Trip to Nauvoo

Here are some pics from Nauvoo, IL. The kids liked this trip even more than I thought they would, which was a nice surprise. Nate's favorite places, I think, were the blacksmith and gunsmith shops (no surprise). April really liked the printing office (again, no surprise), and if I had to pick a favorite it would probably be visiting the insides of the rebuilt homes and learning of all the practical ways the Saints lived... there is so much that I take for granted and never think about.

Nate posing under a replica of the Christus statue at the visitor's center.

Elin on a lamb at the Family Living Center... very cool place where we learned how they made candles, bread, rope, fabric, and some other things.

This rope-making machine is incredibly simple... just turn the wheels!

Nate and Elin participating in the rope-making process, and they even got to keep some rope!

Here we learned how to heat and shape metal... the kids got to keep the mini horse shoe that the nice man made (and oh so excited about it!)

Outside Brigham Young's (rebuilt) home.

The gunsmith shop... where we learned how they made the barrels among other things.

The printing shop was really cool. Here you can see where they kept the capital letters (in the "upper case") and the small letters (in the "lower case").

Here's the actual press... Nate loved all the gears and especially getting to work it.

You can see how tedious a process it must have been to get all the metal letters in the right spots to print. Note the "p" and "q" standing up on the table, and imagine how easy it would be to get these mixed up or replaced in the wrong letter bin... you'd better "mind your p's and q's".

We went to the local culture hall to see these missionaries in their small musical "Rendevous in Nauvoo". It was great, and the kids actually loved it. Note Nate's head at the bottom.

The beautiful Nauvoo Temple at night... my little point-and-shoot didn't do it justice.