We've been home about 6 weeks and I'm finally posting about our trip to Nauvoo. I'm really glad we went, especially as I look back at the pictures. I blogged about our decision to go here and now that we've made the trip, I really feel it was inspired.
We left on July 25 as soon as our daughter got home from girls' camp and my son got all his lawns mowed. It was a long day to North Platte, Nebraska, especially when we arrived at the hotel where we thought we had reservations, but we didn't and it was completely full. The county fair was that weekend so most hotels were full. Fortunately we found a spot not too far away to rest our weary bones.
The next day we drove to Pella, Iowa, with a brief stop at the Archway Museum near Kearney, Nebraska. It's a museum that spans I-80. You can look out the windows and see the freeway traffic passing right under you. It was moderately interesting but since we already knew a lot about the westward migration of the 19th century, we didn't learn that much. We did enjoy our encounter with a man dressed up as a genuine mountain man. That was fun.
On Sunday we attended church in Oskaloosa, Iowa. The ward was friendly and we enjoyed meeting some new people. There is a Quaker university in that town and the president of the college happens to be LDS and teaches Sunday School. After church we ate lunch and headed to Nauvoo. We checked in to our log cabin that we rented for the week, ate some dinner, and then headed to Nauvoo Jr. High School for registration and orientation.
At registration, we got our pictures taken for our ID badges, signed up for souvenir pictures, and then had a short orientation. They dismissed early so we could attend "Our Story Goes On" which is a special production put on by the core cast of about 20-22 people. We enjoyed it but we didn't stay for the entire thing because we had some things we needed to do and we were actually feeling chilly--pretty amazing for the end of July in Nauvoo, Illinois. They had a cooler summer this year so that was great.
The following day, Monday, we got our costumes, we learned our songs (only two), and we learned what our Country Fair assignments were going to be. That night was the dress rehearsal for the British pageant. We really enjoyed seeing it for the first time.
The following night was when the official pageant work began. We got in our costumes and had a district meeting with our district leader, Ben from Scotland. He was just 18 years old and did a great job as our district leader. We also loved hearing his accent.
After the cast meeting where we all said the Standard of Truth together, we went off to the Country Fair to meet the visitors and fulfill our assignments. My 16-year-old son's assignment was to be a dancer. His job was to invite people to dance, young and old, and teach them the basic steps.
My 13-year-old daughter's assignment was to play her violin in the band playing the tunes for the dancing. They were fiddle tunes played over and over. She made a great friend, playing the viola, from the very beginning.
The rest of our family was assigned to the stilts. This was a station next to the entrance, right by the bagpipes.
We got tons of people coming to our station and the trick was to keep everyone from getting hurt (miraculously no one did) and to teach them how to walk on the stilts. I tried to talk to the adults who were there with their children. And I tried to keep track of our youngest three children. This was tricky because they were not particularly interested in the stilts after the novelty wore off and they would wander off to other stations, especially my youngest. She ended up at the Lost Children station a couple of times that first night.
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| Everett with some of his new friends. |
We left on July 25 as soon as our daughter got home from girls' camp and my son got all his lawns mowed. It was a long day to North Platte, Nebraska, especially when we arrived at the hotel where we thought we had reservations, but we didn't and it was completely full. The county fair was that weekend so most hotels were full. Fortunately we found a spot not too far away to rest our weary bones.
The next day we drove to Pella, Iowa, with a brief stop at the Archway Museum near Kearney, Nebraska. It's a museum that spans I-80. You can look out the windows and see the freeway traffic passing right under you. It was moderately interesting but since we already knew a lot about the westward migration of the 19th century, we didn't learn that much. We did enjoy our encounter with a man dressed up as a genuine mountain man. That was fun.
On Sunday we attended church in Oskaloosa, Iowa. The ward was friendly and we enjoyed meeting some new people. There is a Quaker university in that town and the president of the college happens to be LDS and teaches Sunday School. After church we ate lunch and headed to Nauvoo. We checked in to our log cabin that we rented for the week, ate some dinner, and then headed to Nauvoo Jr. High School for registration and orientation.
At registration, we got our pictures taken for our ID badges, signed up for souvenir pictures, and then had a short orientation. They dismissed early so we could attend "Our Story Goes On" which is a special production put on by the core cast of about 20-22 people. We enjoyed it but we didn't stay for the entire thing because we had some things we needed to do and we were actually feeling chilly--pretty amazing for the end of July in Nauvoo, Illinois. They had a cooler summer this year so that was great.
The following day, Monday, we got our costumes, we learned our songs (only two), and we learned what our Country Fair assignments were going to be. That night was the dress rehearsal for the British pageant. We really enjoyed seeing it for the first time.
The following night was when the official pageant work began. We got in our costumes and had a district meeting with our district leader, Ben from Scotland. He was just 18 years old and did a great job as our district leader. We also loved hearing his accent.
After the cast meeting where we all said the Standard of Truth together, we went off to the Country Fair to meet the visitors and fulfill our assignments. My 16-year-old son's assignment was to be a dancer. His job was to invite people to dance, young and old, and teach them the basic steps.
My 13-year-old daughter's assignment was to play her violin in the band playing the tunes for the dancing. They were fiddle tunes played over and over. She made a great friend, playing the viola, from the very beginning.
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| In the background you can see my daughter talking to her friend during a break in playing |
The rest of our family was assigned to the stilts. This was a station next to the entrance, right by the bagpipes.
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| The bagpipes really added to the festive ambiance. |
We got tons of people coming to our station and the trick was to keep everyone from getting hurt (miraculously no one did) and to teach them how to walk on the stilts. I tried to talk to the adults who were there with their children. And I tried to keep track of our youngest three children. This was tricky because they were not particularly interested in the stilts after the novelty wore off and they would wander off to other stations, especially my youngest. She ended up at the Lost Children station a couple of times that first night.
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| Mindy is wearing a sock puppet on her hand, from one of the stations |
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| I love the flower beds in Nauvoo; they are very well done. |
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