Jordan goes to College at Utah State

Today we woke up early to finish getting Jordan packed up to head out to Utah State.  My baby is going away to College.  It was very sad for me to become an empty nester.  I know this will be a good thing for Jordan so that makes me happy.   Here are the pictures I took:

Education Week!

This week I attended Education Week at BYU.  It was wonderful.  I attended so many wonderful classes on a variety of subjects and felt I really was touched and inspired this week.  It makes me feel like I want to try harder to be a better person.  I got to spend some time with my mom and my friend Lynn and her mother.  I also saw other people I know including Julia Golding one of my earlier mentors in my life.  She will be turning 100 years old in two weeks.  She is an inspiration to us all. She was with Lorna her daughter.  It really has been a marvelous week!

Julia Golding

Nauvoo Trip--August 12th thru Aug 16th

           Well this week has been a very busy and crazy week for us.  Gary decided he wanted to take a quick road trip to Nauvoo to see the church sites.  This was kind of a spare of the moment trip because Gary felt that this would be one of the last trips before we had all our kids move out for college and life.  Gary also worked it out so we could take Dallan with us and pick him up in Kansas.  Wednesday we packed up the Motor-home and then we left on our way.   It was Kendra, Jordan, Gary and I for the first day.  We drove up through Price and when went threw Colorado.  Colorado is really a beautiful state just like this sign we saw.  It was so green and beautiful.  We made it past Denver Colorado for the first night. 

Denver Colorado

Unfortunately that night I woke up in a hot sweat and everything was spinning around.  I had a case of very bad Vertigo.  It was so bad I actually ended up throwing up and I could not really go back to sleep.  I was miserable.  I knew I was in trouble for the rest of the trip.  In the morning I still was not feeling good and tried to help fix the problem and started throwing up again.  It was going to be a very long day.  I sat up front the rest of the day so I could watch the road and try to help my nausea.  I had Gary give me a blessing because we had a lot planned and I needed to be able to be a part of it.   I never got my balance totally back but I was blessed to be able to go to the Nauvoo temple session and visit the sites without throwing up and getting dizzy. My children were life saver to me on this trip. We finally arrived in Kansas and picked up this good looking son of mine.  Evan happened to be with Gary that day in Kansas but they usually sell seperately.  Dallan took this funny Road trippin picture on our way to Nauvoo.  We saw some more interesting sites on the way.   We ran into this old couple who had stuffed animals on that back of their vehichle that looked like they were waving.  We passed them a few times on the road and at a gas station. 

Friday morning we went to Nauvoo.  We went to see Marie Mathis first at the Print shop.  She told us a lot of great information about the old print shop.  It sure made us appreciate what we have today.  It was a lot of work to make a letter or print anything back then.  It makes the Book of Mormon even more amazing to think about the work in printing the book.

My aunt Marie showed us the Print shop

My uncle Frank Mathis took us on a Carriage ride around Nauvoo.  It was wonderful to hear the stories of so many faithful saints and the sacrifices they made.  The history of our church is amazing.  Frank was a wonderful tour guide along with Elder Dalton. 

My uncle Frank took us on a carriage ride

Elder Mathis and Elder Dalton

We also enjoyed a session at the Nauvoo Temple.  I just loved this temple.  The celestial room was so beautiful.  I prayed to be able to make it without too much vertigo and I was actually able to complete a session without too many problems.  I really felt Heavenly Father was helping me today. 

Beautiful Nauvoo Temple

The rest of the day we spent visiting sites in Nauvoo, visiting little stores, and we had a wonderful dinner at an old fashioned hotel.  It was a great day.

In the evening we saw a fun play called "Rendevous in Old Nauvoo".  All the Senior missionary couples put on this play.  It was a lot of fun.  They danced and told the history of life in Nauvoo and the beginning of our church.  Marie and Frank Mathis were in the play. 

 After Nauvoo the next day we visited the Carthage Jail, Liberty Jail and Adam-Ondi-Ahman.  Both Jails are now owned by our church and they give wonderful tours.   We really had a spiritual experience learning more about the life of our prophet and everything he did to get the church up and running.  We had some missionaries who shared their testimonies of the prophet and the spirit was very strong.  It shows the power and example that the missionaries provide.  It really touched my heart.

Sitting in the room where Joseph Smith was shot

The window he fell out.

 

Below is Libery Jail where Joseph was kept locked up for a couple of months.  It was such a hard test of faith, but he also received some important revelation in the cell. 

 The last two places we vistied were Adam-Ondi-Ahman and Independence Missouri.  Then we dropped Dallan back off in Kansas and we all had a barbecue dinner with Evan.  Then we were on our long way home.