History

Tonight we had a fun family home evening. Mom sent me this link to Family Search - which has tons of activities that introduce families to the fun of family history. It's called the 'Summer of Sleuthing'. Tonight we learned about one of our ancestors - John Joshua Tanner. We just returned from Nauvoo and Winter Quarters this week - and it was fun to learn about him having just returned from the areas that he lived. The kids each had their 'sleuthing' magnifying glass and we went on a search for various items and pictures around the house while we learned about his life. This kids found a picture of the Kirtland temple with a bunch of coins and we talked about John Joshua's father who helped pay for the temple. The kids then found a bunch of seeds and we learned that the Tanner family stayed in Winter Quarters for several years to plant seeds and raise animals to help others who were traveling through. It's so fun to learn about our ancestors, and having enjoyed a week of history in Nauvoo and Missouri - these stories are seen in a whole new light for me. Allison is our self-appointed activity and treat chairperson. Every week for family home evening - she drags a chair into our closet - pulls out a bunch of friend magazines from the magazine boxes and flips through them until she finds a suitable activity. This week she found a Christmas tree wordsearch which we did together as a family. She chose ice cream as our treat.

Nauvoo is something else. It is a whole city of living history. What a joy it was to be immersed in it for a few days. Here are some pictures . . .

We got up bright and early one morning to go on a handcart trek. We confidently took out two handcarts - thinking it would be no sweat with the 6 of us . . . but we soon realized it wasn't quite as easy as we thought. Our plan of having the kids sit in the carts did not go over well. Carter refused and Alli let us know that she did not like the bumpiness. Emilyn and Camilla were true pioneers though. They didn't complain much . . . and in fact - Emilyn added her own level of authenicity by trekking through the fields shoeless.

Cute Camilla! I don't get to see my nieces very often and it was such a treat to be with them for a few days. Camilla is such a charmer. Everytime I would look at her, she'd give a coy little smile and snuggle shyly into her Mom.
Anthony's Aunt and Uncle are serving in the Nauvoo temple and they were kind enough to have us over for cookies and ice cream while we were there. They recently served in Russia and were able to give Tanner some advice as he's heading there on his mission in a few weeks. Joan served the most delicious ice cream. She said she combined equal parts of pinapple sherbet and vanilla ice cream - and then added fresh strawberries, bananas, and crushed pineapple. Yummy!
The favorite part of the trip for the kids was the pioneer park. Alli and Emilyn dressed up as pioneers and played in the pioneer house. Carter loved 9-pins and the ball games while the adults enjoyed some stilt and hoop races and graces. This was one of my favorite spots as well. It took me back to the time of doing tours through the one-room school house in North Logan - where we would play all of these pioneer games.
This is the end of Parley Street as it reaches the Mississippi River. We were able to witness Tanner's amazing rock jumping skills.

I was a little nervous about holding on to the oxen's horns. The tour guide told me it was safer to hold on to the horns rather than just stand there - so that I would know if he started to shake his head toward me. That wasn't very comforting.

On our way out to Nauvoo we stopped in Winter Quarters. This is a picture of the Winter Quarters temple.