Spring Break 2013 - Day 3: Nauvoo Temple And Carthage Jail

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

On Tuesday morning we woke up and checked out of the house we were staying at.  Then we took the teenagers to the Nauvoo Temple to do baptisms.  It was such a neat experience and probably one of my favorite parts of the whole trip.  We did family names that Steve's dad and step-mom brought.  It was so neat to be in the Temple with grandparents, aunts, uncles, parents and cousins.  Before we went in to do the baptisms the temple workers told us that the Nauvoo temple was the first temple to have baptisms for the dead performed in it and that they were done in the original baptistery which stood in the same place as the new one.  And that many of the early church leaders including Joseph Smith did baptisms there.

After we left the Temple, we drove to Carthage.  But first we stopped for lunch at Hardees, AKA Carl's Jr.  (Carl's Jr. is better)(Although my kids were delighted when they asked for fry sauce and they actually had it!  Because usually Carl's Jr. is always out of it when we go.  Except the girl behind the counter said, "What is that, the ketchup and mayo stuff?"  And then I think she mixed it up for them because they brought it out to us in bowls.   I guess they get a lot of Utahans out that way asking for that ketchup and mayo stuff)

After we ate we went to visit Carthage Jail, 

the place of the martyrdom of Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum Smith.

This is the room where the prisoners were held.  You can see the bullet hole in the door that killed Hyrum.  The window at the end of the room is the one Joseph fell out of after he was shot.

I had to include this picture.  Reagan is running one direction and Emily another. 

It looks like Reagan is miniaturized and Emily is carrying her.

After leaving Carthage, we returned to Nauvoo.  

We went to see the Smith home and also see where Joseph, Hyrum and Emma Smith are buried.

This is the marker for Hyrum, Joseph and Emma's graves

Joseph's Parents

Mike and Reagan

Next we headed over to the park where we built a fire to roast marshmallows.  

We ate a picnic dinner and the kids played while we were waiting for a play to start.

Zac showing grandpa how to heat up the pizza leftover from last night.

That evening we went to see a play called Rendezvous at Old Nauvoo.  

After the play Emily and the kids were explaining Emily's little mistake to one of the actors.  The day before when we went on the carriage and wagon rides, they had quilts we could take and use.  So when we walked into the play and Emily saw a box of quilts by the back door, she thought those were for our use as well.  She picked one up, wrapped it around her, and sat down to watch the play.  We had so many people with us that I didn't walk in with her and she was sitting all the way on the other end of our row from me, so I had no idea this took place.  During one part of the play a group of ladies came in from the back carrying quilts and went up on the stage to "sew" their quilts.  That is when Emily noticed that one lady did not have a quilt in her hand but was "sewing" air.  One lady leaned over and asked her, "Where's your quilt?"  To which she replied with a shrug and said, "I don't know, it wasn't there."

After the play, it was time to say good-bye to Nauvoo and head back to Missouri   But before we left we drove over to the temple.  It was so beautiful all lit up at night.  It was so neat the whole time we were in Nauvoo, it didn't matter where we were, we could always see the Temple up on the hill.

Spring Break 2013 - Day 2: Old Nauvoo

Monday, April 1, 2013

Our 2nd day in Missouri for Spring Break started early Monday morning with us leaving Missouri for Illinois.  We we headed for Nauvoo.  Nauvoo is a special place for Mormons.  It is a town that was settled by Joseph Smith and the early members of our church before they were driven out of the state and eventually settled in Utah.  It has been restored and is now a Mormon tourist destination.  We had so much fun being there with our family.  Above is Meg and Em sleeping on the drive to Nauvoo.  It was FREEZING in Nauvoo.  We braved the cold and had a picnic lunch after we arrived.

After lunch we loaded up for a carriage ride that took us through some of the lesser seen country of Nauvoo and we were able to hear some great spiritual stories about the early inhabitants of the city.

Emily and Meagan shared Uncle Steve H.'s coat the entire day.  We called them Megily.

At the Family Living Center we learned about different daily skills that the early settlers in Nauvoo possessed.   We even got some hands on experience.  Here is Zac making strands of rope.

And here are Reagan and Addy twisting the strands of rope together to make a big rope.

Josh helping take care of Annie.

Zac was carrying Reagan and Addy and Emily and Aubrey decided to hitch a ride.

Then we went on a wagon tour of the town of Old Nauvoo.  They had quilts we could wrap up in. 

 Even with the quilts it was a very chilly ride.

Spencer and Steve realized they committed a major fashion faux pas 

by wearing the same quilt on the wagon ride.

Aubrey, Reagan, Meagan and Addy trying to get warm in the big coat.

We visited the Blacksmith Shop and they gave us all a prairie diamond ring.  

It is a ring made out of a bent diamond brand nail.

Our next stop was the Gunsmith Shop and the John Browning house.  

I had no idea John Browning was a Mormon or that he lived in Nauvoo.

We were able to see the process of old fashioned gun making.

 I thought this was interesting.  The machine gun was invented in Nauvoo.  Who knew?

When the city of Nauvoo was planned,  it was divided into one acre lots for each family/house.  They leave one plot in natural prairie grass to show the size of the lots.  Every spring they burn the plot with the prairie grass to show how fast spreading a prairie fire is and what a threat it was to the early settlers.  We just happened to be there on the day of the burning.

They started the fire on the opposite side of where we were.  By the time it got around to our side we thought, what the heck are we doing way over here by the truck freezing?  That is when we all started making our way toward the fire en masse.  I kid you not, we looked like a bunch of Zombies.  It was a scene straight out of The Walking Dead.

We were a few weeks early for tourist season in Nauvoo so everything closed early.  And there were no restaurants open for the season yet.  I cannot even tell you how difficult it was to find enough food to feed this crew dinner.  It was kinda ridiculous.  I understand most places outside of  Utah not being used to feeding such large families, but, uhhh... we were in Nauvoo.  Who goes there except for Mormons with large families?  Anyway, we checked into our house we were renting for the night and finally found a place that had the capacity to make as many pizzas as we needed and we sent the men folk across the river to pick up the pizza.  The house we were staying in was awesome.  It was only a few miles away from Old Nauvoo and it was right on the Mississippi river.  Here is the view from the deck.

There was a small cabin on the property and these boys slept in it.  

They holed themselves up in there with pizza and snacks and movies.

I think the girls favorite part of the house was this spiral staircase leading up to their bedroom.  This was my least favorite part of the house because the next morning I brushed past it in my skirt and it ripped a hole in it.

See these kids.  They thought they would play an April fools joke on my by changing my facebook  profile picture to a rather disturbing picture of a baby with Mr. Beans head.  They were the last ones up, I have no idea what time they finally went to bed.  It was a fun day.