Pioneer Week

As i said before in a previous post, Pioneer Day is my favorite holiday. So, our family turned it into kind of a week of celebrating these amazing pioneers. Last Monday we had a very fun FHE pioneer party with several of our good friends here. We put out the pioneer quilt, plugged in our "cold fire" (built with logs, a fan, some light bulbs and tissue paper) and told pioneer stories. Outside we had games for the kids, kid and adult crafts, and a mini covered wagon for the kids to pull around and even ride in. We served cobbler from the dutch oven, homemade ice cream and whole wheat rolls with hand shook butter. The ice cream turned out more like a raspberry milkshake but our sweet friends were kind enough to eat it anyway. We really had a fun night and i felt a little more connected to my Utah home.
Then on Thursday we set off on another adventure. As soon as Nate got home from work we started driving to Nauvoo, IL. It was quite an exciting adventure trying to get there. We hit a big storm just outside of Kansas City. Long story short - We ended up turning around at 1:00 am to find a detour as we did not feel safe driving through water up to door handles. Thanks to our trusty and cheerful dad we made it to Nauvoo safe and dry. We had a wonderful time there. We enjoyed seeing all the historic sites and shops, and learned alot about pioneer life. The kids collected many souvenirs like a rope that they helped make, a Nauvoo brick, self-braided rag ropes, prairie diamond rings, and a piece of wood branded with a picture of the Nauvoo temple. We got to see the pageant and enjoyed many of the pre-show activities. I even got to tie a few stitches on a quilt which made me feel at home and gave me lots of joy. I got to see a second cousin who is on her mission in the area and some family friends from Salt Lake were performing in the pageant. We loved seeing the re-built temple and being so close to it day and night. It is amazing. I was reminded of the remarkable strength our temple covenants can and should give us.
To make all of this even better we got to share it with our wonderful cousins, Kristin and Sarah. They are working at a shop there for the summer. It was so good to see them. They kept our kids entertained, fed us amazing breakfasts (french toast with "preview to paradise syrup" and special whipped topping, SOO YUMMY!), arranged for us to stay our first night in a beautiful hotel room, took us on walks to special places, and were just generally wonderful to talk to and be with. We are so glad we made it to Nauvoo while they were there. Thank you for everything, you two.
I love and admire the pioneers. I am constantly amazed by their faith and courage and unfaltering obedience to the prophets of God. They are truly an inspiration to me of cheerfully doing all that we are asked to do and trusting that God will take care of everything. I am grateful we were able to celebrate and remember them and i pray that i will be able to imitate, in some way, their inspiring qualities.