Farewell to Old Nauvoo

We drove around Nauvoo Monday morning to see some last things and to say goodbye to the town. We had grown so attached to the place and had so many wonderful experiences there that it was harder to leave than I expected. I was actually on the verge of tears at points! We visited the temple once again. I really love the statue of Joseph and Hyrum that is across the road. It depicts them leaving for Carthage, and when he looked back on the beautiful city he helped create, Joseph said, "This is the loveliest place and these are the best people under the heavens..." It truly is a lovely place and I am grateful for all the efforts so many people have made to restore it and make it a place we can visit and feel the Spirit of the Lord.

We had one last adventure before we drove out of town when we went in search of the Rockwell farm property. It is located down a dirt road which, since it rained every night we were in Nauvoo, was actually a mud road. We tried to take the green machine to the site, but we became increasingly concerned that we'd get stuck, so we turned around and parked our bugly rental in a safe spot and hoofed it instead. On the way to our destination, as we hopped puddles and horse pucky, we stopped to get a picture of King Follett's well. King Follett was a church member who died when rock fell on his head while he was digging this well. At the funeral of his friend, Joseph Smith delivered a wonderful sermon known as the King Follett Discourse. In it he taught about the character of God and stated, "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!" I find so much comfort in that truth. Our Heavenly Father is kind and loving and patient with us because he knows that life is hard, but that we can make it.

Just around the bend from King Follett's well is the Rockwell farm. It is a lovely and lush looking place, but what part of Illinois isn't? The perfect grass that we strive so hard to keep alive in our desert home grows on the side of the roads there! It's crazy green! We squelched back to our car, scrubbed our muddy shoes really good on the floor mats (just cuz we liked that car so much), and headed through Old Nauvoo one last time on our way out of town. We couldn't help but think that if we felt blue leaving Nauvoo after a few days visit, the feeling of the Saints would have been compounded a 100 times over as they drove down Parley Street and into an unknown future. They had amazing faith and that important spiritual component of hope, which is the expectation of good things to come.

We made good time across Illinois, since we avoided the toll roads and had no side trips planned. We did, however, have one last stop to make. Our airplane ride friend, the boozy businessman, had been a treasure trove of information about great places to eat in Chicago. He said that if we wanted Chicago-style pizza, Giordano's was not to be missed.
We didn't know much about the place other than that it was a chain resturant, so it couldn't be too hard to find once we were in the city limits, right? We ended up on a toll road on the way to the airport and so I asked the toll booth operator if he knew where a Giordano's was. He was able to give us precise directions and we were there in 15 minutes. Real Italians showed us to our seat and took our order for a small pizza that ended up being too massive for us to eat. They make the pizza from scratch, so it takes about 35 minutes to cook. We had an appetizer to kill the time, which was super yummy, and then ate the most divine pizza ever. It was so good, in fact, that Chad couldn't bear to leave behind the left-overs. He was positive he could get it into his luggage and past the security check. I felt a kind of fatalism when he was pulled aside for extra baggage screening in the airport, but he and the security man just talked about pizza and laughed while Chad's carry-on was swabbed for bomb materials. I think they just wanted to pull aside the guy who was crazy enough to stuff a pizza box in his suitcase. We flew home on a slightly newer model of airplane, it was at least bigger and only half full of passengers, but the pilot seemed determined to fly the entire route home in a cloud bank, which jiggled the wing (yes, we were sitting next to the wing again!) in such a stomach-churning manner that I had to close the window or lose my dinner. We arrived safely home again and found all well there. Our deepest gratitude goes out to Jeannine for making our get-away possible. She took care of our kiddos like a pro! We had such a fun reunion with them in the morning and were glad to be together again. North, south, east, and west...wherever you go, home is best!

Nauvoo - Day Four

The sweet missionaries invited us to attend church at 8am with them on Sunday, and we were so glad we did. The sacrament meeting speakers were two couples soon to go home and they spoke of their gratitude for the opportunity they'd had to serve the Lord. Even better than the sacrament meeting were the Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society lessons. Have you ever been in a ward where there were 100% full-tithe payers, 100% temple recommend holders, 100% committed members? I have and it was in Nauvoo! All the senior missionary couples are so impressive and their dedication is inspiring. One of the missionaries, Elder Deacons, showed us incredible kindness. We found out, after all the travel plans had been set, that the Nauvoo Temple was closed for cleaning during our visit. We had hopes of getting in on a cleaning crew so that we could do some service and see the interior. We visited with the mission president, temple president and then with Elder Deacons, who was a temple engineer, and learned that they didn't take volunteers for cleaning work. Elder Deacons did, however, arrange for us to visit the temple accommodations center and see the temple video that shows many of the rooms and their beautiful craftsmanship. He was so nice!!

After church we put on our walking shoes and headed out to see the sights again. This was an area pointed out to us on the wagon ride, but we went back and snapped a picture of it. When the Saints first came to Commerce to settle, this is the sight that met their eyes. What kind of vision and determination do you have to have to turn this into a beautiful and prosperous city? They dug a canal, drained the swamp water, and went to work building homes and planting fruit trees and gardens. The city was laid out in a grid pattern, each block being a four acre plot. The plots were then parceled into acre lots that the Saints could build homes and plant gardens on. There were 300 brick homes, 500 frame homes, and 1200 log homes. Nauvoo was a big and busy place!

Our first stop was at Wilford Woodruff's home. I LOVE Wilford Woodruff...he was the man! He went on a lot of missions and had lots of crazy experiences with bears and ornery people, but no matter what happened he relied on the Lord and said after every experience, "...and we went on our way rejoicing!" I want that kind of attitude for life. As a missionary, Wilford slept outside many times and trudged through snow, wind, rain and cold. When he returned from his mission to England he declared that he never wanted to be cold again, so he installed a fireplace in every room in his house. With all his responsibilities as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and a missionary, Wilford only spent 100 total days in his home before he sold it for a pittance and walked away.

At the Land and Records Office we got cool information about Chad's ancestors and where they lived in Nauvoo. We also visited the Riser Boot and Shoe Shop, which was a neat place, but we didn't snap a picture. Here are some other spots we stopped by:

The Jonathon Browning Home and Gun Shop
Destination for Nauvoo tourists AND gun nuts - like the gray-haired ponytail sporting, tie-died shirt wearing, motorcycle driving guy in the tour right before ours.

The Webb Brother's Blacksmith Shop
Where a clever missionary made a tiny horseshoe...did you know they are called blacksmiths because they dip the finished product in oil, which made it black?

The Seventies Hall

The Sarah Granger Kimball Home
I enjoyed this stop very much because Sarah Kimball was a faithful lady and there are many wonderful stories about the spirit of service and sacrifice she possessed, plus the house was so cute! The most famous story concerns the formation of the Relief Society. Sarah was looking for a way to contribute to the work on the temple, and she and her seamstress, Miss Cook, decided to make shirts for the temple workmen. They then thought to ask some of their neighbors and friends if they'd like to join in the effort, and this idea led to discussion of the formation of a Ladies Society. Eliza R. Snow was asked to draft a constitution and by-laws which were presented to the Prophet Joseph for approval. He said that the constitution and by-laws were the best he'd ever seen, but that it wasn't what the women wanted. "Tell the sisters their offering is accepted of the Lord, and He has something better for them than a written constitution. Invite them all to meet me and a few of the brethren in...my store next Thursday afternoon, and I will organize the sisters under the priesthood, after a pattern of the priesthood." The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo was formed on that day, March 17, 1842.

The Cultural Hall
This turned out to be one of the most awesome stops of our entire trip. The room you see in this picture is the third floor of the building. The floor is original to the building, which is amazing because the Cultural Hall experienced damage to its roof through wear and time, and the third story was taken off entirely. When restoration work was done on the building, they found the original wood floor right underneath the new roof. It was on this floor that Joseph Smith mapped out the route the Saints should take to the Rocky Mountains.

We were shown through this beautiful building by a wonderful missionary named Sister Dayley. She told us how her great-grandmother, Mary Field Garner, had lived in Nauvoo as a girl. Now, that may seem unremarkable since lots of people lived in Nauvoo, but Mary Field Garner lived to be 107 years old! (Holy crow!) Sister Dayley was eight years old when her great-grandmother died and she remembers sitting on Mary's lap and hearing her testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. She KNEW him!! I had the most amazing feeling of history coming alive hearing Sister Dayley's story. Chad and I were talking to someone just one person removed from Joseph Smith and all that had happened at Nauvoo. Mary Field Garner was present when Joseph and Hyrum left for Carthage and when their bodies were brought back to Nauvoo in a wagon. She was there when the mantle of the Prophet Joseph fell upon Brigham Young. Her family were among the poor Saints blessed by the miracle of the quail in Montrose, Iowa. The Field family returned to Nauvoo for a season the raise money to travel west and watched the temple burn to the ground. Mary Field Garner experienced all these things and shared them with her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Chad asked Sister Dayley if she would share her testimony with us and we all wept as the Spirit touched each of us. It was an amazing experience.

We spent part of the evening watching the sun set over the Mississippi River from the quiet of the Smith family burial site and then attended a "sociable" or fireside at the Visitor's Center. We both felt a little melancholy as the moon rose over our last night in Nauvoo.

Nauvoo - Day Three

Our day started bright and early, 6:30am to be precise, with a visit to the Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds. The cemetery was in use from 1839 to 1846, and most of the 1,800 people, mostly children, who died in Nauvoo were buried here. The majority of the headstones are gone, and many of those still standing are unreadable, but there is a peace and beauty there that is undeniable. Orin Rockwell and his wife Sarah, who were Porter Rockwell's parents, are buried there. As we walked through the quiet morning, Chad commented on how lucky those families are whose ancestors still have a marked grave. He hoped they were grateful.

Our second stop that morning was the Trail of Hope. It is the section of Parley's Street that runs straight to the Mississippi River. It is down this road that the Saints drove their wagons, leaving behind their homes and most of their earthly possessions, to cross the river and "find the place that God for [them] prepared, far away, in the West." It is a somber thing to walk in their footsteps and think of their sorrow at leaving their temple and beautiful city. It is more so, however, a truly inspiring thing to think of the faith and courage and strength that burned inside of them. They believed in Christ, they believed in the prophet, and they would follow and build again. At the end of Parley Street stands a statue entitled, "Eyes Westward." It shows Joseph Smith and Brigham Young together, looking toward the Church's future home.

We made it back to the hotel to get ready for the day and then headed out again to tour some of the restored homes and businesses in the Old Nauvoo area. We visited the Lucy Mack Smith home, which Brigham Young bought for her to live in, the Scovil Bakery (yummy gingerbread cookies), the Print Shop, Post Office, John Taylor home, brickyard, tin shop, Pendelton home and log school (Chad and I both failed the math class), Heber C. Kimball home and the Brigham Young home. The Kimball home is beautiful and is the original home built by Heber C. Kimball. It was the first to be restored after it was purchased by his great-grandson, Dr. J. LeRoy Kimball.

We were especially impressed with the home built by Brigham Young. It too is the original structure, and he put all of his considerable talent and skill into making it the best home he possibly could. The home was originally just the middle portion, but the two wings were added in 1844, and the east wing was used as an office/meeting room where church business was conducted. We had the nice sister missionary snap our picture while we were in that room. I have the utmost respect and admiration for Brigham Young, he was an amazing person and truly a prophet of the Lord.

After doing a little afternoon shopping, Chad and I took the drive to Carthage. We wanted to follow the martrydom trail as closely as we could, but a map with adequate road signs is hard to come by. It seems that if it is a country road, it doesn't deserve to be marked on a map. Anyhoo, we followed it for a bit, got lost and ended up south of our destination, but we did get there so all was well. I had been much struck by a quote I had read on the memorial statue in the Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds. Joseph Smith stated, "The place where a man is buried is sacred to me." That brief statement came back to me again and again as we toured the site. Of course, Joseph Smith is not buried at the Carthage Jail, but he did die there, and the place is sacred to his memory. We were very fortunate to get to the jail during a lull; we were the only ones on our tour and the Spirit was very strong as we listened to the sweet sister missionary share the events of the prophet's time in Carthage, as well as her testimony. We left feeling as though we had been in the temple, it is a place of peace and a monument to sacrifice and truth.

We finished our evening by giving in to peer pressure from all the cute missionary couples to go to "Rendevous," a musical evening that relives life in Old Nauvoo. It was funny and touching, and the missionaries poured their hearts and souls into the production. I admire all those couples who give up children, grandchildren, comfortable homes, and comfortable lives to serve the Lord as missionaries. (I'm talking about YOU too Mom and Dad!) It is a wonderful thing they do!

Nauvoo - Day Two

I slept in on Friday morning, just for the sheer novelty of the experience, while Chad, who is unable to sleep past 6:30 at the latest, decided to go for an early morning drive around Nauvoo. He enjoyed the solitude because, except for a few joggers, he was all alone. He got some nice shots of a quiet Nauvoo morning.

"Prophet's Last Ride" statue across from the temple.

Nauvoo House and Mississippi River at dawn.

Nauvoo Temple as seen from the flats.

We ate our "continental breakfast" (excuse me while I snicker up my sleeve) and then went to examine the Temple up close. I don't mean to gush, well maybe I do, but it is a remarkable and beautiful building. We took so many pictures of it and I was struck again and again by the fact that as I looked up at it from old Nauvoo, I was seeing the same sight looked upon by pioneer eyes. Amazing!

At the Visitor's Center we heard that there was a wagon ride and a carriage ride available, the first was a trip around the old Nauvoo sites, and the second was a ride in the countryside. We decided to do both and had lots of fun. (The horses that pulled the wagon were named Tom and Jerry. I'm petting Tom.)

We spent the rest of the afternoon touring the Smith family sites operated by the Community of Christ Church. We had a very nice guide whose name was Sarah. She knew her stuff and answered our questions about the buildings very ably. We weren't able to tour the Nauvoo House because they rented it out. You can actually stay in the Nauvoo House! I thought that was crazy, but cool.

This is the Smith Homestead. The log part of the home was an exisiting structure when the Saints first came to Commerce. The Smith family lived there and nursed those sick with malaria. The original building was expanded to meet the family's needs and remained the home of Joseph Sr. and Lucy after Joseph and Emma moved into the Mansion House. Joseph Sr. died here. The frame part of the home was an addition put on by Joseph Smith III.

The Mansion House was built as a home for Joseph and Emma. It was expanded, soon after the main home's completion, into a hotel. The Smith's ran the hotel, but it was very taxing considering all their other responsibilities, so they hired a family to run the day to day business. The Mansion House is said to look like the Stowell Mansion in New York, the home of Josiah Stowell, where Joseph and Emma spent their honeymoon. The hotel portion of the home fell into disrepair after the Saints left Nauvoo and then was pulled down after a tree fell on it. Only the original portion remains.

This is the Nauvoo House. It was intended to be a boarding house where a traveler could come to "find health and safety while he shall contemplate the word of the Lord; and the corner-stone I have appointed for Zion." (D&C 124:23) It was planned out to be a large and beautiful building, but it wasn't finished by the time the Saints were driven from Nauvoo. Emma's second husband, Lewis Bidamon, later tore down the walls and used the bricks to build the home that is standing there now.

The Red Brick Store was the general store run by Joseph and Emma. Joseph was a bad grocer, though, because he sold lots of stuff on credit and gave the rest away. It was in the room over the store where the Relief Society was organized. The Community of Christ Church allows the upper room to be used for gatherings, and still uses the lower portion as a store where they sell lots of neat things, like Red Brick Store Rootbeer. It is $2 a bottle, but man it is good! Dang! We bought Grace a bonnet, Merritt a harmonica and Grant some finger puppets there.

We finished the day with a steak dinner in Keokuk and a crazy hunt through the city looking for the Mormon Immigrant Camp marker. After directions from a Wal-Mart cashier and three kids playing baseball, we were finally able to find the park. Then it was back to the Woodruff Hotel where we totally crashed!

Anniversary Trip to Nauvoo - Day One

I'm sorry that it has taken me a few days to get blogging about our trip, it does take a while to get back into the groove after being gone for five days. *Sigh!* Chad and I had so much fun and Jeannine was super-grandma and watched over our munchkins with lots of care and some stress. Much thanks to Heather for her turn as relief pitcher in the middle there. Chad and I were in Nauvoo almost eight years ago and snapped pictures with our film camera. In the heat and humidity, we actually lost some of them and we congratulated ourselves that this time around our digital wonder would save every moment of our trip. That was not to be, pictures can still disappear from a microchip apparently, so the first shots you'll see are of the Mississippi River. With no further ado, then, I give you our trip to Nauvoo...

The alarm was set to go off at 4am, but we were both too nervous about a) a power outage that would turn off our alarm, b) sleeping through our alarm, or c) hearing the alarm but hitting snooze and not waking up till several hours later, so we got up at 3:30. Jeannine arrived at 4:45 and we were on the road at 5am. We stopped for cash and Mint Mojito gum (it was gross and what is a mojito?) that we thought was just mint, and drove down Legacy Highway to the Park 'n' Jet. The nice shuttle driver's parents were serving their mission in Nauvoo (his dad is the car czar for the mission fleet) so we had a pleasant visit with him on the drive to the airport. I was nervous about flying since all the rules have changed since I last took to the air in 1998, but I made it through the security check point with no alarms going off. Whew! We had about an hour wait until boarding for our flight to Chicago. Our airplane had to be the oldest and most rickety piece of tin in the American Airlines line-up, and our seats were right behind the wing and right in front of the engine. I thought the noise would make me deaf by the time we got there. Our seatmate was a very nice and slightly boozy business man who knew when to make conversation and when to be quiet. We had a bumpy flight but landed on time at O'Hare Airport just after 11am. We went to pick up our rental car, and the only compact left was a hideous green. Some previous occupant had even taken a black magic marker to the climate controls so that it took five minutes to figure out how to run the AC. We looked longingly at the classier ride right next to us and then packed up the green beast and took off.

Our grand plan was to take a slightly meandering route to Nauvoo so that we could visit Sycamore, Illinois where John E. Page was supposedly buried (Chad has created a Church history map and has diligently searched to find where all the apostles of the Church (both faithful and not) are laid to rest). We got to Dekalb (how is that pronounced?) and the map said the Sycamore was just a few miles beyond, so why couldn't we find it? We drove through beautiful farm country where next to every home was a red and white barn, but no Sycamore. We took a few wrong turns, circled about a bit and finally found a road that would take us to the right road that would take us to Sycamore. The cemetary was an imposing sort of place with massive iron gates (stupid camera!), but the caretaker who was, as Chad put it, "trying to commit suicide by smoke inhalation" didn't have the proper records since the original cemetary office burned down in 1905. We found a Page family plot full of old and weathered, unreadable stones, snapped a photo (stupid camera!) and then left. We found out later that John E. Page was buried in his backyard on a farm seven miles outside of town. Oh well!

So we drove, on and on, across the state of Illinois. We were following the map and trying to follow the signs, but road signs in Illinois are completely lame. It took us all five days to even begin to figure them out...ugh! We ended up on so many wrong roads and then, to our complete surprise, we crossed the Mississippi River into IOWA! By this time we just gave up on the Illinois road system and trusted in the good common sense of corn farmers to get us where we wanted to go. When we STILL couldn't find Highway 61, we pulled over and asked directions. Finally on the right road, we drove through rain and more rain to the toll bridge at Fort Madison and crossed the Mississippi again.The rain continued to fall until we were about 5 miles outside of Nauvoo. Then the clouds began to clear and the sun peeked out as we drove into town. Our home away from home for our anniversary get away was the Woodruff Hotel (see geeky green car in front).It was nice at 40% off but a rip-off at a higher price, though it did have an awesome jetted tub that soothed sore feet after a full day of sight seeing (or in this case - a slightly frustrating, 8 hour day of car travel). The best part about the Woodruff Hotel, however, was kitty-corner down the street...

Isn't it BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that is a wonderful end to our first day. :)

Laughter

Last Thursday night I got to bed late. There seemed to be a million things to do and not enough time to get it all done. When I finally crawled between the sheets of my bed I experienced that feeling of frustration that occurs when you have a tired body and a busy mind: no rest for me. I lay there, trying to talk my busy brain into calm, when I heard laughter. The sound was coming from Grace and Grant's room across the hall and this wasn't snickering or sleepy laughing, it was full on chortling that went on for ten seconds and ended with a wheezy gasp and a final chuckle. It was Grant laughing in his sleep. It's been almost a week since this happened and I still can't write about it without tearing up, because it was actually a sacred experience for me. I was enveloped in the most peaceful, beautiful feeling as I listened to my baby laugh in his sleep. How loved and comforted and safe and peaceful does one have to feel to have such sweet and sunny dreams? I'm so grateful that he feels those things, that he knows he is loved, and Grant's laughter was the perfect sleeping pill; I fell asleep smiling too.

The Big Brother

Sometimes I don't think Merritt is particularly thrilled with his role as the big brother. He has more responsibility and there are greater expectations upon him in terms of behavior than there are for the smaller beings in this house. Perhaps that is why he enjoys periodically needling his siblings, cuz he thinks their lives are easier. To forestall any teasing, we remind Merritt that his job as the big brother is to look after Grace and Grant and to be kind, as Jesus is a kind big brother to all of us. Do our words of teaching and encouragement sink in? I submit the following as Exhibit A:I was upstairs finishing some chores and I could hear Merritt reading The Big, Wide-Mouthed Frog aloud. I thought he was practicing his reading skills until I heard him move on to How do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? and How do Dinosaurs go to School?. I snuck down the stairs and saw him reading to Grace; pointing out pictures, laughing at the funny parts with her, and using vocal inflection to make the stories exciting. That one choice, to share his time and skill with his sister, created the best feeling in our home. He struggles a bit (and don't we all) but I must say that my Merritt is one great kid.