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Well, the weekend is over and mom's surprise finally happened when Bob and family showed up at the Nauvoo Temple to let her know they were in town (can I really call Nauvoo a town?).  They were here from Friday night until Tuesday morning and we had lots of family time together showing them what we could in that short timeframe all about Nauvoo.

Getting ready to head out on the wagon ride and see the "Flats" around the lower portion of Nauvoo proper. 

On the ride with Nana while I rode with Garret in front of Tabbi and the wee one.

  

...on to the blacksmith shop for a demonstration of wagon wheel building and horseshoe making and, of course, getting a prairie "diamond ring", no trip to Nauvoo would be complete without one! 

  

I'm thinking the people that make minivans must be really happy with their sales figures...

  

Of course, the guys need to stop by the Browning Gun Shop and look at the gun collection and all that was built in Nauvoo while Browning lived in Nauvoo.  Great GrandPa was a member of the church and knew both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young very well.  He moved on to Utah when the Saints were driven out of Nauvoo in 1846.

  

Pioneer Pastimes for the young ones.  Avrye had a great time chewing on blocks of wood and rolling around on the rag carpet.

  

Allye got dressed up so she could play "pioneer" for a while.  She seemed to like that.  We had to pry her out of the costume.

  

Giddyup!

  

These things are hard!

  

Nathan's pork ribs for dinner.

  

Guess who is the favorite Nana today?

  

Chocolate cake, ice cream and other goodies for Nana's birthday celebration.

So, the next day was Sunday, on the 3rd, we attended Nauvoo 2st ward with about a million other people where they had 40 sacrament trays just for the back area in the cultural hall, no way we could get into the chapel.  It took 35 minutes to get through Sacrament and it was Fast and Testimony plus the meeting, due to the number of wards meeting in the building, Sacrament is only 65 minutes long.  Went really fast.

At Carthage and the back side of the jail with our tour guides.  We managed to catch just about the last tour of the day.

  

Dad's probably thinking this may be a good idea...  The lower jail cell.

  

The door that was shot through just prior to the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.

  

The window the Prophet Joseph Smith fell through.

  

...from outside..

  

Our family at the Carthage Jail site.  All together for the afternoon.  Taken by a family that was there also on a family get together.  The father and mother had just been released as the mission president of the Macon Georgia Mission.  A huge family get together.

Well, I'm out of time so I need to get to the temple for today's work schedule.  More to come tomorrow or, at least, later.  Have a day or two more to add.

BTW, Elder Kevin and we have decided that we are going home separately.  We will be coming home in September somewhere around the 25th.  Kevin will be flying home on the 2nd of November.  We are beat and will be heading home at our original release date.  We've had enough.  So, we have about 10 weeks to go.  See you soon.