Randezvous in old nauvoo

This last weekend, we decided to go on a little trip to Nauvoo. Here are some things we learned:
*It's mating season for bugs and moths
* lighter fluid and a match can help control the moth population
*Very high heat (90+) plus very high humidity + sever storms make for interesting campouts
*homemade rainflys may seem effective....at first
* buckets of rain are not a problem UNTIL the wind blows off your rainfly. THEN buckets of rain ARE a problem
* a public shower-stall can also serve as a 3am movie theater during sever storms
*spiders have to find new homes after it rains...they like tents
* I HATE spiders
* when your bedding and clothing are soaking, it can "dampen" your spirits
*I'm glad I'm not a pioneer
* TONS of Lightning can be overstimulating and scary when you are in a tent under a tree in
the middle of the night
*a set of spare keys is great to have, except when they are locked in the car with the other set
*If your locked out of your car, it's nice to be by the blacksmith shop that is full of missionaries
* when trials come upon you, friends are such a great blessing
* WE LOVE NAUVOO

We were pretty excited to go, Nauvoo is one of my very favorite places, so I was excited that we are only a 5 hour drive away.

These are our friends Nate and Misty. They lived a few houses away from us in Cedar and now they live in Village Green here in Omaha too. They are wonderful friends and it is funny how similar we are and how many things we have in common. The list continues to get longer and longer. Anyway, we all decided to camp...little did we know the adventure we would have
Here is their little girl Maylie Elise and Avonlea Elise who are great buddies, they are only a couple weeks apart and they love to just go walking together.
Here is their Addy and our Addie. I randomly grabbed some butterfly catchers and a bug kit a couple days before we left. I think Addie spent 90% of her time searching for bugs. That girl is obsessed. She caught moths, spiders, caterpillars, frogs, beetles, fireflies butterflies and anything else she saw....GREAT purchase

The kids had a lot of fun just running around and watching the cute plays (Just Plain Anna Amanda)



Did I mention that it was HOT!!!! I felt like I was in a sauna for most of the trip, but it was okay. It made for interesting naps sleeping outside (luckily in the shade) in the middle of the day. Kimball asked to take a nap...he was TIRED
This one, on the other hand thought she didn't need a nap
Addie was giving the bugs a permanent nap....like euthanization

It was nice at the end of the day to go to the river and let the kids play

During the 2nd day we were there, Some EMT's came to our camp sight in their ambulance, warning us that there was a sever storm heading right for us and if we here the siren, to get inside immediately and stay away from windows. Hmmm...get inside what? our tent? Good thing those public restrooms were close. Oh joy, a campground restroom for our safety...how fun:-) Well, that storm passed quickly and was not too bad, we were able to just stay in our tent and wait out the rain....little did we know that there was another storm coming. We went to bed that night and about 3 in the morning, we awoke to continuous blinding flashes. Keep in mind that we had pitched our tents under some trees. There was SO much lightning, thunder and RAIN!!! Surprisingly enough, the kids were sleeping right through it. I decided to go to the car and see if I could find anything on the radio that might tell me whats going on. What did I hear? Oh just them saying that our area was under a sever storm of high winds up to 60 miles an hour, dangerous lighting and that we should stay away from windows and take the necessary precautions. The storm warning was in effect till 4:30. Well, over to the public restrooms we go. The kids were actually really great Nate and Misty set up their movie player for the kids and we made a bed in the shower stall. Addie Call slept through the whole thing. The storm didn't last long and we went back to the tent. The kids went back to sleep and I felt like I had just fallen asleep again when it starts raining and LIGHTNING AGAIN!!!! Just as I get up to look outside, a huge gust of wind came and tore off our rain fly and starts dumping gallons of water on us. I grabbed Avonlea, who was quite surprised to be woken up by that and ran her to the van while Ammon is grabbing the other kids. Nate came over and was trying to help us get our rain fly back on but it was no use. We just grabbed a few important things, threw them in the van and headed over to the restrooms. I have to admit, it was pretty scary for those crazy minutes when I didn't know if a tornado was coming or if we were going to be struck by lightning or blown away. One thing I knew was that we were all getting SOAKED!!! Interestingly enough, the rain stopped right as we got to the bathrooms. Then came the damage report.
our shower stall movie theater



What a mess
Nate and Ammon dragging our stuff to the pavilion to try to dry it out
The kids soaking wet, having an EARLY morning breakfast

Misty asked if there was anything she could do to help. I asked her if she would just take some pictures because this was an experience to remember. Thank you Misty for the pictures and thank you Nate for all your help. The whole situation was quite comical. I was laughing through most of this and I was so glad that the kids were in good spirits.
We dried up as best we could and packed everything up and had a very early start to our day. We went to the temple and walked around


Then decided to go see some of the homes and sites. We started off at the blacksmith shop. I went to grab Avonleas binki after and asked Ammon for the keys to unlock the car. He didn't have the keys. Where were they? In the ignition...isn't that where keys go? Misty and I went walking around with the kids to keep them entertained and Nate and Ammon started trying to unlock the car. They got some wire hangers and after about 45min-1hr, working together they unlocked the car. They were pretty excitedafter all this excitement and a very short night, Avonlea was ready for that nap now.


WOW!!! What a fun wonderful adventurous trip it was. On the way home, we stopped at a Danish windmill and had some yummy cool watermelon


What a great way to end our trip. Life is good