Amie and family


Hunter, Amie, Justin, Taylor, and Benjamin (in front) Earl

Okay, I am really late getting this post completed! On June 30th Amie and her family arrived to visit us in Nauvoo.  We fed them dinner and helped them get settled in their room in the Nauvoo Suites.  It was just perfect for them and we were happy that we had found such a nice place for them to stay.  You can't help notice here that the temple is the highlight of the landscape.  It is visible from most parts of the town.  It was nice to stop by the temple after they went to church with us to snap a few photos.




Sunday afternoon we went to the Visitor's Center to listen to the young performing missionaries give their Sunday concert which was entirely spiritual music.  Their voices harmonize so well and it is a real treat to listen to them and feel the spirit that they bring.  Afterwards we took a walk in the Women's Garden.






Benjamin
















  
Taylor
Hunter


Sunday evening we went to a production on the Pageant stage called "Our Story Goes On".  It was a play given by the core cast members of the Nauvoo Pageant and the British Pageant telling about the life experiences we all have as we go through our lives.  Since Amie and her family had to leave before the Pageant started it was an opportunity for them to see and hear the talented performers who were here.  

Waiting for the play to start




"Our Story Goes On"
The moral of the play was that our own stories all hinge on the ordinances of the temple.  As it becomes the focus of our lives and we are able to be sealed to those who have gone before us as well as our children and grandchildren who come after us, we are then able to find the relevance of our own lives. I love how the stage has been built to take advantage of the temple in the background.  It is as if it is a silent member of the cast and is present in each scene in the play.  I think it should be in each scene of our lives too.

Monday morning Andrew and his family also arrived in Nauvoo (see their post to follow).  They joined us on the wagon ride (brown benches) and the carriage ride (green benches).  It was fun to ride around the streets of Nauvoo on the wagon ride.  The wife of the teamster told us stories about the people who lived here and built the various houses and businesses that we were passing.  On the carriage ride we went out north of town and heard more about some of the important people who were living here while Joseph Smith was here.  Andrew's family were excited to hear about one of Jessica's ancestors while on that ride. 

Getting to know the horses that took us for a wagon ride around Nauvoo








Carriage Ride into the area north of town



My mandatory photo shot was with everyone on the ox-cart wagon.  Each time I got on it I was amazed at how small that wagon was to carry all that the pioneers had to take with them. I sure came to appreciate the great sacrifice and effort they put forth to establish Zion again on the earth.

We also had a ride on the wagon pulled by oxen

Tuesday July 2nd Norm took all the older people to the temple to do some baptisms for the dead while I took Benjamin and Miles to the Pioneer Past Times so they could play with some of the toys that the pioneer children had to play with and learn about what life was like for them.  The thing I remember most about it was that it was extremely hot! 




               



Other activities of the week included trips to Carthage Jail, dinner at the Nauvoo Hotel Buffet, attending the play "Just Plain Anna Amanda" and the "Promise" and also the show in the amphitheater called "Sunset by the Mississippi which we went to twice.  In that one Benjamin and Miles were in the children's parade at the beginning of the show and had fun marching to the Brass Band.  





Tanner and Miles are invited up on the stage to dance and "fly"
On Wednesday evening we went down to Parley street to watch the Young Performing Missionaries present vignettes portraying journal entries from several people who were present during the great exodus of the Saints on February 2, 1844.






 On Thursday it was time to say good bye.
Time to take a picture before the final goodbye

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