Visit to Lawrence, Kansas plus Nauvoo, Illinois

Kent and I arrived in Lawrence on the 24th of July to visit Garrett and Krystal's family.

As usual, we enjoyed interacting with the grandchildren.

Matthew is 14 months old and getting close to walking by himself.

Almost every evening after dinner and before bedtime Garrett wrestles with the kids. Their dog, Indie usually wants to be in the middle of it all!

We brought the Indian tepee that our kids had played with when they were little for the Carson kids to use.

Matthew is at that really adorable toddler age so I took lots of pictures of him!

Playing out on the back deck with Granddad.

The youngest three kids playing in Grandma and Granddad's bed.

While we were visiting we decided to visit Nauvoo and Carthage, since it's only about a five-hour drive from Lawrence. On the way to Illinois we stopped to see Adam-ondi-Ahmen, which is in Missouri.

We spent a whole day at Nauvoo.

The temple is so beautiful from every view!

One of the first things we did after we arrived was to have a tour in a horse-drawn wagon.

Kent and I had been to Nauvoo several years before, but we didn't visit the sites in Nauvoo owned by the Community of Christ church. We made sure to do that this trip.

We saw the burial site of Joseph and Emma and Hyrum Smith.

We also toured the Joseph and Emma's Nauvoo home. 

We saw Joseph Smith's office.....

It was on the 2nd story of the red brick general store in Nauvoo. This store is known for it's old-fashioned root beer in brown bottles, so we bought some and tried it.

The kids held up pretty well.

When they got tired of walking we hitched a ride on another horse-drawn wagon.

A couple who used to live in our ward in Stafford were serving their mission in Nauvoo. It was really fun to see the Kidbys. Here Nanette is showing Daniel how to make a rope.

In the late afternoon Garrett, Krystal and the kids left to eat dinner and to go back to the hotel to put the kids to bed at a reasonable time. Kent and I stayed in Nauvoo so we could attend the pageant that night. (Note the Nauvoo temple in the background of our picture.)

The pageant didn't start until 8pm so it could be dark for the show. We'd been warned about needing bug spray, but we'd forgotten ours at the hotel. Fortunately people sitting next to us were willing to share.

The highlight of the show was when they lifted the completed temple. The play was well done.

On our way home after the pageant we stopped to take a picture of the real Nauvoo Temple at night.

The next day was Sunday, so we found a ward to attend in the morning. Then we drove to Carthage.

We ate a picnic lunch as we waited for the Visitor's Center opened for tours of Carthage Jail.

We got some family pictures, though with five kids it was impossible to get one where everyone was looking at the camera.

In this picture we're standing under the window where Joseph Smith fell out after he was killed.

 Adam is checking out the                                                             bullet hole in the door of the room where Joseph and Hyrum were shot.

Granddad was very honored when Matthew started cuddling with him!

On the way back to Kansas on Sunday evening Kent and I stopped at Adam ondi Ahman again.

We got out and explored for a bit, which was easier without a van full of children.

The countryside was very peaceful and beautiful. I'm not sure how many acres the church owns there.

There were some trails through the woods that we followed. It was a nice ending to a short, but very informative and enjoyable church history tour. We're glad we could share it with the Kansas Carsons!