Praise to the Man

It has taken me WAY too long to get this post up. At the beginning of August we drove all the way to Nauvoo. Yes, we may have been crazy, but we had a lot of great memories. It is very rare to be able to go on a 10 day trip while living in the mortuary, so we were really fortunate.




First of all, for the car ride, we were super prepared. Someone in my ward had given me the idea to do presents, to make little entertainers extra special. It worked like a charm. Between that and Chase's DVD player, we wouldn't have made it out of the state.



Here are some pictures from the Nauvoo Temple.







This picture is a little out of place, but it is a view of the Mississippi on the Carriage Ride, which takes the trail that Joseph Smith liked to go on horseback when he had some spare time. It was a really pretty ride through the woods with missionaries telling stories and events from the saints that owned land along the way.








Emma was really excited about opening presents. This trip definately got her excited for her birthday coming up. She LOVES presents now!







In Evanston we fount a Sonic. (My favorite.) We stopped for dinner. It was perfect because Emma found these cute little cars to play in. That was one of the early highlights of our trip.

We don't understand how any girl could get any cuter.

We stopped in Laramie for the first night. In each hotel we stayed at Emma got her own big bed. She thought that was so fun. One of the nights I did end up sleeping with her, though. And, Chad got a bed all to himself. That was probably one of the highlights to his trip.

Outside of downtown Nauvoo there was a little diner called "Pete's Place" that we ate at one day for lunch. This little thing was outside of it. Emma still likes looking at this picture and laughing and her and Daddy.

We rode on a couple of horse-drawn carriages and wagons. While the horses rested in between rides they would let you pet them. Emma has yet to touch a horse. She was too scared. I don't blame her this time. It was towards the end of the day and the horses were hot and sweaty. She kept saying that they were "stinky."

For some reason Chad and I seem to always match. I promise we don't do this on purpose. It happens here at home, too. We start walking out of the house and just laugh because we match perfectly. It's great for photo-ops, I guess.

Can you tell how hot and humid it was there? Chad keeps saying he misses Argentina. Maybe this trip gave him a little taste of the "good ol' days."

Emma and Mommy rarely get pictures taken together. I made sure to pose a lot during this trip. I'm usually the one taking the pictures, not in them.

This is the graves of Hyrum, Joseph, and Emma Smith.

This statue was outside of Carthage Jail, one of our favorite stops along the trip. What an amazing place to visit. The grounds are beautiful and an unforgetful experience, one that I will remember my whole life. Being there is something that changes your perspective on life for good.

The gardener that was working on the Temple Grounds when we walked around it as a family, Chad, Emma, and I, suggested we take this picture with the temple reflecting in the water. I wish we had a nicer camera to be able to get a better shot. But, it was a great idea.

Emma was so cute while we were walking around the temple.

Chad and I were able to go to a session in the Temple during the week. It is one of the most beautiful temples. It was really neat to be able to have the temple there after all the Saints went through to finish it before heading West.

Emma had so much fun. She grew up a lot while we were on our trip. It was so fun to be able to spend so much time together as a family. It was a little hard coming back to "normal life." We've adjusted now, but the first week was tough to be away from each other after non-stop being together for 10 full days.

This is one of my favorite pictures we got of Emma. It shows her personality so much.

Emma loves posing for pictures now.

By the end of walking around the temple for so long Emma started to get a little restless. This was our "one last picture" before leaving. You can tell she's not very happy about it.

Emma was so good while we were on the trip. We've really been blessed with a good little girl. We're so proud of her.

We found some land the Chad's family used to own. That was really fun to research that and find it. It made our trip really meaningful and purposeful.

This statue was in the Nauvoo visitor's center. This picture was taken our last day there.

There is a "Trail of Hope" that is the path the Saints took when leaving and crossing the Mississippi. We were told that the line of wagons was so long, waiting to get across the river, that people had time to look back and reflect on their good life there and see their Temple for the last time. Seeing the same view really helped us realize how much faith these people had. There were some women who even gave birth while waiting to cross the river. Their babies were born in the wagons. What a way to start their long trek across the plains.

Emma was so good at wandering around. She's a wanderer. You never know where you'll find her if you're not careful. It's a good thing that there were dirt roads and a lot of open space in Old Nauvoo because that's probably what kept her out of trouble.

Here are some cute pictures that were taken outside the Nauvoo Temple. It was really fun for me to be there with Emma and Chad, just the three of us together.

My Dad's side of the family lives only about an hour and a half away from Nauvoo. We took a day to go up and see them. We wish we could have stayed longer with them. But, the time we did spend with them was fun. In fact, Chad still says that that was probaly his favorite part of the trip. He had only met my Grandparents once and it was only for about 20 minutes in the airport. He had never met my two cousins or aunt or anyone. Emma really got attached to Aunt Sherry while we were there. She gave her a Dora shirt that Emma just can't get over. When she's not begging for "brown clothes" she wants to wear that. The week we got back she wouldn't let me take it off her. She wore it for three days straight, even to bed. We're hoping to be able to get back there again soon. It would be so fun to spend more time with them.

This statue is across the street from the Nauvoo Temple. The plaque kind of got cut-off, but hopefully you can still read it and figure out what it says. For some reason, this was one of the most touching things to see during our trip.

We took it pretty easy during our drive there, but on the way back, the last day was pretty long. And, Chad was feeling sick, I was cranky and uncomfortable, and Emma was just sick of it all. On top of that we had to drive about 13 hours (driving time, not including necessary stops) to get home. And, we HAD TO be home that night because Chad had to go to work in the morning and we were on-call at the mortuary starting at 8 am. This was probably the least fun of our whole trip. So, we got desperate and let Emma eat chocolate pudding and other messy snacks and TOTALLY didn't care whether she got it all over or not. We just wanted her to be happy, we didn't care what the consequences were.

Carthage Jail was one of those places that we'll always remember. It was such a good experience to be there. I am so happy that the missionaries and plaques and everything around really focus on Joseph the man and how great he was, instead of the tragedy of his death. Being there really put things into perspective. Now, when we read the Doctrine and Covenants, some things just make more sense after hearing the detail of the history that happened here.

Emma had so much fun with all the kids. I'm especially glad that Rich and Becca were able to be with us because Emma doesn't get to see their kids very often because they live in Puerto Rico. She still talks about Jordan, Emily, Ashley, Lindsey and Miley. She wonders where they are. We'll have to put some of these pictures up in her room so she can look at them all the time.

The last night we were there we went to a concert that the missionaries put on. It was so fun. Before the concert they had a Children's Parade where the kids made paper hats and could be in the parade. Emma didn't really know what was going on. But, as you can tell, Mommy had just as much fun as any of the other kids. I thought it was so fun.

After the first concert was a concert from Vocal Point. This was something we had looked forward to our whole trip. It's great that it was FREE, too! We had had a long day since we were trying to squeeze in last-minute things, but it was worth it to see these guys. They were really good and what a fun concert!