Monday, April 1, 2013
Our 2nd day in Missouri for Spring Break started early Monday morning with us leaving Missouri for Illinois. We we headed for Nauvoo. Nauvoo is a special place for Mormons. It is a town that was settled by Joseph Smith and the early members of our church before they were driven out of the state and eventually settled in Utah. It has been restored and is now a Mormon tourist destination. We had so much fun being there with our family. Above is Meg and Em sleeping on the drive to Nauvoo. It was FREEZING in Nauvoo. We braved the cold and had a picnic lunch after we arrived.
After lunch we loaded up for a carriage ride that took us through some of the lesser seen country of Nauvoo and we were able to hear some great spiritual stories about the early inhabitants of the city.
Emily and Meagan shared Uncle Steve H.'s coat the entire day. We called them Megily.
At the Family Living Center we learned about different daily skills that the early settlers in Nauvoo possessed. We even got some hands on experience. Here is Zac making strands of rope.
And here are Reagan and Addy twisting the strands of rope together to make a big rope.
Josh helping take care of Annie.
Zac was carrying Reagan and Addy and Emily and Aubrey decided to hitch a ride.
Then we went on a wagon tour of the town of Old Nauvoo. They had quilts we could wrap up in.
Even with the quilts it was a very chilly ride.
Spencer and Steve realized they committed a major fashion faux pas
by wearing the same quilt on the wagon ride.
Aubrey, Reagan, Meagan and Addy trying to get warm in the big coat.
We visited the Blacksmith Shop and they gave us all a prairie diamond ring.
It is a ring made out of a bent diamond brand nail.
Our next stop was the Gunsmith Shop and the John Browning house.
I had no idea John Browning was a Mormon or that he lived in Nauvoo.
We were able to see the process of old fashioned gun making.
I thought this was interesting. The machine gun was invented in Nauvoo. Who knew?
When the city of Nauvoo was planned, it was divided into one acre lots for each family/house. They leave one plot in natural prairie grass to show the size of the lots. Every spring they burn the plot with the prairie grass to show how fast spreading a prairie fire is and what a threat it was to the early settlers. We just happened to be there on the day of the burning.
We were a few weeks early for tourist season in Nauvoo so everything closed early. And there were no restaurants open for the season yet. I cannot even tell you how difficult it was to find enough food to feed this crew dinner. It was kinda ridiculous. I understand most places outside of Utah not being used to feeding such large families, but, uhhh... we were in Nauvoo. Who goes there except for Mormons with large families? Anyway, we checked into our house we were renting for the night and finally found a place that had the capacity to make as many pizzas as we needed and we sent the men folk across the river to pick up the pizza. The house we were staying in was awesome. It was only a few miles away from Old Nauvoo and it was right on the Mississippi river. Here is the view from the deck.
There was a small cabin on the property and these boys slept in it.
They holed themselves up in there with pizza and snacks and movies.
I think the girls favorite part of the house was this spiral staircase leading up to their bedroom. This was my least favorite part of the house because the next morning I brushed past it in my skirt and it ripped a hole in it.
See these kids. They thought they would play an April fools joke on my by changing my facebook profile picture to a rather disturbing picture of a baby with Mr. Beans head. They were the last ones up, I have no idea what time they finally went to bed. It was a fun day.
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