It definitely feels like fall over here! We love crunching in all the leaves on our walks. I baked some amish friendship bread and it was delicious and made our house smell like fall.
The boys got out of school early on Thursday and didn't have school on Friday so we decided to take a quick trip to Omaha. Our temple is closed for three months so we decided to go to the Winter Quarters temple. I had an interesting experience as I planned to go to a 6 am endowment session and in the middle of the night when Adelaide wasn't sleeping well and I was feeling nervous about driving to the temple so early, I had this impression to go to the temple later in the day. As soon as I decided that's what I would do, I was able to relax and fall back to sleep. With Aaron teaching seminary these days, our family time has become limited so we're extra grateful it worked out for Aaron to take a day off of work for us to have a little family vacation. We started the day going to the Omaha zoo and it's as amazing as everyone says it is!
A kind lady observed us struggling to take a family photo so I was grateful she offered to take a picture for us! A friend of a friend suggested several places to each for lunch so we all agreed on Stella's - a local burger place. Tears filled our eyes when the waitress came over to us and said an older couple who was sitting behind us paid for our food. We're a big family and with inflation right now, we don't go out to each very often. We said hello to this couple when we first walked through the door and told them it was our first time at the restaurant. They felt like angels to us and the saddest part was that they took off before we could tell them thank you! There are so many great people in this world!! We're all inspired to find ways to pass on the kindness this couple shared with us!
We took a walk on this bridge where we could be in two states at once - Iowa and Nebraska!
Next we had ice cream in Old Town.
We ended the evening with touring the Winter Quarter's visitor's center while Aaron and I took turns inside the temple.
The sweetest missionary couple gave us a tour! They're excitement for their mission radiated from them. They said they've only been out on their mission for a week. :)
I'm grateful for my parents that made temple attendance a priority. We would travel to Dallas, TX and then Oklahoma City, OK. We were all excited to see a new temple and we pray our children will always remember how much the temple means to Aaron and me.
We stopped at the gas station on our drive back home and I loved hearing Adelaide say to Eleanor, "Eleanor, hold my hand."
We made it home late Friday evening and enjoyed sleeping in before Austin's last soccer game. He scored 3 goals during the last game. He's really improved this year!
He loved his team even though he wasn't a huge fan of the jersey colors.
On Sunday morning we decided to start our morning with a hike. Even though hiking is very different in Missouri, it's still so beautiful to see the fall colors.
We had parent teach conferences with the boys' teachers this week and they're thriving in school. We're grateful most of all that their teachers said they have integrity and the teachers can count on them to do the right thing.
