Midwest Trip Day 5: Carthage & Nauvoo

On Friday the 4th, we decided it would be a good day to head out to Carthage Jail and do the tour there. We did have to take a little detour to Long John Silver's for Zuke and Alexander first, which was actually really yummy. It was the perfect day to go to Carthage, as it was pretty quiet there. We started out by watching a short film of the life of Joseph Smith. I was sitting next to Tyler, and it was so cool to hear his little comments to me. He was finally making the connections between all of the places that we had been seeing and all of the things we had been telling him. After the video, our tour guide took us into the jailhouse. I knew that the Spirit would be strong there, but I was not prepared for how strongly all of it would hit me. It was amazing to hear the stories of what happened there while sitting in the exact room that it happened in. It was an absolutely amazing experience.

After our afternoon at Carthage, and a long back roads drive back to the villa, we started getting ready for Cameron and Amanda's wedding dinner that night. It was being held at the National Park just outside of Nauvoo, and we were a bit nervous about it as it had been raining on and off that afternoon. After wiping down all the tables and benches and running to the store to buy some plastic tablecloths, it all seemed to work out just fine. The sky cleared up, and the previous rain helped to cool off the temps that afternoon. The dinner was a huge hit, and a nice way to relax before the wedding the next day. As soon as dinner was done, however, the clouds reappeared and started pouring rain. It made for an interesting time running wedding supplies back and forth between the villas that night, and made it a bit tough for me to spray the hydrangea for the bridal bouquet, but we made it all work.