Good times in the Midwest - Day 3

Monday was Temple Day for us. We went to the temple in the morning and planned it so that we would finish about the same time that my parents finished their shift. As it turned out, they were able to come on the session with us which was really neat. After our session, they took us to all of the floors of the temple so we could see it all and it was really awesome. It is such a beautiful temple and everything has been done to make it as close to the original Nauvoo Temple as possible. If you haven't been to the Nauvoo Temple, I highly recommend that you go. It's one of the very few temples that I would suggest you travel to visit.


Jared and I outside the temple after our session


Practicing with the camera again. This little guy made an excellent model

After the Temple, we went home for lunch and then it was off to see more sights. We walked to the oxen rides and got to meet these two fabulous oxen named Gary and Gabe. They were very nice and took us on a little wagon ride. Did you know that an Ox is a bull that has been castrated (making it a steer) and trained to obey voice commands? I thought it was a completely different animal, but no. It is a cow. And they're very nice!


The Nauvoo vacationers with our new friends, Gary and Gabe

Walking back from the oxen rides, we saw this sweet old car driving down the street. I pointed it out to my dad and he said, "oh yeah. It looks like a '38". Then he told my mom to take a picture of it. The driver saw us taking a picture, so he stopped so we could get a good one. Then he chatted a bit with my dad and said the car was a '37 Dodge. Then he asked us if we wanted a ride. Sweet!!!! Of course, we wanted a ride! So we all piled in and this guy just drove us all over Nauvoo telling us stories and giving us tidbits about all of the sites. Then he dropped us off where he picked us up awhile later. It was an expected vacation activity, but it was awesome!


Hopping out of the car after our unexpected tour!

After the car ride, we saw a few more sites and then headed home for dinner. After dinner, we went to see a show called Sunset by the River. It's put on every night by the performing missionaries and is full of song and dance. We loved watching all of the older site missionaries perform and we had our favorites by the end of the week. Definitely a must-see since it's such a part of historic Nauvoo!