So, in May we went to Nauvoo for the wedding of some of our friends. We drove out with Jon-Michael, the groom and took a couple of days to get out there. We left on the 9th and arrived at Nauvoo on the 10th. We stayed with Laura, who is Kira's, the bride, sister. She lives literally a block from the temple. We had a lot of fun with Laura's kids, Seth, Jonathan, Charlotte, Joshua and Kat. In order to not spend forever downloading pictures, here are the tourist pictures of Nauvoo that we took, in no particular order.
Here is Wesley in front of the Nauvoo Temple.
This is Abbey, Jon-Michael's sister in the upstairs room in the Red Brick Store where the Relief Society was organized. The Hotel Nauvoo, the Mansion House, the Old Homestead and the Red Brick Store are all owned by the Community of Christ, which used to be the RLDS church. The Red Brick Store is a reconstruction so it is the only building we were allowed to take pictures in. We were very sad about his as the Mansion House and the Old Homestead had beautiful pieces in them.
This is the Hotel Nauvoo. We didn't get to go inside, but the guide spent twenty minutes standing outside telling us all about how is was meant to be so much bigger but they ran out of money and that Joseph and Hyrum were buried on the grounds of the Hotel Nauvoo and were moved to the Springhouse and then moved to the current location. He repeated those two facts about six times.
These are the current graves of Joseph, Hyrum and Emma Smith. The graves are part of the Smith family cemetary, which is owned by the Smith Family Foundation. it also has the graves of Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith.
This is the Mansion House. Our guide was also annoying here, because he walked right past Emma's parlor, and Joseph's study to show us a model of the house and talk about windows and size. We also couldn't take any pictures inside. Talk about sad because they have so many original pieces, like the well-known paintings of Joseph and Emma and also of Joseph in military uniform. The Community of Christ has so many beautiful, original pieces and don't seem to care about them at all and we have so few pieces but are so proud of them. Luckily, they are quickly running out of money and are starting to sell many of their pieces to us. For example, they have the original cornerstone of the Nauvoo temple, but we have the Book of Mormon that was inside it.
This is a view of the Mississippi river from the end of Parley street. Wesley was blown away by the size of the river, especially considering the Provo "river".
This is a model of the wagons that the Saints used to cross the Mississippi River and the plains.
We went on a wagon ride around Old Nauvoo that lasted about an hour. We saw many of the houses and building that have been restored. Many of them are where the missionaries now reside. Wesley also went to the brickyard with Rutter and Jon-Michael while I was at a bridal shower for Kira.
This is a memorial to Joseph and Hyrum that sits across from the Nauvoo Temple.
This is one of the original sunstones. There are only three remaining intact. One is the by the Old Nauvoo visitor center, one is at the Community of Christ visitor center and one is in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C.
The first day that we were in Nauvoo, we went to Carthage. Jmo and Kira needed to get their wedding license and we went to Carthage Jail. We watched a short video and then took the tour through the jail. Wesley especially enjoyed it because he had never been to Carthage or Nauvoo.
This is the original door to the upstairs room where Joseph and Hyrum were killed. You can see the bullet hole through the door where the bullet went that killed Hyrum. There is also a bullet hole at the lock.
Christmas Eve with the Messengers. We do our party then and go from house to house, eating, singing, playing games, and doing the Nativity with puppets
Our pretty Christmas tree in the only space that it would fit in our apartment. We still have no star because everything is tacky and LED.
For Christmas, I got a turkey from Provo School District. I couldn't figure out how we were going to eat all of it, so we decided to have Jacob, Garrett, Natalie and Jordan over for dinner the last week in January. This is how perfectly my turkey turned out. :)
I didn't think to take a picture of all the food before it was eaten, so here is a picture of how much we enjoyed the yummy food. We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey, salad cranberry sauce, rolls and pie.
So Trent, Wesley's brother left on his mission mid-January so we had an older sibling day before he left. This is Wesley partaking of all the goodies.
Trent made the mistake of lying on the floor and Tayvin (our niece) took great pleasure in attacking and tickling him. It was funny to watch.
This is our other niece Aria playing "Just Dance." There is only one song that she allowed us to play and so now when we hear it on the radio, we can do the motions along.
Wesley got lots of fun toys for his birthday, including an electric razor and a T-shirt to match "Big Bang Theory," one of his favorite TV shows.
In March, we went to the Bon Jovi concert at the Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake. I had never been to a rock concert before, only symphony concerts. It was AMAZING!!! It was super loud and we were WAY up high, but I loved it. These two pictures were taken on Wesley's phone. This one kind of shows the flow symbol and has Jon Bon Jovi out front.
This is basically a closer version of the same pictures :)
During March and April, Wesley got to play in the Orem Volleyball League with his uncle Drew. They played every Wednesday and ended up winning the tournament. He had a lot of fun, especially diving and jumping for the ball.
My Great-Grandpa Adams (Grandma Wasden's dad) passed away the beginning of April, about a week before my birthday. He was 94 and had been a widower for 24 years. Because his son is an agnostic, the funeral was held and the funeral home and the hospice chaplain led the service. He did a beautiful job, touching on many beliefs.
Because my Great-Grandpa had been a general, he was entitled to a military burial. In the background, you can see we had a real bugle to play "Taps," there was a gun salute, and a general was the one to present the flag to my Great-Uncle Johnny. Because he believes this is the end, he didn't want anything of Grandpa's and gave the flag to my grandma. She has is beautifully displayed with a picture of Great-Grandpa in full military uniform.
My Great-Grandma had died almost exactly 24 years before. They were able to engrave the tombstone quickly and now my great-grandparents are together again, waiting for the rest of us to do the temple work for them.
My birthday kind of snuck in to the rest of our lives. My birthday present from Wesley was an anniversary band to go with my wedding and engagement rings. It is beautiful, but I haven't managed to take a picture yet. Sometime :)!
The 5 Messenger siblings
Here we have the Messengers. There are only 8 as opposed to....
14! Here we have the entire family, all 14 of us!
Just those who were in the original Johnson family :) Only 10.
My artistic picture!
Kara playing with her Happy Meal during lunch.
Kameron enjoying his Happy Meal!
Katelyn and I by the reflecting pool in front of the Salt Lake Temple.
