Nauvoo Day 2

On Wednesday morning Uncle Gary had a tour guide arranged to tell us some great stories and history of Nauvoo and the people who first lived there. The kids colored and played a bit while the adults all listened to the stories. After that some people went to see the Joseph Smith movie but we decided to go explore Nauvoo. The kids had gone on a carriage ride with Ruth the day before and seen some things they wanted to go back and check out.

First stop was the Jonathan Browning Gunsmith home/shop

The kids' choice? Nope. (Can you tell by BR's expression?) :)

However, it was an obvious must see for GM. ;)

Checkin' out the guns

MC and her Daddy pretending to make a rifle barrel

After the Gunsmith we went to a few more little homes (We got to see a few of the homes with and PAWS and her honey). Then, at last, we made it to the place that the kids were dying to see: The Nauvoo children's game workshop. They had all sorts of games and toys that were used by the children of Nauvoo.

The bear climb

The Stilts

The Top/Spinny Things

Some we got and some not so much,
but almost all took some figurin'. :P

As we were finishing at the Pioneer games we realized lunch had started so we ran to meet everyone for lunch but found they'd already eaten and were listening to the tour guide agian so we listened and ate and then went to the old Nauvoo Burial Grounds with everybody.
It was a very beautiful, hallowed place.

While we were there our tour guide happened to meet a lady who's a decendant of King Follate and writing a book of his history. It was about to be published so he asked her to tell us some of his stories. Then we listened to other stories by the tour guide. It was a very touching experience and GM and I left with an even greater reverence for the sacrifices of the early saints.

We all split up after this and my little family went to the Community of Christ side of Nauvoo to see the Prophet's burial site and the old brick store. It was very interesting to go to their side of things. We didn't stick around to hear any of their thoughts or testimonies though. :P

GM then took the kids swimming at the hotel while I browsed the shops in town.

We ate dinner at the park with everyone and then our kids asked to have permission to go hang out with Steve and MM's gang. We didn't want to mooch baby-sitting out of them but they assured us it was ok so we got a free date night out of it. Woohoo. :)

We went to the shops for some souveneirs, got ice cream and took pics of the temple at sunset.