Nauvoo

Grand Island NE

Back on the road again, to meet up with Daddy!
Here comes the adventure of the summer. APX usually provides housing for their employees, however, there was none, and I mean none to found in Grand Island. So our 2 choices were to stay in a hotel (with 4 kids, for 3 weeks, ummm... NO!) or find a place of our own. So Steven began searching like crazy and found us a place to stay. It was a little different but it workedIt was the six and seventh floor of the Masonic Temple in downtown Grand Island. The building was built in 1925 and was under reconstruction. It was the beginning of a very interesting 3 weeks. The pictures do not even begin to do it justice.
To get to our floor we had to take the oldest elevator I have ever ridden on, it didn't have a door just a gate, so you watched the the elevator go up and down. You had to hold the button of the floor you wanted or else it would stop at each floor and you had to push the button again.
The sixth and seventh floor was where the assembly hall was located, there was a kitchen with a stove top but no oven. Our bathroom consisted of stalls (yes just like a public restroom, complete with a urinal) and a separate small shower.

Here is the entrance to our place, the doors and ,molding were just beautiful, and the masonic sysbold were on all the door handles.

Here is a picture of the assembly hall, it was two stories high and lots of room to run and run. The room itself was well over a 1000 sq ft.

Because we were up so high we had the most amazing views of the city, it was great during the 4th of July.

The kitchen, and yes my stroller, Best way to keep Samantha close by!

So now you can see somewhat were we lived, I will begin to explain our adventures

1. No bedrooms, we all slept together on mattress in the big assembly hall
- this meant that McKay hardly ever took his naps and I never got the kids to bed before Steven came home

2. We had no AC
- Yes, no AC and the temps outside were well over 90 degrees and all of our huge windows faced west, which meant direct sunlight, baking into the rooms all day long. We finally got a small window unit, so the temp inside averaged about 85.

3. The fridge gave out on us.
- I guess because it was so hot and the kids kept opening it up to try and cool off, it died on us and it took a couple days to get a new one.

4. There was a short time the elevator gave out on us.
- climbing up six flights of very steep stairs caring grocery's and a car seat was NOT fun, I got my work out though.

5. The electricity gave out.
-There was power shortage and every thing that was electric stopped working properly, including the hot water heater, so no hot water, and no stove.

All these things happened within the first 2 weeks, luckily not all at once, but just about every other day.

I have to admit when we left I was glad that our "adventure" was over

What we did over the summer

Well, I have a lot of catching up to do, so here it goes...
This summer Steven decided to sell for APX home security in Grand Island Nebraska. He left right after his last final in May, and since Aubrey didn't get out of school for 2 more weeks I stayed behind with the kiddos. It was a very long three weeks here in Arizona all by myself!
Steven and I had planned on me driving up to be with him after school got out for Aubrey and I have to admit I was not looking forward to the 20+ hour drive with 4 kids.
Honestly It was not bad at all, we had our moments but over all the kids had a great time and the drive went fairly smooth.
The first day we drove 9 hours to Las Vegas New Mexico where we stayed the night. The hotel had a swimming pool and the kids were able to just swim all the extra energy away. We stayed with Steven's Sister Lisa in Parker, CO. We were really excited to go to the swimming pool and play with their awesome blowup water slide, but the weather did not cooperate with us at all. It was cold, wet, and rainy the entire time we were there. We did have fun playing all over the golf course

Samantha

Our little Samantha just continues to be just perfect in every way

All that is left