Nauvoo

This is a bronzed sculpture of Joseph & Hyrum Smith on their last ride out of Nauvoo before their martyrdom

This past week, we spent in Nauvoo, Illinois as part of the family cast for the Nauvoo pageant.  It was SO awesome!  It way exceeded our expectations.  We were all spiritually fed all week and enjoyed the companionship of our family and cast members as well as time during the day to explore Nauvoo with more members of our family who joined us the last few days we were there.  My sister, Candace, and her family were also part of our cast which was really neat.  Also, my parents, Alex, Colton, and Kadie(our niece & nephew) were part of the two week green cast which overlapped our cast the last week.  They got to be in the full production.  Our cast's main responsibilities were to run the frontier country fair which is a fair-type atmosphere where all types of pioneer games are played.  It takes place about 1 1/2 hours before the pageant begins each night.  We also were part of the pageant finale.  We got to watch the pageant each night and then participate in the finale.  It was such a neat experience.  Alex told his grandpa that it was one of the best experiences of his life.  Sunday on the way home, we asked the kids if they would be interested in doing the pageant again next year.  They all responded "yes" and that they would like to do the full two-week cast next year.  We'll have to see, but Eric and I would both enjoy doing it again too.  We got a CD of the music when we left and the kids all wanted to listen to it on the way home.  They loved it!

The only downfalls of the week were our accomodations (which weren't great but convenient), bugs, heat, and several of us ended up sick the day before we came home.  We were fortunate to only have one very hot day in full costume though.  The rest were quite pleasant temperatures.  The positives far outweighed the negatives in the end.  I took so many pictures that I don't even know where to begin.  I think I will divide it into Frontier Country Fair, Pageant, Temple, Carthage, and Day Activities