So as part of our celebration at having Ryan back we went on a little family trip to Nauvoo, Illinois. What seemed like such a trek when we lived out in Utah is now only 6 hours away. We drove out first thing on Tuesday and the six hour drive turned into eight with all the potty and snack/nursing stops. It was a good drive though and the girls were great. Ryan and I racked our brains for stories and fun songs to sing to entertained when they got sick of their other books and toys. We stayed in at a great place called Camp Nauvoo in a bunk house style one room cabin. It was perfect for us, just a set above camping in a tent (which did not go well the last time we tried), we all got to sleep in a bed and it had air conditioning. I think they mostly rent out to large family and youth groups during the really busy season, but we had the place almost to ourselves the first night (the only other people were our friends the Clark's who happened to want to come the same week!) and then a soccer team was there the second night but they were pretty quiet. It was so nice to have a cool place to come back to for naps and in the evening.
The first night we got there we went to check out the temple. It was so cool to see it in person, I really wish Ryan and I had had time to go through, hopefully next time we go. The next day we just took things at pretty easy pace, which was a must with the girls. We went on a wagon ride around "Old Nauvoo" and checked out the visitor's center. Then since we only had that one day we tried to pick a few things that the girls would really enjoy and other "must see" things. The Family Learning Center was one of our favorites. They had several little stations the taught you various things that the pioneers did: weaving, baking, candle making, rope making, pottery. It was really fun to learn how they lived. Lauren also really enjoyed the Pioneer Children Pass Times. They had pioneer clothes to dress up in and little games that pioneer children used to play. Ryan and I thought the tours of the homes and other buildings would have been really cool but Lauren ran around trying to touch everything, so we only made it through one. While the girls were taking naps Ryan and I read through some pioneer journals and the Our Heritage book that the Church put out. it was so amazing to learn about what our ancestors went though and their lives and journey to Salt Lake. It made it so much more real to be there and walk the places that they walked. We didn't get to spend near as much time as we would have liked, at our pace it probably would have taken at least 3 or 4 days. But now we better know how to plan our next trip out there. We had a great time and it was so nice just to spend it all together without any other distractions. I hope we can go again soon.
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