Cross country trip to Connecticut

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from our cross country moving trip in June. We took a little over a week to get here. It was a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa Rowberry each taking some time to travel with us to some hot points along the way. To begin with, we spent a few days in Idaho Falls with Grandma Dalling and Kelly and her boys. It was great to see them, and of course enjoy some yummy ice cream from reeds dairy. Then we drove to
Mount Rushmore. It is truly amazing! unfortunately we don't have any pictures of the first part of our journey because our camera got sand in it on memorial day weekend and it still wasn't working correcrtly. It happened before, but after a few weeks started working again, so I was hoping it would be back to normal soon. Unfortunatley, that never happened. The night before we went to Nauvoo Justin broke down and bought us a new camera. So most of the pictures are from Nauvoo. After Mount Rushmore, we headed for Nauvoo. We got there on Friday night. It was a really neat learning experience. Between the two of us, justin and I actually have a lot of ancestors who lived there at one time or another. It was neat to visit some of there homes and read about them. Gilbert Belnap was one of those ancestors. There is a quote from his journal along the road the pioneers traveled while exiting Nauvoo. Since returning home, I found some papers my dad had put together and sent me years earlier depicting his live. It was really facinating to read a little more about his life. Times sure have changed is all I can say. Joseph and John standing by the Gilbert Belnap sign. He was a son in law to Vincent Knight, and was also with the prophet in Carthage before the martyrdom. He and a few others were sent back to Nauvoo just before the shootings. It said in the pamphlet I read about his life that every year on the anniverary of Joseph Smith's death at the exact hour he had been killed, gilbert would take an hour of silence out of respect for the prophet.

Joeseph, Nathan, Michelle, John and Samantha at the gravesite of the prophet Joseph Smith and Hyrum.

A bullet hole in the door to the prophet's room at Carthage.

John Stoker Rowberry pointing to the name of John Rowberry Sr. who was buried at the Nauvoo cemetary. It was neat to hear about him.

John and Joseph by the Gilbert Belnap sign. Sorry, didn't mean to get that in here twice and can't figure out how to delete it.

Gravesites of Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith. Lt to rt. Samantha, Joseph, Michelle, John and Nathan.

Children's band and parade in Nauvoo at the "Sunset on the River" show at night. After this show, the BYU young ambasadors performed. They were amazing! I was grouchy and tired and almost didn't go to the last show, but am so glad Justin took the kids for a few minutes so I could recharge. It was definately worth seeing. The best part though, was watching Samantha dance on the sidelines. She was in heaven. At the end we realized that one of the girls was my really good friend Valecia's sister. It was fun to talk to her for a few minutes after the show. It's such a small world.

Justin took the kids for a few hours to the pioneer village while Dad Rowberry and I searched for ancestors at the land and records office.

The kids waiting for the show "Just Plain anna Amanda to start" It was perfect for them. I still hear Michelle sing the theme song to it every once in awhile. It definately made an impression on her.

Samantha at the pioneer village.