Nauvoo Family Reunion (Day One and a Half)

This is another back-post from our summer.... :) So we went to a family reunion in Nauvoo, IL this past July and let me just say that we had some poor planning on my part and yet we were very blessed!!

I have no idea how I thought this was a good plan...but this was it:

Monday:
GM go to work till 2 pm
Catch our flight at 5 pm
Arrive in Chicago 9ish (accounting for time change)
Drive 4 hours to Nauvoo
Check into our hotel
Sleep (ha)
Get up and go to the temple with everybody Tuesday morning


(Well...the last three on our list weren't so well thought out) :P

We didn't get out of the airport with our rental car till around 10 and then we decided we needed some good groceries before heading to Nauvoo because we heard there wasn't a great selection there and so we finished at the Jewel-Osco around 11 pm. At this point we got on the freeway and set the GPS to take us to Nauvoo. We got stuck in a traffic jam right after entering the interstate!! What in the world?!?! How can they have a traffic jam in the middle of the night!?!? Needless to say it was a LONG night of travel, switching off driving, slapping ourselves trying to stay awake, and praying that we'd make it there alive and in good time. I must say we were definitely blessed for several reasons:

• Number one the traffic eased up after about an hour and we didn't have any more slowing after that
• Secondly we made it there without falling asleep or any harm coming to us,
• Also because there were several road closures and we heard that we'd have to find our own way to Nauvoo because of all the flooding. At the first sign we saw that indicated a road ahead being closed for flooding, we hit "detour" on the GPS and it re-routed us to a path that thankfully had no flooding or closures!!! What a blessing!!
• Finally, we made it to the hotel around 4 am and we were able to check in! (The town looked like it was asleep or deserted so we had our doubts). :P

We crashed on our beds until 10 am.

Tuesday GM and I were able to do a session and some sealings with some of his cousins while another of his cousins watched our kids!! We were very thankful for that as well. (Our kids wished they could go inside very badly, I'm excited for the temples that will be opening this next year so that we can actually take them inside a temple and show them what it's like and let them feel the amazing spirit there!!)

After the temple we had tickets for a play at the visitors' center so GM, the kids and I headed over to watch that. Then we grabbed a quick dinner and went over to the Nauvoo Pageant. The kids had fun doing the pre-show activities such as the two-man saw. They brought me a small piece of log that they sawed off together. (I was saving seats for the show). The kids really loved the Pageant!! I think it really helped bring the stories to life for them. BR's favorite part was the Scottish dancing and music. (We passed by the next day while the cast was practicing and BR was immediately spellbound....again!!) :)

These are the actors that played Hyrum and Joseph...

BR wanted to meet them as well as the "Scot" but these guys

are the only ones we could catch up with.

*Interesting note: These actors were actually brothers in real life. :)