Day 20 - Nauvoo

Jennifer, Alan and I got up at 6:45am, showered, dressed and went to the temple. As we arrived so did a bus load of girls from Denver. There were also three other family groups there. We were the only ones with our own family names (thanks Aunt Geri) and so, after listening to the temple president for a few minutes, we were first into the font. It is a beautiful font and is very large. We had a good feeling there.

We got back to camp at 9am and found that Tresa had already fed the other kids and was almost ready to go. We ate, cleaned up and headed out. Our first adventure was a carriage ride around historic Nauvoo. Jennifer reports that it was more interesting than she thought it would be as they pointed out the many homes and sites that we could (and could not) visit.

After a stop at the laundrymat (a constant home for Tresa) and a stop for lunch, we attended a play called "Just Plain Anna Amanda." It was humorous and we all had fun. Tresa and I then left the kids to explore the Family Living Center and the Games park while we went to the temple. We got right into a sealing room and performed several sealings. We were then allowed a visit to the Celestial Room and saw the baptistry on the way out. We were glad to be able to be in that temple.

We found the kids happily playing and had trouble pulling them away from the games. But on we went: to the blacksmith shop where we all got pararie diamonds; to the oxen ride where we discovered how small the wagons really were and learned what an ox is; out to the Memorial Wall by the river where we found Jan C. Van Dam (one of the best moments of the whole trip for me); and to the brick shop.

After dinner we went to the variety show "Sunset by the Mississippi", which, because of the pagent was held indoors. It was a very entertaining variety show that we all completely enjoyed. We then walked down to the pagent site. There were lots of great activites to keep us busy while we waited for the pagent: Heather and Sara made stick and sock puppets; Timothy and Alan did stick pulls and stilts. The pagent was also very good (but Heather kept waiting for Jesus Christ to appear, which he never did.)


We tumbled into bed late. At about 2am, we were awoken by loud thunder and bright lightening and a downpour. It stormed for about an hour, including a lightening strike that was within a 1/2 mile. We didn't sleep so well.

This was a great day with 7.7 miles traveled in the van (Nauvoo is all so close together) and so many good experiences. The whole picture was brought forcefully home for me when we found Jan C. Van Dam (my grandfather's great-grandfather) on the memorial wall, remembering those who did not make it to the Salt Lake Valley.