Wednesday, July 2, 2008

The Cazier family reunion in Nauvoo

Well, it is next week and the long awaited post has been published.
On the last Friday and Saturday of each June the descendants of William Cazier and Pleasant Drake have a reunion. The Larsen's are part of this gang. This year it just happened to be in Nauvoo, Ill. I made reservations several months ago. Kirstin called a couple weeks before the reunion and expressed interest in going. So on Jun 26, Jeff, Kirstin, Logan, Liam and myself set off for an adventure. We found out that the boys have a great deal of will power by not napping until we were about 15 minutes away from our destination. The Nauvoo Temple looking towards Iowa and the Mississippi River.
Another view of the temple looking east.
So to let the boys burn off some steam, they went swimming in the pool of the Nauvoo Family Inn & Suites, where the Smenteks stayed. Logan liked to run around with his speedo boat stuck around his body. He was pretty daring because he walked to the edge of the pool, not seeing the edge, and stepped off into the pool. All was well because his boat caught him. Then he repeated this because it got a big reaction from mom and dad.
Monkey see, monkey do. Liam had to run around also.
I stayed at the Historic eight room Hotel Nauvoo where the famous buffet dinners are.
The next day, we all went on a horse carriage ride through the back woods of Nauvoo to Inspiration Point, over looking the Mississippi River. The dudes wanted to meet and visit with Rocky and Andy, the two Belgian horses, each weighing one ton.
Logan in the Tribute to Women garden behind the visitors center.
Liam is having second thoughts about this guy trying to get a hug, let alone having a little sister, though it appears he never noticed the little kid behind him.
Then it was fun time for the boys at the city hall park. They loved the swings.
These guys are not bashful when it comes to slides, They climbed up the ladder, ran to the end, and threw themselves down the slide with no hesitation.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
The Cazier reunion picnic was moved from the state park because of hot temperatures and a threat of sever thunderstorms with up to two inches of rain. None of the bad weather materialized. Here are some of those that attended.
This is where the Sunset By The Mississippi show was held in years past. But the flooding of river took its toll on low lying areas at the end of Parley St. The show was moved to its new permanent location between the Stake Center and the Visitors Center.
There used to be a replica ferry and covered wagon here to show how small everything was. Wagons were only about three feet wide and 10-12 feet long and the ferries only carried one wagon.
Here is a wagon and it looks like the dudes want to be hitched up and go for ride. Two-Dude Power. Giddy-up.
Logan's treasure find was a stick that he carried around all day.
Liam's treasures were rocks. He hung on to them most of the afternoon.
Hey, look at what I have. What do you mean? Mine are better.
We had front row seats for the Mississippi By The Mississippi show, a musical variety show. Here some of the senior missionaries are doing one of their acts. During part of the show, some of the young performing female missionaries sat down on the steps you see in the picture. Liam loves girls. And as soon as the girls sat down on the steps, Liam started flirting with them. He said, "Hi. I Liam." The girls were smiling and waiving back. Jeff and I were watching this whole flirtation event and never though to take pictures. I can just imagine the next sentence: "Whats you doing after the show?" Watch out world. There is a girl crazy boy out there and he is only two years old. Happy birthday.
Liam riding the sheep.
Its Logan's turn on the same sheep. The sheep does not mind who climbs on him.
Here are the young performing missionaries in High Hopes and River Boats show. These are the girls that Liam likes. However, the boys had some difficulty during this show and had to go to the cry room.
Time to burn more energy. To bad we can't harness this and use it in the car.
The boys patiently waiting for dad just before leaving for Minnesota. Kirstin walked to my hotel (about 1/2 mile) while Jeff loaded the car and checked out of the hotel. We had a couple rain showers while waiting. What we didn't learn until later was that Jeff had an issue with a kid named Jacob, blocking his way out of the hotel with the luggage cart. He eventually had to push the kid out of the way and run him over, because his mom and dad would not control their kids and get them out of the way (the whole family was blocking the hallway).
Me and the boys. They were looking forward to another car adventure. This was the first time they have spent any amount of time in other states. Well, they fell asleep in no time and had a good nap before lunch.
Jeff, Kirstin, Logan and Liam (he did not want his image recorded). This turned out to be a great adventure with the Smenteks. Over all, we had a lot of fun.

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