Carl and Tiona

A couple weeks ago, we had to opportunity to go, once again, to Nauvoo. It made Carl jealous: while he was on his mission, his mom never came to see him, but has seen Travis twice on his 3 month mission!

Anywho, the singles ward (yes, you read that right) planned a trip up to the Nauvoo Pageant and because Arlyn and Colleen are a part of the singles ward and so, by extension, we are to, we decided to go with them.

We left on Friday after a test Carl had and drove the 8 hours to Nauvoo. There's no direct route, so we enjoyed miles and miles of corn. And soybeans. At least I think it was soybeans.

We got there a little bit before the pageant. It was kind of fun. They had set up the whole block with games and activities to do before the pageant. That's free. That automatically makes this pageant better than the Manti pageant. :) Of course, along with all the fun and games, this pageant was complete with anti-Mormon protestors. But honestly, would it be a good LDS event without them?

Of course, my of-so-friendly husband talked to the protestors. And talked. And got their tract. And then laughed at their tract afterwards. I wandered around while he engaged the protestors in uplifting conversation.

Before the pageant started, we found my friend David Smith in the lighting booth. He lived not very far from me as I was growing up and, although he's a few years older than me, we were good friends. He was designing the lighting for the pageant. It was nice to catch up with him.

The pageant was, of course, wonderful. It was about Joseph Smith and Nauvoo. It's nice to have a reminder about how much the pioneers sacrificed to get us here today. They turned off the outside lights on the Temple until the very end, then lit it up twice as bright. It was beautiful!

The next day, we drove around Keokuk for a little bit. We found an old bridge that we wanted to go look at. When we got back in the car, the car didn't want to turn on. We tried and tried. We turned off the lights, unplugged the GPS and iPod, and finally got the car to turn on. And then we promptly drove to Ace to get a new battery.

On Saturday, we mostly wandered around with Trav and his companion. They know all the good spots in Nauvoo now, so it was nice. At 4, we had an appointment at the temple to do baptisms with the singles ward. It took forever! We had a big group, so it took about 2 hours to be completely done. It was nice, though. I haven't done baptisms forever and was able to do some family names from Carl's side of the family.

For dinner, we went to Hotel Nauvoo. It is delicious! If you're going to be in Nauvoo, go there for dinner. If it's busy, you might have to get a reservation. (we had to, because of the pageant.) It's a little bit pricey ($15 a person) but it is a wonderful buffet with the best food on a buffet!

The next day we headed home, but stopped at Ken's in Peoria. Michelle and the girls were in Utah, so we took pity on Ken and took him out to dinner. As we all piled in the Cherokee, once again, it wouldn't start. But worse than before. Wouldn't turn over, nothing. So we all piled in Ken's car and went to a Chinese buffet. It was good, but two buffets in as many days propably wasn't good for my diet....

After dinner, we decided that the starter was out on the Jeep and couldn't be fixed until tomorrow at the dealership. I should amend that-the boys decided the starter was out. It only took them a couple of hours in the heat while I stayed inside Ken's air-conditioned house and watched Cake Boss on TLC.

So, Arlyn, Carl, and I all piled in the Corolla and headed for home. We didn't get in too late, but we were excited to hit our beds. Unfortunately, Colleen ended up in Peorio until Tuesday waiting for her car to get fixed.

It was fun going to the pageant; I've never done that before. Seeing Nauvoo is always fun and I'm glad I live so close I can go a couple times a year!