Nauvoo - Day 4 and Last Day with Judson's

Day 4--

Melissa and I got to go to the Nauvoo temple together at 8 a.m.  It was a special time to just be with my sister.  I'm grateful we got to do that together.  It was pouring down rain when we came out of the temple.  Here's our view from the temple steps.  

And these words are on the temple above the entrance.

Selfie at the temple.

After the temple, we packed up our luggage and checked out by 11 a.m.  Then we went to Carthage and toured Carthage Jail.  It was still raining, so we didn't stay outside very long.  Here's a statue of Hyrum and Joseph Smith.

And here's the outside of the jail.

That's the end of our Nauvoo trip.  I hope the kids learned a little about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint's history and had fun doing it.  We sure enjoyed Melissa's family and our time in Nauvoo.  Plus the weather was great for 3 of the 4 days!

We ate lunch at Dairy Queen then drove home 4 hours.  We didn't even have to stop this time!

We ate dinner at Portillo's.  Here's me and Noah.

The Portillo's hats were a big hit.  Lynzie and Kira were best friends too!

Isak with two hats!

Isak and Tyler.

The three musketeers.  😀

Lynzie and Kira again.  😀

Day 5 --

The Judson's left in the morning to explore Chicago.  Nels wasn't feeling well so we stayed home.  

Before they left, Abi fixed Kira and Sofie's hair like Lynzie's.  They looked so cute!

I was surprised she could even get elastics into Sofie's hair!  So fun!

Later, Nels felt better so we decided to go on a little adventure of our own.  We went to a nearby hiking place called Nelson Lakes.

We hiked for 2 hours and went about 2.89 miles.

We brought the stroller and Nels pushed Noah 80% of the time.  Sofie did great hiking for the first half.  Then I carried her for some and then she got a turn in the stroller.  During her turn in the stroller, she fell asleep!  I'm glad we brought at least one stroller.  Although, we did have to carry it over some muddy spots.

At one point we somehow got off the normal trail and ended up on a single line foot trail with very high grass.  Nels is only a few feet ahead of Kira, but you can't see him in the picture.  That's how high the grass was!  It was crazy and a little scary to walk through.  We made it through and found the normal trail again.

But then Nels noticed ticks!  So we all stripped down the best we could...😬 and did a tick check.   We found a lot and were able to get them off.  But we missed one.  We noticed Kira had a tick on the back of her neck as we neared the end of the trail.  We were so worried.  We all said a prayer that she would be okay and that we would know what to do.  Prayers are answered!  Just as we were leaving the parking lot a forest preserve officer pulled up.  We talked to her about Kira's tick and she knew exactly what to do.  You use a credit card to gently push the tick out!  So Nels did just that and the tick came right out.  Kira was so brave.  She didn't cry or whine and she just listened to what we told her to do.  We checked Nelson Lakes off our list and we probably won't be hiking there again!

Day 6 --
We all went to Buttermilk for breakfast.  I just LOVE their breakfast.  I got the banana pie pancakes and bacon, spinach, potato with two eggs skillet.  MMMMMmmmm!!

Then we took the Judson's to Island Park.  The kids played and I got to ask Karl questions about coding.  😀

We took some pictures to send to Michael (Melissa's oldest boy) because he wasn't able to come on the trip.  We spelled W-E, then a heart for love, U!  WE 💙 U!

Cute, huh?!  Then we did a video and said, "We Love You!"

We walked across the foot bridge.  Aren't Melissa and Lynzie cute?!

We took some family pictures.  Here's the Judson family!  I forgot to mention, Abi and Sofie were buddies most of the trip.  Abi was awesome with all of our kids, but especially with Sofie.  It was just fun to watch the cousins become friends.

Here's our little family.

It was a sad, sad good bye.  Oh how Isak cried and cried and cried.  I mean hours of crying and being sad.  It took him two days to not be quite so sad.  We FaceTimed and that helped.  Thank you Judson family for spending some of your family vacation with us.  I love the memories we created with you!!!

Nauvoo - Day 3

Day 3 --

Nels went to the temple with Melissa's older kids to do baptisms.  How neat is that?

I got the kids ready and Melissa and I had some time to just chat.  

After everyone got back, we headed downtown Nauvoo for more touring.  

Our first stop was listening to the young performing missionaries sing and do a little skit.  They are so talented!!

We went to the Gunsmith, Tinsmith, Post Office and another stop to the pioneer past times.  Kira was happy to hold her horse again.

Sofie found a horse too.

Noah liked this straw hat.

Uncle Karl is so good with the kids.  He made them laugh all the time.

My handsome boy!

Sister selfie!

Big brother helping out with the stroller.

Karl was a magnet for these kids.  They loved to be by him.

He was such a good sport!!

After lunch at Grandpa John's and souvenir shopping, we went to the Red Brick Store.

Then we went to the cemetery for the Smith family.  Notice the key on the bracelet Sofie is wearing?  This is important for later.  Also, that is one of my favorite Sofie smiles.

Resting a moment.

Here's Abi in front of the Joseph Smith Mansion House.

The mansion was locked because you had to have a Community of Christ tour guide to open it.
But Sofie insisted that her key should be able to open the door.  And when it didn't this little girl had a meltdown.  A very cute meltdown.

We enjoyed touring the Lucy Mack Smith house and Sister Swensen gave us a tour of the Cultural Hall.  We tried to do the ox ride, but they were closed.  So we went to Annie's Custard for a cool treat.

Here's a picture of Nathan and Isak.  These two became sweet friends.  Nathan was so kind and fun to Isak.  He taught Isak how to play card games and taught him some multiplication, which Isak thought was super awesome.  They did everything together and it was so fun to watch.

Here's a picture of Tyler and Noah.  Tyler is awesome.  He decided to make it his mission to become Noah's friend.  A big challenge, since Noah is pretty temperamental and doesn't warm up to others easily.  Tyler was patient and kept trying and trying.  His efforts paid off though, by day 3 Noah was starting to come around.  Tyler learned that Noah likes to be teased with roaring.  As you can see, Noah has his arms out to roar at Tyler.  😀

I just love this moment when both Sofie and Noah are playing with Tyler.

And then giving Tyler some love.  😍

Early mornings and late nights were making our toddlers tired and grumpy, so we left Melissa's family for an early dinner and bedtime.  On the drive to dinner both Sofie and Noah fell asleep.

We ate at Pizza Hut and then put the kids to bed as soon as possible.
It was a two bedroom condo with a living room, dining room and kitchen.  Noah did not want to sleep with the other kids, so he slept on the floor in our room.  Here he is all snuggled on the floor.  This boy was so tired that he slept until 10 a.m. the next morning!!!  That's never happened before!!

Melissa's family went to the program put on by the young performing missionaries.  They said it was amazing.  I'm sad we missed it, but our kiddos definitely needed the sleep!