Springbreak Vacation

I love Springbreak.  I just love the extra time I get with Emma.  The days can be lazy, and you can have different kinds of adventures than usual.  Or not.  I usually tend to be a stick-to-the-lazy-day-schedule-as-much-as-possible kind of person.  This year though, we decided to take a little trip.  We went down to Nauvoo and Springfield in Illinois.  I was there about 12 years ago, but Eric (and obviously Emma) had never been.  While living so relatively close we couldn't pass this up.  So we left right after church on Sunday.

Since it was Easter Sunday, I'll briefly share our morning with you.  I don't know why I wrote "briefly" because even if I wanted to drag this out I couldn't.  We really didn't do much.  Emma woke up, found her basket, rejoiced in its offerings, and went on an egg hunt.  Done.  We didn't dye eggs this year (this one is always hit and miss, mostly because Eric is the only one who likes hard boiled eggs in our family, and so we don't usually need lots of them).  We always talk with Emma about the true meaning of Easter this time of year, which happily she is old enough to remember from previous years.  That always makes you smile as a parent.  On Saturday we had watched the First Presidency Easter message to get us ready.  They always do such a nice job.  Some of the girls in primary sang at church, including Emma.  They did a great job.  Emma looked amazingly cute, but you'll just have to take my word for it, since I didn't get a single shot of her all dressed up.  Nope.  I didn't even think about it.  Awesome parenting, right?  That's what going out of town will do to you.  Oh well.

I got too much stuff to even fit in her basket, and this is not including the egg hunt finds.

In Nauvoo we stayed in a little cabin.  It was a replica of an actual pioneer cabin.  I think this was Emma's favorite part.  Within about 2 seconds of entering she had claimed the upper bunk as hers.  She had lots of fun playing lava monsters and trying not to touch the floor.  She also enjoyed playing checkers with Eric on her bed.

We did all the typical stuff in Nauvoo.  Toured some homes and saw some demonstrations of pioneer life.  While we were touring the Joseph Smith sites Emma saw a tiny baby snap turtle.  We made sure to not step on it.  I think of everything we did there, seeing the completed temple was my favorite.  The last time I was there, construction had just started.  It was magnificent to see it towering above the bluff from everywhere in town.  Just awesome!

Here is the tiny snap turtle.  This is a crack in between sidewalk squares.   This guy was small!

Emma's favorite thing in Nauvoo was the blacksmith shop where
she got a little horseshoe that you can see him working on.

Emma standing in front of the home of my third great-grandfather (her fourth great-grandfather).

Churning cream into butter.

Pretending she really needs to use the privy.

Awesomeness.

More awesomeness!

And the flowers everywhere were amazing!!

The next day we went to Carthage.  The Spirit is always so amazing there.  There just isn't really anything to say about it that will do it justice.  The word gratitude comes to mind.

On our way to Springfield we stopped at New Salem, which is a little village where Abraham Lincoln lived for about 6 years in his early twenties.  It's a cute little village that you can wander though, looking into the different cabins, seeing how things were in both the residences and businesses that were there.

And of course, it wouldn't be us without a complete breakdown at some point
into sheer sillyness!  Love these two!

This is what Emma was doing almost the entire time we walked around. 

While in Springfield we went to see Lincoln's home, his tomb, the Lincoln library (hardly spent any time there - not really worth mentioning anything about it), and the Lincoln museum.  We saw his home just before they closed the day we arrived.  Our timing was great.  We had just enough time to see it.  I had forgotten from the last time I was there just how high the ceilings inside are.  They throw your perspective of the size of everything way off.  Chairs look way too small even though they are sized to modern standards, and the bed looks too short for Lincoln to have slept comfortably in.

The next morning we went to see the tomb.  It was a little chilly so early, and Emma wanted to bundle up.  Right as we were leaving a worker went inside with a big fan.  Eric joked that he must have needed to clear out the smell of the decaying bodies.  Nice.  Very morbid Eric.

She's so cute all bundled up!  Love the bright colors on her.

On our way to the museum when we stopped for gas I decided to stalk Eric.  He didn't think I was really taking pictures, but ha ha, I was!  I love the look on his face each time he looked at me wondering what I was doing.  Hey, gotta keep myself entertained somehow!  It's okay - you can think I'm weird.  Eric sure does!

And then, while driving down one of the roads, we noticed that the dashed white painted lines in the middle of the street were very crooked.  Actually, they all seemed to go in a slightly different direction.  Maybe someone drunk painted them?

I dont' know if you can see it well enough in this picture, but the white lines really are crooked!

Once we got to the museum, most places inside didn't allow photography, but the entrances to the two exhibits were pretty cool.  The first one was a replica of the cabin where Lincoln was born, and the exhibit took you through his childhood, and young adulthood.  The second was the facade of the White House with the Lincoln family standing out front, and this one took you through his years as President.  There was one other area where kids could play, where pictures were allowed.  And surprise surprise!  Guess what they had in there for the kids to play with?  Yup, Lincoln Logs.  It seemed fairly appropriate.

With her log cabin creation.

Dressed at Lincoln.

Our trip was short, but lots of fun.  We couldn't have asked for better weather, or better company.  I love spending time with my family.  And Emma is such a good traveler that she makes trips easy.  And the nice things is, we still had a few days of Springbreak left to enjoy after we got home!