Nauvoo the beautiful #2

 Warming, there are a few of these 'outtakes'.

 After Rendezvous show.

 Our bricks made it through the TSA checkpoint.  Fhew.

 Pioneer mouse trap.

 Me and my dead sister.

 Aw.  One of my favorites of Pammy and Jerome.

 Young Performing missionaries.  We stalked a few for my niece Kendall.

 Carthage window where Joseph Smith was shot.

 Door with bullet hole still there.

 This was where I lost my shoe in the mud.

 Tracy working on smiling only with your teeth.  Little too much eye. lol.

 We are weird.  We know.

 Women's Garden.

 We made signs for the Brass Band elders and sisters that read, "We Love Band Elders and Sisters".  After we held it up for them while they were playing before the pageant, I thought it would be cute for my mom and dad to hold up the signs.  I told my mom to do "I" in sign language.  Anyway after lots of laughing because they couldn't get what I was saying, we got some shots.

 The pageant has a ton of fun things for kids to do.  Here is the stick pull with the actor that played Joseph Smith.

 I had a skirt on or I would have tried it.  Tracy and Tricia had a go at it.

 We walked along the Trail of Hope while the Young Performing Missionaries acted out little stories.  You can see the temple in the background.

 Brigham Young

 This was the one we picked out for Kendall.  Plays guitar, sings, dances,  and has a goodly lower lip. :)

 My dad was at the Blacksmith shop so we had a personal tour with him.  It was awesome to have the whole place by ourselves.  The 'do' stands for ditto.

 A list of what the Saints were to bring across the plains.

 Clydesdale shoe, persheron (sp?) shoe, average horse shoe, donkey shoe.

 Cute daddy.

 Rocking horse that John Taylor went back to get for his little boy after they had already left and crossed the Mississippi.  Sweet story.

 Our oxen pair were Jesse and Owen.  Jesse doesn't like ladies, and so we stayed next to Owen.  Those metals balls keep the missionaries who work with the oxen safe.  Did you know there is no such thing as an oxen breed?  Oxen are really cows who meet four criteria.    Must be a male, have horns, be able to follow voice commands (Gee, Ha, Come up and Woah) and be 4 years old.  So Oxen are really just cows with skills. LOL.  Oxen were great for crossing the plains because Indians didn't steal them, they didn't require extra food because they just grazed, they were cheaper than horses, you didn't need to have reigns and kids could lead them by voice.  So much I didn't know.

 Another Vignette in the 70's Hall (or Nauvoo MTC).  Elder P. P. Pratt, Heber C. Kimball, Brigham Young and one more I can't remember.  Doh.

 Big Ol' hibiscus flowers.