We were arrived in Nauvoo the night of July 2nd, so we were there for Independence Day. It was great fun to spend the holiday with family, especially since July 4 is also my mom's birthday. We were there for an entire week, so we covered a lot of territory!
Nauvoo's events included a wagon ride around the entire historic village with a narrative about the various buildings and the people who built them. It was an excellent overview. We took the girls on a number of living history tours - a school, blacksmith and wagon shop, bakery, print shop, post office, and general store. We saw a music or theater performance every day. We had our own "flag raising" and reading on Independence Day - Sunny carried the flag and posted the Colors while her cousin SF called the Color Guard.
We spent A LOT of time at Pioneer Pastimes - an outdoor area with lots of 1840s-period toys and activities, and period clothes to dress up in. Twice while we were there, the touring Brass Band showed up and marched around the area with the kids, while playing their instruments, in a "parade." The kids had all been given metal pipes to hit together to add to the music. It was pretty impressive to watch a very tall (and big) tuba player maneuver himself and the tuba right through the middle of the log cabin playhouse and not miss a note.
Azalea with a pretend sheep at Pioneer Pastimes - she was so funny "talking" to it.
Pioneers! Birdie and Posy dressed up and in the playhouse.
Magnolia in pioneer clothes
Birdie and Posy lined up and ready to march with the brass band for the parade around Pioneer Pastimes.
Sunny (in the jeans shorts) on her way around the circle.
Lined up for our Independence Day flag raising! We had a Color Guard, said the Pledge of Allegiance, and Uncle J read a patriotic poem written by Grandma's father.
Birdie on the wagon ride around Nauvoo, borrowing Grandpa's hat.
Sunny and a lot of cousins (there were 14 kids) greeting and thanking the horses when we finished our wagon ride.
We went to an evening music performance on Independence Day - for the opening number, the children were invited to make hats, march around the ampitheater with the band, and wave flags for the patriotic music. It sounds cutsey and cheesy, but it was actually really cool and moving. Proud to be an American!
3 sisters and a cousin waiting for a performance to start in the Cultural Hall.
Sunny and her cousin SF got to lead the singing (with the puppets) before the children's play started.
Magnolia and her cousin AK meeting the lead of the children's play outside the theater. Message of the play - be yourself, and everyone has something unique to offer the world.
There is a "country fair" before the evening pageant performances, with games, toys, activities, and a big dance floor and old dances - really fun. The kids loved just spinning themselves dizzy at the side.
Sunny very absorbed in the puppet show, where she also received her own sock puppet to keep.
Birdie making the teddy bear fly! She pulled the ropes back and forth, and it moved up the lines to the top rail where they were tied off.
Grandpa and Grandma pulling our 5 kiddos in a handcart.
After the evening pageant with one of the actors - we had met her and her husband in church a couple of days before, so it was really fun to see them in the performance. "Hey! We know them!" They had come from England (they live in south London) specifically to be in the performances.
Family reunion over, next stop: Kirtland Ohio. When Joseph Smith and his small band of Mormons left New York due to persecution, they went to Kirtland Ohio, which is just outside of Cleveland. He and his family lived over the Newel K. Whitney store for some time before they were able to get their own home. This is the original store, in its original location - it has never been moved. The property around it has been bought by the Church and the road was moved so now this is a walking area all around it and the other original settlement buildings that we were able to tour. We also toured the Kirtland Temple, built by Joseph Smith but is now owned by a different church that was a break-off from the Mormons when Brigham Young moved everyone out to Utah. My parents were with us for the rest of the trip, which, well, was helpful.
Our last visit was to Palmyra NY, where Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ, received and translated the gold plates into the Book of Mormon, and started the Mormon Church. Every summer at the Hill Cumorah, where the plates had been located, there is a night-time performance depicting scenes from the Book of Mormon. The girls were completely absorbed in this pageant, even though it was late at night (they start at 9 pm, when it's dark). They liked it a lot more than either evening performance in Nauvoo, which I didn't expect. The morning after the pageant, we went back to the visitor's center and saw Joseph Smith's home (a replica cabin on the original site) and walked through the Sacred Grove. It was a nice end to our trip.
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