Our Anniversary - A Family History Adventure

So Saturday was our 9th anniversary, and we planned a day with the kids in Salt Lake. It was to follow up our Family Night about ancestors, and for this week we focused on John Taylor, my great-great-great-grandfather. We talked at family night about John Taylor being in Carthage with Joseph Smith and Hyrum. We talked about his pocket watch that save him that night and we talked about serving a mission in Europe, helping wtih the French translation of the Book of Mormon, and his line of descendants that leads to us. So Saturday we headed to the Church History museum in Salt Lake. What a great day. It took us a bit to get there because of unusal traffic, but we made it and even got to ride TRAX to Temple Square. This made everyone happy.

This picture is up in a section where each Prophet is talked about. They had a section about writings from John Taylor, talked about how he dedicated the Logan temple, and about his missions. I love this portrait.

Here is John Taylor's pocket watch and his cane (belor). There is a letter written by Willard Richards and John Taylor recording what happened at Carthage. The kids thought this was quite fascinating.

After the museum we went to the Salt Lake City cemetary and found his grave. It si hard to describe how neat this was. We felt such a connection to the site, where not only John Tylor but Sophia Whitaker was buried.

We also found the graves of John Whitaker Taylor and his wife Rhoda Welling. In a lot of ways it feels like these people lived so long before us, and yet when you think about how close we are really linked. For example, John W. Taylor was my grandfather's grandfather, or the fact that I remember some about my great Grandma Marietta Taylor (Call) who is John Whitaker Taylor's daughter. Somehow thinking of things this way makes them seem closer, and much more real.

Over the last few weeks I have felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for those who came before me. I know that in so many ways I am where I am today because of the sacrifices they made in their lifetimes. We focused this time on our Taylor line because of the many things they already know about John Taylor and the connection they already feel, but I recognize that I have many, many more ancestors who have blessed my life.

And on a completely random note: The Church History museum had this really cute area for kids to play. I have been there before but things have changed since then. WE didn't stay long, but I loved this mural painted on teh wall. We made it look like our kids were at General Conference. So fun! The kids keep asking to go back.