Nauvoo, Illinois

A few weeks ago my family, Chris and I were able to go to Nauvoo, Illinois. My grandparents are currently serving an LDS temple mission there. We wanted to see them and also be in the Nauvoo Pageant. For those of you who don't know about the Nauvoo Pageant it's kind of like the Hill Camorah Pageant. It's put on by the LDS church and volunteers from all over come to be a part of it. My family sent in applications and were chosen to be in the Green cast. They have all the families come to Nauvoo for two weeks, the first week learning all the choreography and songs, and then the second week to perform. Chris and I were only able to go for one week so we weren't in the whole pageant, just the pre-show and the finale. It was still a great experience and we all had so much fun! This is how our trip went.....

It's an 18 our drive to Nauvoo, yes that's right, we DROVE! We did it in three days and it actually wasn't that bad. We drove from about 8am to 5pm and then were able to take the evening site-seeing and playing at the hotel.

Our first stop was Fort Bridger in Wyoming.

We did A LOT of this on the trip....

And a lot of eating and being silly.

....18 hours is along time to sit in a van packed to the hilt with luggage, food and 7 people, but we were able to have fun by playing games, earning prizes, and laughing as much as possible.

Here our some of our inside jokes :)

We’re having quite time! In fact I’m getting ready to read my scriptures.

What’s it called when they scratch??? SCRATCH??!!

Mom is unplugging everything and stuffing into a bag!

You’re blonde (hands on head)

Pull over and let’s just smell the car

Nicole is putting makeup on with a packing peanut!

This is one of the hotels we stayed at, it was so cute and they even made an elephant out of a towel!

We visiting the Harriet Truman memorial and sat in a helicoptor from the Vietnam War that had been shot down.

This is the Community of Christ's temple.

Chris makes a great Stripling Warrior! :)

We stopped in Missouri at the Liberty jail, where Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, Alexander McRae, and Caleb Baldwin were incarcerated for five months. He recieved three revelations here that are now in the Doctrine and Covenants.

This is the actual jail that they stayed it, it was so spiritual to be where the Prophet Joseph Smith had been and recieved revelation for Doctrine and Covenants 121.

Afterward we went to Adam-ondi-ahman, this is were Adam and Eve stayed after they left the Garden of Eden. It was so beautiful!

There are corn fields everywhere!

We stopped in a small town called Unionville to get something to eat. We saw that they were having some sort of festival so we walked down to the main street and they were having bed races! Funny how you keep yourselves entertained when living in a small town....

Chris and I standing in front of the Mississippi River.

Butterflies love us :)

Our family on the stairs in front of the Nauvoo temple after baptisms.

Carthage Jail. This was such a sacred and reverent place. We were able to go through the jail where the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum Smith were martyred in 1844. You can feel the spirit so strong here, it's so sad knowing this is where they died, but at the same time joyful to know that the Church still went forth and all that has happened since.

This is the actual door and bullet hole that the mob shot through and killed Hyrum Smith

This is the window Joseph Smith jumped out of after he was shot four times and killed by the mob.

Chris and I standing in front of Carthage Jail, just below the window Joseph Smith jumped out of.

Chris had his 23rd birthday while we were in Nauvoo. It was great to celebrate with family, Happy Birthday babe, love you!

While my family was at play practice Chris and I got the chance to tour Nauvoo. We stopped at all the historic homes and stores and had a great time learning about church history.

One of the 20 school houses in Nauvoo.

All seven of us stayed at my grandparents one bedroom apartment. Need less to say it was a tight squeeze! Nicole and I are laying on top of all the air matresses piled on top of eachother in my grandparents room. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for letting us stay with you!

At the Schovil bakery eating yummy gingerbread men.

At the Seventies Hall.

Everynight we wore our costumes and headed out for the preshow and the pageant. Nicole and I are playing the part, acting like pioneers :)

At the preshow our family was in charge of the children's crafts. We taught kids how to play pioneer games, including these buttone spinners. Chris did such a great job teaching the kids, I was impressed!

Chris and I standing in front of a replica of Nauvoo.

We walked on stilts, and I even did it in my dress! It wasn't pretty though, so no picture :)

Not only did we have to wear ugly dresses....we also had to wear ugly shoes. It made me really greatful to the pioneers and all they had to endure!

Chris and I took and carriage and a wagon ride through Nauvoo. Thess were both so fun and we heard a lot of great pioneer stories.

This is the grave site of Hyrum, Joseph and Emma. You could really feel the spirit here, it was such a sacred place. It over looks the Mississippi River and is so beautiful and peaceful.

The Red Brick store is not owned by the LDS church, but by the Community of Christ (as with the Smith's cemetery) but it was still cool to go inside and see everything. This is where the first endowment was held.

We saw some amazing sunsets.

We caught fireflies!! They are so cool, I wish we had them here!

Our family after the finale of the pageant.

PIONEERS!!!

....having fun and being silly :)

The set of the Nauvoo Pageant.

Chris and I with Jeff, who played Joseph Smith.

Chris and I in front of the Nauvoo temple. It was such a great experience to not only see and go to the temple multiple times, but to learn about the people of Nauvoo and our early ancestors. What they had to endure and the trials they faced. It really strengthed both our testimonies. I am so greatful to them and the sacrifices they made to make the Church what is it today.

We had a really fun trip and it was nice to be with our family. We love you and miss you already!

St. Louis!

After visiting Nauvoo Chris and I had the oppurtunity to go to St. Louis, Missouri. We only had one day to get everything in, but we manage to do a whole lot in that one day! We got together a lot of brochures and found the top things to do in St. Louis. We started out at the Cathedral Basillica.

Everything was so beautiful there. All of the pictures were made from these tiny tiles. There are 83,000 square feet of mosaic artwork, 41.5 million tiny tiles in over 7,000 different colors. Its so amazing!

Afterward we went to the Gateway Arch, it was over a 30min line just to get through security and into the building. Then it was another 2 hour line to get a ticket to go up to the top of the arch. Since we were on such a tight time schedule we decided we didn't have that long to wait around. I was really bumed because I wanted to see the view from the top of the arch. Instead we went across the street to the River boat tour of St. Louis.

It was such a fun boat ride! We road on this cute Ferry called the Tom Sawyer. We learned so much about the history of St. Louis on the ride and got to see a lot of the sites of the city from the Mississippi River.

When we bought our tickets for the boat ride we found out that we could also buy tickets to the Gateway Arch! So we didn't have to wait in a long line again! We bought the other tickets and went back to the Arch. The ride up to the top is so crazy! You ride in a small white compartment, about the size of an airplane bathroom and five people are sitting in small white chairs as you take a 5 min ride to the top. There are no windows on the ride and only a few small windows at the top! I don't know if I'd do it again...but now we can say we've been to the top of the Gateway Arch.

This is us in the small elevator.

Here we are at the top of the arch, you can see the small windows behind us.

This is the view from the top of the Arch. Even though it was a hastle to get here, the view was amazing. The Arch is 630 feet tall, the tallest monument in the United States! It was really cool to be up that high and see over the top of everything!

This is the view looking up underneath the Arch.

After we went to the Arch we hurried to get to the Cahokia Mounds. This is the largest prehistoric Indian city north of Mexico. It covers about 4,000 acres and at least 120 mounds! They have found artifacts here dating back to 700 AD!

Woodhenge was first constructed here in 1100 AD. It was used to determine changing seasons, kind of like stonehenge.

Since we were taking so many pictures and videos our batteries started to die! I couldn't go on knowing that we wouldn't be able to document everything! So we drove around trying to find a gas station that had an outlet to charge our electronics. Finally we found one! The lengths I go to in order to have pictures to blog about :)

After the 30 min detour to the gas station we drove to the historic Route 66.

"Get your kicks on Route 66!"

This is a picture at Old Chain Rocks Bridge, it's part of the historic Route 66 and is now the longest pedestrian and bike bridge in the world!

Next, we went on to the Loop. Which is one of America's top 10 greatest streets. It had lots of cute shops and restaurants. They also have a "Walk of Fame" with all of the famous people that have come out of St. Louis. Including Charles A. Lindbergh, T.S. Elliot, Dred and Harriet Scott, Nelly, Chuck Berry, and lots of others!

For our last stop in St. Louis we went to Ted Drewes famous frozen custard. It was voted in the top 100 american foods. It was really good and a great way to end such an awesome trip!