Vacation #2

I'm sorry it's been so long! When I got back from Arizona I immediately began packing for Illinois and we left the next morning. We were away from nearly all electronics for the entire week. It was kind of nice! My cell phone didn't work, which wasn't very fun. Oh well. We arrived on Tuesday after a 15 hour car ride. My driving kind of freaked the other passengers out, but that was only for the first few minutes. I really am a good driver! :) My "amazing" co-driver had the bright idea to play a trick on me and turned up the heated seat to 5 (max)! About 15 minutes into my drive I noticed an intense burn in my lower back but was unsure why. Kyle just told me that leather does that when it heats up. I went another 15 and really was burning at this time! I then inferred that I was the only one in the sun so maybe that was why my seat was the only one that was hot. Kyle then felt the lower back portion of my seat and said, "Karl, this is normal for leather." Never believe your family members! I finally found out about 2 and a half hours later at Jack in the Box! My back was soo sweaty! I gave Kyle a nice punch before laughing about it. It was so good to eat Jack in the Box, but my body was pretty upset at me for the food I had been eating. I really hadn't eaten very good to this point in my two vacations combined. That night we arrived after minor delays due to the flooding that occured a few weeks earlier. Kyle, MaryEllen, and I walked to the temple and it was so beautiful! They light it up well at night. Kyle went and took pictures from very random angles and places and MaryEllen and I just chatted. It was nice to chat and just be near a temple. On Wednesday we woke and all chatted. The whole family was there except the first in-law (Scott). It was so fun to be with my whole family together again! I hadn't done that since long before my mission, and now MaryEllen was a part of the experience which was fun. I kind of felt left out that all had their own partner, but Amy didn't, so we joked that we were spouses (complete jokingly!). We all did a session together in the temple and it was such a cool feeling to be there with all my siblings (minus Scott), and my parents. It made me so happy that we all were there together. I wish that we could all be in together one time, all 11 (and eventually 12) of us. I think that would be pretty sweet. The rest of the day we started family home evening and I was a little irked from the first time I got to my room, it was filled with people. I didn't like that people ate on my bed, nor used it to hang out. I wanted my personal space too, just as they all had theirs, but I guarded my door better afterwards and it didn't happen again. On Thursday we toured Nauvoo. It was a lot of fun. I was dead tired though. My feet hurt. I stupidly wore flipflops. Oh well. It was fun to do that. We saw a lot of cool things and Kyle and I broke the rope making machine for a second. We then went to the visitors center and I was able to talk to a nice sister missionary from Austrailia. Her accent was pretty cool. We then walked home and shopped on the way. It was good times. That night we went to Sunset at the Mississippi and it was a lot better than I had expected. I nearly passed up the opportunity, but it was a lot of fun and good dancing and song. President Uchtdorf was there with his family and went up front during the Air Force portion. I felt bad because after he was hounded by "fans". I saw the sister missionary again and chatted a bit more with her. I'll never see her again, but she's pretty cool and--well, she has a nice accent. On Friday we headed to Freeport and again due to the flooding we were late in traveling and thus late for plans already made in Freeport. We went as quick as we could, but some had hard time with that. At fireworks that night it was fun to go see them. Last year at this time I was with a less-active named Nikki and we watched them from her house. It was a lot of fun to think like that. When we got home we played Murder (of course) and it was fun as normal. MaryEllen killed us all. I was kind of protecting her because it was her first few times playing and she kept getting killed for nothing so I adamently defended her only to be killed (by her!) and find out who did it. I learned who my true friends were that night. Also on Friday we had the lip sync and we did the Cha Cha Slide. It was a lot of fun. Kyle and I normally get down a little more than we showed in front of the family.

On Saturday Kyle and I played Disc Golf and he totally won. It was fun to play. He kept hounding me on the way home, "Karl, you want to get in to it? I want to get in to it, Ellen." Good times. That night we had an open house for my grandma. It was so fun. My dad asked some girls to come speak to me. My dad is the best wingman!

On Sunday we had church and I had a PPI with my sister Jen. That was fun. We just BBQed that day and played Murder that night. Good times once again. I really like being around my family. On Monday we woke early to begin our trail home. 16 hours later we were home. Good vacation. I didn't go to bed that night very early. I wasn't tired, but exhausted. I was wide awake. It was the next day that I was dead. I'm excited for the next reunion, both our family's and the greater family.