Monson Reunion 2013

In August my immediate family had a reunion in Nauvoo, IL. I flew into the Chicago airport where my sister Katie picked me up on her way from Michigan. The reunion officially started the next day (Wednesday), but due to work John couldn't fly out until Friday. We stayed at a big house about 15 minutes south of Nauvoo and experienced our first reunion with babies! We found out that babies significantly change the pace of a reunion.

Wednesday: Clark, Janelle, Crystal, Josh, and baby Ben drove in from Texas. We tricked them by telling them we rented paddle boats and part of our Monson Olympics was paddle boating across the Mississippi, which would be insanely hard by the way. Clark was actually disappointed that it was all a joke.

Thursday: We got up early and went to the Nauvoo Temple. It was so beautiful! The last time I was in Nauvoo was for a family reunion 15 years ago before the temple was built. I love going to the temple with family. It just makes it that much better.

After the temple and lunch we toured all the Joseph Smith historical sites like the Nauvoo House, the Log Cabin, the Nauvoo Mansion, and the Red Brick Store. That night we saw "Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo," which is a treasure of a play put on by the senior missionaries.

Friday: We saw almost every thing there is to see in Nauvoo. We basically had the town to ourselves because school was starting for everyone else. I liked the tin shop and the old homes the best.

Calvin Pendleton is John's 3rd great grandpa, I think.

We also walked down Parley Street, which is the street where the Nauvoo exodus happened. It leads right down to the river. As you walk down the street there are plaques along the way with different journal excerpts from pioneers about leaving behind their beautiful city. As you walk down the street you can see the temple above the trees when you turn around.

I can't imagine how hard it was to leave their nice homes that they barely lived in and to leave their beautiful temple that they had just completed. That walk down Parley Street was probably my favorite part about Nauvoo because I got to see Nauvoo through the pioneers' eyes.

Saturday: John was supposed to fly in Friday night but because of a bad accident in Boston traffic he missed his flight. He was in traffic for 3 hours. He flew to Detroit that night, but his flight to Peoria, IL wasn't until Saturday morning. I found him a cheap hotel in Detroit, which I guess was one of the sketchiest places he's ever been. He was worried about bed bugs the whole night (luckily he didn't get them) and there was a drug deal or something right outside his room @ 2:30 in the morning. He just heard lots of yelling and was waiting for the gunshots. He finally made it to reunion safe and sound.

Saturday we went to Hannibal, MO which is where Mark Twain grew up. We toured his childhood home, and his friend's house that inspired Huck Finn. Then we went on a riverboat tour.

Photobombers!

The white house is Mark Twain's.

Ben and Tommy in their Hawaii outfits. They switched shorts.

When I see Tommy's face all I can think of is "happy step child." If you don't know what I'm talking about go watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9L9A1IMTQo

I just realized I didn't take any pictures of baby Pace. Oops.

Ben is a funny boy. 

This is not the boat we took our tour on. This was some fancy riverboat cruise. It was massive!

Sunday: Church and then onto Carthage. As we drove to Carthage Clark was leading the way, my parents behind him, John, Crystal, and I in third. Clark signaled and turned left and my dad went straight. We didn't know what to do so we followed Clark down a small road with corn on either side. Jake followed my parents and went straight. It was very confusing. Clark started flipping around on the corn road and I expected him to tell us what was going on, except all we got was Josh yelling out the window, "YOLO!" Clark was on his phone and drove off leaving us on the corn country road. We flipped around and made it to Carthage on our own. I was annoyed and mad at the time, but now I just laugh when I think of Josh yelling, "YOLO."

Carthage Jail was good. Sad, but good. After the tour Crystal, Janelle, and Ben had to fly back to Texas. The rest of us left the next day. It was a fun reunion filled with corn hole, mafia, and the entire family teasing me about my room being haunted by "Melissa," a creepy painting of some little girl in the dining room. I'm excited for the upcoming years when grandkids will get older and there will be more of them. I'm excited for my kids to make memories with their cousins at reunion just like I did. Family is great.