Sunday August 30, 2020

 Sunday morning breakfast was brought to you by Scotty boy LaBass!!!                        

 

Saturday August 29, 2020 Leaving Branson and Heading Toward Independence Missouri

 Yup that's right!!!  These two names should always be placed right by each other:)))  You can't have a Sarah without a Scott and you can't have a Scott without a Sarah 💓💓💓💓

 

Friday August 28, 2020 Go Karts, Golfing and Old Town Branson

 Yay for Friday!!!!  The day started off with Asher doing his seminary and math test.  When he was done, we took off to play. Today was our last day here so we wanted to make sure to have fun!!!   First we hit the Go Karts.  There are literally 5 or 6 places here that have  Go Kart tracks.  We picked the place closest to us. Taj rode with Asher and Pepper rode with me.  Graham drove solo.  The track did a spiral going up about 2 floors then it had a steep down hill.  The karts were fast enough and our session was the perfect amount of time.  If it went any longer I might have barfed.  The spiral up hill made me so sick.  hahahha.  

Thursday August 27, 2020

                                                                                              

At home, Thursday was always a good day because you knew that the next day was Friday!!!  On our trip, Thursday is our new Friday!!!  We worked our school schedule out so that we don't have to do school on Friday's!!!  Graham, Pepper and Taj worked hard today and after 3 hours they had all their stuff done for the week.  I am so happy with what they are learning. I feel so empowered deciding what their curriculum is.  I am adding a "religious" perspective to every subject and they are understanding so much more.  Homeschooling is a beautiful thing.  Asher is also working hard.  He had an assignment and a quiz due in math today that he didn't understand.  After I was done with G, P and T, I spent about 2 hours with Asher helping him understand everything.  He finally got it and earned a 100% on his quiz.  He was so excited. The only problem was that by the time we were done with school, it was like 5 PM. Asher literally worked from 1 PM - 5PM.  The silver lining is that tomorrow he only has a math test  and seminary to do, then he will be done for the week.  Bravo to the kids in working hard this week. 

 

Wednesday August 26, 2020. Wonder Works

                                                                            Wonder Works!!!                                      We all decided to hit Wonder Works today.  It is a science museum so I called it Science Class for today:))  School work went from 10 AM - 12 AM.  After that we packed up and went to explore Wonder Works.  This place is three stories high and looks like an upside down building.  Each story was full of rides and exploratory/sensory  activities. We played hard.  The kids went on every ride available and we  spent a lot of time with each activity they had.  We had to leave by 4 PM so Asher could make his math zoom call. After his call we grabbed Scotty and went back for the rest of the night. Needless to say, we all arrived home super tired.  It was so thrilling to see science in all the fun around us.  I 💗 Science!!!                      

  

                                         

Tuesday August 25, 2020 Farewell St. Louis- Hola Branson Missouri!!!!!!!

 Hello all my family and friends!!!!  Today was a travel day and I have to say, these days are just as fun as non travel days.  We got up in the morning early and took off towards Branson, Missouri.  The drive was only projected to be about 3 1/2 hours. Scotty drove the first two hours then made a stop.  During the planned stop, we got gas, switched drivers and woke the kids up so they could do scripture study and school during the last hour and a half of the drive.  The kids got up without any problems. We studied scriptures as a family then each kid worked alone on a school subject that needed to be done. We arrived in Branson super fast and with ease.  I took a lot of pictures along the way.  I love the cut out lime stone walls and the large bushy trees here in Missouri.  My mom Traveler, is from Missouri so the state holds a special place in my heart.  

 

Monday August 24, 2020 St. Louis Zoo with the Dawson’s!!

 Hello Monday!!!                                                               Today was our first day that we nailed the school schedule. I got the kids up around 8 AM for scripture study.  Then all the kids broke off and got to work.  We worked until about 11 AM.  Then we packed up and left for the zoo in St. Louis. School is going great.  I happen to really love homeschooling the kids.  They are learning so fast and I'm  excited to see what we can do by the end of the year.  We can do in 3 hours what the school does in 7. That means that we get more family time!!!!  Asher got a ton done today.  His teachers are super great.  They have helped so much.  I'm so glad that I enrolled him in Ivy Tech.  They are a great school. It seemed that everyone felt accomplished and positive today.                                                                                                                   

Sunday August 23, 2020. Church and new friends

 Happy Sunday from St. Louis Missouri.  We found a ward to go to in Eureka, very close to our campground.  The two talks that were given were so good. Two youth speakers spoke and their messages were about Faith in God and also about how the gospel can change you and your life.  So good!!!!

                           

Saturday August 22, 2020 St. Louis Arch, Temple and more Mounds

 Happy Saturday!!!!  We found ourselves in the middle of such eloquent peace and beauty today.  Missouri is green and lush right now with plenty of bugs!!  Scotty and I started out the day with some exercise out on the trials at the Route 66 State Park.  Then we packed up the kids and left for St. Louis to see the Gateway Arch.  St. Louis was not too busy.  Driving in was easy and finding parking was just as easy.  We brought our bikes and scooters to get around the city.  

Friday August 21,2020 6 Flags Above St Louis

 This morning Scotty and I found some trails up above the 6 Flags here.  We drove up to explore them.  Scotty rode and I ran.  He was so amazing to break all the spider webs for me 😛 The trails were beautiful and we enjoyed time alone together.  

 

Thursday August 20, 2020 Farewell Beautiful Nauvoo- Hola St. Louis Missouri!!

   This morning we packed up the bikes and the trailer and drove out of Nauvoo.  I have to admit, I was super sad.  I felt real sadness to leave the temple and the beautiful lands that we had discovered. I guess I probably felt a fraction of what the saints felt when they left Nauvoo.   As we crossed the Missouri border I began to get excited about our next adventure.  Welcome to Missouri!!!!

 

Wednesday August 19, 2020 School and Hopewell Mounds

 Here we are day 2 of school.  Things went a bit smoother but we still have some work to do to make our schedules smooth.  All in all, it wasn't too bad today. 

     

Tuesday August 18 First Day of School and Then The Trail of Hope - Nauvoo, Illinois

 Happy First Day of School.  Or, not so happy. 

Monday August 17, 2020 Nauvoo, A Beautiful City, and Iowa!!!!

 Beautiful Nauvoo!!!                        

Sunday August 16, 2020- Goodbye Indiana- Hello Nauvoo, Illinois

                                                                      Nauvoo Temple                                                                                                   

Saturday August 15, 2020 More Indi and more fun Yogi Bear!!

Today's morning run was brought to you by Asher and his amazing wheels of gold. . . .  and . . edamame!!!!   P.S. There are edamame fields here of plenty.  I was so tempted to pick one and eat it right off the vine.  I decided  not to because they all looked under grown:)))          

Friday August 14, 2020 Indianapolis

Graham went with me on my run today.  Here are a few pictures of beautiful Indiana in the summer time.  It is really flat here.  There are no hills to run which is a huge change from Simi.  In Simi, I had to run some serious hills just to get to my house:)))  Secretly I am enjoying the "no hill" scene and the corn fields.                                                                                     

Thursday August 13, 2020 Playing and Resting in Indiana

Indiana is beautiful.  I love the corn fields and the rolling green hills.  The people I've met here are very nice.  Here are a few pictures of Knightstown, the city we are in now.        

    Our campground is part of the Yogi Bear chain.  They have a lot of great stuff here.  We basically stayed here all day and played.  In the evening we watched fire flies and tried to start a camp fire.  😕Apparently we need to find a different spot to store our wood. It got all wet when it rained so it wouldn't catch on fire. No worries.  We still had fun sitting under the stars and watching fire flies.  

                                                                                   You can see my tire prints where I hit this stop sign.  😀

Wednesday August 12, 2020. Goodbye Crawfordsville, Hello Knightstown Indiana.

Crawfordsville was beautiful but all good things have to come to an end:)))  Today we packed up and left for our last stop in Indiana. We only drove about 80 miles east to a tiny town named Knightstown.  Well, actually, that's not what happened. We planned on driving all the way through to Knightstown, but we left later than planned.  We only got 30 minutes out and we had to pull over so Scotty could take some calls.  Hahahha. It's funny how plans can change so fast.  We are very flexible so it was no big deal. In fact, it worked out so much better.  There were two things I really wanted to do in Indianapolis, and we ended up parking 5 minutes away from them. So cool! So we parked at an LDS church that we found and unhooked the truck.  I took the kids to two great places.                     The first place was the Indy 500!!!  The races are next weekend!!!  There are no spectators aloud for the races but there are huge  plasma TV's out by the entrance for people to watch.  We got to watch some races.  The racers were trying to qualify for the race next weekend.  It was seriously so cool and loud!!!                                     

The second stop was Eagle Creek Park.    They have everything there.  A ropes course, a pool, kayaking, swimming, hiking trails and so much more. We only had time to hike around a few trails.  It was beautiful.  The kids liked stick fighting the most.  Hahhaha.  

                                                                        Then when Scotty was ready, we finished our drive to Knightstown.  This campground is a Yogi Bear one.  These campgrounds are so dang cool. They have everything for the kids to do.  I assume that the next few days we will spend most of our time here swimming and playing.  By the end of the night we were all grumpy. It was a long day.  These grumps are easy to fix, we just need a good nights rest:)))      Oh, PS...... when I pulled into the campground I might have hit a stop sign and I might have scraped the side of the trailer.    It’s a good thing that Graham pulled out the power tools and fixed the stop sign. 😬                                          

 Here is our progression map now.  We are so far away from home.  It's weird:))