Nauvoo

At the end of April, my parents were nice enough to let Matt, me, and Cam tag along with them and my brother Brett on their trip to some of the church history sites out east.

I will say that it was difficult with a 7 month old, and I wouldn't take a child that age on a vacation like that again. Considering everything though, he was a trooper and we had a lot of fun and got to see a lot of cool stuff.

Our trip, in no particular order (cause I can't remember) went something like this. We started out in Liberty, Missouri and went to Liberty jail, saw the Church of Christ's temple, LDS visitor's center. We spent some time in an Amish community called James Port, went to Farr West and Adam-Ondi-Ahman, and then headed to Nauvoo where we spent several days. We saw absolutely everything in Nauvoo since it was kind of the off season for visitors and we were some of the only people there.

The cool story of the trip is that right before we left, we found out the Nauvoo temple was closed for maintenance for 2 weeks and we were all pretty bummed. The day before we left Nauvoo, my brother wanted to stop by and see a woman who owns a little inn near the temple because he knows her daughter. Anyway, through talking to her she found out about the temple disappointment and called the assistant engineer of the temple and asked if we could help with cleaning. They ended up making an exception for us and we got to go in and clean all the door frames in the temple, which means we saw the temple from top to bottom. We saw absolutely everything! Awesome, eh??

To finish off, last but not least, we went to Carthage jail, which was a very sobering but wonderful experience. This trip was such a testimony to me of the truth of the gospel. To be where the Prophet Joseph Smith was, his family, the early saints and other leaders, was so humbling and incredible. You can feel their testimonies there to this day. Thanks Mom and Dad for an awesome trip! Sorry for a million pics, and sorry they aren't in any special order!


We had to get creative with sleeping arrangements for Cam in the hotels we stayed in. This one was thanks to Matt.
Arrrghhhhh!
I LOVE this picture of my guys!
Outside Carthage Jail with the statue of Joseph and Hyrum.

Cameron in the grove where sermons were sometimes held in Nauvoo.
Matt and Cam in front of the "boats" they used to get across the Mississippi.
By the Mississippi River at the end of Parley street.

My cute Mom in the grove at Nauvoo.
Outside John Taylor's home.
Cameron meeting Mike the horse after our carriage ride.
Bored? Contemplative? Just plain ticked? I'm not sure.
In the women's garden next to the mother and son statue.


Sometimes the only thing keeping this kid happy was sucking on Matt's drawstrings.
He was exhausted for most of the trip since he couldn't get much in the way of nap time.
In front of one of the temple sun stones.
Cam thinks its pretty funny when he wears his bib on his head...what a nut...
Grandma and Grandpa trying to get Cam to sleep on the wagon ride.
Brett
Adam-ondi-Ahman. It is absolutely gorgeous!

The Church of Christ temple.
At the Independence visitor's center.
Me with Cameron at Liberty jail.
Cameron's first swimming experience. He did okay until he realized the noise of splashing scared him to death!
No smiles from this kid...
Another one of Cam's funny faces!
Outside the furniture store in the Amish town.


This is a video of Cam one night when we went out to eat. He was so exhausted, and sometimes when he gets overly exhausted, he gets really silly and laughs at everything. It is kind of hard to hear him because of the background noise, but he was so excited over the water we were giving him. It was pretty funny!

The other video is of his cute giggles.