Missouri & Nauvoo

My parents are awesome and decided to fly me out to go see my sister Natalie and her husband Joe in Missouri! I've never flown alone before so I was a tad nervous but I did fine. I went to go board my flight from St. Louis to Kirksville and the lady at the desk said "well enjoy your private flight Mrs. Valantine!" and I went to go board my plane and this is what I came to! I was the ONLY person on this tiny plane! As i boarded the captin said "well i guess you can really pick your seat? you could even sit co pilot!" so kidding or not kidding I jumped on that plane and went straigh to shot gun!!

this is me riding shotty on my private jet ha ha ha

This is Pilot Bryan! he was AWESOME! he paints on the side so we talked about art the whole time! So fun!

It kinda made me nervous when he got up out of his seat in mid air, grabbed his phone, and started texting ha ha ha

Nat and I went 4-wheeling on Friday! it was SO FUN! her boss took us all over the country side! it was gorgeous!

Saturday Nat & I took off to Nauvoo!!!

Right when we got there we went and played with all the old pioneer toys! We'd done the church history tour as kids and remembered all the little toys from then!

Then we had a picnick by the river where the pioneers started their long trip across the river and then on to the rest of the country.

Nat got a Nikon from Joe for mothers day so we honestly spent most our day teaching her how to use it. We're in the car because I was demonstrating the dark inside with heavy back lighting technique :)

We went and did some fun shopping around the little town

this was my FAVORITE! We went on a covered wagon ride! It wasn't my favorite because of the ride but it kinda made us realize how slow they were and how rocky the trails where. It really made us realize how hard this trip must have been even for the ones who got to ride in the wagons!

of course in TRUE ANDERSON STYLE we had to get ice cream!

Then onto Carthidge Jail. This place is truely amazing. The tour was led by sister missionaries who bore testimony of joseph smith and his teachings and the spirit was so strong!

The rest of the trip we made crafts, I tutored natalie in photoshop, we made watches, watched movies, made strawberry jam and I now (thanks to natalie and joes diets) have a much bigger appreciaton for wheat bread, wheat pancakes, wheat tortillas, brown rice, sugar free fat free ice cream and skim milk :) thanks guys!