Day 9 - Carthage Jail

Monday, June 30, 2014

We visited Carthage Jail where the Prophet, Joseph Smith, and his brother, Hyrum, were martyred. We watched a short video that quoted journals of people who had met the prophet, his friends, and his family. We then went into the jail and saw where the jailer and his family lived, the cells, and the room where the prisoners were attacked. We listened to an audio recreation of the events there, including the singing of "Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief", which got me teared up. You could easily feel the solemnity of the site. 

        

We then drove ALL day. Lex took a turn driving and did really well. We stopped in the middle of Illinios and had some juicy, delicious burgers at a place called Meatheads. 

         

We drove through Illinios, Indiana, and Ohio and finally made it to Springfield, OH, our stop for the night. 

        

Day 8 - More Nauvoo

Sunday, June 29, 2014

We got up very early to go to the 8:00 am church.  It was mostly missionaries and they spoke about family history and temple work.  It was a good meeting and i was struck by a quote about how we need to be trying to save the dead as hard as we try to save the living.  We have so much work to do, and I need to spend more time on that. We stopped by the temple for more pictures on the way back from church.

We were tired from going to church so early, so we took a nap and ate some lunch.  I told the kids to be back in the car by 11:15. This is Alexis at 11:14 waiting to get in the car, because she still had a minute.

We went to the LDS Visitors' Center.  We had a few minutes before it opened, so we went to the Women's Monument behind the Center.  We recreated some of the statues depicting different aspects of a woman's life.

                                                

In the Visitors' Center we watched a short film about Nauvoo and looked at some artifacts from the time the Mormons lived here.

We visited Wilford Woodruff's home.  An older sister missionary from Australia gave us a tour.  We learned the family was only able to live in the home for 4 months after it was completed before they were forced to leave.  All the stories of sacrifice inspired me.

We then went to the Community of Christ Visitors' Center, to tour the Smith properties. We were able to touch a sun stone from the temple and the cornerstone of the Nauvoo House that once held the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon translation. 

Lex and the Nauvoo House

We were able to go into the Homestead where the Smith's lived when they first arrived in Nauvoo.  They were several things the Smith's originally owned in there, including Emma's walking stick, that she used as an older woman (we touched that too).

There were mayflies everywhere and Lex screamed when they came near her.

We also toured the inside of the Mansion House, another home of the Smith's.  

We visited the Red Brick Store, which served as a store, meeting house, court, and even as a temporary temple.  Alexis found another little one to be friends with.  We had taken the tour with another LDS family that had 5 boys. We got some root beer that is supposed the recipe that Lucy Mack Smith used and visited the grave sites of Joseph, Emma, and Hyrum before moving on to the LDS sites.

We really wanted to go to the brickyard, but stopped by the school house on the way.  The missionaries told us about the people using phonetic spelling and tested us to see if we could figure out some old fashioned words.  The brickyard was awesome.  This Elder taught us about how to make bricks and compared some of the principals of brick making to our own lives.  We got a souvenir brick to take home. 

We went to see Lucy Mack Smith's home and Cam checked out the outhouse behind it.

Next, we went to the wainwright and blacksmith shop.  The senior missionaries were sweet everywhere we went.  We got our prairie diamonds there. 

Driving back to the motel we saw a spot where the river went right up to the street.  We thought we should touch it.  It smelled pretty fishy.

That evening we went to watch a performance called "Our Story Continues".  The performers sang Broadway and other songs as they related to a circle of life type story.  I enjoyed trying to figure out where the songs came from, but the kids thought it was long.

Day 7 - Nauvoo

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Dave got up at 6:00 am to drive back to the Kansas City area to get new tires.  We had one that was totally flat, but figured they were all about the same age and needed to be replaced. I got the kids up, fed, and they even swam a little before he got back.  We were a little behind, but got moving right when he pulled up.  We stopped at Walmart to get supplies and Seth saw the Lego Movie and begged, down on his his knees, for us to buy it.  It kept the kids happy in the car the rest of the way to Nauvoo.

We got checked in and changed in time to make it to the last session.  We asked some teenagers to take a picture of us before we went in.

The girl who took our picture turned out to be a former Del Web MS students who totally knew Dave and told me Mr. Hill was her 2nd favorite teacher at Del Web.

The temple is beautiful.  There is a lot of warm, dark wood and you can really get the sense how the original temple must have been like.  We went back to the motel where the kids were waiting and all drove down near the temple. We got custard and played at the park across the street from the temple

As it got darker the lights from the temple shined brighter.  We walked around it to get a better look.

We could hear the rehearsal for the Nauvoo Pageant, so Lex, Seth, and I went to spy on them.

                                     

The temple looks so awesome at night.  It is hard to believe that last time I was here, 20 years ago, all that remained of the original temple was a stone outline of the perimeter of the building and a stone circle of where the baptismal font was.  Now here, in this same lot, is this beautiful building where eternal covenants can be made.

Day 6 - Missouri

Friday, June 27, 2014

After breakfast, we visited the Community of Christ Temple in Independence.  It is shaped like a nautilus shell, but the kids thought it looked like Willy Wonka's factory.

We went inside and a nice older woman showed us a video and gave us a tour.

                                    

There was a lot of artwork, that focused on their main idea of spreading peace throughout the world. It is odd to see what things are the same and what things are different between our two religions.

There was a Young Men's group also on a tour and Lex thought this boy looked like Taz.  She asked to take a picture with him.  I bet it made his day!

Across the street is the LDS Visitor's Center.  

                                     

Sister Moody, from Utah, gave us a tour, focusing on the historical significance of Independence.  She talked about the Saint's desire to build Zion there and the struggles and persecution they endured before finally being forced out.

After the presentation, we hung out in the children's play area for a while and met other families on similar trips. Alexis made another baby friend, Claire.

Seth met an older woman, she's 11, and had a deep discussion about Harry Potter and pretended these weird sticks were wands.

And Dave and Cam played checkers.

Lex gave Seth a ride back to our hotel to get the van.

The missionaries suggested that we try some authentic Kansas City BBQ, so we went to Arthur Bryant's and waited in a crazy long line that went around the building. I loved the chicken, Dave loved the beef, and Seth loved the red cream soda. 

We drove about 20 minutes to Liberty Jail. 

We learned more about the Saints being persecuted in Far West and the incarceration of Joseph Smith and 4 others in this dungeon cell under false charges.

Seth was our photographer for this part of the day.

It took another hour to get to Far West.  We saw where they had planned to build a temple before they were forced to leave.  All that remains are four cornerstones.

Our last stop of the day was Adam-ondi-ahman. 

The church has now planted corn in the field. We hiked down to the corn and got bit by mosquitoes 

and we chased rabbits.

We had some problems with our tires on the way to the hotel, so we will get that fixed before taking off again.

Day 5 - On the Road

Thursday, June 26, 2014 - On the Road

We drove from North Platte, NE to Independence, MO. We spend the time in the car reading The Great Brain, listening to audiobooks or music, and watching movies.

The drive felt longer because of all the potty breaks!

Is this Heaven? No, it"s Iowa! (Field of Dreams reference)

Alexis drove on the highway for the 1st time and learned to use cruise control.

We finally arrived in Independence and found our hotel.  Our room has a weird skylight over our beds and the hallways are painted bright citrus colors.  It's a very homey place, with a garden and fish pond full of coy in the back, and there are little lounges where you can watch movies or play games.

We decided to walk to a nearby park and discovered that Harry Truman's house is across the street from where we are staying.  The houses around here are amazing with big, awesome trees in the yards.

At the park Seth and I raced Alexis to the playground.  She gave us a head start and had to dribble her soccer ball and she still beat me.  Alexis said she wanted to meet people - which she did.  A two year old girl really wanted to play soccer with us. She got a few kicks in, then we played a keep away game. We are not used to the humidity!

Back at the hotel, I did laundry, cut Cam's hair, and we watched Lilo & Stitch, before heading to bed.