Road to Hanover: Day FIVE

DAY FIVE: Kansas City, MO to Nauvoo, IL


We were so glad to be able to spend the night with family yet another night.  The best part, other than the entire basement we had to ourselves without ANY windows {you heard it, I loved that part because my kids slept in sooo long}, was the fact that there were other children for our kids to play with that morning.  We stayed with Jesse's cousins: Nathan and Melissa and their three children.  They had two girls (slightly older than Miss M) and then two boys that were pretty close to R and E's age.  My children were so excited to have some friends to play with.  After some yummy waffles for breakfast, we went swimming at their community pool.  They happened to live just a few houses away from the swimming pool so we were able to just walk down to it.  Although we only stayed in the pool for maybe an hour, it was so nice to allow the kids to run around, play, laugh and pull some active energy out of them.  We stayed at their house until mid-day and then it was time to pack up again and head out.

J's cousin Melissa and their youngest son

R being silly in their family room

Cute little boys that quickly became buddies for the few hours we were there :)

  All the kids (except for Eli)

Their daughters were so cute and kept trying to climb in the car with us as we packed up to leave!

As we charted out our course for the day, it became apparent to me that today would be the day of the many states.  We went through four different states in a matter of hours as we flirted between the corners of each of those states: Missouri-Kansas-Missouri-Iowa-Illinois= exhausting!  We did make a few stops along the way which in turn broke up the drive just a bit more.  The first stop was about 45 minutes after we left in Independence, Missouri.  We went to the jail tour where they discussed Joseph Smith's incarceration in the 1800's. It was a great place to see and tour, other than the fact that the kids were seriously out of control.  Like running around during the tour and trying to take the poor missionaries remote {for sound and lighting} during the presentation out of control.  To our benefit we did warn her that we needed the kid-friendly version to which she smiled and then went right into the same spill that she gives to all tourists. After having such a difficult time at this stop we learned our lesson and the rest of breaks included picture taking, playing in a cornfield, learning how difficult it was to get on and off toll highways, many potty breaks/food breaks, and finding redboxes for new movies for our children. 

 Independence Missouri Jail Visitors Center

 Cool looking building in downtown Independence, MO

 More cat nap sleeping in the car by the kiddos :)

I especially love the one below of Maddie and Robby laying across each other to sleep!

Much of our drive involved cornfield after cornfield combined with rustic old barns, tractors, and other farm equipment.  The kids {okay, okay Jesse and I} loved looking for the large rolls of hay all packaged up and ready to sell.

 During one of our breaks, we ventured into someone's cornfield for awhile to let off some steam, or rather bring more of it in our car.  It was incredibly humid and the moment we stepped out of the car, it felt like we were hit with a warm, wet mist.  The kids enjoyed running through the fields and Jesse and I commented on how much we felt like we were on the movie set for "Signs." 

The funniest part was when someone pulled there car over and asked us for directions while we were playing.  We had to tell them we weren't from around the area and they replied "oh, I thought maybe you lived here."  Seriously, do we already look like small-townish? J/K

 Our little Cornfield "Princess"

I did love love love the signs they proudly display in Missouri for each of their little towns, so quaint!

(The signs were somewhat misleading however. We kept thinking we were hitting a "real" town only to discover that it consisted of a population <1,000 people)

Luckily it was a much shorter drive than usual and we arrived in Nauvoo, IL right at Sunset.  Jesse was so excited to capture a picture of the sunset along the Conneticut River and would pull over every few minutes to take another picture.  I thought others driving would think we were crazy, but sure enough there was a whole chain of us cars that pulled over every so often for the beautiful view.  

{in J's words: "Sunset on the Mississippi River. Without question one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen."----I can't agree more with him}

Soon enough we pulled into historic Nauvoo which brought a flood of emotions for us.  Last time we visited this pretty little town was nearly five years ago when I was big and pregnant with Robby. We spent 4 days perusing the streets, going through the temple, and drinking in our Church history.  This time experiencing Nauvoo was much different than the last, but the strong emotional pull we felt towards Nauvoo remains.  Our children enjoyed visiting Nauvoo and loved pointing up and showing us where the temple was.  After some picture taking, we headed to our hotel.  It turned out to be this really cool semi-out of town motel place.  We had our own little cabin that had one bedroom with a sleeper couch in the living room.  It even had a couple of television sets and a small kitchen with a dishwasher, microwave, sink set up.  That evening we relaxed and watched a new Redbox "Rango" with the children.  The one downside was the inadequacy of decent inexpensive food in the town.  We were tired and hungry when we arrived and just wanted to grab a cheap Little Caesar's style pizza for dinner.  J dropped us off at the motel and then went food scavenging.  He returned later with one tiny pizza in hand that was CRAZY EXPENSIVE and announced it was the only joint in town that was open after 8pm.  We munched on our pricey pizza and some snacks from the gas station while we enjoyed our movie.  Eli was an angel and slept in his pack and play in our room that evening.  It took a little bit o coercing from the parents to finally get Miss M and Robby to go to bed that night. J and I counted on the number of fingers how many more nights to go until we could permanently separate the two of them again at night :)

 My three prides and joy {Eli, Maddie, and Robby}

{Maddie wanted to show us how "strong" her muscles were when we didn't believe that she could pick up her other brother as well---see previous picture where she is "holding" E}

Nauvoo Temple