In all honesty the title should be "our family vacation" but alas it is being defined (by me) as a marathon sprint so to speak. first thought I will share with you the most amazing family trip we have ever taken.
Drum roll please......
our family vacation centered around church history. Yep, the kids were about that excited when we told them. they would've much preferred a trip to Disneyland, a stay-cation or any number of other things they consider to be fun. One might ask how we came to this idea? well it was kinda easy. Dwayne travels A LOT for work especially lately and he earns hotel reward points that can be used for free rooms. Actually the real reason is we (Dwayne and I) have wanted to go to Nauvoo for at least 8 years and we decided now was as good of time as any. Plus, it was the month they do the Nauvoo pageant! YES!! now for our trip.
We left at 3:30 AM on the 3rd. our goal: Omaha, NE. The kids slept almost to Rawlins, WY. we stopped for breakfast, gas and of course the bathroom!! I was getting a little worried when one of our kids had to use the bathroom quite frequently it seemed (we were on a time schedule, didn't he get the memo?!) needless to say between the bathroom stops that really weren't that many (just seemed like it) and then it started rain in Nebraska. We made it there by 7/8ish. early enough we could still go swimming and give the kids a break for being so good. On the 4th we drove from Omaha to Kansas, MO. about 5 hours... raining actually POURING rain all the way there! once there we went to see firework at the Kansas city river fest. It wasn't what we thought it was going to be so we headed back the hotel had "Steak and Shake" for dinner YUMMY!! and of course it was POURING rain so we watched fireworks from the Hotel window :).
Monday we started with Liberty Jail. It was tender, peaceful and filled with the spirit. What amazing revelation was given there to Joseph Smith and recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants.We then went to Hauns mill. Not the stone marker but the actual place. I highly recommend you do not attempt to go there after it has rained, even if it has been a couple of days! but since we were there, we took a picture of the marker and prayed our car would make it out. Also to mention we went to Adam-Ondi-Ahman, it is by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Super green, lush and very peaceful this is until I caught a small frog on the way to the bathroom. The kids begged to keep it! so after much whining, begging and crying we kept it. However, we did let it go across the border in nauvoo before the trip home, I really didn't think he would make it. Tuesday, we drove down to Jackson county. Walked through the visitors center there and also walked over to the Church of Christ (RLDS) temple. We didn't take the tour, mostly because it was a very weird feeling there. We drove over to Nauvoo after that and enjoyed walking around old Nauvoo. Wednesday we got up early and spent the day touring old Nauvoo. It was so interesting to hear the pioneer stories as recorded in journals. To walk where the pioneers had walked and get a small glimpse into how hard they worked and sacrificed for the fullness of the gospel. In the evenings before the pageant they have pioneer games, dancing, cart pulling and all sorts of super fun stuff to do as a family. We went to the pageant 2 nights. Why not! we drove thousands of miles to see it. It was AMAZING!! all of our kids enjoyed it. Thursday morning I had the opportunity to go with Maycie to do baptisms for the dead in the Nauvoo Temple. That is something I will never forget. So beautiful, so sacred I couldn't keep the tears in. I am so thankful for a wonderful husband that took the younger 3 kids so Maycie and I could go and perform such an important ordinance. There was so many things to do in Nauvoo. The kids had fun making rope, walking on stilts and playing all sorts of pioneer games. It was such a fun vacation, even better than the kids thought it would be!. Now for the "marathon" home. We left around 3:30 in the morning and.... drove all the way home in ONE day!! in our defense around the Nebraska/Wyoming
border we thought about stopping for the night but the kids were being so quiet, hadn't complained AT ALL so we decided to bite the bullet and finish the trip. Dwayne drove most of the trip, except for a few hours in Nebraska. He was exhausted. So being the driver that I am, I tend to go at least 10 over. I call it going with the flow of traffic but most people call it speeding either way we covered alot of ground that day and it went very quickly when I was driving:). Somewhere between Green River and Evanston, when the sun started to go down I had a hard time staying awake. Luckily Maycie stayed awake to talk with dad so he didn't start to fall asleep too. So there you have it, our summer family vacation, 5 months later.
