.  Whenever we have people over for dinner, he does ALL the dishes.  Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, President's Day,  Groundhog Day, St. Patricks' Day.  You can count on him! 


Okay, Bri, I cleared your name. 
But that's not really why I am thankful for him - doing dishes!
It's everything.  He does everything!
He's the best!
Love him!!!!!


On to the HAPPY -
* I cannot tell you how HAPPY I am that it is Friday.  This was the longest week in the history of the world.

* I am HAPPY that I finished Christmas shopping for Trammell.  I just need to wrap everything and ship it tomorrow so that it reaches Cambodia in time.

* I am HAPPY about that Maple Cake donut I had for breakfast.  Food always makes me HAPPY!

* Reading makes me HAPPY!  There are so many books and so little time.  I love reading.  I love reading on a beach even more, but reading is good.

* I am HAPPY that the holidays are approaching.  I'm already in a pretty festive (read generous) mood!

* Funny people make me HAPPY! 

 Laughing makes me HAPPY!  I know - I have the sense of humor of a teenage boy!

* Blizzards make me HAPPY!  I loved last week's snow storm.  But I also like this week's 70 degree weather.

* In the words of T-Pain (also in jail on a weapons related charge) "She had them apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur."  I'm not a fan of apple bottom jeans

but I love boots with fur.  Boots with fur make me HAPPY!

Yea!  Love the snow and boot weather!  Bring it!

Happy Friday!  Go be thankful!  Go be happy!

THAT'S WHAT HE SAID -

EVERYONE LOVES TUESDAY!

Get your own Random on!  The get on over and see Keely at The Unmom and hook up with Mr. Linky!

Here's some RaNDoM things I heard this week:


Parker slept as we drove through the lovely state of Nebraska.
He suddenly awoke -
"Where ARE we?  It smells like Porta Potty."
Indeed it did.

We were discussing the local Halloween store -you know the temporary ones that open up in vacant stores.
Grandpa - "Yeah tomorrow is the day to go to the Halloween store.  Everything will be half off."
Garrett - "Oh we went Thursday and everything already was half off - at least all the girl's costumes were."
He wasn't talking about the price.  Get it?????

Garrett was rummaging through the pantry on his way through the house from school to work.
He emerges with a handful of Slim Jims.

"Parker, why don't you like Slim Jims? What's wrong with you?"
Before Parker can answer, Garrett launches one about 40 feet from the kitchen into the family room where Parker is lounging on the couch:
"Here!  Try one of these little pieces of ecstasy!"




Me: "Boys what would you like for dinner......I can make....."
Garrett: "What? I thought we were going to Five Guys Burgers and Fries after I get done working."

NO mention has ever been made of this plan by ANYONE adultish in this house.
Garrett: "Yep we're going for Family Home Evening. Remember?  Xan (their cousin) is working and we must support her."

Point one - What does going to Five Guys Burgers and Fries have to do with Family Home Evening?
Point two - Xan works there three evenings a week, we aren't going there three evenings a week.
Point three - Xan does not make fries on commission.  She's getting her $7.50 whether we show up or not.
Point four - Guess what?  We ARE going to Five Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner.

Garrett was about two steps in the door from school. Before I could even ask Garrett how his day was, which he finds soooooo invasive, he popped off with -
"Mr. Shellenberger said I've rounded the corner in Calculus.
Nothing exciting happened in Econ today.
I have a dentist appointment tomorrow at 2:30 but I don't need a note cuz I have Leadership and they will never know I'm gone.
Well...that's it.  Case closed."

Huh?

Well in the words of Garrett - THAT'S IT!  CASE CLOSED!

Happy Random!

NAUVOO

We decided to wrap up our Nauvoo trip with a visit to some of the restored houses and stores.  Really, there is no way to describe it.  The Church has restored numerous buildings to how they looked and operated in 1840.  Missionaries in period dress give tours of the buildings.  And by give tours, I mean that they are experts in describing blacksmithing, baking, and the family history of the inhabitants of the houses.  It was really amazing.  Oh, and everything is FREE.

Garrett: "Oh shoot!  I shouldn't have shaved my beard.  I could have participated in the re-enactments.  I could have been the mob!"

Luckily for us, they don't do re-enactments.  Thanks for volunteering though, Garrett!

Once again, because it was fall, we were the only ones at each of these houses and buildings and receive personalized attention.  We went to the Blacksmith shop where the boys watched a demonstration of blacksmithing and received mini horseshoes and rings made of horseshoe nails.

The Browning Gun-making shop and home.

For any gun enthusists (like they would be reading this blog), this is THE Jonathan Browning - inventor/founder of Browning guns and mechanisms.  He joined the church and moved west with the pioneers.  His family still operates Browning guns in Ogden Utah.

Scovil Bakery - they hand out little gingerbread men here.  During the spring and summer, a real bakery makes 40,000 cookies to hand out to visitors.

Parker is curious how far down the well goes but was unwilling to let us push him in to see.

We also visited the garden outside the Nauvoo Visitors' Center which has a statue garden that is a tribute to womanhood.  The boys were obviously in awe and were very respectful!

Enough already!  Can you say, "Casting your pearls before swine?"
We left Nauvoo and started the trip home by heading to Liberty, MO.

DAY THREE - AND WE STILL LIKE EACH OTHER!

Day Three - Best day of the trip!!!!
Seriously, this day was the highlight of the trip.
THIS is what we came for!

Brian and I got up early and went to the Nauvoo Temple.

It is gorgeous!
It was so peaceful.
Then the boys met us to perform baptisms.
There is nothing better than being in the temple with your family.

The people were so warm and kind.
They were so wonderful to share the history of the temple with us and show us around.

HOT TIP -
Fall is the BEST time to visit Nauvoo.
It is a) notpacked with summer crowds and b) the weather is gorgeous instead of hot and humid.
During the summer, the population of the town swells and the town is not really set up to handle al the tourists.  We had the place almost to ourselves. 

The temple with the boys was the BEST!!!!!

Then, we hopped in the car and headed to Carthage.
Carthage is just a 30-40 minute drive from Nauvoo.
Carthage Jail is where Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were martyred.

The Church does a phenomenal job of restoring these sites and providing information and tours of all of the church history sites free of charge.

The missionary who took us on the tour of Carthage did an incredible job.
Once again, we were the only ones there and had the place to ourselves.
She showed us the bullet holes in the door and the window sill.
There was plenty of time to look around, ask questions and sit and ponder.

It truly was a wonderful family day.

We got back to the hotel in time for a little rest.
Our room was on the second floor.
Just outside our room was a little sitting area where you could enjoy hot chocolate or tea and cookies every afternoon.
The boys took full advantage and they weren't happy that I preserved their "Tea Party" for posterity.
Garrett was somehow disappointed that with two teabags and FOUR packets of sugar, his herbal tea was "tasteless."  Total dorks!

For dinner, we got to go to Grandpa John's All You Can Eat FRIED CHICKEN and Catfish Buffet.

What a way to end the day!  More chicken wings!

DAY TWO- ARRIVE IN NAUVOO!

We all awoke refreshed Sunday morning and headed just 15 minutes away to our first church history stop - Winter Quarters.


I know - it's kind of out of order, since the pioneers were in Nauvoo and THEN went to Winter Quarters but it was on the way and we weren't coming back this same way.

We went to the Visitors' Center and were greeted by a sister missionary.
There was an excellent video presentation and then the sister missionary gave us a wonderful tour and told us all about the pioneers who settled there.
She said that there were 12,000 pioneers who came there or maybe 1,200 or something with 200 in it, but then her voice trailed off.  I'm going to look it up right now.


Darn it!  Wikipedia said it was home to 2,500 people.  That's not a number with 200.  And it said there were 800 cabins.  I could have sworn someone (the sister missionary) said 500.  But there were so many numbers thrown around. I guess it doesn't really matter but I hate it when I forget stuff like that because I was trying hard to remember.


Anyway, Winter Quarters was beautiful and peaceful and we all enjoyed this stop.  We walked over to the cemetery to see some of the bronze statues that serve as memorials to the pioneers. 

Then we hopped back in the car and continued our journey to Nauvoo!

Let's see, We arrived about dinner time in a one street tourist town, at the end of tourist season on a Sunday and everything that isn't closed because of lack of tourists is closed because IT'S SUNDAY!


We check in to the Hotel Nauvoo.........not to be confused with Nauvoo Hotel.

The boys swear it's haunted.  But don't listen to them.  Just because it's an old house built in 1841 or 1865 - not looking it up, and the whole town is deserted and it's dark and blustery outside with leaves blowing past the screens and the stairway creaks as you go up it and you are the ONLY ones in the hotel but you think you hear voices outside your room but there is no one there when you open the door.....IT IS NOT HAUNTED!

They have two rooms with two queen beds but both of those were taken when I made the reservation.  (Although I don't see another LIVING soul). So we get the room with four, yes that was FOUR, queen beds.  But don't be fooled.  There is still only ONE bathroom.  I'm not complaining.  I'm not.  I'm just saying that there was one bathroom about 2 feet by 3 feet with no counter space and it was remodeled in 1972 but I could be exaggerating.

Anyway, it was dinner time.
We headed across the street to Dotties' Red Front for dinner.
I don't know what it was - Dottie's Red Front - Door?  Wall?  Room?
It was open.  They were serving dinner.

Guess what the boys had?
Yes........Chicken Wings!

They were not the buffalo style chicken wings that we were on tour for, but fried chicken wings.
They liked them.
Dinner was good.

We went back to our four queen sized beds and crashed.

OUR ROCKIN ROAD TRIP - DAY UNO - REALLY!!!

We got up Saturday and loaded up the car for our Church History/Chicken Wings Across America Tour.
We usually leave at the crack o' dawn for a long drive,
but there was no hurry to get up because Garrett had to take the ACT first.

We left Denver around 1:30ish for our drive to Omaha, Nebraska.

First, let me just state that road trips are a little bit different today than when I was a kid.
1) Comfort level of the ride

Remember piling into the station wagon WITH NO SEAT BELTS!

You just sat wherever. 
The best seat in the house was in the "way back" facing backwards and rolling into each other each time dad took a curve.......unless facing backwards made you carsick.
Plus, on long road trips, the way back was filled with hard sided suitcases, the cooler full of food and the wooden porta crib.

Sometimes, we would take turns lying on the seat.
When one person was lying on the seat, the other could lie down on the floor.........
but remember how the floor wasn't flat?  It had that hump in the middle.
It wasn't very pleasant to be the one lying on the floor!

Times have changed.
My kids put down the bucket seats in the 2nd row of the Yukon.

Then they climb back to the third row of seats (still two bucket seats) and sit with their legs stretched out on top of the 2nd row.

They call it riding "Limo Style."
They put down the screen and watch DVD's.
Or they put on headphones and listen to their IPODS.
Or they pull out their IPhones and play games.

This ain't the road trip of yesteryear!

2) Options along the way.

My parents used to pack up a cooler with sandwiches and such.
We'd stop at a roadside rest stop and picnic.
Now we can stop at 87 different restaurants along the way and gorge ourselves.
EXCEPT:
Remember that this IS a Chicken Wing Tour!

FIRST STOP-
Ruby Tuesdays in North Platte, Nebraska

The boys ordered the Fire Wings.

They come in normal <- okay it's not called that but I can't remember what it's called, and Spicy.
They went for spicy with cheddar fries.

They were unimpressed.
Parker said, "The spice has a weird after taste."
Garrett, "These aren't spicy."
Thanks boys for the eloquent and descriptive reviews!
They gave the wings a 2 out of 5,
the restaurant a 2 out of 5,
and the people in the restaurant a 4 out of 5 for entertainment value.
Just goes to show, you can't have everthing.

Onward to Omaha!!!

We arrived in Omaha around 9ish.

We stayed in a Fairfield Inn near Creighton University.
The hotel seemed new and was extremely clean and welcoming.

Parker was happy that it was near Creighton.
He's counting it as a "Campus visit" for a bogus school assignment. ;)

Garrett noted the two queen beds:
pointing to the first, he proclaimed,
"Here's your bed Parker."
Pointing to the second,
"Here's my bed."
Pointing to the bathroom,
"And Mom and Dad, you're in the bathroom.  It's paybacks for the time you put my crib in the closet."

Gotta love Garrett!!!