Fun times at Old Nauvoo Part I

Two weeks ago we went to Nauvoo. We left Thursday evening after Jared got home from work and made it to Nauvoo around 8:00. We had told the girls we were going but had not told them Uncle Alex would be there. I still had the itinerary for the youth, so we knew they would be playing pioneer games on the green and watching Pageant Thursday evening. We got out of the car and walked around the perimeter hoping to spot Alex before he accidently found us. Meanwhile, he had gone to the bookstore with a chaperone and youth, all the while complaining that he missed his nephew and nieces soo bad and wished we had come up since it was only a few hours away. The chaperone, who knew we were coming ,could barely keep a straight face. We finally met up and continued to play games with Alex until the start of pageant. We stayed and watched pageant before heading back to sleep. Thanks to the wonderful generosity of the Lichfield family we stayed in a house on the other side of the river in Montrose Iowa. There were beautiful views of the temple from the back windows. I was torn between wanting to cram as much as possible in Nuavoo, and relaxing with the beautiful view of the river and temple.

The next day, we headed to carthage to tour with the youth. Honestly, I was a little disappointed at first with Carthage. I thought I would be overcome with a sober, depressing feeling to know I was standing in the room where The Prophet and his brother were killed. I was surprised when those feelings weren't there. I guess since we know it was all a part of God's plan and his salvation is definately not in question, we don't need to be overcome with grief. After the girls and Alex said a tearful good-bye we were headed back to Nauvoo to catch a showing of Plain Anna Amanda. The girls thought it was great but Jared and I could've done without it. The rest of the day we spent touring the Scovil Bakery(free cookies made this a great stop in the kids mind), Brigham Young House, The Brickyard(a souvenir brick for all the kids), The Pendelton School House (Katy loved writing on the slates), The Webb Brothers Blacksmith Shop (another plus for the girls- a prairie diamond ring. Jacob won the demo horseshoe for having the closest B-day in the tour, and it was 2 months away!), Sarah Granger Kimball Home, the Temple Stone Quarry. We stopped to eat a snack on a picnic table along side the road. As I was sitting there, stuffing my face, I looked up and who did I see walking down the sidewalk? A large portion of the Storm clan! It was great to see Jon and his family, Tom and his family, and Mike. I hadn't seen some of them in so long. Brought back some funny memories of high school and college. We finished our afternoon by walking around the Temple Grounds. It was so hot on Friday that some of the events in Nauvoo closed down due to the high heat index. The kids were real troopers.

At one point in the afternoon, when the little two were fussy and we were all roasting I wondered what we were doing there which such young kids. I was ready to load back in the car and come home. The next place we stopped was the Brickyard. We were the only ones there for the next tour- or rather the only people crazy to be out in the peak of the afternoon. The older missionary elder through inspiration took us into the air-conditioned building instead of the demo tent. He began the tour by thanking us for bringing our children to such a scared town. He proceeded to explain that visiting Nauvoo would leave a big impression on children even at such a young age. He went on to tell us about a Stake President who asked his youth as they left for missions, BYU, etc what youth activity had been most instrumental in helping them grow testimonies and hold to the rod. Most of them said the youth conferences to Nuavoo. He then continued to thank-us and tell us that even though we were hot, tired and frustrated we were doing a wonderful thing for our family. I was really touched by his perceptiveness. We had gone in with smiles hoping to hide our frustrations. He really touched my heart with his words.
We spent the evening play more pioneer games and went to Rendez-vous in Old Nauvoo performed by the senior missionaries. It was fantastic and even better- Bella and Jacob fell asleep. We even had front row seats. We were one of the last people to enter the building and were uncertain if we'd even get seats together. The front row had been reserved for children and since ours were the only children there, the whole family was ushered to the front row!
Here are some pics from the first 2 days. The camera died after day 2 and I had forgotte the charger. The rest of the pictures were taken on my phone, and as soon as I figure out how to download them I'll finish our trip.