The Mr. randomly was able to get an extended weekend due to some schedule rearrangement at an earlier time, so we decided to venture ourselves to Nauvoo (since I've never been there...and we've been dying to go camping somewhere - even if mountains are not involved).
I read a travel tip on bringing small trays on car trips so kids actually have a sturdy/hard place on their laps to play on. We fortunately had such a random thing (that we've never used until now). It was a FANTASTIC idea!
We stopped a couple times (when we found a rest stop, that is) to get out and stretch. It was all fun and games until Mickey tried to pump himself in the swing with his legs and fell out. We had him laughing before we left though, so turned out ok.
Our original plan was to camp at Nauvoo State Park, but as we drove through it the Mr. and I both kept thinking, "this does not look like a place we want to be." So we headed over to Camp Nauvoo where we met some very friendly camp managers, and later became extremely grateful we switched to this site.
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| Why can I not get out of this thing?! |
After we set up, it began to rain. We all tried to pile into one tent (we brought two for lack of a single one large enough for all of us - which was just fine actually) as the rain poured down. Then, the Mr. and I paused, looked at each other, shrugged, and let the boys out. We were there to be in nature, right?! We figured we could rinse off and change in the dry restroom/shower building before bed anyway.
Our tent camping plans were foiled, however, when the rain continued to pour. And pour. And pour. As I was cleaning and drying the boys off, the Mr. checked our tents and found one of them in a puddle of water. The only one who would stay dry that night would be Goose as he was in a pack-n-play off the ground. Fortunately, the camp managers let us move into an available cabin where we could stay dry for the night. The Mr. moved all our stuff into the cabin - and became quite drenched in the process - but the rest of us were able to stay dry, and thus sleep. No wonder this area was a swamp! Come morning, one other family scooped out 3 gallons of water from the bottom of their tent - they had, fortunately, moved into a cabin as well.
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| Puddles in our tent in the morning. |
The next day, we biked around Old Nauvoo while the boys napped, and then ventured more around Nauvoo after lunch. The Mr. even watched the boys so I could go to the temple!
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| Visitors' Center |
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| BEAUTIFUL Nauvoo Temple |
There are a lot of fun things to see and places to visit around Old Nauvoo. And a lot to learn about the people and lifestyle of those who used to live there.
For try two on tent camping, we returned to our campsite to make a dutch oven dinner and roast s'mores. We accidentally bought frozen chicken, and I forgot a spice at home. So we started with the s'mores. My version included a roasted marshmellow, a tiny piece of chocolate, and half an apricot. It was delicious! (Normal s'mores make me sick). Mickey said, "it's good. But not as good as a pineapple!" :) Mom for the win!
Dinner didn't turn out bad either. We really liked it!
Following dinner, we returned to Old Nauvoo for the Pre-Pageant Festival. As Mickey said, "Oh!!! It's a party!" (enter running...)
We had a really fun trip and were grateful for the time off the Mr. had. Our drive home included more rain. For some reason the Mr. likes driving in dangerous conditions - and he is so amazing at it (of course!). Made me glad that he was driving and not me, because I would have gone really slow.
