Cutest person on the planet! Dancing violinist Lindsey Stirling.

Dave and I took Nicole and Lauren and their best friends Brooke and Molly to the Lindsey Stirling concert in Portland on Friday.  It was so fun!!! What an adorable and entertaining person she is!!! 

She gets my vote for cutest person on the planet.

                                       

An unexpected meeting with Peter Hollens and his wife Evynne!  The girls were so giggly and excited that he was there in the audience.  If you don't know who he is, he has some pretty awesome youtube videos.  Such beautiful voices!  
Meeting him made the night extra fun!

Nicole's Ecuador trip video

Nicole had an awesome experience in Ecuador with HEFY (humanitarian experience for youth- hefy.org) and made an equally awesome video to share about it! They were not allowed to film or take any pictures of the orphans that they worked with, many who had disabilities,  but she gained a sincere love for them through service and had a blast while doing it! 

She gave some of Kurt's old ties to the little boys there.

Missing Nicole

Nicole has been in Ecuador for almost 2 weeks with a humanitarian group helping build an orphanage and spending time with the children there. We are really starting to miss her around here! She'll be home Saturday!!

Nicole with my sister Tess when she came to visit just before Nicole left.  Love these girls!!!

The oldest and youngest grandchildren together.
Nicole with Tess's baby Hazel. 

I put some highlights in Laurens hair.

Kurt bonding with his spirit animal.

Niagara Falls, the home of little MJ, and way too much fast food!

Niagara falls.  Do you remember in Superman 2 when Superman saves that boy when he's messing around on the railing and the mom is oblivious? And then Lois jumps over the edge thinking Clark will turn into Superman and save her?
Such a great movie.

Dave and the kids went down to the Hurricane deck.  Crazy windy!!! Nicole lost her favorite pair of flip flops over the edge.  But Superman was no where in sight to save them.

This is Michael Jacksons childhood home in Gary Indiana.  It's a tiny 2 bedroom home that they lived in with their 10 children.  When we were planning out our route for the church history tour I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to stop by and pay my respects to the King.

Bucket list. Check.

His house is kept up super well but the rest of the neighborhood is really run down.  Along with Blame it on the Boogie, I also found myself singing Gary Indiana from the Music Man once or twice.

 

There was this awesome women selling stuff outside the Michael Jackson house.  Kurt wanted this hat so bad!!! Grandpa bought the girls some scarves and mj pictures.  Kurt got the hat.

A basketball themed KFC.  Can't really pass that up right??

Kurt wore his MJ hat pretty much the whole trip.  

Too bad I didn't get a picture of the huge pizza that we ate here!!! The whole pizza fed all 8 of us.

Too much fast food. And waaaaaay too many onion rings.  Lauren can eat onion rings all day long.

Yes I admit it.  I worked at Chick-fil-A in high school.  

We kept bumping into the Harris family throughout our journey.  This is Ken and Alice Harris's oldest son Todd and family.  So fun to get to know them!!!!

The Goodson family from Molalla was in Nauvoo Illinois the same night as us for the pageant!!! Very random that we have our picture taken with them in front of the water station.  So fun to see them so far from home!!!!!

I didn't know signs like this existed in the United States!!!  Some seriously beautiful countryside.

Our Church History tour as a family

Our church history tour began by flying into New York and visiting the childhood home of Joseph Smith.  Then we made our way down to Kirtland Ohio and onto Nauvoo Illinois and then flew home from Kansas City Missouri.  We saw so many awesome sites! What an incredible journey!!!

The Sacred Grove is where Joseph Smith as a young boy of 14 prayed to know which church to join.  God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him in these woods.  Jesus Christ restored his true gospel on the earth through Joseph Smith.  This is a sacred place.  It was so  amazing to walk through this special place with our kids.  

We visited the Hill Cumorah where Joseph was shown where the Gold Plates had been hidden.  Through the power of God, he was able to translate what was written on the ancient record into the Book of Mormon.  The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ.  We believe in the Book of Mormon and the Bible to be holy scriptures.  

Monument at the top of the Hill Cumorah. 

The room and the table that Joseph Smith used as his office while he lived at the Newel K Whitney home.

Nicole couldn't get enough of those wonderful sister missionaries that we saw in all the places we visited!  Her and Lauren got pictures with each of them.  This is the John Johnson farm where Joseph Smith lived with his wife and children for a few months with the Johnsons.  He would preach from these back steps to people travelling through the town.  At age 17 Lorenzo Snow would stop and listen in his carriage.  He joined the church and was 5th Prophet of the church and is our great great great Grandpa.

Seeing fire flies for the first time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The performing missionaries in Nauvoo.  My kids loved them!!!! 

We have a living Prophet on the earth today.  We love and support President Thomas S. Monson!

We love and support the twelve apostles.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints is set up just like Jesus Christs church when he was on the earth with Prophets and Apostles.

The beautiful Nauvoo temple that was built in 1846 by the early members.  It was destroyed after the saints were forced to leave and it was rebuilt in 2002.

The most amazing experience for us to be in the temple with our older three kids.

Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed before the Nauvoo temple was completed.  This is a statue across from the temple to remember all they sacrificed for what they knew to be true.

Carthage jail where the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were shot and killed by an angry mob.

The bullet hole that still remains in the door that killed Hyrum.

Joseph Smith died at age 38.  He died defending what he knew to be true.   This is the window that Joseph fell out of after he was shot.  I am so grateful for Joseph Smith.  

The Church was organized n 1830 with six members.  Today there are almost 16 million members worldwide and the gospel is being spread to the world by 85,000 missionaries who serve for 2 years spreading the word of God! I know this is God's work. To feel the special spirit in all these sacred places that we visited was incredible and life changing for our family. 

One of the most peaceful places on earth!  Adam-Ondi-Ahman


This is a beautiful video about the life of the Prophet Joseph.