We made it!

Our family at our new temple, the Nauvoo Temple

We made it! The last 7 days have been a huge whirlwind! We knew that moving would be crazy and we were totally right! We felt really strongly that we needed to leave on Thursday, Oct. 9th, instead of the Friday. So we pulled out of Highland, UT with Richard driving the huge moving truck, pulling the car behind him on a trailer and I was following with the girls in the van. Sarah and Rachel started saying goodbye to the mountains and then they were saying goodbye to everything. It finally turned into, "Goodbye to everything in the whole wide world except for (our new state)". It made me laugh! Kids just trying to understand the whole moving process.
It is such a blessing that we left on Thursday! The first day we drove to Cheyenne, WY and swam at the hotel and played! The next day we drove all the way to Des Moines, IA. The good thing is, the towns we drove through the day before were in a blizzard warning and we had missed that. The bad thing was, Rachel was throwing up and Richard was getting sick. We were blessed that Richard's parents were with us and his awesome dad, Lynn, could drive the huge moving truck. Thanks so much!
Before we moved, I picked up a couple of new movies in order to survive. One was "Barbie and the Diamond Castle" (which we watched over and over) and a new Veggietales movie about Huckleberry Fin and Tom Sawyer and about helping others. I think they only watched it one time and I didn't connect the fact that the movie was all about the Mississippi River and it even mentioned our city and a few other towns around. There is a song about the river itself and Rachel memorizes music really quickly and out of the blue, she started singing it when we crossed the Mississippi River the first time! It was so funny! Now she sings it all the time when we are in the van. So funny!!!

We got into town at about 2pm on Saturday and 10 guys from the Elder's quorum showed up and hauled their guts out for a couple hours and got everything into the town house. Thanks so much for our awesome new ward! It was so great for Richard to meet other guys who are going to his graduate school and to start getting great advice!

Yesterday we drove down to Nauvoo and had lunch, then Richard's parent's did an Endowment Session and then we traded. Richard and I were able to do a session together, which will probably not happen a whole lot in the future. We can try and trade off with other couples, but it also looks like we are going to take turns in the temple in the future. So we wanted to do as much together while we had the chance. The Nauvoo temple is so amazing and so beautiful! When I was working at the Temple Construction Dept., I was blessed to be able to work on the Nauvoo temple. It it such a beautiful temple with dark woods and spiral staircases and historical design. I love it! What an awesome opportunity to live so close to such an amazing place!

Today, Richard's parents went home. It was sad. We have really enjoyed having them here with us. Grandma Joy was getting out of the van and Emma kept saying "Grandma, I need you!". That is her new phrase, but, man, does it kill you to hear her say things like that! I think that Joy has been crying for weeks now and that was hard to hear. It was hard to watch Richard and his dad, Lynn. Neither of them is super emotional in public. Lynn is such a quiet and amazing man who I know loves us so much and will miss us so much! I think I have only seen Richard that emotional a handful of times.

We know we are supposed to be here, right now, at this time. I was in the temple yesterday and I knew that we were supposed to be here. I felt so strongly about it! We are so blessed to have the opportunity to have Richard in this amazing school and the Lord has been holding our hands all along the way. We love you guys and miss you! Keep us posted about what's up with you guys and I will get more pictures on asap!

Our townhouse!

PS My toe is doing much better! Not broken, just sore! Another tender mercy from the Lord for this move! And now I am watching out for attacking pumpkins!