Catchin Up and Liberty Jail!

Well, we have been busy the last few months! Yeah for that it, it keeps things movin'~ Kevin is about to start his 4th year of anesthesia residency and has been interviewing for fellowships lately in Pediatric Anesthesia. So, we decided to go with him. The first was in Philadelphia (the whole family went, while Kev interviewed we went shopping, to the movies and then we all went to see Grandma Peggy in New Jersey, it was great to see her, but I don't think we brought the camera. bummer. The next was in Boston (just Kevin and I went) and it was great! We loved spending 2 days with just us, but we were definitely ready to pick up the kiddos when it was time. I just don't like leaving the kids for a long period of time. But thanks to some very sweet friends we were'nt very worried about them and knew that they were partying it up with their buddies! We went to a place called the North End in Boston, it was soo fun. There is this street in the North End that has like 90 restaurants on it (its like a little Italy). When you start to walk down the street, it smells like GARLIC, fresh bread, GARLIC, pastries, and GARLIC! And we LOVE garlic! So it was perfect for us! We ate at a yummy restaurant and had some of the best Italian food ever and stopped at a different place to get dessert, it was great! It was fun too, because tons of people had a deep Boston/Italian accent. If you can imagine that, i.e. "Foget about it" haha. And we stayed in a hotel room that was about as big as our apartment. We walked all over Boston, took the subway and walked all over some more! It was really cool to see so many of the historic things there. What a great place (bummer that I forgot the camera there as well). Last but not least, we went to Denver. We took the whole family for this interview and decided to drive it, instead of fly......Are we crazy, you ask.....YES, but it was loads of fun and the kids did fantastic for the entire vacation! On our way to Denver we decided to stop by the Liberty Jail in Independence, Missouri. We decided to use this as a great teaching opportunity. The few days before we left, we decided to teach the kids about it, starting with Family Night and then reading a little here and there. So when we got to the Liberty Jail, it meant, I think, a little bit more to the kids as well as to us. It really was a cool experience! The Spirit is so strong there and we all felt it! They have really done a great job with their presentation of it. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is thinking of going!! Here are a couple pictures at the Jail.

This sweet sister missionary was our tour guide and was just a great gal. She was so kind to our kids and was funny too. The girls loved her, so we took a picture with her after the tour. She asked some questions to the girls and this was how the conversations went:

Sister: If you had to leave your home and everything else that you owned but you could take only one item with you and leave everything else behind, what would it be?

Heidi: Um...I would take money. Because if I had money, then I could buy anything I needed later.

Ashley: My scriptures.

Their answers were so precious. I loved it.

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New question

Sister: Do you know who General Alexander Doniphan was?

Heidi: I do, he was the General that said that he would not go through with the order to kill the prophet. He said it was murder and that he would tell on them and get them in trouble if they did.

Sister: Woah, I can't beleive you knew that, I didn't even know that, until I got my mission call and did some research about the Liberty Jail. ... I know that one day you are going to go on a mission to one of the Church History sites and you are going to be a great missionary, because you already know a lot about church history.

It was soo cute and made Heidi feel so good! She was smiling and giggling as she walked out!
Well after stopping there, we stayed a night in Topeka, Kansas, swam a lot and went out for ice cream at Dairy Queen! Then we finally and I mean FINALLY (that is a long drive) moved on to Denver. We got to stay with some of our closest friends, Becky and Jeromy Cole. THANK YOU, THANK YOU COLE'S WE HAD A BLAST! The following are LOTS of pictures of our time there! ALSO, a BIG SHOUT OUT to Grandpa and Grandma Hughes, Aunt Bonnie, Amber, Kayla and Taylor for coming all the way from Vegas and meeting us in Denver for just 2 days!!!! WE LOVE YOU!!! Thank you so much for sacrificing a lot to come out and see us! We will always be grateful for that!