Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo

Debbie came to visit last week! Yahoo! Debbie is one of my favorite people in the world. We met 7 years ago when we both did the BYU semester in Nauvoo program. One of our first nights in Nauvoo we were having a little dance party, when the song "I Will Survive" came on we both went crazy dancing away. I realized right away we had a lot of quirky similarities and quickly found out we were kindred spirits! We were roommates at BYU, and until this year have lived in Utah. This past summer we both moved away. She is living in Seattle now and I miss having her around!

We have been to Nauvoo together 3 times now since finishing the semester there. Once for the Open House of the temple and then again 2 years ago for Debbie's wedding. Since I am only 4 hours from Nauvoo we had to make a trip back!

Nauvoo was beautiful! I loved the fall leaves. There is such an amazing Spirit in Nauvoo that is totally unique to that place.

The first night we were there we had a chance to go to "Rendezvous," a musical play put on by the senior missionaries. It is always a highlight of the trip to see them sing and dance.

We both had a chance to go to the temple which was amazing! We were in Nauvoo when the temple was under construction. As we drove into Nauvoo along the Mississippi River the temple all of the sudden just pops out! It is an awesome sight (especially to remember that is was originally built in 1841, what an incredible building that would have been back then)!

This is the view across the street from the temple. It is a statue of Joseph and Hyrum Smith that represents their last view of Nauvoo as they rode to Carthage where they were murdered. I love the view of beautiful Nauvoo and the Mississippi River.

Our visit to Carthage Jail.

This is a picture of Ethan in the John Taylor home. I absolutely love this picture because of the story it represents.

When the early members of the church were driven out of Nauvoo they couldn't take much with them. They left behind their homes and most of their furnishings. A few days into the trip John Taylor's 8 year old son wouldn't stop crying because he missed his little rocking horse that was left behind. John Taylor risked his life and rode back on his horse several days in the cold winter weather to retrieve his little rocking horse for his son. The little horse rode on the covered wagon all of the way to Utah. It was kept in the family and eventually returned to Nauvoo. This is the actual little horse. I think this story is so sweet and shows such a tender parent.


We were lucky to be there for the Nauvoo Halloween Festival. There were 300 carved pumpkins lining the street. We remembered helping carve those pumpkins the year we were there.

The Des Moines River Valley Train Ride.

All in all it was such a fun trip! Debbie and I stayed up way too late every night talking, laughing and remembering the old days!

Ethan was such a little trooper for all of the traveling. He is such a good baby!

I think this is the look he gave me quite frequently thoughout the trip...

"my Mom's gone crazy!"