Nauvoo

Here are some highlights from our trip up to Nauvoo!

After a performance by the performing missionaries, they invited Esther onto the stage and sang a refrain of their song with her there. They chose her because she had been so vocal and excited throughout the performance.As a result, Esther and her other vocal cousins were well known by most of the sisters and they enjoyed talking with her everytime we saw them around Nauvoo!
Kids by the Nauvoo temple in their new Pioneer hats.

Nathan got really good at this Pioneer game. He couldn't quite catch the ring, but he got really good at throwing it! Daddy was so proud!
Cute pioneer kids at the Pioneer Pastimes area. There were two little log cabins - one set up as a house and the other as a school. There were Pioneer games, stick pulling, pretend animals, and all sorts of things for little ones to do.
Yeah! Daron put on a hat! And I think it looks great.
And Mommy had to get into the act, too!
We hiked two miles up and down hills, through thick mud and cowpies, and around thorny trees, across streams, and pulling handcarts all the while. Pretty much everyone ended up muddy up to the knees and many slipped and some were nearly run over by their slipping handcarts!
The kids rode the carts occasionally but Daron had them walk for quite awhile at the end so they could get a better idea of what Pioneer children had to do as they crossed the plains.
Each night throughout the summer, the Senior missionaries, the Nauvoo Brass Band, and the Young Performing missionaries do an outside variety show. It was pretty fun!
Singing about the mosquitos!

These two brothers, children of my ancestors, Moses and Nancy Naomi Tracy, are buried in this graveyard a couple of miles outside of Nauvoo.
Originally, although there was a record of where in the cemetary the boys were buried, there was no headstone. Some descendants put up this headstone years later.
Three sons of Moses and Nancy Naomi Alexander Tracy died before they reached Salt Lake. Two of them are buried at the Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds, and F. Moses was buried in Iowa as they crossed the plains.
Look carefully at this old map of Nauvoo. There are two circles that show the three properties that Moses and Nancy Naomi Tracy owned. (Two are close together in one circle.)
The Tracys first owned this property when they moved to Nauvoo. Nancy Naomi talks about selling the property to Wilford Woodruff (eventually the fourth president of the church). The Woodruff house continues to stand on this property.
The second property the Tracys owned. The lot they owned includes where the white house is currently and up to where the brick house is.
This is the third property the Tracys owned. It is right near the temple. Nancy Naomi mentioned in her life history that she could see the masons working on it from her bedroom window.
We saw the Oklahoma City Memorial on the way home. It was so peaceful and such a loving way to remember those who were hurt by the bombing in 1995.
The Park Ranger invited the kids to dip their hands in the water and leave their handprints on the wall - thus leaving a part of themselves.
Each chair represented someone who died in the bombing.

We stopped at a rest area just outside of OK City to celebrate Nathan's third birthday. We ate cupcakes we'd picked up at a grocery store and opened presents. He was so excited to be a big boy now. Unfortunately, the area was really shady and the pictures didn't turn out well. So you'll just have to take my word for it!

We got home late on Monday night and have been trying to get back into the swing of things ever since! What a marvelous trip!