Alone! In the Inferno!

WE have been enjoying my parents house in Montrose, IA(pop.900) for the last week now! And this is the last only time I have been completely by myself since we got here! It has awesome! Although I hear a car door slamming as I write this, so maybe not a very long post! But still soo nice to be alone.

Little later.....
Not alone anymore, but still quiet! Lincoln is sleeping and the kids are downstairs with Matt watching something on tv. Would love for them to be outside, but it is like 95 degrees and soo humid it feels like a sauna! I do love the humidity but I just checked weather.com and they say it the temperature is 91, but feels like 108! Enough said! Whew! Were going to go to Nauvoo this afternoon, but it got nixed because of the heat and the fact that Lincoln was up till like 12:30 last night courtesy of my mother and was soooo tired, I couldn't imagine taking him anywhere, especially in the heat! Courtesy of my mother because he woke up at about 10 and while I would have let him cry after my initial visit to see him, she couldn't handle it and after going in to see him 5 times brought him in the living room to hang out on her lap. She kept saying she felt bad for him..... He finally went down just in time for the gigantic thunderstorm to blow in and keep him awake! It was awesome! He also woke up when the second thunderstorm came in some time in the middle of the night. I love thunderstorms, but not when you are not in your own house. Anyways......

So the trip is coming to a close. Two nights left. It has been a good trip over all. Too much time spent in the car, but I suppose what do you expect when you live close to nothing! Kids have been good about being in the car. Pretty much just pump them full of ice cream or skittles/candy during the trip and let them go crazy wherever we end up. I can only imagine what people think of us with my 5, 3, and 2 year-old and my big pregnancy belly. In Utah no one looks twice, here poeple must think I don't know how to keep my legs closed. At least they all look alike and are relatively well dressed, like we can take care of them.

Let's see since being here we went to the John Deere Museum and expensive gift store in Moline, IL and the children's museum there in the quad cities. We went to the Mennonite Walmart, which we always enjoy. Mom and Dad's branch. The Double Dip ice cream/laundry mat a few times. We went to see the BYU ballroom dancers put on their traveling show. We went to the famous Family Discount Shoe Store, where we left with 4 pairs of shoes! Everyone got a pair except for Matt. Matt and I did our once a trip outing to the Nauvoo temple and IVY restaurant! Food was awesome and session was really good too!!! Not always the case, but definitely this time. Oh, Matt and I also got to go on a date and saw the movie up in 3D. It was good- glad we didn't bring Carter- not a little kids movie! Tonight we are going to Nauvoo for their nightly riversides show- can't remember what it is called. Tomorrow we plan on going golfing- Matt, Carter, my dad and I! And then tomorrow night the guys are all going to the car races in the next town over.

Besides all our outings Matt and Carter have mowed the whole lawn, which isn't very exciting, but Carter gets to help steer the riding lawn mower, which he loves. The kids swam in the little pool mom has until Penny, the world's worst puppy, attacked it and put teeth marks in the sides of it! We have picked a bunch of raspberries. Carter has built lots of jumps with the help of boards and bricks he found. Lots of time spent on the hammock. Kids pulled out our old super soakers. Matt and Carter took a really long bike ride this morning. Daily walks to the mail box. Carter and Ella climbed the tree at the bottom of the driveway. I spent lots of time playing the piano, which I thoroughly enjoy since I never get to. Kids did the zip line! And really spent lots of time outsides doing who knows what.

We have seen 1 super cute fawn, a million bunnies, 400 dear, several dead mice/moles in the yard, one gigantic dead mole- in the yard-, several frogs, 1badger, 1 garden snake, a donkey, burro, bunches of horses and tons of cows and more bugs than I ever want to see again for the rest of my life. I am soo sick of the bugs..... except for the fireflies- those bugs are cute....

Besides all those bugs and the fact that we have been sleeping on an air mattress all week, this is a good grandma/grandpa house and my parents are good to us. Always fun to visit!