Nauvoo

We went to Nauvoo, Illinois last week to see the LDS Nauvoo Pageant and some Church history sites along the way. We took a slight detour to find Adam-ondi-Ahman, which is just outside of a town in Missouri called Gallatin. We found the sign below, but without further decent directions, we never found the exact site and decided to visit again another time. It's about 1 1/2 hours away from Topeka, so we'll get better directions before we head out. The second paragraph in the sign below gives a bit more info:

Jeremy and I visited Nauvoo before we had kids and it was such a neat experience that we wanted them to see it too. We were totally kidding ourselves - the girls had a great time with the pre-show at the Pageant, but it was really hard to keep them in their seats for the 1 1/2 hour performance. The spirit was very strong even with the kids distracting us.

Here's the finale - the temple up on the hill in the background was lit up just for this part. The talent was amazing and the whole story of Nauvoo really brought it home. The Saints went through so much to build up the city (they lived there from 1841-1846 before mobs drove them out) that at one point it was larger than Chicago at the time! I am so thankful for the pioneers!
The next day we went and saw the historic sites around the town. We all got a ride in a covered wagon pulled by HUGE oxen. Gary was the nice one on the right - the girls got to pet his nose.
Here's an example of the red brick houses and stores. It's all been rebuilt and it's such a cute, quaint little town . I would love to go back to horse and buggy days and have a little patch of land in Nauvoo.There was an area for the kids to play - they had a schoolhouse and a house just the right size for the girls to play in. There were all kinds of pioneer toys and games and even clothes for the kids to dress up in. Maddie was playing with an older girl in the house - the girl had her doing the washing (with a real washboard and clothesline outside), cooking and sweeping. It was so cute!
And Madeline got the "water" all by herself too.
Abbie loved the wooden blocks. I think I'll get rid of all their modern toys and get them wooden ones. They didn't want to leave!
Jeremy tried the stilts. After a bit of direction from a senior missionary, he was able to actually stand up on them. I liked this picture better :)

It was a neat trip. The drive was beautiful, the weather was amazingly not too hot, and the girls did enjoy themselves. We'll go back in a few years when they're a bit older...although, I guess we'll still have a little boy on our hands :)