Frogley Summer Tour - Day 10

Day 10: Nauvoo, IL/Montrose, IA/Carthage, IL

Today we got up, got ready for church, ate breakfast in The Summer Kitchen here in the hotel, and headed off to church. I have never seen a single ward so huge. Thanks to the Nauvoo Pageant (which ended last night) and just summer crowds, the entire cultural hall was completely filled (as big as many Stake Conferences I have seen) as well as several “satellite” rooms. The passing of the sacrament was surprisingly quiet (except for our two youngest of course), but took FOREVER.

There was an entire “visitor’s primary” where all our kids went. Unfortunately, the kids said they were just kept in one room the entire time and it was super boring. There was no visitor’s nursery and visitors were not allowed in the regular nursery, so Ben and Matthew had to stay with us. Matthew was super grumpy and loud, so I took him to the mother’s lounge during Gospel Doctrine. He eventually nursed to sleep and I had a great chat with some of the mothers in there. As soon as I attempted to sit down in the combined third hour, Max woke up again and started screaming for milk. So, I spent the third hour in the mother’s lounge as well. During that time, Joseph got a bit out of control during the visitor’s primary and was taken to Dave.

After church we went back to our hotel and scrounged up enough food from our cooler & snack stores to count as lunch. Then we drove to Montrose and showed the kids where we believe Zarahemla was. Such a beautiful view of the temple across the river.

After Montrose was Carthage.

We were able to do the full tour of the jail, but it was super crowded.

Matthew was wide awake and super hungry and therefore super loud. Dave had to take him out of the bedroom so the rest of the tour group could hear the tour guide and an audio recording. We got some good pictures anyway.

When we got back to Nauvoo we went to the temple and got a picture of everyone in front of a sign, just like we got with Dave’s family 14 years ago. J

Then we took a short drive through old Nauvoo, and walked down the Trail of Hope. I was surprised to see just how many names I recognized and that we are related to.

The kids got tired and hot, and I was having some intense round ligament pain, so Dave went back by himself to get the car for us.

We made it back to the hotel around 6pm, scrounged more food for dinner, and let the kids watch BYU TV. Now we’re running a few loads of laundry in the guest coin-op and calling it an early night (hopefully).