This museum was a welcome break from the freeway--tanks and helicopters to climb on! It doesn't get any better than this for boys!
Dad knew a lot of things about these vehicles that weren't on the plaques. The boys we're kind of bummed that the German tanks were better than the American tanks.
Location: On the side of I-40 somewhere in Nebraska. 
This picture clearly shows how boys act after being cooped up in a car for six hours. The following pictures show how the same boys act while being given a historical religious lecture. 
Clint and I tried to control them, really we did. We ran this way, dodged that way and gave time outs to try to contain them but they still pounded on the display buttons, chased each other all around the room, turned off the First Vision video and crashed the antique handcart. The Elder Missionary just kept on with his presentation through it all, so maybe being father of eight he was used to it? He told Clint he really appreciated us trying to control our kids, as some people just let their kids run wild. Really? I can't imagine what that would look like!
First stop out of Memphis (a painful 3 a.m. arrival) was Nauvoo. After a long sleep-in the boys discovered a pretty great view from our balcony. Cole called this his temple because it was built (rebuilt) the same year he was born--2002.
Enjoying Lunch and dinners at Jon's cafe.
Holy Hollyhocks!
Listening to a lecture on bread making in the Daily Living Center. The rope was aquired at a previous instruction on rope making. Jack is posing as Cole's pet rat and has been leashed to the chair.
They were both amused by the arrangement.
Visiting the house of Clint's great-umpteenth grandfather's house. The boys Kung-fu'd their way through the house. It was not very interesting to them--except the gun forge part. 
At Joseph Smith's home. Historic places are probably a bit much still for these guys. Tal's favorite part: The jail (Carthage); Cole's favorite part: winning $3 from Dad for all the footraces he won. We hope a bit of the feeling and scenery and history sunk in for the boys. Hopefully we'll get back when they are older.
In front of the Pink Cadillac Elvis bought for his Mom. It's a Southern Mama-son thang.
Joey and Katie gave us quite the amazing going away gift--tickets to Graceland! They knew it had been on our bucket list forever, but they also know we are kind of cheap and may have justified not spending the $70 a ticket to go. Thanks you guys!!! It was so awesome. We felt so much prouder to be Memphians (if only for one more week). Seriously I could not really explain it, you just have to experience it. That Elvis really had it going on. So if you visit Katie and Joey in Memphis, you really must go to Graceland. (So do you have that Paul Simon song in your head now? I do.)
This is Ethan Sterbis, Cole's best Memphis friend. He was heading off to Louisiana, just about the time we were leaving Memphis ourselves. Aunt Katie Hale taught him Japanese lessons to help him maintain what he learned while living in Japan and attending a Japanese preschool. He and his family are good peeps.
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Tal couldn't have had a nicer team of boys for his first stint in soccer. At 9-years old he was about 5 years behind everyone else. Soccer in Bartlett is like Basketball in Indiana. Bartlett Parks and Rec invented Micro-soccer. Which starts 3-year olds out on tiny fields with only three kids per team--a goaly and two "runners." That's the kind of team Jack was on. It gets progressively bigger from there. Tal's team had 9 Mormons out of the 11 players. Pretty amazing considering each of them were the only Mormon's in their classes. It was nice for Tal to play with his favorite friend Kaleb Schauerhammer, and Kaleb's Dad was the assistant coach. The head coach, Loren Smith, was also a good friend of ours. Overall a learning experience.
This is the monster project we took on the last month before we moved. Really Clint did it all. All I did was take care of the kids while he did this enormous project (after working 12 hours at the base). We had 2 unfinished rooms upstairs. and a realtor told us that a house of our size would be much easier to sell with a bonus room. The room would tip the house over 3,000 feet as well, raising the price. We bought the house thinking it was already 3,400 feet but that's a painful story we won't repeat.
Clint did most of the work himself. He put down a second layer of subfloor--and two where there had been none. He framed it up. We hired Jose and friends to do the drywall. We also got a good deal on the HVAC because Clint worked along side the installer. And because of city codes, we hired the electrical work out as well. Then Clint primed and painted and did a really beautiful job trimming. He was most proud of the two 1/2 access doors into the attic spaces. Our amazing friend Ben helped with the framing. Ben and Joey both put in about 30 hours the last week before the move helping us repaint the entire house. They had to work really hard to get rid of us
I wish I had picture of the complete finished project with the trim and carpet in place, but at the time the camera was only working on every other Thursdays when it was a full moon. It's now dead completely.
I'm not a fan of matriculation for every single baby step of education, but I have to say I really was a fan of this darling pre-school at the Singleton Community Center in Bartlett, Tennessee. It was a 1940s building, just like the building where I attended Kindergarten through 9th grade in Huntsville, Utah. But old as it was, the floors always sparkled with a fresh coat of wax and the walls always had a fresh coat of paint. I loved that old building.
At the front of the line here is Jacks best guy pal, Mathew, who also lived in our neighborhood. Jack is second in line.
Here is Miss Sue. Every day I heard all about what "My teacher told me..." Jack hung on every word. She had a cocker spaniel "mascot" in the class for the kids to love. I think this is where Jack's love of animals was really nurtured and how it came that he begged and begged for a pet...but you've heard that story. I loved Miss Sue because she was never shocked by anything that the kids did. She really got them and just led them along.
Jack said, "I'm ready for Kindergarten because I know how to do crafts."
Jack's friend Macy. A lot of the little girls there had crushes on Jack. Or so their moms told me.
Jacks very best friend from Memphis, Anya Brown. She has a pet bird named "Jack."
Our family, not posing for a family picture.
