Busy Season! Nauvoo and British Pageants are in full swing, Sunset by the Mississippi, Mission Training, District Meetings, Temple trips, Lots and Lots of wonderful Visitors!!  How are we doing all this! The Lord must have angels holding us up!  We are always smiling (when we're not yawning) ha!

We have been
privileged to work together at the
Ox Wagon and the Horse drawn Wagon several times.

We've seen lots of people we know and people who know our family!  Such fun!  One of the best was when Paula, Ariel, Jon and Maple came for 3 wonderful days!  Jon was taking an 8 hr exam in Chicago so they came early and we played!  While they were here we were

visiting the Community of Christ sites for our first time  (Our Church has a wonderful working relationship with their Church).  

 While leaving Joseph & Emma's first log cabin in Nauvoo rain started falling and the wind started blowing.  But as we reached the door of the Mansion House it was a wild ferocious gale of pelting sheets of rain and howling wind. Whew!

We were all inside when suddenly the siren sounded warning us to go to a basement for shelter, tree limbs started crashing to the earth, huge trees tumbled to ground and the lights went out!  Our guide said the house has no basement and we needed to stay where we were.

The rumble of the wind eased and died  down and the rain seemed a little easier.   Elder Thurgood decided it was time to get us all home and ran 200 yards through the sheets of  rain to get our car so Sis Thurgood wouldn't get wet! He was drenched to the skin!
 Paula, Ariel & Jon had their car across the street and they followed us home.

 

Everywhere we went were limbs and fallen trees!  We thought we might have to move a tree off the road, and as we started along the Mississippi to our home we came to a dead stop.  A huge tree was laying across the road.  Even Jon couldn't help Kent move it!  So we turned around and drove to Carthage.

Carthage bullet hole in door

Steve texted Ariel that the worst storm in the US was headed towards Carthage!  We wondered if we'd make it.  One huge tree was down next to the road and a smashed car next to it was being loaded onto a wrecker.  It was quite the scene!  After a nice Mexican dinner with the Julander's, they gave us a private tour of Carthage after hours!  It was AWESOME!

 So worth the trip! 


Approaching our home later that night we were happy to see that the tree on our road was moved,
but 500 yards from our house was a firetruck with lights whirling. Two other trees had fallen on two power lines and the area was blocked off and we were without lights.  We turned around again and drove 12 miles around to a back road to our dark house and went to bed by flashlight.

What an adventure!  When Dallin came we sat in the dark and watched the lightening all up and down the Mississippi, when Tisha & Jerrica came we were flooded & unable to get to their Amtrak ride home or our house along the river for a few days!  I wonder what will happen when the Hinton's get here tomorrow!  ha! ha!  Isn't life exciting!

Sunset by the Mississippi Cowboy Kent

Paul, Ariel & Maple with Lucy Mack Smith

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