Grandma and Grandpa Swift

For a week and a half around Memorial Day, Grandma and Grandpa Swift came to visit! We had a lot of fun exploring the twin cities together. And it was fun to watch the kids get to know their grandparents. Joslyn hadn't seen them since before their mission and they hadn't met Dorian yet. Dorian is very shy around other people, and he has a tendency to cry when strangers talk to him, or even look at him. I was so worried that he would just be fussy the whole time, but he wasn't! He was a little unsure of them for the first day or two but he warned up to them, and by the time they left he was letting them​ hold him and giving them kisses! It was the sweetest thing!

Joslyn loved having them here from the first day. Actually from before they even got here! She was so excited when we told here they were coming that we made a paper chain to help her count down the days so she wouldn't keep asking us when they were coming.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take very many pictures while they were here. But I think Doug took some more, so maybe check out their blog too! 

We went to a lot of fun places while they were here. We went to Como Zoo, the free zoo down the road from where we live. Jacquelyn went there as a kid, and it was fun to talk about how it changed (a lot!). 

Isaac showed them around the U of M and his office. They even took a picture with Goldy the Gopher!

We got to go to a Twins game too! The Twins is the Minnesota baseball team. They didn't win, but they did hit a lot of home runs. Joslyn especially loved the home runs because they lit fireworks every time, and the crowd got really loud. She thought that was really fun.

We were out a lot while they were here, so Dorian took a lot of naps on the go.

One of the best parts of the visit was our trip to Nelson's Ice cream! It's this great little ice cream shop that gives out giant, and I mean GIANT, scoops of ice cream. Joslyn really really wanted to get superman ice cream, so we decided to get it. It was a bright blue yellow and pink ice cream that got every where, but Joslyn and Dorian liked it.

Joslyn at Nelson's before getting too messy.

But the very best part of the trip was getting to spend time reading, playing games with, and hearing all about Jacquelyn and Doug's mission in the Philippines. 

Being so far from everyone, we really miss seeing and spending time with family. It was really great to have them come visit, and ease some of the homesickness we've been feeling. And we're really excited for the reunion this summer.

Stillwater

We had some really hot days last week, and one day we decided to drive about 30 minutes away, to go to a cool park Isaac found, that was on the Wisconsin boarder. It was called Teddy Bear Park. Joslyn really loved climbing on all the new toys, and figuring out where everything led.

Joslyn really liked climbing on the rocks

Dorian wasn't really interested in playing on the playground, but he found a shovel in the sand under the rock wall, and just had some fun digging in the sand.

After the park we walked around Stillwater a little bit. We visited the old courthouse, and we walked along the St. Croix river.
The courthouse had a cannon in front of it!

On another note, since spring has begun, we've started seeing some wild turkeys again. We think one of them thinks that it is a rooster, because several mornings in a row, it has been gobbling really loudly when the sun comes up.

After seeing this, though, I'm really glad that we don't live on the ground level. I don't think I would like to wake up to a turkey looking at me through the window!

We even saw a turkey really high in a tree. Isaac said someone sent their dog to chase it away, and it flew into the tree. I didn't know that turkeys could fly. I've only ever seen them walk.

Just a few pictures of the kids. They're both growing so much!

St. Louis

We spent a day and a half in St. Louis, and we had a lot of fun. We got there Monday night, and we tried the St. Louis style of pizza. It has a really thin crust and it's toppings go from edge to edge. The place we went was recommended to us by one of Isaac's classmates who is from there, but we didn't really like it very much. We prefer lots of crust on our pizza!

On Tuesday morning we drove to Taum Sauk Mountain and did the high point. And then Tuesday afternoon we went to Gateway Arch! 

It was really cold out, so we had to bring the kids blankets.

The arch was under construction, and the tram ride to the top was closed, so we didn't get to go up the arch, but we did get to go inside and warm up a bit. There was a small theater inside where they show a video about how the arch was designed and built.

Right across from the arch is the Old Courthouse, and that was a lot of fun. It was the courthouse where the famous Dred Scott case was tried. Now it's just a big museum, and there a lots of exhibits.

One of our favorite things in the courthouse was that in the middle, you can see all the way to the top.

You could even go up to the higher levels and look down from the balconies.

The old court rooms were pretty fun to look at. 

Joslyn's favorite part of the courthouse was the room where you could build your own arch. She had a lot of fun building it, but she liked pushing it over even more.

The next day we went to the St. Louis Zoo. The St. Louis Zoo is has free admission, and it is one of the top 10 zoos in the country. So they have a lot of animals that we don't have in the zoos around here. Our favorite was probably the elephants. I think I've mentioned before that Dorian loves elephants, and he was pretty exited when he saw the real thing. It was so cute.

 They also have rhinos and hippos, but neither of those animals were out when we went. We were pretty bummed about that.

I just thought this bird was pretty funny.

Dorian really liked the turtles. They were right at his eye level when he stood at the glass, and he just followed them back and forth as the paced. It was pretty cute. 

Joslyn liked the monkeys the best. Her favorite was probably the "big sleeping monkey!" Haha, one of the gorillas was laying in a swing, and she kept talking about it in the car.

Across the street from the zoo is Turtle Park, where they have giant statues of turtles that you can climb and play on. The kids had fun with them. They could even fit in the snapping turtle's mouth!

We didn't get to do all the things that we wanted to in St. Louis, but the kids were having so much fun at the zoo that we decided to spend more time there and skip the other things.

Nauvoo

On our way to down to Missouri to do the high point, we decided it would be a lot of fun to stop and look around the Nauvoo area. We really enjoyed it. The kids didn't really understand most of it, but they were happy to be out of the car, and walking around, so they liked it too.

The first place we stopped was the Nauvoo temple. It was super cold out, so we didn't spend a lot of time here, but it was really beautiful. Joslyn especially loved the statues.

The back of the temple.

A nice woman saw us walking around the temple, and offered to take our picture.

Statue of Joseph and Hyrum Smith where they stopped to look at the temple on their way to Carthage.

View that Joseph and Hyrum Smith had of the temple as they stopped.

Next we went to the Visitors Center. They showed a video about the saints in Nauvoo, and there was so much information there! I had no idea about some of the things I read while walking around.

This is a piece of the original Nauvoo Temple. It was Isaac's favorite.

This was my favorite thing in the visitors center.

Next we went to Old Nauvoo. It was like a little old fashioned town with a lot of senior missionaries around to tell you what life was like for the saints when they lived there.

In this building they made things like bread, candles and ropes right in front of you. It was really fun to learn about. Women's big dresses would often catch on fire while they were making candles, and the women use to check the temperature of the oven by putting their hands in! They told us that the number two cause death of women in that time was catching on fire.

Our last stop before continuing on to Missouri was Carthage Jail. Going through the Jail was really cool. We got to see all the floors and the different cells and things. The first floor was where people who committed small crimes like petty theft and things like that. The jailers family also lived on this floor. There was one bedroom for all seven of the jailers kids!
The second floor was the dungeon cells. The walls were stone, and the windows were just a couple inches across. The only natural light and ventilation came through those tiny windows. We went in early afternoon, and it was very dark.
The top floor was the jailers bedroom, but because of all the angry citizens, the jailer moved Joseph Smith and his companions up there because he thought it would be safer.

Missouri High Point #4

Over spring break, we decided to go to the highest point in Missouri. We have the goal as a family to go to the highest point in every state. Some are super easy, and others will obviously be pretty difficult. Missouri was our fourth high point. The highest point in Missouri is Taum Sauk Mountain, and it was a super easy 'hike'. I say 'hike' because we drove to the state park, and then there was a paved trail to the top. And there was almost no incline. It took us maybe two minutes to walk it. It was probably the easiest high point we've done. Iowa probably would have been easier, but because it was winter went we went there, and we got stick in the snow, I rank it as harder than Taum Sauk Mountain.

We have had the worst luck with weather every time we've attempted a high point. As you can see, it snowed when we did this one, and I mentioned earlier that is snowed in Iowa and we got stuck. When we did Tim's Hill in Wisconsin it rained a little bit, and when we did Eagle Mountain in Minnesota it poured on us the first half of the hike. Hopefully for our next one will have nicer weather!

Dorian is one!

Dorian turned one this week! I can't believe how fast the time has gone. It seems like it was just a few months ago that we brought him home, but at the same time it feels like he's been part of our family forever. He is such a sweet boy.

 

This week he finally figured out crawling! He's been just scooting for a while. But he still doesn't crawl all the time. It's probably about half the time is crawling and the other half still scooting. 

We had a little party for him on Saturday. We had a lot of fun. Dorian was pretty shy with other people there, so he didn't play much with the other kids.

He was so shy that he wouldn't even touch his cake! 

But later, after all the people left, he was all over the cake. He ate quite a bit of it.

Dorian has a little stuffed elephant that he sleeps with that he really loves, so we decided to make an elephant cake for him. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out.

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Also, Dorian started walking this week! It was just one step one day, and then like 5 steps the next! It still amazes me how fast babies learn everything!

Joslyn was pretending to be Arthur during this video. So of course, Dorian was baby Kate. :)

We sure love this kid, and can't wait for him to meet everyone this summer!