Winter Quarters and Nauvoo

Church history part of our trip begins:

First stop - Winter Quarters, Nebraska

Second stop: Nauvoo, Illinois

Austin's parents have been in Nauvoo serving an 18-month mission. When we were there, they only had 6 weeks to go.  They were great missionaries and I am so glad we go to go and see them in action. Nauvoo is an amazing place. We were charmed with the perfect weather - not too hot or humid.

 Elder Nunn is the site manager for the Barn.  They take care of all of the horses they use to pull the wagons and carriages.  We got to go on a wagon ride with Grandpa as the narrator and a carriage ride with Grandma as the narrator. We loved hearing their comments and testimonies of Nauvoo.

Who knew they were also great actors, singers and dancers?  The missionaries perform in Rendezvous and Sunset on the Mississippi. We also LOVED seeing the young performing missionaries performing plays and vignettes. During one of the first plays with the young missionaries, Austin kept recognizing kids he had taught in school in Utah. It was fun to be able to talk to them. They were surprised to see Mr. Nunn.
We also LOVED the Nauvoo Pageant.  It is worth going to Nauvoo in the summer to see.

Sister Nunn is a site leader at Lands and Records. You can go there and look up your ancestors who lived in Nauvoo and find out where they lived.

 We made it to most of the homes and sites of Nauvoo.  Lucy's favorite: Lucy Mack Smith house. Carly's favorite: Cultural Hall (because we danced upstairs).

 Jill and Hanna got to do baptisms for the dead in the Nauvoo Temple. Austin and I went with his parents through a session. We loved it.

Carly in the kids parade before Sunset on the Mississippi.

Carthage Jail is an amazing place and a big part of church history. We went on Sunday afternoon and so did a ton of other people. It was crowded, but we still felt the spirit of Joseph.

Nate and Malinda Nelson went on a cross country trip this summer, and we ended up in Nauvoo at the same time for a few hours.

Can you believe Malin hugged me? Only in Nauvoo.

This is what she really preferred - hand hug.

For some reason, Jill connected with Sister Zabetti at the Visitor's Center. If Jill ever goes on a mission, we will owe it to Sister Zabetti.

Summer Vacation - Wyoming and South Dakota

Ranchester, Wyoming - A Visit to Les & Hollis

*Jill had a great time doing photo shoots with Declan, McKensie, Taycee and Hattie

*We went swimming at the Sheridan Pool and had ice cream.

*The kids slept on the trampoline a few times.

*Hanna's favorite activity: smashing pennies on the railroad tracks.

*We went see Despicable Me 2 at the movie theater.

*Austin was a Padlock Ranch cowboy with Les.

*Nunn Olympics was held in their yard. Only one major bike race crash - that would be Jill.

*Some people brought a dog for us to see if we liked for us to have, but the first night the dog ran away. We never did find him.

*We doubled the church attendance at the Ranchester Branch on Sunday. Have you ever been to Relief Society that is held in the Bishop's Office and there were still empty seats?

Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore

 Crazy Horse is the start of a carving of a Native American on a horse. They have been working on it for decades, and it will probably take another 100 years to finish. But it is a cool story and fun to see.

Mt. Rushmore was very cool to see in person and it does make you proud to be an American.

We Don't Believe Summer = Relax

Happy Canada Day!

We went to the Raymond parade with the Lee cousins.  Then we spent the rest of the day at the Hill Spring Ranch Rodeo.  Austin, Jill, Rod Olsen and Wyatt Olsen were on a team. Jill did good for her first ever ranch rodeo.

Waterton
I was babysitting Peyton and Miles Murray so we decided to spend the day in Waterton.

Another Waterton hike with the Stake Relief Society. We hiked to Bertha Lake. It is quite a climb. These are my Leavitt hiking friends: me, Karen Bevans, Barb Salmon and Hali Leishman.

CAMPS
First Jill and Hanna went to girls camp. How many wards have a campground in their ward boundaries? Well, Leavitt Ward does, and the girls had an awesome survivor camp at Pitcher' Campground. Hanna sitting under the stars with Raven Beazer and Shaina Olsen laughing and watching the Northern Lights is what girls camp is made of.  They also loved the testimony meeting.

Next was basketball camp for Jill and Hanna.  They went to Cougar Camp in Cardston with Ken McMurray and Jeff Strang.  Jill was the One-on-One Champ and Hanna's team won the tournament and got Camp Champ medals.

Third week of camp = horse camp.  Austin taught horse camp to 14 kids at the Agridome. Lucy was in it this year and loved it. Austin is such a great teacher. The kids are mostly beginners and they all improved a lot in the week of camp.