Historic Nauvoo

Details and pictures from a few of our adventures around

Historic Nauvoo (from our trip in mid-September)...

 

 Downtown Nauvoo

 

Of all the things to buy in Nauvoo, I bought fabric to make a cute Christmas apron (picture to come soon).

 

Yes, the Browning's (maker of Browning guns) was Mormon too!

 

 (Inside the Browning Gunsmith Shop)

 

 The Brick Yard-Old Nauvoo

The Brick yard was my favorite tour as they teach you the techniques of how they made the bricks over 160 years ago. I am not sure if it was because of my field of study or that I am simple minded but I was so fascinated by the whole process. It was such an elaborate task for what seams like such a simple object. Not to mention they give you a replica of the bricks made in Old Nauvoo around the 1840's.

 

The upper meeting room of the Red Brick Store

(Where the Relief Society was organized)

 

Joseph Smith's Home in Nauvoo

 

The Nauvoo Temple

After the saints were driven from their homes in Nauvoo, the temple was vacated. Eventually the structure was partially destroyed by arson's and a Tornado. The temple was rebuilt in 2002. For more information, click here.

 

 The Turtles on the Mississippi

One afternoon we were able to walk along the banks of the Mississippi river. Almost every piece of driftwood that was found in the river was literally covered in turtles. I wanted to get a picture so bad, but every time I got within 200 feet of a log the turtles would all go barreling into the water. I finally sat very still and quiet, as close to one log as I could get...and eventually, three measly turtles climbed back on the log. It's not quite the same effect as them all piled on there, but it's the best that I could get!

 

Sunset on the Mississippi

One evening as we were leaving Nauvoo (which is right on the banks of the Mississippi river) headed back to the hotel, we caught a glimpse of a gorgeous sunset over the Mississippi. We were short on time and couldn't stop, but I simply couldn't resist capturing it's beauty. I rolled down my window, put the camera strap around my neck (to avoid potential disaster), and snapped as many shots as I could in hopes that I would get a few decent ones. Every time there was a break in the tree's I would take a few images. There were several images with a flash of a tree or a branch of leaves smeared across the sunset, but I was able to capture a few shots. The result is the image above.

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I couldn't resist....

I just finished editing some more of Cynthia's wedding/reception images and I just couldn't resist sharing a few more...

 

 

 

 

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Cynthia's Wedding in Nauvoo

 In mid-September Dave and I had the opportunity to go to Nauvoo, IL for my cousin Cynthia's wedding. I have mentioned Cynthia before as we are very close. We are only 3 months apart and we grew up spending our summers together, so she is really more like a sister to me. In our youth we were often found even fighting like sisters.

(the installation of fake eyelashes)

It was wonderful to see my family and to be able to spend time with them on many adventures (more to come) around the Nauvoo area. It was also fun to be a bridesmaid for the first time and to be Cynthia's wedding photographer as well. It was a little complicated to be both at the same time, but thanks to my dad for being my assistant it all worked out (although I must say I am a little jealous that he has a better camera than me)!

 

Neither Dave or I had been to Nauvoo which is rich in history for our faith. Along with the wedding in the beautiful Nauvoo temple, we enjoyed visiting many other church history sites.It was great to be surrounded by family that I have not seen in a while, some since I left for college.I am so happy for Cynth, she found a keeper! Here are a few more pics...

 

 

 

(I love that Dave stoped to smile for the camera, haha!)

 

(my two natural red headed cousins...and me, the artificial red head)

 You can check out some more of her wedding pictures on her blog: Cameron and Cynthia

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Lemon's

I am sorry for my absence from blogging...

When life gave me lemons, I made lemonade. I squeezed each one into a pitcher, but soon realized I was all out of sugar to sweeten it. All those lemons without any sugar were simply too tart to share...

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Photoshoot in Spokane

Our last day while in Spokane, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with a good friend of Dave's named Isaac. His wife, Emily, is a very talented photographer (and good cook I might add), whose work I am always intrigued by. She photograph's almost entirely with film which is really a lost art in my eye's. The beauty and depth of a film photograph is something no digital camera can recreate.

After dinner, we had the opportunity for her to take a few images of us with an old medium format camera. Although we didn't have much time and it was not my most photogenic day after a whirl wind weekend of a wedding, I have some great images to cherish. Thanks Emily for the wonderful photograph's!

 

 

 

 

 

* To check out more of Emily's work you can click on the following link: Emily Hawkins

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Kristy's Wedding in Spokane

Dave's sister, Kristy, was married on August 29th in the Spokane, WA Temple and we got to go! We have missed a few of the siblings weddings so it seemed like a special treat to be able to go and see his family as we celebrated Kristy's wedding. It's not everyday we get to be...

a Sister-in-Law...

 or Uncle!

It was a short trip filled with a long list of things to do and people to see... but for the most part, I think we managed to squeeze it all in. I felt super privileged and a little overwhelmed that I had the opportunity to take her pictures for the wedding. I love to take pictures, as I am sure most of you know, but taking pictures of people scares me! I know that sounds weird, but it completely pushes me out of my comfort zone (which I love and hate all at the same time).

I love the opportunity to learn and improve on my talents and Kristy and Devin were easy to photograph. They just simply looked great together and she was a beautiful bride. I have included a few of my favorite images below, but if you want to check out more, you can visit the blog I set up for them here: Devin and Kristy to see more images (I am editing and posting them in segments as I complete them, so they are not all there).

 

 

 

(these are most of her brother above)

 

 

 

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Our New Addition...(sigh)

That's right, we have accepted another dog into our family (and let's say it was done somewhat reluctantly).

Here is the story: Last Tuesday this sweet little girl showed up in our neighborhood for the first time. It is a common occurrence to have random dogs visit us because some people in our area do not feel it necessary to fence their dogs. She had a collar on but no tags. The next morning she was right on our front porch waiting for us. She even brought us the neighbors news paper.

Dave was leaving for work early that morning so that he could return home mid afternoon to mow the lawn before our trip to Spokane (details to come). I had just gotten out of the shower and while still in my bathrobe, I went to peak outside at her. Dave was attempting to back out of the garage, but the dog was very interested in him and wouldn't move from behind his truck, so I called her to the front door. He made it about half way down the driveway when she began to jump up on our wood door. Not wanting the door to get scratched, I went inside figuring that Dave was far enough down the driveway that she wouldn't be a problem.

Then about a minute later I heard these horrible yelping sounds and ran outside to figure out what was going on. Dave had pulled back into the driveway and stepped out of his car. With somewhat of a pale face and shaky voice he said, "She just ran under my truck".

The dog had limped away into the bushes of our neighbors house. We had to coax her out to get a look at the damage. My initial thought was not good...I thought for sure her whole back end was crushed as her legs were just dangling there and bleeding. She had apparently followed Dave down the driveway. As he turned the corner down our street he didn't see her in his mirror anymore and figured she had stopped so he began to speed up. Just at that moment, she ran under the back of his truck tire.

We couldn't call animal control because we knew they would just euthanize her. So Dave took her into the vet who suggested that we try and find the owner before he do any extensive treatment. That evening after work we went from neighborhood to neighborhood and house to house looking for her owner only to come up empty handed. No one had ever seen the dog before and many shared stories of how people come and drop off dogs in our area all the time.

So $400 later, a small hip fracture, and with much reluctance, we are now the owners of a third dog (another sigh)....that is, unless you want to take her-haha! Now we have the task of naming this little girl. She is about 6 months old and looks like some sort of lab and basset hound mix (don't ask me how that worked out). Please vote in the poll (right hand column) or give us some suggestions for her name...

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