Nauvoo

This summer I had the opportunity to go help out on one of Jeff's business trips, Wisconsin Farm Technology Days.  

The show itself was difficult for me.  Wisconsin is quite humid in the summer time and I literally drenched my shirt in sweat each day, luckily it is normal to do that in Wisconsin since I saw quite a few people with "pit stains" and nobody looked at me differently.

We also had to walk quite far to get to our tent.  Walking, being hot and having lung disease...not a good combination.  But, I feel really blessed that Jeff works with such a fantastic company that they allow me to go with him every once in awhile.  I do my best to fulfill their expectations of me during that time.

After our days at the show, Jeff and I would drive around and find the BEST restaurants to eat at.  We tried Bucca di Beppo for the first time, good food but the environment was less that stellar.  It was nice to enjoy fancy restaurants with my husband sans kids!

 So after the show was finished, Jeff and I took a little road trip down to Nauvoo, Illinois.  We'd never been before and it has always been a dream of ours to go.  After finding out that Nauvoo was only 7 hours away from the show we jumped at the chance to quickly visit Nauvoo before flying home.

We got a book on tape that kept us awake.

Crossing the Mississippi River...

 We stayed at the beautiful and historic Woodruff Hotel.  

We had a great view of the temple from our room.

The Woodruff Hotel

Our 2 room suite was sweet!!

 After checking in, we went on an evening stroll around the temple grounds.  It was so peaceful and beautiful! 

 We only had 1 day in Nauvoo before we had to drive back to Chicago for the flight home.  We were up bright and early knowing we had a lot to accomplish in the short amount of time we had there.

Obviously a lot of photos taken were of the temple...

 The Visitors Center was first. 

 Carthage Jail was a must see and since it was a 20 minute drive, we went there next.

On the drive, I couldn't help but think of Joseph's famous words before he was murdered.

"I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer's morning; I have a conscience void of offense towards God, and towards all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall be said of me—He was murdered in cold blood" (Doctrine and Covenants 135:4).

When the jailer and his family took Joseph, Hyrum, Willard and John in, they could tell they weren't a threat and because of that the jailer let them stay in the debtors room.  But, the jailer grew more concerned with their safety and moved them upstairs.

The debtors room.

The jail upstairs...no windows, just slits in the bricks for some ventilation.  When temperatures reached above 120 degrees, the jailer and his wife gave them their upstairs bedroom while they stayed downstairs in the parlor.

Also, hard to see, but that hay bed looking thing was where Willard hid John Taylor.

 Me in the upstairs bedroom getting ready to listen to the tour guide.

The window that Joseph jumped from.

Hyrum's blood stain.

Second story window that Joseph jumped from in attempts to draw fire away from his friends.

Visiting Carthage was such a humbling experience.

I love the sound of bagpipes. 

 Sullivan had just recently fell in love with gloves.  I guess he associates gloves with working outdoors with Dad.  At point he had a melt down because he was going with Dad to help someone move, but didn't have a pair of gloves for himself.  And then Sullivan's Grandma came for a visit and brought a mini pair of work gloves, of all things.  She had no idea that Sullivan was obsessed with gloves, what an inspired Grandma!

 After the Family Reunion, Kamryn was able to go back home to Utah with her cousin Emily.  She had so much fun from what I heard about, but nightly we'd get a phone call from her crying and wanting to come home.  I think Utah was too far away for her and this was her first time away from home without a little sister along for the ride.  We ended up making this cousins week a little shorter than expected since Kam was missing us so much.  But, it was a great experience for her!  Since her cousin lives in Utah they don't get together as much as they'd like.  Next summer Emily is heading our way!!

Making Christmas gifts already!

 I've noticed more and more that Sullivan doesn't like to color that much.  He really needs to work on those fine motor skills!  Here we are practicing our coloring...

 Another Golf Date, yes please!

Keeping the kids entertained with chalk tattoo's...they still haven't came off of our porch, bad decision!

The kids have really excelled at cleaning the church, practice makes perfect!  I just wish they'd do the same at home! ;)

 When does the family vehicle need to go in the shop?  Right when you are taking a long road trip, of course!  The brakes on our van went out and Les Schwab needed to order them, making the van not usable.  We then had to take Jeff's small Chevy Aveo, the rollerskate, with all 3 kids and a car seat, 5 separate pieces of luggage and my oxygen concentrator for a 2 hr. drive.  I literally had a piece of luggage on my legs and below my legs for the whole drive, it was torture!  Then after we dropped the kids off and most of the luggage, we continued on another 3 hr. drive...shaky and under the speed limit.