Dallas!

I've been meaning to catch up on this blog but other things took priority lately.

Clay had Thursday and Friday off this last week. The kids had Thursday but not Friday off. I was awfully tempted to take them out of school and head to Houston to go to the temple and NASA but the more we thought about it, that trip needed to wait. Someday we'll make it down there. It's about 3 hours (give and take) to any one of three temples. We're assigned to San Antonio Temple (just under 3 hours), Dallas is about 3 hours away, and Houston is supposed to be just over 3 hours.

Thursday we got up and got a little later start than we had anticipated and headed up as a family to Dallas. It was nice to catch up on sleep a little.

Some friends from our ward here asked if we wanted to go to the temple and switch off so we waited a bit for them after we arrived. After a drive, the kids were all ready to get out and go for a walk so we walked around the temple.

Christina and Jonathan touching the temple.Here's all 6 kids in front of the temple.
Amanda wanted a turn holding Ethan.
It was so beautiful to go to the temple that day, even if it was a little overcast.
Our handsome boy with Daddy.
Then I feed Ethan while we waited for the Snell Family to arrive. Clay and I headed in first. It's heavenly to be able to go to the temple together again. That's a rare privilege these days.

We're blessed to have one old enough so that we were able to overlap slightly. When we came out, all 9 kids were in our suburban watching a movie peacefully. I feed Ethan again while it finished and then we headed out to walk around the temple together.

Here's the youngest 5 of the group.
Ethan and Austin. They're about a month apart.
How many people does it take to push a stroller with 2 babies?
It was a beautiful day!

We grabbed some dinner and then headed home. Amanda lost her dinner when we were almost home and we've apparently picked up some kind of bug. I just kept thinking that I was very grateful that we weren't in a hotel and hopefully we didn't spread something that we didn't know we had.

Amanda threw up again that night and we walked in to find that Jonathan had also thrown up that night/morning. Daniel was complaining his stomach hurt so he stayed home from school too on Friday. I thought we were out of the woods but Saturday morning, Samantha decided to join in the fun. So much for family pictures that morning, maybe next Saturday.

We had two of them lose it again last night so we got creative running back and forth to the church today for our meetings.

Clay and I met with one of the Stake Counselors this morning as they extended a calling to him. Christina stayed home with everyone else but Ethan. Then Clay, Ethan, and I attended Sacrament Meeting (Ward Conference today) where Clay was sustained as Ward Clerk to our new Bishop. Is it wrong to say that I really enjoyed the meeting? Maybe it was because I was able to really focus on the speakers (our new Stake Presidency) without worrying about the kids.

Clay taught the Family History Class for the second hour (he's the Sunday School President) and I headed home where I loaded up all the kids to drive Christina back to the church so she could attend the rest of the meetings. I was supposed to teach Relief Society today but, thankfully, I know I left that in good hands.

After the block, I loaded up everyone again and headed back to the church where Christina sat in the car with the kids while I went in to watch Clay get set apart. It was a beautiful day, even if 4 of the kids aren't feeling well.

Now we'll see who makes it to school tomorrow. Hopefully this bug won't last too long or spread anymore.