Welcome to West Virginia!

Here's a picture of the girls sleeping in the hallway of our very special friend's house
the night before the big move!  

 12 plus hours is a LONG car ride!  Bryleigh was the ONLY one to fall asleep though!  

 This is the beautiful view that I ran past on my first morning run in Charleston, West Virginia!
Yep, I said outside!  I am running outside because my treadmill is in storage while we are in our temporary housing.  

 This is the view of our first attempt at yummy Mexican Cuisine.  It did not disappoint!  So far we have found another place that we like too!

 First Day of School at their new Elementary School!  Go Kanawha City Elementary!

 Bryleigh's First Day of 4K.  There's just a month left but she LOVES that she gets to go to big school!

As we passed the sign that said, "Welcome to West Virginia"  Camryn said in her best southern accent, "yeah, now bring on the accents!"  

Dad took a few pictures of his girls on Mother's Day which was also our first day at church in our new ward.  

 I think they have their pose down!  Camryn's even working her face!  Watch out American's next top model here comes the Payne girls!

Here's my handsome husband on his first day of his new job!  He's now the founding program director of the PA Program at the University of Charleston.

Family Trip to Nauvoo

 Freezing cold covered wagon ride!  It was the middle of April and we were bundled up in coats, hats, gloves, ear protectors, several blankets and we were still very very cold!  Makes you feel even more sorry and grateful for the pioneers and for what they went through.

 Old school style!

 This was the tiny bathroom of the cabin that we stayed in.  The tub was so little that I barely fit with my knees bent.  I've got a "clean" picture of Dave in the tub but I don't think he would like me to share that one!  The girls absolutely loved staying in a "real" log cabin.  

 The bunk beds were a HUGE hit among the Payne girls.

 The flowers were so pretty and colorful.  There were so many tulips on the temple grounds.  It was night so my pictures didn't turn out very well but I really enjoyed them, tulips are my favorite!

 I love to see the temple.  

We only got night pictures of the temple.  It was still so beautiful even at night.  

I want to share a very precious story.  The girls really wanted to see the inside of the temple. We told them they might be able to open the door and look inside the foyer and look at the wait room area.  They were so excited, especially Camryn.  When we walked up the steps and pulled on the doors, they were locked.  We had seen a few people trickling out every now and again so we waited on the steps of the temple to see if anyone else would come out so that we could hold the door and peak inside.  After no one came out for a little while Dave finally said, "come on girls, lets go."  Camryn and Jamie were both silently disappointed, with tears streaming down their face.  My heart was broken, I too was full of disappointment because they weren't able have the joy that comes from seeing (for me attending) the inside of a temple.  It was a great teaching opportunity.  I was able to teach them that the sad feeling they got would be the same sad feeling they would get if their family was attending the temple and they had not kept the commandments, making them unable to attend the temple with their family.  I am sure my heartbreak was a small version of the feeling that I would feel if all my girls couldn't enter the temple with me.  This story ended happily though.  I dragged my feet walking slowly because I wasn't ready to give up on waiting.  As we were reaching the very last step the door opened.  A young couple walked out. I starting running and yelled "hold that door".  They looked at me like I was crazy, I am sure I appeared a little crazy.  They asked me again what I said and I yelled again, "hold that door."  I could tell they didn't know what to do.  They were starting to let go of the door slowly just as I reached them.  I quickly explained, although I am not sure it made much sense, I said, "I know they can't go in just yet, but they just want to see the inside of a temple."  They gave me a little bit of a strange look and slowly walked away.  The inside of this part of the temple was a 6x6 room with a chair a rug and an umbrella stand.  There was another door that you had to open in order to see the inside of the waiting area.  We didn't open that door, in fact we didn't even step inside, but the girls got to see a little part of the temple and they instantly felt joyful, excited and were thrilled to have had that experience.  They talked about it the whole way back home to our little cabin.  

 Our tiny little home during the trip.  It was fun to stay in these cute little cabins.  The experience was lots of fun.  I am glad that I last minute changed my mind and selected the cabins over the Marriot that we originally had reservations for.

 Carthage jail is the background of this picture.  Visiting there was was of the best experiences of Nauvoo.  Most everything is the original that you get to see and touch.  Our tour guide was amazing.  He told the story of the events like he was there on that day.  He was gentle and spoke with reverence and the spirit could be felt in that upper room as he spoke. 

 This was the window where Joseph fell from.  Dave told the girls not to smile.  It sort of seems odd to smile in front of this window, don't you agree?  Bryleigh did a great job following the directions, but the other two could not help but smile when told not to.