Nauvoo

After the family reunion, we headed to Nauvoo with Mike's parents and younger siblings (the older ones had to head back for work. Boo.). I expected it to be more like the sites we'd seen... just set within the actual city itself. I loved the way it's own little town within the city! It's so cute!
I'm getting ahead of myself... We drove up in our rental car from Kansas. We wanted to take the ferry across because... well, because we could! Unfortuantely, there had been a lot of flooding in that area and the ferry was closed. Bummer. So we drove up on Sunday night and got an early start on Monday. Our first start was actually Carthage. We decided to do it first instead of going to Nauvoo, then to Carthage, and then back to Nauvoo for more. We got through the visitor's center and halfway through the actual jail and Amy was done. She was tired of being held and wanted to run outside and play. So Mike and I took her out with the tour guide's promise that when she finished with the rest of the family she would show us what we missed. It was well worth the wait. There is an amazing spirit in that room. The recording they play was beautiful and so strong. I have to say that this was the most spiritual place outside of the temple that we visited on this trip.





After Carthage, we headed over to Nauvoo. We started with the visitor's center and watched a video about Nauvoo, then started on the smaller shops, like the blacksmith's shop. We went to the RLDS sites, which included the mansion home and Joseph and Emma's homestead (does anyone else think it's lame that in the midst of all these free little stores and tours run by the LDS church that the RLDS church charges for tours?). It was very interesting to see the tight quarter that people lived in back then. Can you imagine if our houses were that small? I think mine is too small as it is, and we have 3 separate bedrooms and 2 baths! Halfway through the mansion house, Amy crashed. Grandpa had the magic touch and she was out! This was the pattern the next day too! Grandpa's good like that. After that we visited the bakery and the pioneer exhibits (bread baking, rope making, barrel rolling, and candle making).

That filled up most of our day. We had a little time before the evening shows started, so we did the trail of hope, which is the beginning of the trek from Nauvoo to the river. They have some amazing quotes all along the way from the pioneers. It was very touching. That night we watched the Rendevoux in Nauvoo play. It was done by all the senior missionaries that run Nauvoo. It was quite entertaining and fun. We had "rendevoux in old nauvoo" stuck in our head all night. Those missionaries are good sports!

The next morning I got to do a session in the temple with my in-laws. What an amazing experience, despite the fact that it was incredibly early. The temple was beautiful and we enjoyed walking around the foyer afterwards to see some of the artifacts and such that they had displayed. The kids spent the entire morning while we were at the temple playing at the Pioneer Games place. They learned all sorts of little games that Mike now wants! They even had little costumes out for them to try on. Isn't Amy adorable? They had so much fun that we had a hard time pulling some of them away. We went to the gunsmith's shop and then a lot of the early leader's homes. It was an amazing day. We drove back to Kansas in a major rainstorm, which was cool. Thanks to the Laudie's for an amazing time!

We spent the next morning at Grandma Laudie's, visiting with her and the family (they slept there that night) and then said our goodbyes. Amy was sad to see them all go because she finally learned all of their names! Woo hoo!