Nauvoo

Ok, we are just going to start with our trip to Nauvoo. Mark had never been before so I thought that driving across the country was the perfect opportunity to go. We packed the kids in the car and away we went. We ran into construction, a terrible storm, flooded out roads near the Mississippi River, and a navigation system that had a difficult time compensating for those washed out roads. But we finally we made it. We stayed there for about 2 days, but would have loved to stay longer. The kids really didn't care too much about the whole thing. In fact, the 3 younger ones were awful everytime we got out. They whined during the wagon ride, threw a fit at the blacksmith shop, ran under the ropes at Brigham Young's house, and so much more. In fact, Mark and I had to start taking turns going into places while the other one waited with the kids in the car. McKenna was good though and I even took her through Carthage with me. I think she enjoyed it although she didn't fully grasp what was there. Anyway, here are a few pictures from the Nauvoo leg of our trip:

Kaitlyn wearing the "human yoke" to fetch water
McKenna wearing the yoke as well
The boys being teamsters
Us with the Marbles. Elder Marble taught my parents the gospel
Nauvoo Temple at night
Temple with Joseph and Hyrum
Nauvoo Temple
Carthage Jail window where Joseph fell and the well
where he landed

McKenna by the well
Carthage jail interior. Window on left where Joseph fell,

bed where John Taylor rolled under and was shot

The boys on the wagon ride
The girls on the wagon ride
Everyone watching a movie in the car
Laura--this is for you. This quilt was made from linsey-woolsey

in the 1800's. It looks brand new. It was beautiful!

Joseph's Mansion house

I have a million more pictures but won't bore you with them. If there is anything in particular you want to see, just let me know. I will update again soon with the Utah part of our trip!

Too much

Ok, I have to admit that I have been avoiding this blog because I have sooooooo much to post that I don't know where to start. We returned from our awesome Utah trip on Monday, and I have a ton of pictures to share. I am not going to do that at this moment because I need to be at the store buying toilet paper right now. But I just wanted to let you know I am still alive and will post some pictures soon. In the meantime, please send me your email addresses so I can invite you to my blog because we will be making it private very soon! Email me at markandjulia at gmail dot com. Thanks!