Nauvoo...

Spring Break was an adventure.

A 2700 mile road trip adventure.

In 5 1/2 days we drove for 40 hours, visited every site in Nauvoo, toured Carthage Jail and Liberty Jail, drove to Adam-Ondi-Ahman, and stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City.

It was jam packed family fun with 8 of us crammed in our Honda Pilot and a luggage rack on the roof.

If Tayler's boy Jaden had wanted to bolt after all that togetherness we might not have blamed him!

We asked him on the way home if he was ready to run... he said of course not. 

Although he did admit that he wouldn't have said yes anyway because he still needed a ride home. ;)

They got engaged about 10 days later so we must not have scared him TOO much!

We headed out at 4 PM on Monday April 3rd.

About 1.5 hours in we came to our first state border.

It was here that "small bladder Saige" took a pit stop right there by our car... in plain view.

There were plenty of other potty breaks along the way but we were expecting much longer than 1.5 hours before needing one! ;)

Tayler took an hourly snapchat along the way, we must have only screenshotted a couple though.

Gas station bathroom pics :)

It was a long night.

We drove straight through, stopping every 3-4 hours.

I may have already mentioned this, but it was a LONG night.

And not the most comfortable night either.

We rolled into Winter Quarters Nebraska at 8 am, ahead of schedule.

The Visitors Center didn't open until 10, so a quick picture in front of the Temple and we were back on the road.

Side note... I would have guessed that Lydia slept the most that night but...

 maybe not because she was the least happiest the rest of that day.

The pictures will tell that story. ;)

Another 5 hours of driving at we finally made it to...

and Lydia is not any happier than 5 hours ago...

Nor was she happier when we stopped for some pictures in a town a few minutes from Nauvoo.

The sisters kicked her out and took pictures without her.

Using the phrase... "Fine, then you can't be a sister".

That phrase goes back to the beginning of the sisterhood, I'm guessing Tayler used it on Saige first. But They all think it's hilarious to joke about...

all EXCEPT for the sister they are saying it to.

I don't think Jaden was so keen on taking pictures here either.

But he kinda likes Tayler so she gets her way...

We made it to our cozy little Nauvoo Cabin around 1 PM.

Unpacked a little

And then headed out to start exploring Nauvoo for a few hours.

Then back to the cabin for a short, much needed seista.

That night we were all still exhausted but we had tickets to the 8 PM "Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo" put on by the Senior Missionaries.

It was... hmmmm I'd say a little awkward at times, but fun or at the very least funny

We were all tired, I think Saige looked like this most of the show + we were in the front row so that was bad. We did get to be at the show where the poor sister missionary tripped on her skirt when she was jumping up on a pole and fell flat on her back.  It sounds terrible, but it was  a very memorable moment.  Poor lady!

As soon as we got back in the car Shane let it be known that he would NEVER be serving a mission in Nauvoo... because there was NO WAY he would ever be participating in that production. ;););) 

Back to our little cabin for a few games.

The girls "Bear Bottom" PJ's were appropriate.

So of course we had a photo shoot.

Glad that Lydia decided to "be a sister" from here on out.

We slept VERY well that night... then got up early and started visiting every site in Nauvoo.

And I mean EVERY site!  In 2 days we saw EVERYTHING and took every tour. Shane took Tayler, Jaden, Saige and Kenna to do baptisms in the Nauvoo Temple one morning.  Then Shane and I did sealings one night. 

The following pictures sum up the next two days.

Lots of Church History information, lots of fun and definitely a lot of memories made.

And just because they thought this was a strange billboard to have in Nauvoo. :)

 "Portraits by Lydia" was very popular in Nauvoo. ;)

She wanted Tay's camera all the time.

She's quite a budding little photographer!

I mean hers look better than mine!

  

We found my relative Jeremiah Robey in the Nauvoo records.

And drove to Carthage Jail in a super windy rain storm.  

Believe the reviews... don't bother with the overpriced buffet at the Nauvoo Inn. 

It was NOT good.

Saige did to her typical, "Tell them, it's my birthday" trick that she's famous for.

She was pretty excited about getting that not-so-great cupcake they gave her. haha

We found a funny/yummy restaurant in a neighboring town Keokuk

And we loved this brand new little restaurant in Nauvoo, "The Apron".

Other than that the food is definitely lacking in Nauvoo.

(Also "Portraits by Lydia")

Hahaha, this is Lydia's "Oh, no" face... 

We stopped at the muddy Mississippi river.  Just to see if it was as muddy as it looked from the road... it was.

We finished off our Nauvoo experience with more pictures

Spent our 3rd night in the cabin and left bright and early for more Church History stuff in...

 A stop at Adam-Ondi-Ahman

If you've never been there... well now you've seen everything that is there in the next three pictures!

Super pretty, just nothing there.

Tayler's 2 favorite Jadyn/Jaden's ;)

We visited Liberty Jail.

Crossed into Kansas and didn't get a picture of that sign. haha

Then drove to what my little girls had been waiting for the whole time.

Maybe the big girls too.

(We were all a little "Church Historied" out by this point.)

The Great Wolf Lodge

Basically a hotel with a huge water park inside.

A kids dream!

We played for a few hours before heading to Shane's "trip" suggestion...

He had come here while working on the Kansas City Temple a while back.

He was right.

It was the best bar-b-que we've been to.

We were already starving and the line was 45 minutes,
so it definitely tasted delicious when we finally got our food!

The next morning Shane took Saige and Kenna to do baptisms in the Kansas City Temple.

We checked out, and played at the water park for a few more hours.

Lydia  was transformed into a wolf.

and played her part very well. ;)

Kenna will be a wolf next year.

A "Green Canyon Wolf".

So we rounded up a few extra ears for her to share with her wolf pack back home. ;)

A yummy early dinner, then we were off on the long, not very looked forward to drive home.

We drove back through...

and...

And drove through the night again.

We came through a blizzard in Wyoming.
And we REALLY happy to finally see that Utah sign.

These two were the only ones willing to get out for a picture at 5:30 AM...

We were all so happy when we safely pulled into our driveway @ 7:15 AM Sunday morning.

We curled up in our glorious beds for a few hours and made it to 12 PM church.

Our Spring Break was perfect in my opinion.

We experienced so much, 

learned so many things that we didn't know before, 

refreshed our memory on some that we did

 and had a fantastic time doing it.

Yay for family road trips!!

(PS Nauvoo video to be posted later. ;))