Road Trip Leg 1

NAUVOO

We've been meaning to get out to Nauvoo for several months now, but with all of Kevin's travelings we never got a chance. There's no way we would have left without going to Nauvoo Illinouis first. What a beautiful place!

This is the view right in front of the Nauvoo Temple. You can see the river in the distance.

The statues are of Hyrum and Joseph Smith on their last ride together before their lives ended at the Carthage jail.

We got to go through the little town where they have all the houses and shops that the Saints had. The kids got to see how the Saints made bricks for their homes, the print shop and basically just how they lived.

You can see the school in the back right (and it was also a house!)

 Lucy Mack Smith's home

Print shop. I can't even imagine putting all those tiny letters together to make a newspaper! Crazy!

John Taylor's Home

The blacksmith. Here they showed us all the work that went into making wagons. The Saints made 2,000 wagons to pack up everything they knew to head West.

The kids each got to pick a ring from made from the blacksmith out of nails.

The red brick store. You can see the river behind this store too. No wonder why they loved this place so much- it was beautiful!

  The house in front of the Smith Cemetary

 Hyrum, Joseph and Emma Smith's headstones. Kevin thought it was pretty amazing that he was just in Palmyra New York last week where Joseph Smith was a young boy, and then got to come to Nauvoo and see where his life ended.

 

After Nauvoo we drove over to Carthage Jail.

Another statue of Joseph and his brother Hyrum

All along the walkway they have plaques of different quotes from Joseph Smith. Pretty neat!

 

Back then a lot of times their were families who lived in the jail to take care of the imates. This was the room of the couple who took care of the jail. The night before Joseph and Hyrum were killed, the couple let them, along with John Taylor and Richard Willards sleep in their bedroom to get a comfortable nights sleep.

Then the mobs broke into the jail and house and were shooting through the door. They still have the bullet holes in the door.

This bullet went straight through and was the one that killed Hyrum

and once the mobbers were inside they shot and killed Joseph while he was trying to climb out the window. They played the whole story out on tape and Scott was listening so intently. Afterwards when we asked him about the Carthage Jail he said, "Yeah- I really felt the spirit in there."

 

 After Nauvoo and Carthage we were headed to Colorado. We were going to try to get to Kansas City and get a hotel there, but we underestimated Memorial Day and all the hotels there were booked. We ended up driving until 1 am to Topeka Kansas where we stayed the night. Luckily the kids slept from about 9:30 until we got to the hotel, so we actually got in some good (peaceful) driving!

Wrapping things up in Missouri....

SATURDAY

We decided to go to one last Spingfield Cardinals baseball game. We went to at least 6 games last summer and they are just so much fun, so we had to squeeze in one last game.

 and since it's the last time we threw in some cotton candy too :)

 Ari loves to clap and cheer when it's time

SUNDAY 

I've said it before, but I can't say it enough- how much we are going to miss our Republic Branch (our church) here. The people have been absolutely amazing and I will never forget them. The Branch President had a little social at his house Sunday night to say farewell to us and we were overwhelmed by everyone who came. This is President Smith who Kevin served as 1st counselor under in the Branch Presidency.

MONDAY

Monday night Kevin's work threw him a work party at this really yummy Japanese returaunt to say bye. It was such great food and there was about 18 of us so it was pretty fun. They were all razzing him about all the work he's leaving undone...I'm sure he'll be back to finish some of it.

TUESDAY

Kevin's last day at work and a whole lot of packing up and cleaning house! We also had a showing Tuesday night so I couldn't pack up too much to keep it nice. Those people who came to see ended up putting an offer on the house! Sold the week we left! Whoo hoo! What a blessing! We close June 25th

WEDNESDAY

I haven't posted any belly pictures- this is me on Wednesday- 20 weeks

The packers came for day 1 of packing up the house. You can't leave while they are there, but the kids were out of school so we had to keep them out of the house. Kevin's job was to entertain all the kids until dinner time. Enter Children's Museum :)

  

 Since Kevin has been traveling so much and was in New York the entire last week, the kids had the time of their lives playing with Dad, going to McDonalds for lunch and just enjoying some time with Dad!

 THURSDAY

Packers came for 2nd and final pack of the house and this was my day to entertain kids. I took the kids to the park for a play date with a really sweet girl I met (mom of one of Hailey's preschool mates). She has 2 boys Scott and Hailey's age and twins. So we played at the park and had lunch. Then Ari passed out in the car and after a few days of no napping I wasn't going to waste that so I parked at Sonic, let Scott and Hailey watch a movie in the back seat and drink slushies while I cleaned out the car for the trip :)

The packers got done pretty early on Thursday so of course the kids got to run around and play on all the boxes

Soctt's room all packed up

Hailey's room all packed (she's hiding behind her white bed rails on top the boxes)

Then on Thursday night the Relief Society from the Branch also threw a little icecream social. My friend Sarra (on the left) had been begging me all week to go to a movie one last time but I didn't think I could pull if off with all the packing. I'm so glad I did- it was one last girls "hurrah" before I left. (Sarra, Me, Shannon and Crystal). Man I'm going to miss these girls!!!

FRIDAY

Loading day! The 2 greatest friends that I have met here in Missouri offered to watch the kids. When we did this in Logan I couldn't find anybody to watch the kids and it was a nightmare seriously. This move was sooooo much smoother and I owe it all to Crystal and Sarra! I dropped off Scott and Hailey at 8 am to Sarra's for a day of swimming and backyard playing, and dropped Ari off at Crystals for one last day to spend with her best friend in the whole world Jaxton, and his sister Alahna

These two are going to miss eachother so much. I've never seen 2 year olds as close as these guys.

Kevin and I managed the pack of our goods and transport of the Scout and Toyota

 We took a few family pictures in front of our house before going to get some dinner Friday night. This is my favorite house of all time. Perfect floorplan!

 Everythings gone!

The kids got to set up their sleeping bags where their beds use to be and sleep in their rooms one last time

Hailey

 and Scott (but actually I wouldn't let them sleep against their walls where their beds were after spending all day cleaning the house! I even locked half the rooms-no touching! LOL)

SATURDAY MORNING

We got up early and packed up our Pilot for the long haul drive to Utah.

The kids the morning of our drive wearing their new shirts from the Barber family.
I could write an entire blog post of all the wonderful families we've met here, but one of those dear families the Barbers handed me a bag that their family put together for ours. Inside was a bunch of goodies, maps, and books to remind us of Missouri, and even a Missouri shirt for each of the kids! So sweet.

Then we headed to our Colorado Springs where we get to stay for a week and spend Kevin's birthday. Of course we couldn't just take the 12 hour drive straight there, we decided to add 7 hours and go to Nauvoo first!