Illinois Trip

So if you can't tell I have been dreading to do this blog so I have been putting it off and I promised myself that the next blog I would do would be this one hence why there has been NO blogging going on....

So anyway we went to Illinois! I was so excited because we were going to the Abbott Family Reunion it was going to be a 3 hour flight and Ella's doctor assured my that Ella would sleep the whole way because the noise and movement of the plane would just lull her to sleep, well.........

She didn't sleep....

in fact she cried anytime we tried to put her in her car seat......

so..... mom held her the whole time!

Usually this task would be shared with daddy but daddy was running a temperature of 102, poor guy he was sick for half of the vacation.

Our first stop was Navoo since it is only 2 hours away from Rushville it is alway a must see when we go visit family here in Illinois.

It was sooooo cold! I tried to keep Ella warm because I forgot to pack her a jacket,

BAD MOM!

We hitched a ride with my sister and her family and we followed my brothers family this is some of their kids. They were just so excited to see the temple.....some more than others....

We were able to go on the horse drawn carriage ride, they rigged it up just for us! It was really cold and dripping rain so we bundled up tight, especially Robert since he was really sick. He managed to put on a smile for the camera though!

Near the end of the carriage ride you go down the trail of tears/hope. This is the road the saints took when they left their homes to move west. I looked back trying to get an understanding of the despair the saints felt leaving there homes and their temple that they worked so hard on. It broke my heart to watch the majestic temple disappear over the hill realizing that this was the saints last glimpse of the temple and they would never see it again. I don't think I could even fathom their despair.

We also had an opportunity to visit Carthage Jail. At the end of the tour you end up in the room Joseph Smith was martyred in and they play an audio depicting the last few moments of Joseph Smith's life followed by a moment of silence, the spirit is always so strong in that room. It testifies of the Prophet Joseph and the mission he was called on this earth to do.

After Navoo we came to our hotel (if you can call it that) which was more like a bible retreat. It was so hokey with all these home made quits on the beds and huge refrigerators in each room but I have to say, when I go back to Illinois I am going to stay here! You just can beat $25 per night! It was a great little place to stay.

We stayed in #4.

Robert and I decided to read "The Hunger Games" while we were on vacation. We LOVE to read books together for quality time together, unfortunately we were only able to get our hands on one book so I pretty much read the whole book out loud. Ella ended up with a fever so we kept to our rooms for a couple of days. I think I read for 10 hours one of those days, I didn't mind it was a REALLY good book!

speaking of fevers all my sister's kids ended up with one and some of my brother's kids, I think they all got it from Robert but he fervently denies this claim.

So we all took a visit to the town doctor, I think this guy still does house visits.....anyway, this guy is a saint! He only charges $5 a visit. We went in they took our name and phone number and 5 dollars later we left with a prescription for amoxicillin. He was also my dad's doctor, the last time my dad was in his office it was 1955.

The waiting room, gotta love the wood panel look! Very log cabin!

So on to the reunion! One big part of the reunion is making the Abbott's famous Apple Butter. First we slice and core the apples which we missed due to all the sickness. Then we put it in pressure cookers, then then go in to this little contraption below to weed out all the waste. This is Robert and my brother David helping out.

once that is done we pour the apple sauce into these big kettles that are over a wood flame and stir the apple butter with all the ingredients. This is my great uncle Dale, he was the oldest person at the reunion at 92 years old!

A new tradition was an auction to raise money for future Abbott reunions. The signs in this picture were of course donated buy my family. We get a lot of old signs in our line of work.

The kids enjoyed playing on the hay bales in the barn. I did this when I was their age, someone inevitably gets stuck in the cracks.

Mommy and Ella trying to keep warm, it was around 40 to 50 degrees there.

The day before we left we all went to the Houston Methodist Church for the service, all the Abbotts who live in this area go to this church. I think that day was the fullest the church has ever been. This was the church my dad grew up going to until he moved to Arizona. Their service was odd of course, they had a women preacher and sacrament was bread and grape juice which she brought to us.

After the service we all met for lunch and for family pictures. I couldn't get one of all the people who went to the reunion to fit in my scanner so you'll just have to settle with my family alone. This is the first family picture we have had since like 1991! My we have grown!