Spring in Kentucky

Back in May we bought a 2005 Honda Odyssey (my new LOVE by the way) and took a short road trip to Kentucky to put it to the test. Our first stop was Louisville.  We arrived in the late afternoon and took a walk along the Ohio River.  The kids also had fun playing on a huge riverside playground - the equipment was built to mimic the shapes of the nearby bridges. 

We had dinner at a fun restaurant right on the riverbank.  There was live music, and a beautiful sunset to boot!  The water was really high (remember all the Midwest flooding last spring?) so the beach was just muddy... but the boys had fun throwing sticks and rocks into the water.  

 

The next day we spent the morning at Churchill Downs - home of the Kentucky Derby!  It wasn't a derby day, but there were some exciting races going on.  We all got a kick out of choosing our favorite horse and cheering it on.  We didn't place any bets, but I think we could have won some money just based on the boys choosing horses by the colors the jockeys were wearing =).

Photo op with "Churchill Charlie."  You can't see well in this picture, but I definitely had on my pearls and my wide brim hat for the occasion!  We got a nice rooftop view of the races after our meet and greet with him.  I felt bad for whomever was inside that horse, because it was HOT and HUMID that day!

When we couldn't stand the heat anymore, we packed up and drove to Lexington, KY.  We had a beautiful afternoon walk around the botanical gardens before crashing at our hotel. 

Eli and Owen re-enacting the horse races. 

 
The BEST sight of the day =).

The next morning we saw some of the scenic Lexington countryside and horse farms on our way to the Kentucky Horse Park.

 At the horse park, in addition to suffering heat stroke, we got an up close experience with some retired race horses, as well as a neat horse show with all sorts of different breeds.

Retired champion horse... don't remember his name though!

  The horse show was a lot of fun!

We finished the afternoon with a drive to the Shaker Village.  We didn't have enough time for a tour, but it was a beautiful spot!

Before our late night drive home, we stopped to see our friends the Prescotts.  We met them out here in Columbia our first year here.  They have since moved to Lexington, AND we have the great honor of renting their home here in Columbia =).  They have all girls, and our two boys had a blast jumping on the tramp and cooling down on the slip n' slide.  Here is a pic of Jenny and I.

 Overall, we really enjoyed Kentucky!  It's a beautiful state, in spite of the humidity =).  Everyone we met seemed to really embrace the idea of southern charm.  We hadn't had an interesting road trip in a while, so it was nice to hit the road again.  And I have to say, after all those years of touring the country in our tiny Saturn Ion, it was like HEAVEN to stretch out in the Odyssey! I'm not really a "van person," but I have definitely fallen for ours =).   

Winter Quarters and Council Bluffs

I've made it to the final post about our trip... and if you are still reading this blog, then I consider you the dearest of friends! Good timing too as we begin our move tomorrow... in the midst of Brad working on-call the entire 3 day holiday weekend. It seems like the major events of our lives always seem to clump together inconveniently... oh well. I think now if some transition was easy for us, we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves! Anyway, on to the good stuff...
On our drive home from Utah, we put in a long 15+ hour day and made it to Omaha to spend the night. Usually we'd cut down through Lincoln, NE instead of going out of our way through Omaha, but this time we wanted to tour the Winter Quarters Temple and visitor center, as well as Council Bluffs, Iowa - two important sites in early church history. It's been really neat to live so close to so many significant sites the past two years (New England and now the Midwest). As I mentioned in my previous post, we had just learned some history about Brad's great great great grandfather, George Washington Taggart who joined the church in it's early days. He lived in Nauvoo and helped build the Temple there. His first wife died, leaving him with an infant daughter, Eliza Anne Taggart (Goodrich), who Brad is descended from. We know that Eliza spent some time at Winter Quarters with her step mother (GWT remarried) while her father (GWT) was away serving with the Mormon Battalion. So, it was especially neat for us to visit a place, knowing our family connection to it. Here is a brief synopsis of the sites' significance as noted on lds.org:

"Witness a moment in the great "Mormon Migration." Explore a pioneer cabin, pull a handcart, and see what life was like for thousands of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who spent the winter of 1846 to 1847 in the encampment they called Winter Quarters. A short audiovisual presentation will teach you about the struggles and hardships they faced on their journey to the Salt Lake Valley. Visit the Mormon Pioneer Cemetery, where you can see the final resting place of more than 325 Saints who died at Winter Quarters from illness, hunger, and poor living conditions.

Persecuted for their beliefs and driven from their homes, the Latter-day Saints set out from Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1846. They were seeking Zion–a place where they could worship as they pleased. Their destination was Utah's Salt Lake Valley. Thousands of Saints crossed Iowa and encamped on both sides of the Missouri River, including the site of Winter Quarters, where they constructed hundreds of shelters. These temporary towns became safe havens for the Saints–a place to gather strength before resuming the trek west.

While in the area, visit the Kanesville Tabernacle across the river in Council Bluffs, Iowa. This is a replica of the log building where Brigham Young was sustained as the second prophet and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

Winter Quarters Temple, dedicated 2001

The Mormon Trail Center at Winter Quarters

Picture of the original Nauvoo Temple in Nauvoo, IL. It was destroyed by arson and a tornado. The current Nauvoo temple was rebuilt and dedicated in 2002. Brad's ancestor helped build the original.
Pioneer Cemetery at Winter Quarters

Kanesville Tabernacle replica in Council Bluffs, Iowa. As noted in the synopsis, Brigham Young was sustained here as the second Prophet and President of the church. Council Bluffs served as a headquarters of sorts for a few years after Winter Quarters was abandoned. It is also the place from which the Mormon Battalion was mustered (the Mormons, even after being chased from their own lands and robbed of their freedoms were asked to send 500 men in a battalion to march to California during the Mexican war). Though it was a difficult thing to ask these men to leave their families to make the trek west without them - and in most cases not to see them again for a year or more - the reimbursement they were able to send to their families was a blessing which enabled many of them to afford to make the trip. Many of the battalion played an important role in the early development of California as well... but enough with the history lesson.

Since Brad's ancestor (GWT) was one of the battalion, his name is inscribed on a plaque inside the visitor's center, along with the others of his company. He was a commissioned officer and played the fife apparently. It was really neat to see, but of course my camera died just in time so I didn't get a picture of the plaque. However, we did get an entire handout about GWT from the visitor's center that they had on file - it included a brief biography and picture of him! They have a little bit of information on each of the battalion members filed away for people who ask (mostly descendants of whoever).

Carthage

On the way home from Nauvoo, we included a stop at Carthage Jail in Carthage, IL - the place where the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered when an armed Mob with black painted faces stormed the jail. It was not uncommon for one or both of them to be jailed on false charges in an effort to stir up opposition or cause to expel them and the church body from the area. This was one such time - even the jailer took kindly to them, allowing them the use of the master bedroom rather than the jail cell. This particular time, Joseph seemed to sense his impending demise, and the thought of his final parting with his wife and children always brings me to tears.

The Jail House - literally a house. The Jailer and his family lived in it. One room had a barred cell and was called "the dungeon" even though it was on the second floor. Another room on the ground floor was equipped with a barred door and was called the "debtor's cell." The Dungeon Room

The Master bedroom where Joseph, Hyrum, and the 5 friends with them were allowed to stay. When armed mobbers stormed the jail, this is the window Joseph fell out of after being shot.

hThis would be the courtyard where he landed after he fell.


There remains a hole in the door from the bullet that killed Hyrum as he was leaning into the door, trying to keep it shut against the rushing mob.

I realize it may seem morbid to want to visit a place with bars and bullet holes where people were killed, but for me it is interesting to see a piece of history that has been preserved - a place that can bring these stories back to life. It is also a poignant reminder of how very blessed we are today to enjoy relative peace, freedom, and faith.... and how much has been sacrificed for us to be able to enjoy them.... we must never forget what these Pioneers gave; we must never cease to cherish the Truth and the Faith that has been preserved at great cost. For me, reconnecting with these places, these people, and these stories has inspired me to want to be a little better and try a little harder every day to find joy in my station, and to appreciate what I have been given.

Nauvoo Pt. 2

On Sunday morning in Nauvoo it was rainy and cold, so we all cuddled up and slept in.


We bundled up in our coats and drove to the Temple... the original Nauvoo Temple that was built by the pioneers burnt down in an arsonist's fire shortly after they started evacuating the city in the 1840's. Two years later the remains were leveled by a tornado. Reconstruction began in 1999 and it was dedicated in 2002.


As Joseph and Hyrum Smith made their final ride towards Carthage, IL (where they were ultimately murdered by a mob), they paused at the top of the bluff overlooking Nauvoo and the Mississippi River to look upon the unfinished Temple. The brass statue commemorating the moment is actually a very stirring sight - especially with the completed Temple there in view. It's a wonderful place to pause and reflect on how much our forbears sacrificed for their faith and freedom, and how blessed we are today because of them.


One of the original "sunstones" used in the construction of the Temple - hand carved out of limestone. Now on display at the visitor's center. We also went down to the edge of the Mississippi to see a replica of the wooden ferries that were used to get the wagons across during the exodus. Since they ended up starting the evacuation in February in order to avoid a rumored "civil war" because of the mob activity, a large group was actually able to walk right across the river when it froze over. The followers in the Spring and the years to come mainly crossed by ferry in this way. I don't know if I'd feel really safe loading all of my belongings onto it!


Of course all the boys wanted to do was throw rocks and sticks into the water, and get their Sunday pants muddy. It was FREEZING, but they didn't seem to mind. We had to bribe them with Reece's Pieces to get them back in the car.

We also took a look at the memorial set up at the river with 2000+ names of those who died on the journey West. It's possible there could be family names on there from Brad's side, so we'll have to look a little deeper into the family history and see who it was that made the trek.

Our final stop in Nauvoo was at the mission home to visit the Mission President and his wife. They are the parents of one of my long time best friends, though I haven't seen them in nearly 8 years. It had been a long weekend already, and my kids were pretty tearful and restless the whole visit. Oh well, that's how reunions are sometimes!