Nauvoo, IL

Once both my Mom & Kaylene's family arrived at our house we drove to historic Nauvoo.  

The temple there is so gorgeous at night!

Tommy has been so cute about Jesus the last couple of months.  We didn't even think he knew who he was & we got a new kid book with Jesus in it so we showed it to him & asked who it was.  He doesn't say much so we were shocked when he clearly said "Jesus".  Then a few days later when we were saying prayers he started repeating us & now every couple of days he wants to say his own prayer.  When he saw this giant Jesus at the visitor center he chanted Jesus, counted his toes and pointed out all of his body parts.  It's so sweet! 

The next day we went on a wagon tour of Nauvoo.  My mom thought it was funny the horse's name was Ben so they got a picture by him.

This tree has crazy wicked spikes on it.  They had a cool story about it, but I can't remember it.

I was amazed how wide the river was that the pioneers had crossed.

Towards the end we had to pull out all snacks possible to entertain the kids.

I wish I had taken a picture of the restored street fronts as it was a cute historic part of town.  This is the only picture I have of the outside of the buildings!

Here we are listening to some of the tour info. I didn't realize how fun it would be to tour the old homes & learn about the way they lived back then.

 Here we are learning how they used to make old guns.  I loved learning how tedious everything was from making a candle, printing the newspaper, to making a rope.  We even learned how they baked bread & bricks.  It totally made me want to go back in time & see it first hand!  Also, I thought I knew LDS church history pretty well, but got a lot of new insight & it got me excited to strive to live my life better.

I didn't really like visiting Carthage Jail.  It just made me sad to know something so awful was done to such a good man in this building.  The jail room in there is so dark & creepy.

 It was nice to have Vic's nieces along so they could watch our kids while we went through the temple with Mom & Kaylene.  Here's a cute sibling picture.

 And the view right across the street.  It was so peaceful & pretty there!

 After that we picked up the kids & went to a show put on by all the "older" missionaries.  They did an excellent job.  I was so impressed with all of their acting & singing talents!  I was also pleasantly surprised at how witty & funny the writer of the play was.  Made me want to serve a mission here when I get old!!  (Not that I can sing or act... just seems like these old people LOVE their job)

 This picture doesn't do justice to how pretty the temple looked all lit up against the blue sky.  I did a terrible job of getting group picture, but here is our cute nieces, Allie & Izzy.

Hehe, this picture makes me feel young again... 2 lovers without any kids!

 Same view as earlier, but all lit up. 

 Fun trip!