Nauvoo!



Warning!  Big time picture overload.

 

So we are over half way done with our residency here in Indiana, and with our time here getting shorter and shorter, I realized there were tons of things that I wanted to do here that we hadn't even come close to doing!  So I created a bucket list, and promptly got to work on crossing some of the to-do's off!

One of the huge things I wanted to do while here was go visit Nauvoo.  Around 11 years ago I had made the trip with my good friends Sydney Marlatt, David Heslop, and Melissa Redford (along with Mel's family).  We went for the Nauvoo Temple Open House.   It was a way fun experience, but also a very quick one.  I think we were there for one day total. 

Bo and the kids have never been, and since we live a little under 6 hours away from Nauvoo, I felt like we had to take advantage of living so close to such an important part of our religion's history!

Bo's mom had been planning on visiting us for Spring Break, but with Annie's funeral back in February, things changed, and we were left with a whole week of no school and no work and no plans.  My light bulb went on, I convinced Bo that this was the time to go, called up the now Sydney and David Heslop (yes, that trip, and ME played a huge role in those two getting married. hahaha) who live about 8 hrs from Nauvoo, and an awesome trip/reunion was born!

We stayed for 2 nights in adjoining rooms in hotel nearby. We swam, ate yummy food, had adult only card games at night, and most importantly, crammed in tons of church history.

The kids learned how to make rope, bricks, wagons, barrels, along with going on a horse cart ride.  They participated in a mock school class, walked the temple grounds, visited Carthage and it's jail, visited Joseph, Emma, and Hyrum Smith's graves, threw rocks into the Mississippi, and even had the chance to have snow ball fights.

Most importantly, they had lots of funs. 

It was a very fun trip and we loved sharing it with our friends/cousins, the Heslops. 

Next trip: Kirtland! 

 

Carthage Jail

Bullet Hole in door.  This is the one that killed Hyrum Smith.

 picture of us through the bullet hole.

 Carthage Jail, both above and below.

 Ferry, much like the one that took the Saints across the river back in Old Nauvoo when the Saints were driven from Illinois.

What the kids did when they had free time.  Tried to make the other guess if they were really picking their nose or not.  Awesome.