. . . . . . . .Life With Grandma & Grandpa Waite: July 2016 in Nauvoo

Monday 7/4

Independence Day !

We were supposed to have fireworks

on Saturday but the weather

didn't cooperate and they were cancelled.

They are now rescheduled for

July 10th .... weird !

This afternoon our niece,

Amy Parker Calkins,

arrived with her family. She is the

daughter of Steve's sister, Marilyn.

Linda, Steve, Chad & Cole, Amy
Katy, Parker, Garrett

We have enjoyed having them stay with

us for a couple of days and

getting to know their kids a little bit.

Tuesday 7/5

Today was very busy here in Nauvoo.

lots of people here for the opening day of

the Nauvoo Pageant.

We managed to keep Amy and her family

busy all day and by 10:30 tonight

all the kids were pretty well exhausted.

They visited several homes and shops

played at Pioneer Pastimes and

went to a few shows.

We were able to go with them to many

of the activities and we even

got to do a few of the tours for them.

(Pictures of their visit are on a separate)

blog post

Wednesday 7/6

This little beauty was taking a rest out

in our back yard this afternoon.

AND ....

Another beautiful sunset by the Mississippi !

Sunday, 7/10

Today we are "on call" and don't have

to work so this afternoon we

went for a little drive.

The other day when we went to Keokuk to

shop we noticed all these water plants

out in the Mississippi River.

(American Lotus)

So we drove down the Old River Road
and stopped to take a picture of them.

We turned off the main road and took some
little back roads to get home.
Along the way we saw a little fawn
crossing the road so we stayed back
a ways & waited to see if the mother
would come along after her.

Sure enough next came another little

fawn then the mother.

After reaching the meadow

the doe stopped and looked intently

back across the road .... and soon

left the two little fawns and ....

crossed back into the woods.

A little further down the road we could see

what she was so focused on.

It was a little family out for an afternoon

walk in the "forest".

On Saturday 7/2 the city of Nauvoo

was scheduled to have

their 4th of July fireworks show

However,

we had a ferocious rain storm and the

show was cancelled and

rescheduled for tonight .... When it started

pouring down rain again this afternoon

we all wondered if the show would

be cancelled again .... but by

the time 9:30 rolled around the storm

had moved on

and we were left with a peaceful sky

that would soon be ....

a sky ....

filled ....

with ....

beautiful ....

fireworks ....

HaPpY 4th of JuLy

(on the 10th)

Tuesday, 7/12

Yesterday Jill (Waite) & Doug Barker
stopped in Nauvoo on their
way home from visiting their
daughter, Shanda, in Mississippi.

They were only here overnight but

they were able to see a few shows, visit

a few sites, and see some old

"bag pipe" friends before Pageant.

We are glad they decided to stop by

it was fun to see them !

Thursday, 7/14

A few days ago one of our YPM elders

broke his foot. They put him in

a boot and said he could finish out his mission

here in Nauvoo.

Then tonight we found out they had

changed their minds and

he would be going home tomorrow.

all the YPM elders - Cantraras in the middle,
lighter brown pants, wearing a
black "boot"

Tonight's Sunset Show was his last performance

and everyone was very sad.

This is a VERY talented group of elders.

They sing and dance and act

and everyone here loves each one of them.

Debbi arrived here in Nauvoo with

her friends Kara & Courtney.

Check out our blog post titled

"Debbi Visits Nauvoo"

We loved having these three beauties here

with us for a few days and

can't wait for all of our kids and grand kids

to come visit next summer !!

Friday 7/15

Tonight was our Debut performance of

Thomas & Elizabeth .... 2 shows !

To see pictures and hear more about our debut

go to the "Debbi Visits Nauvoo" post.

It was a great night !

Sunday 7/17

Today After church we received an email

in our missionary email box from

some of our old time Bendite friends ....

Robert & Ida Wilson.

They were here in Nauvoo and wanted to

see us. They were just one block from

our house so we had them drive

on over and meet us.

We rode around Nauvoo for a couple of

hours catching up on the last

20 years and telling them some fun

stories about Nauvoo.

Monday 7/18

Last week the mission presidency added a

new "site" to the already long list.

It is called "Reservations" and is kind of an

extension of Guest Services so

we are continually working together to

keep all our guests happy.

They asked three sisters to begin

training for this site.

Linda was one that was asked and ended

up working four days last week in

that site.

It is upstairs in the Visitor's Center.

Now she is the "trainer" for two more

sisters who are starting this week.

Tuesday 7/19

Today Trudi and the kids came down to

Nauvoo for a little "day trip".

They were up early and arrived here in

Nauvoo by 9:30 a.m.

The first thing we did was head to the

Cultural Hall to attend the

10:30 showing of ....

Just Plain Anna Amanda !

It started off with a fun puppet show and some

Primary songs like this one ....

Do As I'm Doing !

Wyatt was picked to be a helper and he

picked .... roll your hands.

After the puppet show the

Young Performing Missionaries

Present the play

"Just Plain Anna Amanda"

After the show we were able to snap a

picture with Anna Amanda !

Just around the corner from the Cultural Hall

is the Wagon Depot.

So we walked on over and had enough time

to say hello to the horses.

Our wagon was pulled by

Lehi & Nephi

We finished the ride and went home

for some lunch and to

cool off ..... it is a very hot, humid day !

Next we were off to play at

Pioneer Pastimes

There were fun "dress-up" clothes ....

Charlotte the little Pioneer Girl !

And lots of pioneer games like this one where

Wyatt learned to push a hoop.

Charlotte found the extra fun, little log, playhouse !

and Cora found some animal blocks.

Morgan played in the dirt (wood chips)

and that was just fine with him !

Wyatt tried on the yoked buckets and ....

did a little Pioneer style bowling.

Once again we headed for our nice

air conditioned home to

cool off.

At a little after 2:00,

Trudi, Wyatt and Linda all went

up to the Visitor's Center to see another play.

This one is called

"The Promise"

and is also performed by the

Young Performing Missionaries who are

amazingly talented.

Wyatt loved all the music and the funny

antics of some of the

characters in this play, he especially

enjoyed the missionary that got flipped

clear over his partner during the Stick Pull Game.

After the show .... back at the house ,,,,,

it was time to pack up and head home

to Davenport. Charlotte was not a

happy little girl, she wanted to

stay at grandma & grandpa's house overnight !

Well, they drove off and we got dressed and left

for Rendezvous and our 2nd night of

performing the

Thomas & Elizabeth Vignette !

Wednesday 7/20

Today both of us worked until 6 p.m. and by

then we were both pretty tired so we decided

to walk up to the Pageant's Country Fair

and get some dinner.

After we ate our delicious pulled pork sandwiches

we walked around the fair watching

families having fun participating in all the

activities. There was music playing, dancing,

playing of games and ....

Handcarts to pull !

Before we left we picked up a

Pageant souvenir

then made a stop at the

family search booth.

Here you can find out which Pageant

characters you are related to.

We searched Steve first and found 835 connections

to 16 Nauvoo Pageant Characters like ....

Joseph Smith Jr and

Heber C. Kimball

Linda found 543 connections to

14 Nauvoo Pageant Characters which included

Joseph Smith Jr and

Brigham Young's wife Mary Ann.

Both our lines had connections to people like

Parley P. Pratt, King Follett, Wilford Woodruff

Brigham Young and several others.

Friday 7/22

Steve is learning to make rugs and runners on

the weaving loom in the

Family Living Center

After pulling the fabric filled shuttle through

the threads he twists the end to form a

button along the edge

He tightens the fabric with the Beater Bar

then crosses the threads with the

foot operated treadles

and tightens the fabric again.

While working he has many opportunities

to talk with visitors and show

them how the loom works.

This loom has 456 threads and

threading it involves

tying each one of those threads, by hand,

to the end of another thread.

It takes about 30 man hours to thread this loom.

Sunday 7/24

We had a very nice Pioneer Day program

this evening at the Visitor's Center.

We started out by singing a hymn titled

"Faith in Every Footstep"

There was a nice video presentation

narrated by President's

Hinckley, Monson & Faust

At appropriate times during the Video

it was paused for a special

musical number

Here, the Nauvoo Brass Band played

a beautiful arrangement of

Come, Come Ye Saints

and a little further along

The YPM's sang

We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet.

The program finished with one of

our Senior Sisters telling

a story about one of her ancestors.

It was a short 30 minutes but is was very

nice and we enjoyed listening to

the music and stories.

Monday 7/25

It's one thing to learn to weave on the loom

but it is quite another thing to learn

how to thread the loom.

Today Elder Waite & Elder McCoy started

their training on threading the loom.

First they have to decide on colors and patterns

After deciding on that

they begin....24 spools at a time.

With a counter in one hand and his hand

on the wheel, Elder Waite counts off

30 rotations per set.

After winding 7 rows of pattern "A" they will

Change the spools to the colors in pattern "B"

and begin again until ....

All the sets (19) & patterns (A,B & C)
have been wound.
There are a total of 456 threads.
The threads on the left are the new ones ...
the threads on the right are the old ones ...

and each of the 456 new ends will be

tied by hand to each of the 456 old ends !

Tuesday 7/26

Tuesday is our P-Day so we went

over to the FLC to ask

Elder Windsor (the trainer) a few questions.

Don't you just love these colors !

Here is a picture of both our looms ....

The one with blue thread is 36 inches wide ....

the one with reds is only 29 inches wide.

Wednesday 7/28

So, here it is the end of July and

guess what we did today after our shift ....

planted flowers !

At Lowe's in Burlington they had a 6 pack of
impatiens for only 50 cents.

We bought $2 worth and planted them
along our front sidewalk.

The garden guy said we will probably
get another 2-3 months here in
Nauvoo before the first frost arrives.

Saturday 7/30

Today Trudi, George & the kids came for
a short overnight visit.

Steve greeted them when they arrived at 2:30
and Linda got home from
work a little after 3:00. We relaxed a
little bit then drove over to
Pioneer Pastimes