Nauvoo Vacation 2024 - Day 1-3 Travel to Nauvoo

Here are highlights and thoughts from our family vacation to Nauvoo this year. 

Wendy and Sam have been wanting to take there kids to Nauvoo and invited the rest of the Peaden family to come along. We originally booked a trip to go in 2020 and then had to cancel due to COVID-19. 

Last year we were able to reschedule to go in 2024. All my siblings were invited. The plan was for my parents to come as well, and even though my Mom passed away my Dad was still able to come. We missed my mom and know she would have loved it.  My dad was kind enough to pay for all of Airbnbs as we traveled out and in Nauvoo. That made a huge difference to us financially and was so nice to have everyone stay together in the same house. 

Here is who was able to make it:

-Wendy and Sam including Daniel, Nathan, Jacob and Aubrey (Josh couldn't make it)

-Shantel and I and our kids

-My Dad

-Amy 

-Kevin

-Julie Peaden met us partway through the week with Ryan and Luke. Avarie and Olivia happened to be in Nauvoo for a Youth Conference that same week, so we got to see them on the weekend, which was fun. 

It was really fun to do a trip with my siblings and we had such a great time. 

The trip was from Saturday, June 22nd-Friday July 5th, so it was a full two weeks. Shantel and I decided that since Saturday was a long driving day, we would drive to Lyman to stay with her parents at their house (Grandpa Great's House). It worked out so great. We were able to get a couple of hours of driving done before Saturday, plus, the kids loved being able to go to the Ranch. On Friday night Lydia and Austin got to help Scott tend the water and then they got up early enough to help Scott feed the cows and tend the water again in the morning. Scott and Lori have been working hard to get the guest room ready and we were able to sleep over in the guest room for the first time. Then we got on the road with a goal to make it from Lyman to our Airbnb in Ogallala, Nebraska where we met up with the rest of the caravan. 

Saturday



We stopped in Cheyenne, Wyoming and had lunch at a park there. The kids had fun on the swings and playing and we had a delicious lunch with 7-layer bean dip. 


Then it was back in the car and we pushed to get to Ogallala. We made really good time and were able to get to the Airbnb a few hours before everyone else which was nice. The kids got to run around and play and were so happy to stretch their legs. We watched some of the US Olympic trials that night and I went with the Rencher boys plus Kevin to play Frisbee Golf. It was so nice to be in Airbnbs instead of hotels so that we were all together and able to laugh and joke and have a good time. (See below some meditation going on). 


Sunday
Our goal on Sunday was to make it to Winter Quarters in time for Church. However, Ogallala to Omaha Nebraska is about a 5 hour drive and we were starting in the Mountain time zone and moving to the Central time zone. That meant we needed to leave around 5:30 am to make it in time for church. We were up very early, on the road by 5:45, and with only a few stops we made it in time for church. Right after church, we went to the Winter Quarters Visitor Center. The kid's favorite thing was definitely pulling the replica handcart they had. After the visitor center we walked across the street to the cemetery where we have a few of our ancestors buried. Then we were able to walk around the temple, which was so neat.  

I think this was something that Shantel and I both really loved. The temple was beautiful, but it was just so incredible to think of the early saints who were making so many incredible sacrifices and how they must feel to now have a temple in Winter Quarters were they suffered and sacrificed so much. 

After that we were back on the road again to our Airbnb in Plano Iowa. I thought the drive was really beautiful all the way across Nebraska. I loved all the cornfields. It was interesting as we entered Iowa to see the landscape change just a little and even though they had cornfields, it was still quite different. We made it to our Airbnb around 7:30. (Everyone else made a stop at Garden Grove and Mt. Pisgah, but our kids were ready to make it to the Airbnb). The house was awesome. The kids favorite thing was that the basement had a game table that was essentially a giant tablet and there were a ton of fun games. The adults loved the incredible view from the backyard and all the space to sit and play (and the huge TV's). There was a main house and then a studio house. Everyone wished we could spend two weeks at that house. 

Monday
On Monday morning it was time to get back on the road, but this time we were headed the rest of the way to Nauvoo. We went straight to the Nauvoo visitor center and got there around 1:30. 


Overall the drive went really great. The kids were awesome. I enjoyed reading the 5th book in the Lockwood series (The Empty Grave) and Shantel spent a lot of time working on the kids birthday videos. Shantel had also bought some new snack containers for the kids that came in sections and those worked really great. 

June Wrap Up

 Just a couple fun things to wrap up June. 

Lucy really wanted to take a picture of Shantel and I and then a few of Shantel and then turned out cute. 

Also, Shantel finds it necessary to send me a picture of Starry any time she sees it anywhere. I was on a work trip and got a random text from her with only this picture. The first time I saw Starry I was like, "why would they make this product and already have Sprite and 7up, we don't need anything else." PepsiCo disagreed since they wanted a competitor, but I'm adamant that I'll never buy Starry. 

Q2 Kid Dates

We had some really fun kids date in April. I took Austin to do glow in the dark mini-golf (no picture) and then he convinced me we should stop for ice cream on the way home. Shantel took Lucy to the farm and had a great time. 

A few weeks later I took Lydia to Thanksgiving Point to do a Canopy Tour. She has been wanting to do the ropes course there for a long time and we went and had so much fun. My favorite part was racing her in a part that goes side by side to the top of the course. We also went to the carousel and there was another activity to find a bunch of things that Lydia had fun with.  

Shantel took Caleb to the arcade. He got stuck a little bit on one of the games where you try to win a Nintendo switch (but never do) and was a little dissapointed. Until he finally (at Shantel's urging) tried Skee Ball. He loved it and thought it was so much fun, plus was happy to win a bunch of tickets. 

Q2 Dates

Shantel and I have had such great dates the last few months. 

We went on a hike in Draper to Potato Hill. 

We went to STK (fancy Steakhouse) for a retirement party for Ted Hill and a new Partner celebration for me. 

We had a quick trip to IKEA to do some shopping. Shantel really wants some new bookshelves in the homeschool room. We found a really great option (look for an update in August) and as always, we found a bunch of other little things that just had to come home with us. 

We went to dinner with Jenna and Kevin to Slackwater Pizza. It has been on our list to try for a while and we had a great time going with them. 

We had a date weekend and got to go to Logan. We did a hike on our favorite trail (Crimson Trail) and had so much fun. It was a beautiful hike and was so much fun. 

We stopped by Utah State after that and went to the bookstore and just enjoyed walking around the quad and made a stop on the "A." We asked someone to take a picture of us and when we told them we graduated 15 years ago - they said they thought we were students and we were pumped - we can still pass as students!

Next stop was Ruby's Pizzeria and Grill. We tried the restaurant last year and have wanted to go back since, it was so delicious. It was just as good this time and we love it. 

The next day was great as well. We had some time at home to work on projects. We went to the park and read books.

Then we went to see The Hello Girls at Hale Center Theater. We'll have more on this in our HCT post - but needless to say, we LOVED it. We haven't loved any of the shows in the last year or so, but this one was incredible. It was so delightful and we were telling everyone after that they need to go see it.