Another One Bites The Dust!!

Here are Ellie's kindergarten pics! Better late than never! Ellie loves her teacher and has made a lot of friends. Paige is going to miss her best friend being around.

Paige giving moral support!

Sea World

Before Ellie started kindergarden we went down to Seaworld for her birthday. Grandma and Grandpa "T" were able to come with us. We also picked up Uncle Jeff when we got down there. He is going to school at San Diego State Univirsity. The girls had fun with their Grandma and Grandpa and one of their favorite uncles.

The girls and flipper.

Gearing up for the Shamu show.

By the time we made it to the Shamu night show, little Paige was all tuckered out.

The girls and Uncle Jeff. Paige actually looks like she had one to many!

South Dakota

This is the last post of our trip across the United States of America. It was so interesting to see the different landscapes, architecture and culture. Our first stop was the Corn Palace in Mitchel South Dakota. The Corn Palace is a building on the middle of Main street in this tiny town that has a new mosaic on the outside and inside every year. As I was routing our trip, I noticed that Mitchel South Dakota was right in our path. I remembered that my good friend G.K's grandma stops there every summer as she drives across the country. I thought that it would be a good piece of Americana to see. I also figured that as a father, I am required to stop at random landmarks on road trips. Unfortunately for my pregnant wife, she just wanted to get across the country ASAP. We actually thought it was pretty amazing how detailed the mosaics were, although I would not go out of my way to get there. The same day we drove across the entire state of South Dakota and arrived in Rapid City. When we finally got to the top of the mountain it was about 50 degrees and almost raining. We hurried and snapped a couple shots and then, ironically, went to the cafeteria to get ice cream. The size of the carvings were phenomenal. Washington's nose was twenty five feet long! I am glad they put the father of our country George Washington on the mountain. He was an amazing man. It was incredible to see Mt. Rushmore. It is truly a symbol of America's freedom and is up there with the Statute of Liberty when it comes to national monuments. The girls became less interested in Mt. Rushmore the more they shivered, so on the way back down the mountain we found a really cool petting zoo called Old Mac Donald's. They had a great time and were even able to feed baby goats milk from a bottle. The next day as we drove through Montana and Wyoming we actually drove through snow in June. I like that picture not just because of the snow, but because it has our little blue car that carried our family safely across the country. Angie and the girls in front of the Corn Palace.

Even the light poles on Main street had corn on them.

Angie and I have a collection of classic movies and North by North West is one of them. It was directed by Alfred Hitchkock and has a famous final scene with Cary Grant climbing the face of Mt. Rushmore.

Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

The family.

Paige running out of control on top of a dangerously high ledge. Ellie doing the same.

Paige and a large harry scottish ox.

Ellie

Paige

The Thompson Family wagon in front of snow in June!!

Passing Through Nauvoo

I know this post is very out-of-date, but now school has started and my job is normal, we finally have time to make some posts on our blog. As many of you know Angie is pretty laid up right now with our third girl. She is due any time. I kept reminding her to post , but considering the serious pain she has been in, I realized that I'd better shut up. So I decided to take it upon myself to post our trip across the beautiful United States of America. Our first attraction was Nauvoo, Illinois. It was great to see the reconstructed Nauvoo temple. We were amazed at the amount of trials the saints had to endure to get to Nauvoo and build a thriving city out of a swamp only to have to be driven out once again. We stayed at a quaint hotel on main street called the "Hotel Nauvoo". It was an old mansion that they converted into a hotel. Angie and I enjoyed it because it had a lot of character.

This is Ellie in front of the Hotel Nauvoo.

The girls loved the bakery. .. Especially because the sister missionary gave them a cookie.

This is the girls in front of the original Cultural Hall.

We took a wagon ride around the grounds that the Church owns in Nauvoo. The grounds were really kept up nice and the girls thought they were on an episode of one of their favorite shows, "Little House on The Prairie".

Ellie

The Nauvoo Temple

Spelunkers!

Skyline Caverns

Before we left Virginia we visited the Skyline Caverns which are located in Front Royal, Virginia in the Shenandoah Mountains! It was a little spontaneous but we were glad we did it. Luckily the girls had some warmer clothes in the car because it was freezing down there. The caverns were discovered in 1937 by a geologist by the name of Dr. Walter S. Amos. I'm sure you were all dying to know that! It was a really cool and unique trip. We topped it off by eating at a restaurant appropriately named Spelunkers Frozen Custard and Cavern Burgers. The girls obviously enjoyed their ice-cream!!

California or Bust!!!!

Well, we did it. We are now settled into our place back in sunny California! If you want to know what it was like traveling 3000 miles being 7 months pregnant, with a 4 and 2 year old, plus John( hee hee) all I can say is use your imagination!! I definitely think I deserve the mother of the year award for that trip alone! To tell you the truth our girls were practically angels considering being in the car for 9 hours at a time, and of course we have much thanks to give the portable DVD player. I must say that using public restrooms from Virgina to California was the biggest nightmare for me. Oh, I can't even think about it! Anyway, putting that aside, we were able to see some really beautiful country and some really neat places. Our camera was so dumb on the trip so we really didn't get that many great pics, but we got a lot of good footage on our video camera. I'm going to post the few pics we did get. We had a few places we went before we left Virgina that we wanted to get on here, so we hope you enjoy. Then I'll post "The Trip". You know I have really thought seriously about pushing the delete button on this entire blog thing. I know it is suppose to be fun, but I have felt this pressure in the back of my mind to get this done. So, I decided to keep plugging along and hope that all our family and friends will be patient with me. How does everyone keep up?? I would love to know your secret!!