If I Had a Bucket List.... (warning... ridiculously long post ahead...)

Taking the family to Nauvoo is something I've been wanting to do for about 10+ years!  With Taylor leaving on his mission in September, it was getting to be "do or die trying" time... so in July of 2013, we made it happen!

The route I planned out for us to take...  we had 2 super long driving days, but the rest were managable.

Day 1:  Road trip food ready to go....

Said goodbye to this boy... it was so hard to leave him home, but we were lucky to find a friend who would stay at the house while we were gone and keep an eye on Max.  

Day 1:  Drove to Albequerque and got there in time to swim before the sun went down.
Watched about 5 different fireworks shows from the window of our hotel room.
We also got treated to a pretty cool lightning storm show off in the mountains.

Day 2:  Goal was to make it to Kansas City.  Wow... what a drive.  Lots of backroad highways, and very little interstate.  Almost every town we passed through  in Texas and Oklahoma looked like this.  Silos on one side of the road, gas station on the other side.  We are used to 800 miles in one day, but this was hard, even for us!  

Day 3:  Independence, MO Visitors Center.  What a super cool place to visit!
Across the street is the original temple site for the temple that was never started.  Someday.... 

Day 3:  Liberty Jail.  What a moving, powerful presentation at this place.  

Day 3:  Stopped by the Kansas City Temple.
What a beautiful building... It was announced at the same conference as
the Gilbert Temple, but it's been finished for a couple years.  

A better picture of the temple.  I had no idea Kansas City even had a temple until we drove by
it on our way to Independence.  

Day 4:  After attending sacrament meeting in Kansas City, we headed towards Nauvoo.
Our first stop was Far West, MO.  This was another temple site that was abandoned.  At this site,
the cornerstones were laid and they are still there today.

Day 4:  Our second stop on the way to Nauvoo was Adam-Ondi-Ahman.  This is the valley where Adam and Eve settled after they left the Garden of Eden.  The beauty and spirit here were incredible.  Eric chit chatted with a senior missionary there that knew a really cool story about one of Eric's ancestors, Benjamin Franklin Johnson.  

Brayden hitching a ride on Eric's back.  Adam-Ondi-Ahman is so big,
you drive your car from one end to the other!

Beautiful groves of trees were everywhere!  I talked with a sister missionary who warned me about letting the
kids run around in the grass barefooted.  Chigger bites are a real problem.  Luckily we were spared that misery!

Day 4:  We drove into Nauvoo just before the sun went down.  The first thing we did before
settling down for the night was walk down the street to the Nauvoo Temple.  Pictures don't do
this temple justice.  It's amazing.

Day 5:  Touring Nauvoo.  There was so much to see and do,
but we made sure to get tickets for the carriage ride.
It's like Disneyland for Mormons.  :)

The John Taylor home.  It blew me away.
It was awesome to sign the "Descendants Guest Book".
I got teary eyed when the sister missionary told us the story behind the rocking horse.

Day 6:  After we did an early morning session in the temple, we walked down Parley Street
to the river.  It was important reminder of the sacrifices our ancestors made for "freedom of religion".

Day 6:  Quotes by notables... this one is from Eric's ancestor, BFJ.

Statue down by the river.... Joseph and Brigham, Eyes Westward
We also visited Carthage Jail (apparently I don't have any photos of Carthage on my phone)  :(

Day 7:  Leaving Nauvoo... on the morning we left (we could easily have stayed another day)

A typical highway in Iowa.  Beautiful and green as far as you could see.

Rest Stops in Iowa

End of Day 7:  Council Bluffs, Winter Quarters, and an epic meltdown over dinner
which resulted in Pizza Hut at the hotel.   

Day 8:  Never been so happy to see a gas station in all my life.
We drove across Nebraska and realized just as we were crossing the border into Wyoming that we had NO GAS!
Thankfully, we coasted into a gas station on fumes and celebrated our good fortune by buying everyone
a Root Beer float at the A&W built into the gas station.

Day 9:  Left Casper, Wyoming to head for Independence Rock and Devil's Gate.  

The Martin's Cove visitor center was amazing!  We could have spent an entire day there.
I wish we had known there was so much to see and do!

On our way to Rigby, Idaho,  we passed through Teton National Park.  Seriously the most stunning mountain peaks I've ever seen!

Day 10:  Lunch in Rexburg at the Taco Bus... 

The Taco Bus (from the outside!)

The beautiful Rexburg Temple

It made me soooo happy to see this seal still in the original floor of the Manwaring Center.
So much has changed since Ricks became BYU-I, but this is proof that the college I went to
still lives on in spirit!

Selfies at the Rigby Figure 8 races....

Fireworks with Matt and Becca... they have the good ones in Idaho!

Day 11:  We finally visited the Conference Center!  It was amazing!  Temple Square was nice too!

Meeting baby Kelsey

Snuggling with Maris

Day 12:  Hiking the Y... How have we NEVER done this before?  

My kids with the Utah cousins

Day 13:  Drove home through Utah and northern Arizona to make it home.  How wonderful
it felt to be home and sleep in our own beds.  Max isn't usually a smuggler, but he
wouldn't let us out of his sight for a while!

This was such a fabulous trip with so many special memories and stories that I hope I will never forget!  We got really lucky with the timing because I think all of the kids were old enough to appreciate the places we were visiting and understand why they are so important to us.  

I could write a novel about each place we visited, and someday I will, but for now... time to move on!