Nauvoo, Illinois

Wow, we had a great day today! There are so many things to see in Nauvoo...we could easily spend several days here. The weather was really chilly, so we nearly had the place to ourselves. We saw one other family only once. We visited the Historical Nauvoo Visitors Center. Outside of that was the Womans Garden where all of those cool statues of women in every stage of life are found. That was one of my favorite parts of the day. Those statues are very beautiful, and I want little replicas all around my house. They reminded me of how wonderful and honorable it is to be a woman--a wife, mother, and daughter. Then, we visited the Family Living Center. The awesome senior missionary couples taught and demonstrated how to make yarn, how the pioneers made bread in their brick ovens(along with a sample), how to make candles, how to weave rugs on a loom, how to make rope, and how to make wood barrels. The kids liked making the rope and we got to keep the length of rope they made. We visited the Scovil bakery and ate gingerbread cookies. We visited the blacksmith's shop and learned about wagons, wheels, and shoeing horses and oxen. The elder there forged a little iron horseshoe as we watched, then gave each of the kids a little horseshoe and all of us got a "prairie diamond ring". It was a ring made of a horseshoe nail. We learned that blacksmiths were called black-smiths because they dipped their hot creations in oil which carbonized the iron, made it black, and kept it from rusting. Then we visited the brick shop, where we were taught how the saints in Nauvoo made the brick for all of their houses. The wood in the area rotted quickly, so brick was the best way to build. We each got to pick out a little brick with "Nauvoo" imprinted on it to keep. We visited Jonathan Browning's home and shop with lots of the guns he or his son invented and built. It was really neat to drive around and see all of the old houses or properties owned by so many of the future leaders of the church. And, the temple is so beautiful! We ended our fun day with a Rendez-Vous performance given by the senior missionary couples and senior sisters. We weren't sure we would go, though every missionary who spoke with us today invited us to attend. We are all so glad we did! It was so fun to see these grandmas and grandpas dancing around and singing and acting. Andy and I figured many of them had never done anything like that before their missions, and we hoped that their kids and grandkids might get to see them. They were so good, they kept the kids' attention the whole time! What a neat place.