Family Time

Over the weekend, Kaden turned 12. He recieved the priesthood. It is amazing how quickly the kids grow up. Mom, Dad and I went to The Moses home for a weekend of FUN!!
Both sets of Kaden's grandparents were there. What a special time in his life & the spirit was so strong. We went sailing (and the kids got the boat all rigged up to go!!) , to a museum, had a big birthday party, watched the birthday boy eat 55 shrimp scampi! Wow! He beat last years record by 15 shrimp!
We were able to spend a lot of time together as a family. It was a great weekend.

Nauvoo

Exciting Summer News! The Acklin Family (Chuck, Karen, Janine & Family, Crusan & kids) took a much needed family vacation to Nauvoo, Illinois. It is not very often that all of the grandkids are together with Grammy & Chucky. What a BLAST!

Nauvoo is an amazing place! It is like you are in a spiritual bubble! (as a local Nauvoo - an called it!) Dad joined the 'Nauvoo Pipe Band' and back in February invited all of us to join him and Mom there for a few days. We all arrived on the same day and had such an amazing time together. There is so much to learn & do in Nauvoo. The town holds so much history, we will probably have to go back for many years to come in order to learn every tid-bit! For the few days we were there we had spiritual experiences that made us a lot closer. We are all so grateful to Dad for letting us be a part of this wonderful oppertunity. We all loved Nauvoo! Enjoy the pictures! (I couldn't put all 388- so I picked some of the best)

Campin' Out

This morning Chucky called my kids and asked them if they would like to sleep out in his back yard with him. They wanted to, so we made plans to drop them off after dinner with Justin's family.

We ended up staying with Justin's family about an hour longer than planned, and even though it was late we decided to stop by Dad's place and see if he was even still awake. Well ofcourse he was!! He was excited to have the girls over. (This is what I love about my dad. He does little things that you'll always remember...) So at 9:30 at night in the dark back yard, the girls helped Chucky set up the tents for their camp out!

They stayed up late and talked. They even went into chucky's tent to

see what it was like and then back into theirs for a good night's sleep. The next morning they all sat outside and had muffins & cocoa for breakfast! What a FUN memory!

A little background

Hello Everyone, I am Crusan. The third (and favorite, might I mention) child of Chuck and Karen. The whole reason I am doing this blog is so that we can all hopefully stay better connected as family & friends.
Melinda Epps Merkley, my sister-in-law got me hooked on Blogging and I was determined to get one started up for MY side of the family.
I know we are all busy with our own lives, but this is a fun thing we can all enjoy and do together! So let's have fun! Let's share memories, events and recipes...whatever we feel like!