To catch up...

Here they are at JPL trying to figure out how
to get the rover unstuck that is on mars.

The Spacecraft Assembly Facility

Welcome to Cal Tech

It is really pretty and green with lots of beautiful
buildings

Another building

My camera's attempt of the city at night

These boats went on for what seemed like miles
along the shore of Lake Michigan.

Chicago was really pretty but too many
people and buildings for me.

One of the statues in the womens garden.

The statue of Hyrum and Joseph in front
of the temple.

Joseph Smith Red brick store

The sister missionary told us how they made
their own cloth.

The Nauvoo Temple

The quarry, where they took rock for the
temple.

Us, at the end of our trip

So a lot has happened since I last posted. I think that is why I keep putting it off. Hopefully it won't take me to long to catch up. On August 5th I left the boys in Wyoming with my parents and headed down to Logan. I got things taken care of with the house, packed my suitcases and the next morning drove to Salt Lake. I met my good friend Katy at her house, left my car there and she drove me to the airport. I was so nervous! I had never flown by myself before and had only ever flown twice before that. I made it through security just fine and found my gate. A little while later I realized that my gate said some other city so I decided to check. My flight had been delayed and was to be boarding at another gate! It is a good thing I checked! The flight was only an hour and a half long which wasn't bad at all. I found the bag claim with no problems and there was Shane! I was so excited to see him! I hadn't seen him for 2 months! We caught 2 different buses and the train before we finally reached our hotel. Shane had to work the next day and caught the bus across the street from our hotel at 5:30 a.m. I went with him to make sure I knew what I was doing. After he left I went back to the hotel to sleep for a few more hours. I was supposed to be out at the bus stop at 12:30 to head to JPL. He had scheduled me for a tour at a certain time. Well the bus was supposed to come at 12:40 but I waited and waited and it never did. Some of the people who waited with me for the other bus said that the 177 that I was waiting for was never on time. So I went back to the Hotel, used the restroom and went back to the bus stop. It was supposed to come every hour. Anyway I waited another hour and still no bus. Shane told me to go back to the hotel and call a cab if I still wanted to see JPL. So that is what I did. They told me it would be 5 minutes. Well 20 minutes later the cab pulls up. I hopped in and told the driver I wanted to go to JPL. Well just my luck he didn't know where it was. He called and got directions and soon we were on our way. Then we got lost and he called for more directions. Needless to say I wasn't very impressed with California's transportation system. He eventually got me there though. I missed out on the tour because I was so late. Shane wanted me to meet his supervisor and he had already gone home. I did get to see some things but I was pretty disappointed that I had missed out on the tour. Saturday we went to see Cal Tech, where Shane had his dorm room. It is the prettiest campus I have ever seen! I can't say as much for his dorm room though. It would be like living in a cardboard box. Sunday morning we got up, packed our things and headed for the train station. The LAX airport was insane! There were lines backed up everywhere! I was worried we were going to miss our flight even though we had gotten there really early. Once on our plane we headed to Chicago,caught a cab to our hotel. This time it went a lot better. We were going to stay at the Hyatt Hotel where Shane was presenting at a conference. It was right on the edge of Lake Michigan. So when he was working that is where I went. It was really pretty. Shane presented on Wednesday so on Thursday we got a rental car and drove to Nauvoo. I had never been. My family went for spring break when I was in college so I couldn't go. It took us 5 hours to get there so we didn't have very much time. They give wagon rides and tell about all of the sites. I am glad we got to do that because that way we got to see all of Nauvoo in a short time. After 2 1/2 hours we drove the 5 hours back. After taking the rental car back we got back to our hotel pretty late. We woke up early on Friday morning packed our things and went to the airport. My flight left for Salt Lake about an hour and a half before Shane's left for L.A. He had one more week at JPL and then would fly home. That was about it. I had a good time even though at the end I was really starting to miss the boys. We talked to them everyday and they didn't seem to care I was gone. I sure got some good hugs when I got back though. Now we are back home and are getting settled back into a routine. I am grateful my parents were so willing to have us this summer but it is nice to be back in our own house.