Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Nauvoo Reunion for the Farnsworths

We just had a big family reunion in Nauvoo, Illinois. We all stayed in the same hotel, but every family had their own room, some one room some 2 room and some had 3 bedrooms. 4 of the families had full kitchens and the other 3 had a refrigerator and a microwave. We spent a lot of time running up and down the halls, visiting each other. We played card games, swam together in the pool, ate at the buffet together, and they were probably relieved to see us go, (and leave a chunk of our money there), I loved it. I only took a few pictures because I usually forgot to take my camera and I was busy with grandkids, so here they are.

The first day we were all together we took a covered wagon pulled by 2 horses all around Nauvoo for a narrated overview. You have to pick up tickets first thing in the morning. We had so many people in our group that we completely filled one wagonload.

 In the picture above is Allen, Heber, my oldest, Rebecca, my second child, Aaron, and Samuel.

We went early (9:30 AM) while it was still cool and had a great start to sight seeing.
Here are the backs of some other of our family members from the left. Kristina, Kelton , Joey, James, Katylin, and Kriston. Kriston is holding the map of Nauvoo as we go around and they explain everything we are seeing.

Laura, my 4th child, and Kimberly, looking intently at something while Ashley, holding Kendra, looks at the camera.

This is really a nice way to see Nauvoo, we all stay together, no one gets behind or tired, and we all learn lots.

Things look really interesting. This is Natalie, Stephanie, Debbie, married to Heber, Mike, married to Laura, and Hyrum.                                The shaded wagon is really a comfortable way to travel.

Laura, my 4th child, with her daughter Cami, and then Kimberly and Rachael.

  Archie holding Simeon 


                                                           Mike and his daughter, Hayley.

Isn't that a beautiful view of the rebuilt Nauvoo Temple ! It dominates as it sits over everything and can be seen from most places where the trees don't obscure your view. Everything there is beautiful, manicured lawns, clean though narrow asphalted roads, nice landscaping.


This is Cami again, wearing a t-shirt from an earlier Richardson Reunion.


You can see how lush and green everything is. There is some good in all that humidity.

This is all the pictures I got before the narrator, whom you can see just a part of over Mike's shoulder in the picture above, said that for safety's sake I had to sit down while the wagon was moving.

This is also the only time I thought to bring my camera. So there are many family members who are not in the pictures. We did lots of things but you will have to see it on my other family member's blogs. I am nagging them to post, Kristina has already done one post, and I decided it was better to be an example than nag.

We did have a wonderful, relaxed, fun, entertaining, educational time. The mosquitos weren't bad and the fireflies were wonderful. We swam, saw musical productions, displays, visitor's centers, Carthage, Pioneer Pasttimes (games pioneer kids played) The family living center which demonstrates and lets you handle and do pioneer crafts, ate together, visited, talked, played, and everything else we could do.

For further information, check out my children's blogs, coming soon.

2 comments:

Marsha said...

You guys are such great parents and grandparents. It looked like a wonderful time together!

Kimberley Griffiths Little said...

Wow, what a wonderful trip! I loved seeing the pictures and I love your blog, Jackie! Thank you for all your love and support to me, too. :-)