Church History Fun

In the past when I think of Nauvoo or Carthage I think of deathly hot and humid.  

So miserably uncomfortable.

However, the heavens gave us the greatest gift of beautiful cool weather to enjoy for the majority of our whole trip.  It was so appreciated, especially in Nauvoo.

It was a beautiful cool day when we arrived in Carthage.

We took a tour and saw the original keys, flooring, windows and door. 

Although sad things happened at this jail it has a very strong Spirit which we could feel.

Our next stop was the visitor center in Nauvoo.  

We walked around a little and got info on the shows that were happening.  

LOTS goes on in Nauvoo.

We checked into our hotel which happened to have been divine intervention. At such short notice for us to call the Palmyra Inn and get 2 nights is pretty amazing.  Even the lady at the desk said it was unusual for there to be any availability.  

We ate 2 times at the Palmyra Inn buffet because it was so darn tasty.  We enjoyed everything about that place and had a hard time not stuffing our purses to sneak food out for later.  

In no particular order our Nauvoo time was busy and fun!

I'm pretty sure we didn't miss out on anything.

This happened to have been Pioneer day, July 24 which made dressing up in period clothing extra fun and thinking about the early Saints leaving their homes here.

We took a few tours.

Ady wanted a picture of the Red Brick store because that was where the Relief Society was organized.  She had just done a reenactment of the R.S, being organized for youth conference and was part of that great experience.

We collected heart-shaped rocks along our trip... 

found one in the Mississippi.

The kids wore themselves out a few times every day.

We saw the missionaries "Sunset by the Mississippi" show.  It was SO much fun!

Our first night we saw the British Pageant which depicted the Saints who were baptized in England and traveled across the ocean to join the saints as they were headed to Utah.  Before the Pageant they had a lot of activities for the families to do together: games, crafts, food, weaving, entertainment.  My kids had a great time playing.

Ady showing off one of the crafts she made before the show started.

We found a Pageant family at Nauvoo.  We saved seats together and had fun being together again.

Bits of the British Pageant.

As a side-note: after being in the Hill Cumorah Pageant, the mother of all pageants plus being so extremely tired and sitting far back where it was hard to see we had a hard time staying awake.  I would imagine that the families who were actually IN the pageant got a lot more out of it than we did.

...but this is what Kaden thought of it.

The second night we went and saw the regular Nauvoo Pageant and once again played more games before hand.  We saw more Pageant families and sat with them too.

Early the next morning, by 9:00 we were packed and in the car.  We had to make our appointment to ride the ox.  Even though it was pouring RAIN really really hard we still got our OX ride.  Most of the pictures I took, or the Elder took of us up in the wagon didn't turn out because it was raining so hard.  

Memories.

 

Several hours away we made it to Winter Quarter's, Nebraska.

We had the shortened version of the Visitor's Center Tour by some cute Sister Missionaries.  I wanted my girls to see and feel how awesome it is to be missionaries.  

Plus the tour was good.

A walk around the temple and the cemetery.

This was the point where my children started to wear down.  Not only were we SO tired to our bones and in every ounce of our being, this day was SO HOT and HUMID and MUGGY.  Ugh!  We couldn't stand to touch ourselves but for some reason the kids couldn't stop touching each other.  We were ready to be home.  

Can you see the sweat drops on Kaden's nose?  Our shirts had sweat dripping through it too.  We couldn't wait to get back in the car to blast the A/C.

We took a week to get home.  Saturday evening we got to Provo at dinner time where Dad/Grandpa had a big pot of delicious spaghetti waiting for us.  It was so yummy.  Because we were so tired and we wanted to be with our family and share stories we decided to stay the night in Provo.

We went to church the next day, enjoyed the day,relaxing and sleeping and playing with everyone we decided to stay another night in Provo.  WE DID NOT WANT TO GO HOME! (even though we only had a 30 minute drive).  

Going home meant that our trip would be over.  

Going home meant that we would be back to real life and we weren't ready for that.  

We wanted to soak in and savor that "Pageant High" that you get after being in the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  We wanted to share every thing with our family because they understood what we had just gone through.  My kids loved telling Grandma and Grandpa every single detail and having them understand.  

It's one of those experiences that is so hard to put into words.

Finally,  Monday night, we faced the reality of needing to get home and reluctantly pulled into our driveway. 

Over 5,000 miles and 4 weeks later we were home.

I prayed that my kids hearts would forever be changed because of what they had experienced.

We cried because it was over BUT we smiled because it happened.