Nauvoo

At the beginning of the month we were in Nauvoo for Curt's cousin's sealing.

Ron and Katherine joined us there (well, they were there first so I guess technically we joined them).

It was really good to see family and I enjoyed seeing the historic sites, even if it was very very warm outside...on top of my already pregnancy induced internal thermostat increase.

Here are some pictures.

Katherine, Ron, Des, and Curt

Des on the temple grounds, I love his smile

This is an amazing building.  I love the distinctive stained glass windows.

The reason we made the trip, Chris and his little family.  

They're having another little one around the same time as us in November.

I fell in love with this little man.  He's a smiler, and he crawls with his little bum in the air.  Very cute.

 All the Hostetlers in the area (well, if you include me behind the camera)

Ron, Katherine, Denae, Chris, Curt and the babies

 

After the sealing we went to Denae's family home out in the country.

 They've made it an amazing place for entertaining.

There was a homemade ball pit, which Des loved for obvious reasons...

...swings and playground stuff...

 ...a multi-platform tree house...

...a pool with a zipline to it from the tree house...

...and land and gardens and animals.

We enjoyed a lovely barbeque and some really spectacular fireworks since it was the weekend before the 4th.

Sunday we went to church (which was, as you might imagine, highly populated with visitors).

Then we visited some of the sites, which were mainly restored residences and shops.

I found most of them very informational and I took many pictures, but for your sake I will only post a few.  You're welcome.

I thought the thread loaded onto the loom was so pretty.

 

 At the visitor center.  Don't mind Curt's spotlighted noggin'

Monday we headed with Chris and Denae to Carthage jail and to more of the sites in historic Nauvoo. 

picture of some of the accessories in the printing shop

While we were in Nauvoo we stayed at a place called Nauvoo Villas. 

It was just a few minutes outside the town, but was a condo type place that was really spacious and came with a fully outfitted kitchen so we were able to go grocery shopping when we first got there and then were able to fix a bunch of meals there.

We also had a second bedroom for Des, and it was nice to be able to go back and have him nap in a separate {quiet} room from us.

On Tuesday we did the 8ish hour drive home.

To break things up, we stopped for a couple of hours at Silver Beach on Lake Michigan.

I really found it refreshing, but Des was a little less impressed.

He didn't like the sand on his feet and the water was maybe a tad cooler than his preference.

The baby's desire to not touch the ground or water did make him even more cuddly than usual, which I can't say that I hated.

Playing peek-a-boo with me and my "hat", which is apparently everything that touches my head.

In this case my sunglasses.

And then we drove home.

Des is getting to the age where DVD players actually hold his attention {for a minute} so road trips are becoming feasible again.

Thank goodness.