NAUVOO

Yes, we are still alive! Things have been going great for us, very busy, but we are doing well. I got very behind on blogging, & I knew how far behind I was, so I felt overwhelmed to have to catch up.

We took a trip a few weeks ago with my Dad, Mom, my sis, Jessica & her husband, Kelly to Nauvoo. We all left our children behind, & we had my brother, Mike & his wife, Tiff watch the boys, which was so awesome of them! My family visited Nauvoo a few times while I was growing up, but this time around was a little different because I am older & appreciate things a little more, not that I didn't like going there before, but I felt it was such a good experience for Tyler & I to go there together. I know our boys would have loved to be there, but it was nice because we were able to see pretty much all the sights, including Carthage Jail, & we went to the temple 3 times & did pretty much everything but baptisms. The things we did in that amount of time would have been harder if we had our kids there. A couple months before we went, I had finished all The Work & the Glory's, so I feel that I was able to learn so much & feel so much more gratitude for the pioneers, & specifically for Joseph Smith! There is such a feeling there & as you walk through the town, you can almost picture everything because of those books.
We flew into St. Louis & drove to Nauvoo, so we wanted to do something in the city. We didn't have a lot of time, but we were able to go to the Gateway Arch, which was really cool. I had always seen it from the freeway when we would drive through St. Louis before, but this time we were able to go up into the arch. A little scary for me, thinking we were going to crash down, but it was pretty cool.

Up in the Arch. It took me a little while to be able to lean on that window thing.

Under the arch

Mississippi River.

This temple really is so amazing! It is so beautiful & the spirit felt there is so strong!
Mom & Dad.

This was one of my favorite sights of the statue of Joseph & Hyrum on their last ride, out of Nauvoo. It is located across from the temple. They talked about it in The Work & the Glory & when I read about it, it made me very emotional.

At Carthage, in the room Hyrum & Joseph were martyred. Such an amazing feeling there.

Joseph, Emma & Hyrum's grave. More graves at Joseph Smith's homestead. The carriage rides were the best. It gave me such a good feel of how things were back there for them. Plus they were really relaxing!
This was classic because my dad got to try these out, & he ended up dropping them on the floor. We laughed hard! I love my dad!

Heber C. Kimball's home.

This is the cabin we stayed in. It really was a lot of fun. Gave us a true feeling of what the pioneer's lived in (it was an original home) except we had electricity & running water :)