Days 4 & 5: Nauvoo and Carthage

We pulled into Nauvoo just before all of the historic sites closed for the day.  After cleaning Bryn up from her latest bout with carsickness, we drove around to see the different lots where our ancestors had owned.  

We took pictures of us holding a paper with their names printed on it at each and every lot that they owned back in the 1830's and 1840's.  I think my girls quickly got annoyed, but locating each piece of land is what I was looking forward to most about this trip.

After driving around a bit, we settled in for the night at our cabin.  We all loved it.  It was perfect!

The next morning, we first visited the sites owned by the Community of Christ church.  Here, the girls stand at the back entrance of the Joseph Smith homestead.

This is inside the kitchen of Joseph Smith's Mansion House.  The chairs are original.  We also were able to look into an original mirror that had been owned by Joseph & Emma Smith.

We also visited the Smith Family Cemetery next to the old homestead.

We weren't able to hit up too many of the different houses and buildings because of shorter hours for the season and because of our limited time, but here, Randy stands in front of the first semi-automatic (I think that's what it is) gun that was invented by Mr. Browning.  The Browning gun shop and home were neat to tour.

Bryn had a rough day without getting a nap.  We hadn't planned on taking a wagon ride, but Jenna wanted to, and they had just enough tickets left for us to go.  Bryn promptly fell asleep, so the hour-long ride was most definitely worth it.

Going, going...

Gone.

That afternoon, Randy took a 20-mile bike ride down the Mississippi River Road.  Beautiful scenery!

In the evening, we attended "Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo", a play put on by the missionaries that serve in Nauvoo.  We all really enjoyed it.

These ladies were some of the main characters.  We were lucky that it wasn't very busy that night and the girls were able to get a little extra attention from the cast afterward.

 On our way back to the cabin that night, we stopped for a picture in front of the beautifully lit temple.

Before we went to Nauvoo, I had emailed a lengthy list of our ancestors who had lived there to the missionaries working in the Land and Records Office.  They kindly looked up and located the land each of them had owned and then colored it on a map for me.  My sister, Dixie, happened to be in Nauvoo about a week before us, so she took pictures of the maps they had ready for me, and I was able to do a bit of work on locating the lots on their present day streets before we arrived.

The missionaries also put together a CD with all sorts of information on each of our ancestors who had lived there.  As I looked over a few of the hundreds of pages on the CD, I discovered that the bricks from one of Randy's ancestor's homes had been reused to build the First Presbyterian Church in Nauvoo.

This pas a parting shot of Nauvoo as we left toward Carthage.  :)

On Saturday, we woke up to a lot of rain and lightning.  We packed up and made our way over to Carthage, IL.  Here, we are in the bedroom where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were murdered.

Interesting tidbit:  While in the Carthage Jail, Joseph Smith was able to have friends freely come and go.  Randy's 3rd great-grandfather, John Solomon Fullmer, had spent the previous night at the jail with them, but was sent on a legal errand on the day that they were killed.  We didn't know any of this until the guide was telling us the story and we recognized his name!

After our time at Carthage, we headed for my parent's house in Joliet/Plainfield.  My mom had dinner ready for us when we got there.  After visiting for a while and getting settled in, we put Bryn to bed and left the older girls with my parents while we went over to my brother's house to play games with he and his wife.  Only 5 days into our trip, and we've already had a fabulous time!

Day 3: Iowa

Instead of driving a straight shot through Iowa to Nauvoo, IL, I decided we should see a few out-of-the-way historic sites that are significant to the LDS pioneers.

Our first site of the day was Mt. Pisgah, Iowa.  We had to drive several miles down dirt roads to get there.  It was breezy and chilly, but worth the stop.

We stopped for a quick picture by the monument.

There is a little replica cabin on the site, so we were able to go inside and read a bit about the history and sign the guest book.

See what Jenna's holding?  "Duckers" were our saving grace with Bryn on the trip.

Here, Jenna is signing her name, too.  I'm really not sure how often people visit Mt. Pisgah.  The last entries had been from at least a few weeks before we were there.

Bryn peering out of the cabin toward the beautiful rolling hills.

I think she was just glad to get out of the car!

We encountered quite a bit of road construction along the way, so we had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery of Iowa.  We actually even got to see some Amish.  I read a lot of Amish-themed books, and Sydney has a few as well, so she was so excited when Randy turned off of our route to drive past some Amish school kids.

Bryn also loved "kitty-kitty."  

(And I was so glad I had been able to wash her car seat the night before!  Quick note:  Do not attempt to put a car seat back together very late at night after a long day of driving.  You may end up re-doing some straps six times and laughing to yourself in a hotel laundry room because it's so ridiculous that you are that impaired.)

Our next stop was Garden Grove, IA.  I'm not sure why it is called "Magic City of the Woods", though...

And yes, Jenna needed to go potty.

Our final stop before Nauvoo was in Montrose, IA.  It was incredible driving down Main Street in Montrose and being able to look across the river to see Nauvoo.  We were able to drive right up to a park beside the Mississippi River.  Jenna had fallen asleep in the car, but Sydney and Bryn were able to touch the water.

I'm telling you, the view was amazing.

I love to see the temple.

This was the drawbridge crossing from Iowa to Illinois.  It is only about 15 minutes from Nauvoo.  We had forgotten to give Bryn Dramamine that day, and she reminded us as soon as we crossed over the bridge.  Thank goodness we were almost to our next destination!

Days 1 & 2: Utah to Omaha

We left for our long vacation on Tuesday, October 9th.  We left as soon as the girls got out of school.  After only 30 miles, we learned something that Bryn has been trying to teach us before...she gets carsick!  Thankfully, we were in Heber City, and were able to stop and clean her up.

Fifteen minutes before we got to the next main town, Evanston, WY, Bryn threw up again.  I crawled in back and cleaned her up the best I could.  (Thank goodness I had thrown that roll of paper towels in the van, just in case...)  We stopped in Evanston for dinner and to finish cleaning her up.  We stopped by Wal-Mart and grabbed Lysol, laundry detergent, and Dramamine.  Despite all of that, Bryn was in good spirits and ate her dinner.  We all loved the saddle seats at the McDonalds there.

The girls loved our "new" minivan and enjoyed watching movies several times along the way.

We stopped in Laramie, WY that first night and were able to score a great price on a motel room.  We all slept well until about 6:15am when Bryn & Jenna decided to wake up.  We tried to get them to go back to sleep, but it wasn't working, so we got up, ate breakfast, and hit the road.

We arrived in Omaha, NE early enough to check into our hotel and the go over to the Mormon Trail Visitor's Center in historic Florence or Winter Quarters.

  

We explored the inside of an old cabin replica.

It was so tiny & I can't even imagine how cold it must have been.

Bryn tried out the rope beds.  They actually took up much of the space in the cabin.  Only a sheet divided the two beds that were in there.  Cozy, for sure.

I think Randy's excitement first showed when he spotted these replica news articles that all have his 3rd great-grandfather's name on it.  It turns out that John Solomon Fullmer was a trustee for the LDS Church when the saints left Nauvoo.  He was one of the men in charge of selling all of the properties that had been left behind.

The girls were able to dress up as pioneers and pull a real handcart.  Bryn actually couldn't get enough of it.

The sister missionary there then put a few rocks for them to pull the handcart over.  Randy had to help them do it, and it still wasn't easy.  Sydney asked, "Why couldn't they just move the rocks out of the way?"  Oh, I'm sure they wished, Sydney!

We also got to pack toy wagons with anything that we wanted to take on the journey.  Such a hard choice between a table and chairs vs. food and bedding!

Bryn loved pushing her wagon around.

One of the most special things about the visitor's center for me is that my 4th great-grandmother, Amy Sumner Porter, died in Winter Quarters (Omaha/Florence area), and is buried at a cemetery right across the street from the visitor's center and next to the Winter Quarter's Temple.

In fact, hers was the only original headstone that survived through the years.

Bryn decided it was the perfect time to strip her shirt off--over and over.

  

This is the plot where Amy Sumner Porter is buried.  It is a beautiful, peaceful place; an amazing monument to the LDS refugees who spent a miserable winter there and the hundreds who died and were buried in this hallowed ground.

Another day, another cemetery

I was feeling bad for not spending much time with my girls, so I skipped a church meeting and took Sydney and Jenna to the Springville Evergreen Cemetery to do some tombstone hunting.

Please forgive them for crawling on top of this...Jenna got SO bored.

Randy's great-great-great grandparents

  

Randy's great-great grandparents 

(They had two memorial stones.)

Randy's great grandparents

I'm so thankful that we are able to live close enough to visit many grandparents graves without too much of a drive.