Nauvoo

Michael's brother and sister-in-law were sealed this weekend and the chosen place for the sealing? The Nauvoo Temple. So we packed up the kids for another 8 hour drive (this was more like 9 1/2). We're beginning to be old hands at this traveling thing! We rolled in late Thursday night and Friday morning the kids were ready for some action.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Nauvoo, it was a city that the mormons built in the early 1840's and were forced to leave by mobs shortly after Joseph Smith was killed. They left in the middle of winter after having just completed many of their homes and their temple. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has done a wonderful job renovating the old buildings and now visitors can tour them (among other great activities), all for free.

We took a short ox ride in a wagon and learned about what the saints used to travel west in. Our tour guide, Brother Andrus, told us hold the oxen's horns. Um...excuse me? I've never considered myself squeemish but since we were just informed that each ox weighed at least 2500lbs, not to mention the slime that was coming out of their noses, I didn't want to get too close! Rachel wasn't afraid though. She grabbed a hold with both hands and wanted to pet the giant cow.

The kids were REALLY excited when we ran across a doggie. Rachel wouldn't leave the poor thing alone. I think the dog was a little nervous of the kids.

The funnest things for the kids were the Family Fun Center (or something like that) and the Pioneer Pastimes. At least they could TOUCH things! Jacob got to help make a rope and Rachel and Jeremiah (cousin) were happy to chase each other around the circular bench.

That night we went to the Nauvoo Pageant. It is a different pageant starting in 2005 and they allow family casts, which means that every two weeks new families come in, learn the script, dances and music and then perform for 2 weeks. The core cast (Joseph Smith and other characters) are the same through the whole summer. There were a LOT of families who were excited to spend their two week summer vacation performing in Nauvoo. Not a bad idea huh?

The pageant was fabulous by the way. We all loved it.

Rachel got to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa too. She was a big fan of petting the horses. She always has loved animals!

Some pioneer pastimes. Rachel thinks she's a big kid sometimes. She stood watching the girl next to her working that bear up the ropes and kept trying herself. She loved watching the bear slide down again.




The kids had a ton of fun with Jeremiah. Rachel and Jeremiah were born on the same day so they are exactly the same age. A few people thought they were twins. Rachel loved playing with him because he'd keep handing her things. Usually she has to take things away from Jacob to play with anything! Jacob loved watching Jeremiah do things differently. Jacob is a creature of habit and gets kicks out of people doing things the "wrong" way.




The temple was gorgeous. We got to go all the way to the top since the sealing rooms are on the 5th floor. It was a wonderful sealing and we're really happy for Kevin and Jessica and Jeremiah.
We were sad to go. Well...I was. I told Michael "I don't want to leave Nauvoo. I like it here". He smiled and said "there were a lot of people a long time ago that thought the exact same thing." I guess it's still true!