Final note with me and the boy in a rest area on our way home from Nauvoo. Well I guess on the blog this will be first and all the pictures will follow, whatever.

Life continues on unabated here in Michigan. I have physics boards coming up in one month, and my stress level is increasing daily. Volumes of material I never learned and have to have down before then, just hoping to pass and be safe. I have this recurring nightmare about being in a math class in undergrad that I have been skipping for most of the semester and now have to go take the final exam cold. I wake up in a cold sweat every time, glad that I am not really in that situation and pledge to study harder....and here I am wasting more time on a BLog that probably only my wife reads...well, if so, love you Sheila!

Sheila continues to do great things with our kids. She is helping Sarah learn letters and words, and build great forts. Came home today to all the couch cushions off around a Little People barricade. Seems they had made a castle to protect all the Little People, from Joshua and Maggie no doubt.

Sarah is a continuing amazement. We walked down to vote tonight, and she was very concerned all the way up to the time she fell asleep that she did not get to go in the boat, She really wanted to go sailing. Then in the bath, she looks at me and says "you are fabulous" but i think it came out more "fabu rous" sort of scooby-doo ish, but adoreable.

Joshua is a crawling machine, and walking along couches and tables. I am sure within the next 6 weeks or so he will be independently toddling so he can keep up with his sister. They generally get along, but Sarah gets some "time-outs" for pushing or bonking him sometimes. Overall very loving. We were in Costco the other day and they were both in the cart, she pulls off her hat and leans over and gives him a hug and he gets just the biggest grin on his face. He idolizes the girl. I am sure she will continue to be a great role model for him. Joshua is also learning some signs, yes and finished are two he is doing good with right now. We are working on more next.

Hope all is well with you gentle reader of the disneydoc blog. Keep us in your thoughts as you are in ours.


Donald

One final shot of the family, with Sarah's cute new short haircut. You can see our high dollar pool in the background. It has sprung a leak which we are in the process of healing, but for now it is in dry dock. Donations for renovations are currently being accepted! :) LOL. 

This is Sarah and Sarah's friend Sydney's mom Sara playing with play doh, making some nice new optics. VEry nice. 

Sarah and daddy on the teeter-totter at a rest stop. She had fun and giggled and giggled. We had to practically drag her away the thing to get back on the road home. 

Now this is what we like to see the kids playing together, bouncing in the crib. THey were both having so much fun jumping all over the place in there. FOrtunately no one got hurt. 

And here you see the final product. She got to watch Robots while we cut, which was wise. IF you have seen the movie, you have seen Sarah's favorite part. After watching the beginning with me once, she told Sheila she wanted to watch them make a baby. SOme explaining may be necessary, Rodney's dad comes home excited because he is going to be a dad, and comes home to learn he had "missed the delivery" but was in time to make the baby, as the mom holds up a box with baby robot parts in it. Anyway, I guess I need to watch what I am showing my daughter closer from now on. 

SOooooooo, we decide to try and trim Sarah's hair as it was getting very long, and a little unmanageable, and her baby brother kept grabbing big handfuls. So this is the pre-cutting shot. 

Sheila is starting a quilt for Joshua, but Sarah thought all the fabric made a great "Big Red Barn". Sarah was the baby chick, and had to "hatch out" of the big red barn. Needless to say she had a lot of fun. 

In the end, the traffic was too much for both of the little ones.
 

Joshua passed the time eating cheerios, his toes and intermittently crying.
Who can blame him, I felt like crying too.
 

So while the trip overall to Illinois was good, going through Chicago REALLY stank. We got stuck in traffic coming up and through a toll booth, a total of 8 miles, and it took us over an hour to get through it. Sheila started taking pictures to try and make some happy memories of a stinky time. I started off patient, then got very frustrated, and then was okay again, and was singing and trying to go to my happy place. So, here you see Sarah with her snack on her face buckled in her car seat in Chicago traffic. 

Joshua at the buffet. He had a lot of fun exploring a lot of new foods while we were there in Nauvoo. 

Joshua loves his family and generally will go to anyone for a few moments. Uncle Greg played alot with him so he loved it. 

Updating away again. We are now a couple weeks past our recent trip down to Nauvoo Ill. We got to see my mom and nephew (Clayton) and my brother and his son (Spencer). Nauvoo was a city built up by the Mormons prior to their getting chased west to Utah. The church has restored alot of the old buildings and houses in the neighborhood and it is becoming quite the little tourist area of early american and Mormon church history. Here you see Sarah in a wagon with my brother (in glasses) and Spencer's back.