And so it begins....

The hardest part of starting a post about a long-ish trip is knowing where to start....well, that's actually pretty easy. I guess the REAL hardest part is deciding how to post and in what order. Or deciding which of the 500 pictures are worthy of posting! It's a toss up! Cause those of you who blog know uploading pictures to blogger is the biggest pain in the rear. Or is it just onery for me??

So....starting at the beginning....

We took a trip.

ha

kidding.

Well, not really, we actually did take a trip....

ANYWAY.

I was majorly impressed with Jax on the way to all our different destinations.
(little did I know he was saving it ALL up for the ride home)

He played, he cried, he ate, he drank (bottles...don't be silly)

He read....

Isn't this a hilarious picture? For serious. He loves looking at books, mostly they are upside down....but who cares at this point, right?

We drove the first night to Springfield and stayed a GREENSTAY. For serious, that was the name of the hotel. It was an Eco-Hotel. James booked this without my knowledge, and when we got there I was uber-impressed. Basically, they just had a fancy 1-flush 2-flush toilet....but it was cool all the same!

Jaxson decided he did not want to sleep in this awesome hotel....kept me up till 4am. Woot.

The next day we drove to Nauvoo.

For some of the trip we were on this Highway 61....named "Avenue of the Saints". I was all "Oh that's interesting, this is the way the Saints took when they were forced out of Missouri" but erm, no.

It's a highway connecting "the Saints" as in....Saint Louis and Saint Paul. Doh.

For those who have travelled to Nauvoo....you know there isn't a straight 4 lane highway that will get you there....it's a ton of po-dunk backroads{Highway H still gives me bad dreams!}. And along one of these roads, James noticed a sign for a ferry crossing across the Mississippi. We ventured over to see what that was all about.

And it was actually a FERRY! {I know, I know!!}

So...we got in line...

Then we were on a BOAT, y'all. {Well...a ferry, but tomato - tomato}
It was awesome, to use a totally inappropriate word for the situation.

Oh...and humid.

We used the GPS on James' phone to get us from point A to B on this trip.

And it was true to form....seeing that we are in the MIDDLE OF THE MISSISSIPPI in this picture!

{See that little blue dot/arrow/thingy? that's us, yo!}

After crossing the ferry....we ended up on a GRAVEL road.
{James remarks: if we were in Texas, I'd be scared right now}

Ummm...

I'm no history buff...but I was uber-excited for this trip, to be in a place where so many Saints lived! But not so much the driving part....so I was even more excited to see the sign that we were almost there. 

The amazing Mississippi!

It's an amazing sight.

And amazingly HUMID.

Yikes.

I kept thinking "wowza, how did the women pioneers wear petticoats, long skirts and sleeves in this durned humidity?!"



More to come!

Beautiful maidens! Daring swordfights! Rebels in disguise!

Errr....

Or

Just my awesomesauce family.

Yes...I just wrote awesomeSAUCE. Cause that's the only way to describe them! My dad's side of the family is full of well-bred, well-taught, well-loved people.