I'm back!
I know I was supposed to do this yesterday, but as I suspected, there were issues with downloading photos that I couldn't solve until my dad got back from a church meeting, so I got the photos downloaded just in time to go to bed.
Luckily, due to REALLY low temperatures, (so cold, our back door is frozen shut and safety professionals say not to go outside) almost every school district in fifty miles has shut down today, which means I get an extra day of winter break! :) So, I will use this day to do what I had planned to do yesterday.
...
I was just interrupted to spend a few hours defrosting the windows. (I kid you not, there is and inch-and-a-half thick, three inch tall wall of ice lining the inside of every window. I have soaked two dish towels and a beach towel just defrosting 6 windows so far. I'm taking a break for a while. We've got a space heater pointed at two windows, but we can't leave the hairdryer running unattended, so sadly, I can't have it work on another window while I'm away.)
Anyway, here's Part One of my family reunion.
As usual, we spent a week at a resort in the mountains. During which time, my cousins and I build forts and play games in the woods and explore the creek, go fishing, go swimming in the pool, sing to my cousin A's guitar, do crafts, go hiking, and hope we don't run into moose. :)
This year was a little different, because the youth group in my church was going on a big trip to Nauvoo, Illinois this summer. Unfortunately, the trip was scheduled for three of the days I would be at the resort. Fortunately, I have awesome parents, and they booked me a flight back home in the middle of the vacation so that I could go to Nauvoo with my friends. So they dropped me at the airport, I flew home, went to Nauvoo, (which was AWESOME- I'm so glad I went!) then flew back. There was also another new thing that happened- I went on a sunrise hike with my younger sister and younger cousin, D. :)
Je suis de retour !Je sais que je devais faire hier , mais comme je m'en doutais , il y avait des problèmes avec le téléchargement de photos que je ne pouvais pas résoudre jusqu'à ce que mon père est revenu d'une réunion de l'église , je me suis téléchargé les photos juste à temps pour aller au lit .Heureusement , en raison de très basses températures , ( si froid , notre porte est fermée et sécurité congelé professionnels disent de ne pas aller à l'extérieur ), presque tous les districts scolaires dans cinquante miles a fermé , ce qui signifie que je reçois un jour supplémentaire de vacances d'hiver ! Donc, je vais profiter de cette journée pour faire ce que j'avais prévu de faire hier ....Je voulais simplement interrompu pour passer quelques heures dégivrage des vitres . ( Je ne plaisante pas , il est et pouces et demi d'épaisseur , de trois pouces de haut mur de glace tapissant l'intérieur de chaque fenêtre . J'ai trempé deux torchons et une serviette de plage juste dégivrage 6 fenêtres jusqu'ici. Je m prendre une pause pendant un moment. nous avons obtenu un appareil de chauffage a à deux fenêtres , mais nous ne pouvons pas laisser le sèche-cheveux en marche sans surveillance , si tristement , je ne peux pas le faire fonctionner sur une autre fenêtre pendant que je suis là. )
Quoi qu'il en soit , voici la première partie de ma réunion de famille .Comme d'habitude, nous avons passé une semaine dans un hôtel dans les montagnes . Pendant ce temps , mes cousins et moi de construire des forts et jouer à des jeux dans les bois et explorer le ruisseau , aller à la pêche , la baignade dans la piscine , faire de la randonnée , et espérons que nous ne courons pas dans l'orignal . :)Cette année a été un peu différent , parce que le groupe de jeunes de mon église allait sur un grand voyage à Nauvoo , Illinois . Malheureusement , le voyage a été prévue pour trois jours je serais à la station. Heureusement , j'ai des parents impressionnant , et ils m'ont réservé un vol de retour au milieu des vacances pour que je puisse aller à Nauvoo avec mes amis . Alors, ils m'ont laissé à l'aéroport , j'ai pris l'avion à la maison , est allé à Nauvoo , ( qui était génial , je suis tellement content que je suis ! ) Puis a volé en arrière. Il y avait aussi une autre nouvelle chose qui s'est passé , je suis allé sur une hausse de lever de soleil avec ma sœur cadette et plus jeune cousin , D. :)
Me and D at a river.
D, A, and H (A is giving D a massage.)
D and A on a small ski lift.
Me in a pit we found halfway up a mountain.
My sister and cousin
Me before the sunrise hike.
D before the sunrise hike.
A before the sunrise hike.
On the hike, we were going to take one path, but we got there to find it was closed down. We decided to just take a different trail and see where we ended up. We had a map, after all, and we know the mountain like the backs of our hands.
After hiking for a while, we saw a ski lift station up the mountain and decided to hike to it through some aspens along a cliff. It was a really pretty trail. Anyway, D started making a funny video on my camera, and A and I walked ahead of her, pretending we didn't know she'd 'stolen' my camera. So she was goofing off with my camera, and all of a sudden A turned around to look at me and mouthed, 'moose'.
Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, except that we were on a single-file path on the edge of a cliff, and when I looked to my left, the moose was fifteen feet away, it was staring right at us, and it was a bull moose with its family. That was very bad.
So, we did the only rational thing. We stayed silent, turned, speed-walked out of sight, and ran down the mountain as fast as we could. We had been hiking for 45 minutes and ran back down the mountain in 5.
We now call this 'The Great Moose Incident'.
Later we were told by rangers that the moose was one of the biggest on the mountain, and that evening, it was in the park outside our hotel. There's a photo of it at the park below.
Younger D and... I think F... maybe O?
Moose
NAUVOO
Selfie at the airport! (I took this when selfies weren't annoying, by the way.)
A few of my cabin mates at Nauvoo
We saw the Nauvoo Pageant, which means I saw two famous LDS pageants this summer! And I hadn't planned on seeing either!
You can see the Nauvoo Temple in the background.
One of the displays inside a historic building.
At breakfast Missionaries were there in period clothing
singing and performing. Best. Mission. Ever!
Two of my friends on the bus
Me and a friend
My group and me at Carthage Jail
Me and friends
There was an 1800's-themed fair going on at one point and we enjoyed playing games and hanging out.
Some of my friends before a temple session, waiting to go in
Me and some friends in a covered-wagon
At a statue and some friends near the temple
The front of the temple
The back of the temple
Friends at lunch
We played hacky-sack across the aisle on the way home, as well as never-have-I-ever and the dart game.
There were lots of 'general stores' in Nauvoo that we split up and explored, but my favorite is the Red Brick Store. There's a historical site above it, and they have the best root beer ever! :)
This is the view from the window seat of one of the planes I took back to my grandparents' house, were my family was, back from the resort. Going to Nauvoo was a great experience and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go! I cannot thank everyone who helped this happen for me enough. :)
Thanks for a fun evening, guys!
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