Tag Teaming

It was such a treat to have my mom hang around the first few days we were getting settled. I tell ya, that woman is a rockstar. We got that house unpacked in no time! She was zipping around everywhere, organizing, cleaning, doing laundry....that woman just doesn't stop! I swear if she wasn't there I would have been so dang overwhelmed having to unpack all that stuff, I wouldn't even know where to start. But we made such quick progress, got everything unloaded, and before we knew it we were hanging pictures on the wall and decorating. She has such an eye for that stuff and we made the place just darling. She took me grocery shopping and we loaded up the cart full of food. It was the biggest blessing to have a fridge full of food. I kept crying every time I'd see all the delicious food we had in our fridge. What a treat it's been to have some healthy, nourishing snacks and the opportunity to make a decision on what to eat for dinner! Thank you SO much mom.

Each morning we would wake up and go for a long run/walk, exploring more of where we were. We found a great pathway that runs all along the Missouri River and goes for miles and miles. When we got back we'd have our bowls of fresh fruit and granola and sit out on the porch eating it in the warm sunshine. Doesn't get much better than that!

(Notice the beautiful garden????) I am LOVING my fresh basil and mint.
Here is where we walked along the river. This place is so beautiful and green, I just love it! There is a new pathway that goes for miles and miles along the river, it's perfect to run or ride my bike on.

After most of the packing and organizing was done my mom and I decided to have a fun day out on the town. We really wanted to do a session at the Winter Quarters temple (which is the temple closest to us.....only about 15 minutes away) but you have to make a reservation and they don't rent out any clothes. We thought for sure we were out of luck so we decided to just go and see it from the outside and check out the visitor's center. When we were leaving we decided we'd just take the chance and make sure that there were no earlier sessions going on that day. We asked the guy at the front desk and he said they were actually doing a special session at 2:00 that day and that we were welcome if we wanted to. We told him we didn't have our clothes but they said they would provide. We were so excited, my mom really wanted to do that before she left. It worked out just great! It was a little more stressful than I'm making it sound.....to put the story in a nutshell, when we were entering the temple, my mom couldn't find her recammend ANYWHERE. We were searching through every card in her wallet and it was nowhere to be found. She was positive it had fallen out with her driver's liscense at the airport. The little old temple workers were just staring at us going, "Who are these crazy ladies?" We called her bishop and she miraculously got a hold of him, but then they had to go find the temple president to "okay it" and couldn't find him anywhere! Needless to say they finally found him and we were in! I tell ya, the things my mom pulls off...... The temple is beautiful and very simple. It is much smaller than any temple I've ever seen and it has gorgeous stain glass windows. It was very neat to be in such a beautiful place and I feel so blessed to have a temple close by to where we will be living. Right behind the temple there is a cemetary where a lot of the pioneers are buried. There is a gorgeous statue of a pioneer couple burrying their baby. It was very powerful and it was really neat to think about all the trials that the pioneers went through. At the visitor's center we were able to watch a video on the pioneers about how and why they stayed at Winter Quarters. It was a blessing to be in such a sacred place. It was hard to have her leave but I couldn't ask to be in a better place for being away from family. We are living by the greatest people, who are already becoming like our own family. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for everything you did for us mom! Here's to you coming out next time!!