Nauvoo-Beautiful

This past Labor day we were able to go to Nauvoo. We had a really nice time. Here are some of the highlights.

Pioneer pasttimes

We spent most of our time at an exhibit called Pioneer Past times
the kids could dress up in aprons and bonnets and play with Pioneer
era toys in mini log cabins. We all had a blast.

teddy bear

The first day we were there. We spent a considerable amount of time playing with the teddy bears. You pull on their ropes and make them go up and then loosen your hold and down they come. Audra conned one of the missionaries to do this for her for about 15 minutes straight. They were both laughing and giggling quite a lot.

Fear? Hahahaha

While we were there we tried to sleeping options as we weren’t sure which one we would prefer. The first night we camped in a state park that’s just across the street from all the happenings in Nauvoo. This worked pretty well, actually except for a little middle of the night episode with Audra. She apparently wanted to go home –which is usually code for I’m really, really scared. After 5 minutes of trying to reason with her that we couldn’t possibly go home. She stopped almost mid-sentence and fell asleep at the foot of my sleeping bag with her sleeping bag pulled up over her entire body. Apparently she decided the best way to deal with this was to hide. She slept there very peacefully until later that morning when she scrambled up and stole Dan’s pillow. And in the morning she woke up her usual happy self so I guess no permanent damage was done.

The next two nights we stayed in a log cabin. We were all in one room and since Josh goes to bed early and takes 2 naps during the day this meant that the more rambuxious lot spent a lot of time out on the porch. Most of the time they ran around holding on to this rope we made in the family living center. When they weren’t doing that they were visiting our new adopted bunny. Apparently it belongs to the hotel’s owner and at one point they even got to pet it.

Cute pictures

Carthage

Wow! The last thing we did before going back home was to visit the jail at Carthage where Joseph Smith and Hyrum were martyred. What an amazing and powerful experience it was to be in that spot. Even though the kids almost exploded! They were good kids, it’s hard to sit still and listen sometimes especially when you’re 2 and 1! But we feel really blessed to have been able to have this experience together.

Nauvoo Temple

These are some pictures we took at the Nauvoo Temple. After hearing stories about the Temple all week it was really nice to go and see it. We couldn't go right up to it because they lock up the grounds on Sundays, but we walked around the parts that weren't locked up and enjoyed the beautiful landscaping and especially the wonderful spirit that was there. Marian really "got" that there was a neat feeling there and said that she wanted to remember that she had seen the Nauvoo temple for the first time when she was a little girl.