Nauvoo & Carthage Jail

Sunday was a drive all day, day.

After a quick breakfast at 7am, we were on the road.

A couple hours in, our super puker needed some air so she took a little walk.  

Lilly actually didn't puke once, it's only taken her 12 years to grow out of the carsick stuff.

Kevin made sure all of Janie's demands were met.

I found us a sacrament meeting to attend at noon.

We were all looking forward to a break from the car and I love attending church on vacation.

But alas, the internet lied to us.

There was no 12 o'clock meeting, as you can see from the parking lot behind us.

So we improvised with some conference talks and Jesus music.

The drive was beautiful!

Everywhere you looked was farmland and silo's.

We arrived in Nauvoo that evening.

And stayed in the same cute cabins we rented nine years ago with Em, Esty and Kloe.

Got a good night's sleep and Monday morning drove to Carthage Jail, where the prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were martyred.

We may be smiling here, but we were all pretty emotional as we learned about the last days of Joseph and Hyrum's life. I have so much love and respect for Hyrum who always stood by his brother.

This was the room where they were shot and the original door the mob shot through and forced their way in.

It's incredible to me that Joseph was so persecuted for his beliefs.

He was hated for them.

Why did people care so much?

And yet he never would deny he had seen God the Father and Jesus Christ.

The window Joseph either jumped or fell through.

The door to the house the mob entered and then went up the stairs to the room Joseph and Hyrum were in.

The jailer's kitchen.

He and his family had living quarters in the jail and were very kind to Joseph and the other prisoners with him. He even invited them all to have dinner with his family. He knew they'd been wrongly accused and even let them stay in he and his wife's room instead of the jail cell.

Another room Joseph and the men spent some time in.

We spent the rest of the day touring the Nauvoo sites.

I love the miniature temple models.

I didn't realize the Nauvoo temple had an assembly hall similar to the one in the Kirtland temple.

When we were in the temple the next morning they showed us the real assembly hall--so beautiful!

This lady was our "tour guide" and sadly I can't remember her name.

She was so nice and shared so many fun facts about the different buildings.

This was the tin shop...

We all got our very own tiny horseshoe, which you'll have to take my word for.

We went into a bunch of homes and this one had a council room.

Kevin's spent tons of hours in the council room in our church.

At the end of the day we ate in one of the only restaurants in town.

Lilly was very happy about her foot long hotdog.

At the beginning of the trip we gave each of the girls money for food and souvenirs. Lilly usually ate off the kids menus so she'd have lots to spend at Eskimo Joes. You may have noticed, 80% of her wardrobe includes that dog and the eskimo.

We visited Joseph and some of his family's graves.

And sunset on the Mississippi River was beautiful.

Once a year they burn a field down from the temple and it just so happened we were there for it.

Everyone passed out pretty early, which was a good thing since we had another big day of driving ahead.