Nauvoo

We passed by St. Louis, so that meant we had to stop at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard!  I have no idea how many times Craig has been here, but I do know that we stopped here when we were moving across the country to Manassas from Provo and I was 7 months pregnant with Bentley.  It was fun to come back again, and even more fun to discover that their frozen custard is still AMAZING.  Everyone was happy!  (We had hoped to stop at the arch, too, but tickets had already sold out, so we just pointed it out a lot as we drove by.  Oh, well.)

We also stopped at Wal-Mart before arriving at our AirBnb, trying once again to stock up on food so we didn't have to eat out for ALL of our meals.  I quite like their apple walnut salads, and I also managed to return the queen bedding we'd bought in Kentucky.  (Does that make me a bad person?  I feel slightly guilty about that...), so that was great.  I will say, it's hard to plan a meal for 7 people to be cooked in a kitchen you've never seen.  We got everything for chicken nuggets for the first night, spaghetti and meatballs (including Texas toast!) for the second night. 

The last few minutes of our drive were tense.  I got pulled over for speeding, but fortunately got off with only a warning.  And then we couldn't find our AirBnb!  We were just starting to be concerned that maybe it didn't exist and we'd been conned, when we figured out that we were driving on River Park Terrace Lane, and it was on River Park Terrace Boulevard (or something along those lines), and then we finally found it.  Phew!

This place was super cute!  A bit small for so many people, but all in all it worked remarkably well!  It had a tiny kitchenette but the one bathroom was large.  And there were enough beds for everyone, so no one had to sleep on the couch or on the floor.  It also was just a whole lot nicer than the cabin, so that made me happy.  Yay for bedding and towels being provided!  AND for having a washer and dryer!  We got all settled in, ate our chicken nuggets and salads for dinner, and called it a night!

A table that fits us all!  Amazing!

This tiny spiral staircase led to a loft with three beds for the rest of our kids.  It was tricky carrying a suitcase up these stairs...

Through the trees, you could see a red sun setting on the Mississippi River

This adorable bunk bed was right off the living area, so once Colton and Camille went to bed, we all sort of had to go to bed, too.  Which was fine by me.  And Craig and I had a bedroom all to ourselves.

The next morning we got up bright and early and headed into Historic Nauvoo!  We started out at the visitor's center where the kids did a scavenger hunt to win...  bricks!

We spent some time playing pioneer games

And dressing up in pioneer clothes (I was surprised that Camille hated it, but Ryder and Colton had a blast!)

We also went on a wagon ride, where Camille fell in love with the horses and spent the rest of the day plotting to own her own horse some day.  Good luck with that, Camille!

These were Belgian draft horses.  For some reason I always get really excited to see BIG horses still getting put to work.  I worry that we no longer need these guys and they'll die out or something.  My favorite is always getting to see Clydesdales...

We also got to try our hands at making candles, barrels, and rope!

We also got to explore the print shop, the gunsmith, the tinsmith, and the home of the architect who designed the temple, as well as where they cut the stones for it.  There was a lot to see!  (And at some point we headed into downtown Nauvoo to get some lunch!)  It was a LOT like going to Colonial Williamsburg.  You didn't learn as much history, but it was all free, so that was pretty awesome.  We drove to Carthage Jail before it closed, and that was really sobering.  The missionaries giving us the tour kept wanting to take our picture, but it felt wrong to smile all big and cheesy in such a sad place. 

Then we went back to Nauvoo to take pictures around the temple.

Obviously, this is rebuilt, but how did the pioneers build something like this without modern machinery????  Humanity is incredible.  (I think this all the time when I'm in Europe.  I'm so blown away by what people have managed to build and create.)

Craig got this great shot of the statues of Joseph and Hyrum Smith leaving Nauvoo

Everything pretty much closes at 5pm, so we thought we'd head home and make dinner at this point. But then we heard that there was a show called "Sunset on the Mississippi" at 6:30, so we decided to check it out. 

The show was SUPER fun-- so much energetic singing and dancing and fiddling!  But it ran about an hour and a half, and I was NOT expecting that.  The kids were so hungry by the time it finished!  Fortunately our house was very close, so we zipped home and got to work on that spaghetti.  There was no oven, but Craig managed to find a tiny little toaster oven in the back of a cupboard, so the Texas toast did not go to waste!   And, most likely because they were so hungry, everyone agreed it was the best spaghetti they'd ever had. 

Tiny kitchenette!  Kids using TV and books to distract themselves from their hunger!

  And that was our day in Nauvoo!  The next morning it was time to hit the road again!