Easter Basket Hunt

Rachael's photo Easter basket hunt (an annual tradition).  We start at the kitchen table, then she follows the photo clues to find her basket.

Refrigerator

Piano

End table

Vacuum in the hall closet

This one was the stumper: inside the pantry door

Bookcase

Loveseat

There it is!

Our Happy Easter girl!

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Ryan had a milestone birthday this year AND the day off of work - both of which merited an all-day celebration!

Lunch at one of his favorites: Red Robin. With a free birthday burger.

For dinner, I got a babysitter and took him somewhere he has always wanted to go: Ruth's Chris steak house. (The closest location to us is in Louisville; this was our fifth trip to Louisville in two weeks.)

Ryan's aged rib eye.  If you have never eaten at Ruth's Chris, they serve all their steaks on hot plates swimming in butter.  I'm convinced it's the way to eat steak.

For desert, they brought out a desert tray with "Happy Birthday" in chocolate on the plate. Who wouldn't want that?

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Nauvoo

We got a really early start on our trip to Nauvoo. Grandpa had to be at the airport at about six to catch a flight home, so we left about 4 am for Louisville. Grandpa, Ryan and Rachael all slept on the way out to the airport. After we dropped Grandpa off, we stopped for our usual breakfast at McDonalds and got settled in for the long haul.

We got to Carthage at about 3:30 in the afternoon, so we stopped for the tour.  If you have been before you know there's not much; a video at the Visitor's Center and a tour of the jail, but it is certainly a moving experience.  We were the only ones on the tour, so we got to take it at our own pace.  It was nice to take all the pictures we wanted and not feel rushed.

From Carthage we drove over the river to Keokuk, Iowa.  I thought this might be a good chance to finally add a new state to Rachael's list; I don't think we have added a new one since we went to Niagara Falls in 2007.  Yay for Iowa!

Then we went back over the bridge and followed the Mississippi down to Nauvoo.  I drove so Ryan and my Mom could take pictures of the temple as we came around the road. Mom was on the wrong side of the car - sorry! - but Ryan snapped a nice one.

We drove around Nauvoo a bit and stopped at the Visitor's Center.  We watched the short movie there and looked at all the cool displays.  We also got information on the wagon tour and Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo.

We drove down Parley Street to see my favorite view of the Mississippi.  We headed back towards our condo, stopping in at Baxter's for a bottle of raspberry spumante and to order a blackberry pie. (We stayed at the Nauvoo Villas, if any of you are planning a visit. They are excellent.)

Rachael was the most excited about getting her own bed.  Seriously!

The next day we headed back to the Visitor's Center to get our tickets for the day's events. 

This is one of two remaining sunstones from the original Nauvoo Temple.  The other is in the Smithsonian.

We took a horse-drawn wagon ride around Nauvoo.  It's the best way to see an overview of all the historic sites. Then we went to see the brickyard and a couple of other sites.  We went to Zion's Mercantile for lunch, then back to the blacksmith, the school, and the Browning house. We also saw the post office, the printing press, the drugstore, and the bakery.  The Family Living Center was a big hit, too - don't miss that if you have kids.

At the blacksmith shop they hammered a new mini horseshoe for Rachael.  (Being the youngest in the crowd has perks). 

There was no shortage of activities for kids at the Family Living Center.  Rachael got to make her own sisal jump rope, with a little help from mom and dad.  We also saw how bread was made and how candles were dipped.

We went to dinner at the Hotel Nauvoo (which was not nearly as good as I remembered, and certainly not worth the price we paid for dinner), then we headed over to the Rendezvous at Old Nauvoo.  I wondered how Rachael would do with an hour long play, but she loved it.

That was just about as much of Nauvoo as we could cram into a day and a half, but we had a great time.  Thanks Nana for coming with us!

Nana and Grandpa

Nana and Grandpa came to visit!

Tuesday: We picked them up at the airport, then met Ryan back in Lexington for dinner at Steak and Shake.  Ryan and Nana have matching bandages where they both had Mohs surgery to remove skin cancer.  (Wear your sunscreen!!)

Wednesday: Nana and I ran out to Tater Knob pottery and lunch while Rachael was at school.  For dinner I cooked bacon wrapped meatloaf, which was spectacular.

Thursday: Grandpa took us all out to dinner at Red Lobster.  He and Rachael played and worked on the kids placemat while we waited for our food - I'm thinking of bringing Grandpa every time we go out to eat.  We also went to Joseph Beth Booksellers.

Friday: We pulled Rachael out of school for the day so we could go see the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum.  Grandpa, being a baseball nut, thought it was great.  Nana and I are less enthusiastic baseball fans but we did enjoy the factory tour.  The tour was fun; we each got a souvenir bat at the end.  Some of us got ash and some got maple.  The we took some pictures with the 120 ft bat outside.  Rachael also got to buy a mini pink bat from the gift shop; she dragged both her bats around with her the rest of the weekend.

Saturday: Nana and I left Rachael with the boys and went shopping.  We almost forgot to come home.  One day almost isn't enough! We did get home in time to have some delicious rotisserie chicken Ryan made for us on the BBQ.  After dinner we decided we needed to run back out for a couple of last minute birthday items, so we went to the mall while Ryan and Grandpa went to conference.

Sunday: General Conference! Church in our jammies!  My favorite Sunday.  We had breakfast sandwiches before the sessions started.  Rachael did really well with listening to a little of conference and keeping quiet so the rest of us could listen.  She also played games on her Leapster while Nana played games on the Nintendo DS.

We also celebrated Ryan's birthday early on Sunday.  Instead of steak or prime rib, we had steakburgers that we had specially ground at Kroger.  (A rib eye and a top round).  They were delicious! More expensive than regular ground beef but certainly less than steaks for everyone.  And we had potato salad too, then banana cream pie for desert.  It turned out to be a fishing and Star Wars birthday - all the gifts were fishing or Star Wars.  (He just needs a light saber fishing pole, then we could get both!)  Rachael got him the Lego Star Wars Clone Wars Wii game - she was so excited for him to open it!

Monday we took Grandpa to the airport and then the rest of us went to Nauvoo for Spring Break.  I'll blog about that in another post.

Thanks Nana and Grandpa for coming to visit!