Our second trip to Nauvoo

We are happy to report that Nauvoo has not changed much since we saw it last. Except for the season of course! We had such a great trip! We got there on Friday afternoon and went swimming at the hotel...I think it was only the second time Will has ever been swimming with Elsie!! The first being the end of last summer! So after that we jumped in the car and headed over to Nauvoo (we stayed in a near by town). Unfortunately it started to rain so we were not able to see our dear friend Sister Louise Arkell preform in Sunset By the Mississippi. Instead we got to go to her house and spend a marvelous few hours catching up and reminiscing about Higham!

Saturday morning we got up and slowly got ready and then went over to Nauvoo in time for Adah to go to the Temple. Elsie and Will played a bunch at a park and just hung out until mom was done. Then we went to see what we could do. We ended up going to 3 shows that afternoon and night. We saw "High Hopes and River Boats" a musical production put on by young missionaries, then we went to the variety show "Sunset By the Mississippi" with both old and young missionaries. Lastly we saw "The Nauvoo Pageant". All of the shows depicted what life might have been like in Nauvoo in the 1840's.

On Sunday after going to church we went around Old Nauvoo and saw the different restored homes and shops. It was very fun and we even got to see Sister Arkell again and this time in costume!!! The last thing we did was walk down the street the early saints did as they were driven out of Nauvoo in 1846. The name of the street is Parley. All along it are plaques with quotes from journals of the early saints. It was very sad to understand all that they went through. We were able to see the Temple as we walked towards the Mississippi river and away from town. It is amazing the strength and testimonies they had to be able to leave all that behind them.

On Monday we headed out of town and went to Carthage to see the jail where Joseph Smith was killed. It was a very sad place but I am glad I went.

Now that you know all the details of what we did (sorry if I bored you) you can see some great photos that we took!!

This is where Elsie spent most of her time! How do you like the bonnet we bought her?? I just could not resist!


Sister Arkell in the Lion Family Store.


Elsie preaching at the 70's Hall.




"Sunset by the Mississippi"


I thought Will's sisters would like this quote on Parley St.

The Temple is that little white dot just left of center. This is taken from Parley St. where they saints walked away from Nauvoo.

Carthage jail is in the background to the left.

Elsie walking

Well I hope this works because I know you all want to see Elsie walking!! She has been doing this for quite some time now. She took her first steps on May 23rd and soon after could take 2 or 3 steps at a time. She can now get across the room walking but her preferred mode of transportation is still crawling. Last night was the first time she stood up in the middle of the floor and started walking from there. So she is moving forward but slowly.

Memory Post

I saw this on my friends blog and since I left a comment I had to play along! I hope you all have good things to say about me.

1. Add a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

The Fourth of July

We did not do much for the fourth of July. Will still went to work but he did come home an hour early. We just stayed home all night and watched a movie after Elsie went to bed! We heard plenty of fire works but we did not see any. So we know we are pretty lame but it was not going to be fun keeping Elsie up past her bedtime. The one thing that we did do was put Elsie in a cute fourth of July out fit and I remembered to capture it on film.

A big BBQ cook off

A few weekends ago we went with some friends to a huge BBQ cook off. People come from all around (including Texas) and roast a pig and compete to see who makes the best BBQ. There were over 180 different groups competing. And what did we do you ask? We walked around with mouths watering looking at people prepare meat to be judged. Then at around noon people started putting out trays of BBQ for us to taste. When I say taste I mean have a bite or two. So really this just got us more hungry and so we ended up at Red Robin where we could get all you can eat french fies.

blackberries

We are very luck to have a bunch of blackberry bushes growing in our back yard! They look like they are going to give us a good crop but it has taken for ever for them to ripen! Oddly enough there is this one bush at the front of the lawn that has ripened before all the rest. The only reasonable explanation to me is it gets more sun light. But then again a lot of that bush is hidden by a huge grape vine! So who knows why but they are ripe and a few weeks ago we where able to pick a lot of berries. There are not many left on that bush now but we should have plenty more once the other bushes ripen.