Part Two of Bean Family Car Trip

We had planned for 4 days in Nauvoo. We were initially worried that was going to be way too much time. By day two we were worried it wasn't going to be enough time. And by day four we felt like it had been the perfect amount of time!

We stayed at the historic Woodruff Hotel. It was right across the street from the temple and offered gorgeous views! Our suit had three beds and the kids immediately were drawing straws to see who would get their own bed.

 This was the view from our room.

 We were directly across from Zion's Mercantile as well.

 Carmen won having the bed to herself on the first night. Once everyone was tucked in she admitted to feeling a little nervous about having such a large bed all to herself. But by morning, she had worked it out and was able to utilize the entire bed herself.

 Finally we were able to get our bikes out and ride them! Nauvoo is very flat except for one big hill that separates the temple and our hotel from the lower Old Nauvoo.  It's actually very ideal for riding bikes. Although it turned out being a ton of work to bring bikes and a ton of work to actually get the family all moving in the same direction at the same time; the bikes turned out being one of my favorite parts of the trip.  I think it turned out being one of my favorite parts because Aliza and Charlotte really didn't want to ride bikes at all. But Aliza did it anyway and although I don't think it was her favorite thing, she never complained. Charlotte was really scared about riding her bike. The first day she rode in the trailer with Dallin. On the second day she finally rode it and did fabulous, until she tried taking a short cut through some grass. That was the end of her bike riding for the rest of the trip! The sad thing was when David's chain broke going up the hill back to the hotel.

 Pioneer Pastimes:

This was by far the kids favorite spot! They could have played here all day if we had let them. It was a small area with fun games and little log cabins to play in. Oh, and there was dress up clothes! 

 Dallin loved this little sheep.

 I could not get over how cute the girls were in these little pioneer outfits!

 Carmen and Charlotte trying out stick pulling

 We saw a lot of the old homes and structures that still exist there. I believe this one was Brigham Young's home. The girls saw what a school would have been like during that time period. And Dallin and David took a lot of naps under trees. The poor boy was up late every night and never got a real nap the entire vacation. I was so grateful to David for dealing with Dallin most of the trip. The two of them really bonded and I felt so relieved to not have to deal with his grumpy and wiggly behaviors.  I felt like David may have missed out on a lot of different things because he was dealing with Dallin, but I also secretly think he enjoyed that Dallin preferred him over mommy!