Nauvoo--Day 3

Friday morning began with a trip to the temple. (Forgive the cloudiness--coming out of the nice air-conditioned temple to 98 degrees with 95% humidity clouded the lens)

The temple was beautiful, made even more so by the fact that it was built as near to the original as possible. And Kenny, in true Kenny fashion, managed to find a hallway with Joseph Smith's old sword hanging on display and ushered us all down it as we were exiting.



We visited Jonathan Browning's house, the gunmaker whose son designed the first-ever machine gun...

and my Great-great-great-etc. Grandpa's house.

We also visited Carthage Jail, where the prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were martyred on June 27, 1844.

 It was a remarkable experience--I highly recommend it to everyone, member and non. To see what the early Saints saw and to understand what they truly treasured were the highlights of the trip, and to know that we are the continuation of that history is all the better. I'm sure the Saints are proud to see the incredible impact their sacrifices have had on the church and their descendants.

Nauvoo--Day 2

Having forced the two girls to sit still far too often the day before, the morning of Day 2 was spent playing pioneer games--although it's hard to say who enjoyed it more, us or the girls.

The highlight of the place were the stilts

which Kenny could never quite master as well as the self-proclaimed

Stilty Queen!



Afterwards, we took a walk towards the Mississippi along the Trail of Hope, the path the Saints took on their way out of Nauvoo.

It is something you'll have to experience for yourself--I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it would have been to leave the city they built out of the swamp and their beloved temple for the desert and uncertainty that was awaiting for them in Utah. Luckily, they would make the desert bloom, too.

Nauvoo--Day 1

Although it may not seem like it, I'm actually getting better at posting! After our trip to Mexico it took almost two months to get the blog up; I've managed to cut that time in half!

At the end of June we drove the surprisingly long five hours out to Nauvoo to meet up with Grandma Jackie, Kenny's parents, Emily, Afton, Summer, and Uncle Mark and his family. Tyler, Kenny's cousin, is currently serving a performing mission in Nauvoo with about twenty other young men and women and gets to do show after show after show all day long!

We did get some fun pictures of Tyler and the rest of the cast actually singing, but as they are actually singing they are not the most flattering.

 



This fine looking young fellow on the left is Kenny's cousin Chase.

Tyler with his parents.

Our first full day there was spent exploring a lot of the town, with a stroll around the temple grounds...

(accompanied by the two cutest neices I've ever seen)



a wagon and a carriage ride around town...

complete with the girls meeting the horses...

and, at the end of the day, some much-needed naps.



The Land of Potatoes

A few weekends ago, while Kenny was elbow-deep in his books and not very good company, I escaped out to visit my mom and Colton and see the new monstrosity that is their house. I forgot to take many good pictures of it, but I did get a picture of Colton and his cousins showering in the "water park", as they have come to refer to the master bathroom.

While there, I got to see Colton play some of his baseball games and got to try out different shutter speeds on  my camera for some fun action shots. Colton and his team are doing very well, and Colton, being the slugger that he is, has hit a few home runs already this season.



Grandma and Grandpa Whitt, the Kelseys (my mom's youngest sister and her family), and their new dogs also paid us a visit. And although the three Kelsey boys and Colton will always be adorable, I'm afraid the two new hounds stole the show. Their grand entrance, however, was a little anti-climactic, as when they first arrived they refused to walk anywhere and had to be carried. Nate was very proud of this fact, as apparently he did extensive research beforehand and found the slowest, laziest, and most lethargic dogs he could. And here they are--Copper and Major, respectively. 

The perfect dogs for Carter, Jake, and McKay (aka "the duck", courtesy of Kenny), while being wrestled and poked and pulled, they might once in a while emit a low growl, but have never resisted or fought back. And during small skirmishes with each other, they will soon flop sideways onto the ground and bark from that position, since standing is just too much work sometimes. Even pulling on a leash does nothing; more than likely you will end up pulling them along by their necks, unless they are inclined to actually put forth a little effort.

It was a sad moment when I realized that my days of three-month summers in the land of potatoes were officially over.

All work and no play...

A few days ago, after the grueling business of finals was over, Kenny and a few of his friends decided to play some board games to celebrate. Now for anyone who has ever played board games with Kenny before, you know it is no laughing matter. And somehow, without fail, everyone who ever plays against him will eventually (usually sooner than later) decide that their chief objective is to make Kenny lose, even at the expense of their own victory.



I thought things might be different in a group of such similar men--loud, outspoken, opinionated--so watching them play was kind of like watching a group of four Kennies play. But alas, Kenny was still the target of everyone's Schadenfreude.

Pictured from left to right: Todd Itami, Jared Myers, Kenbuds, and Nathan Tanner.

The Return of Kemmelo

Before his escape out to warm Ecuador, Matto decided to brave the wintry winds of Chicago and come visit us. It gave us an excuse to get out and see some of the sights we should have been seeing since we moved in.

The Art Institute...

the spitting fountain...

the bean...

the traditional Chicago hot dog...

and last but not least, the Sears Tower.



(which is now named but rarely called the Willis Tower)



To end the weekend, we continued our grown-up Easter egg hunt tradition...

and the Young boys renewed their love of candy.

Day 4--The End of the World

Our final full day was spent in two places--both of which deserve a full day, for those of you who might follow in our footsteps.

Our first tour was in Coba, where we had a killer tour guide who was just a walking encyclopedia on Mayan culture and history. Much of the sight had trees and forests and it seemed much less well preserved or well restored than Chichen Itza.

This calendar originally started the 2012 doomsday hypothesis. According to our walking encyclopedia, a talented Mayan sculpture carved out the symbols for the years leading up to 2012 (it being the final one). Somewhere along the line, an archeaologist came along, looked at the calendar, and assumed it meant the end of the world.

The highlight of the sight was climbing the largest Mayan pyramid in the Yucatan. For those of you who are familiar with Kenny's love of heights, being at the top and climbing down was a little interesting. He also enjoyed being the "border police", ensuring that I didn't get too close while at the top.

The climb was a bit daunting...

...but the view from the top was spectacular.

This is what we saw on the way down (on our bums, sliding, no less). The stairs were quite steep and had no railings or safety nets on the sides, and the only support was an old, frayed rope trailing down the middle. In the US it would have been a lawsuit waiting to happen.

The really beautiful pictures came from Tulum, the only Mayan town to have been built on the shore. Unfortunately, walking into Tulum, I managed to stub my big toe and rip off a significant portion of the skin (being in flip-flops--probably not the wisest decision, as Kenny swiftly pointed out). A kind life guard patched me up with some frightening looking iodine and gauze that he rested on the floor before applying it to my open wound. But my toe is still intact and infection-free, so no harm done.

A little model of the entire site--note the wall surrounding the entire thing, another unique thing about Tulum.

Here's a little house at Tulum--the "town" itself was a merchant town, being on the sea. So there weren't as many inhabitants as some of the other ruin-sites.

The Mayans had some other equinox tricks up their sleeves--a small hole in the building allows the light to shine through when positioned correctly. So surprising, in fact, that most archaeologists didn't know it was there until it was happened upon accidentally. This particular building is also a typhoon warning, whistling if the wind picks up fast enough to bring on a storm. Still works, too.

We only had about an hour to explore Tulum, which is not nearly enough to really enjoy everything, but we did get to see the highlights.

Beautiful beach...

beautiful blue...

beautiful buildings...



wild turkeys?..

beautiful day.