This was our first attempt at a far away family trip. Clint and Sherry were gracious enough to offer us their frequent flyer miles. We were invited ahead of time, so we saved our money. This trip was unforgettable.
Well I’m going to tell you about our trip with my brother and sisters families to Nauvoo. First of all I wished that all ‘our’ family could have joined us on this great trip. I kept thinking, “Oh how I wished that Britney and Mike, Brandon, and Matthew could have been here to enjoy this wonderful trip together with the extended family. I guess we’ll have to hope that there will be another opportunity. Well Tuesday Grandma and Grandpa Rip, mom, Holly, Kaylee, and I drove down to Salt Lake Airport and met Clint and Sherry’s family there, and also Debbie and Nolan and their family, along with Blaine and Nikki’s family. Tammie and Kellie flew in from Boise and met us there at Salt Lake Airport and then we all flew on Southwest airline to St. Louis. There we met up with Terry and MaryAnn. From there we rented 4 mini vans. We drove up to Hannibal and ate a quick lunch. Then off to Keokuk, Iowa. It is just across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo and Carthage. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn. That night the kids all went swimming in the little pool there in the hotel. Wednesday morning we get up, eat breakfast at the hotel, and then we are off to Nauvoo. It was quite a beautiful drive up along the river coast line heading up to Nauvoo. After arriving in Nauvoo at the Church Historical Site we went to the church visitor’s center. We went on the tour provided by the Nauvoo missionaries. I guess there are about 200 missionaries in the Nauvoo, Illinois Mission. I think we all were able to feel the spirit. It was a awesome experience. We saw a 15 minute movie presentation about Nauvoo. It was really a good video. The part I enjoyed the most about the video was the little testimony clips about each of the people who said things they recalled about their experience meeting the Prophet, Joseph Smith. After the video presentation we all went outside and got on a horse drawn wagon and rode around the city of Nauvoo. in the carriage. An Elder Johnson narrated the trip as we rode around Old Nauvoo. He told of some old and interesting stories about some of the great people associated with Church History, who had a part in the history of the great city of Nauvoo. Later on when we asked the different kids what they had enjoyed the most about the trip, they said, “the wagon ride, with Elder Johnson telling stories about Nauvoo.” On several occasions on the trip we heard about a “Dan Jones,” who was a very close friend of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I want to do a little research and see if he was related to Nathaniel Vary Jones. Nathaniel Jones was an ancestor of ours on Grandma Ripplingers’ mom’s side. We ate lunch and then went to Reorganized Church’s visitor’s center. I think several of the group made mention of how easily it was to feel a difference in the spirit. You just recognized the presence of the Holy Ghost. Then we went on their tour of the Mansion House, Joseph Smith’s house, and a couple of other places which they own. I just couldn’t feel the spirit. The tour guide just pointed out the factual information. It was really quite different. The one thing that bothered me was as we entered the visitor’s center, the young man that was a missionary for the Reorganized Church, had an earring on. I just didn’t think that was very indicative of a messenger of the Lord.
Then we went somewhere uptown and ate. In the evening we wanted to go to a couple of performances put on by the missionaries. The first was called, “Nauvoo Adventures.” It was performed by 16 missionaries that are on 4 month missions, and they are there to perform at the visitor’s center. They told the story of Nauvoo through song. It was really nice. They obviously added just a little storytelling and dancing to go along with their singing. That performance was about an hour long. When that was finished we went to another performance which was put on by a mixture of the full time couple missionaries and the young missionaries. They also had some crowd performance to help with the presentation. A lot of the nieces and nephews were part of the show. It was really fun. It was called, “Sunset on the Mississippi,” After they finished we did a couple of dances doing the Virginia reel. I danced with Kaylee. Mom videotaped. It was a lot of fun. Then off to the hotel for a good night’s sleep. Thursday’s activity was our trip to Carthage jail. We needed to be there by 9:00 AM. That is when the visitor’s center opened up. We arrived just a few minutes early so we had Grandpa Rip tell us a little why he and Grandma wanted us to go on this trip. It was nice. Finally the visitor’s center did open up and we were able to walk around the visitor’s center and look at the different points of interest. Then we went into the visitors center and listened to the presentation about the Carthage jail and some of the interesting facts about what took place their. We watched another video about the Prophet Joseph Smith. After the video the missionary took us on a tour of the Carthage jail. We saw the actual bullet hole that killed Hyrum Smith and then we saw where he must of fallen. Someone asked the missionary where the blood stains had gone and she said that in 1974 President Kimball went there and saw the place and he told them that it was time for us as Saints to move on and had the blood stains removed. Then we saw the window from where the Prophet Joseph had fallen after he was shot. Being there really made it seem different. You hear those stories of the Carthage Jail but to actually be there, it was overwhelming. Then we stood where the Prophet had fallen on the ground and we shared some different stories about our different ancestors who were a part of Nauvoo. I shared some information about several of the ancestors who I had looked up and must of done Temple work at Nauvoo or at the Nauvoo Endowment House. We even had some ancestors who had died there at Nauvoo. Thursday afternoon, we headed back to Nauvoo and wanted to see some of the other sites of interest like; the Blacksmith shop, the Heber C. Kimball Home, the Brigham Young Home, The Printing House, the post office, Pioneer games at the park, fun past times,.. We lost a couple of rings for the games up in the big tall trees. Then we wanted to go up town and get the kids an ice-cream cone. So we headed up town and found a place for some ice-cream. As we were sitting there eating the ice-cream we had storm clouds move in and we had a cloud burst. Mom was really nervous. The clouds were dark, you know what I mean. But all it did was drench the area with a torrential downpour. It lasted about 10 minutes. We finished our ice-cream and then thought we ought to go see about the last show that we wanted to watch. It was the “Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo.” Well the town is up on the hill by the Temple.
We went up town by the Nauvoo Temple so we could take a couple of pictures of the temple being built. It is quite beautiful. So we head back down the hill and we can see these dark clouds rolling toward us. They are the ones that you don’t want to see. Up town is about a mile away from the visitor’s center. So as we are traveling down to the visitor’s center we see we are going to get some really rough weather. We pull up alongside the visitor’s center and I drop off mom, and the other passengers in the van which I was driving. I just went to park the van and the wind really starts picking up and the rain starts to come down. And so I’m thinking that I don’t want to get out in the downpour. Then the wind starts shaking the van. Not moving it around on the ground but moving it like as if several people were shaking the van. I started to actually think that I might be in trouble. I offered a little prayer that I would be protected and those inside. Nolan and Debbie with all their passengers are in the van next to me, but they backed into their parking spot, so they are facing the oncoming wind. Just as I finished offering my little prayer, mom comes running out o f the Visitors Center, and yells for us to get into the Visitors Center and get to the basement. We no sooner get into the building, than the winds really pick up. Branches are flying around. We are trying to ask the people at the visitor’s center if there is a tornado watch or tornado warning, or just a severe thunderstorm warning? They said it was just a severe thunderstorm warning. Well it knocked out all of the power. The Mission President cancelled the performances for the evening. The storm lets up a little and so he asks us all to get into our automobiles and go back to our hotels. They were several other people in the visitor’s center besides our families. Well we get into the vans and start heading back to the hotel. As we are leaving the area and going down the road we see trees that have been broken off or up rooted. There were several trees just right by the visitor’s center which had been either broken off or up rooted. The road was closed and the next one over was closed because the bridge was out. Therefore we had to go up north about 10 miles and cross the Mississippi River on a draw bridge. Then we drove down south to Keokuk, Iowa. It was on the other side of the river. Well as we drove past the opposite side of the river from Nauvoo, we did get to see the Nauvoo Temple from the other side of the river. That would have been the side where the exodus Mormons would of crossed the river as they were leaving Nauvoo. We had severe storm watch the rest of the evening even until midnight. Does this sound familiar? The show that got cancelled was the only real thing that we felt like we would have liked to have seen. We ate and then the kids went swimming back at the hotel pool.
Thursday turned out to be quite an eventful day. You know as I reflect back on the event at the visitor’s center, and as I felt the need to ask a quick little prayer, I felt that somehow the Lord would protect our family and especially me while I was out in the storm. I was truly scared, but I felt a reassuring feeling come over me. Then your mom showed up and said, “Get into the building.” As we looked over the devastation that occurred as we left Nauvoo that day and also the next as we went back to see a couple of the last things which we wanted to see, I know that I had to be protected, or how else did so much damage happen all around me and us or the visitors center not be harmed in any way? I mentioned to you about being in the park and playing some games earlier? Well the tree right next to where we were earlier, playing the games at the park, was snapped right off. I mean like it was just twenty feet away from where we were. And there were several trees right by the visitor’s center, that if they had fallen in the other direction it would have probably hit the visitor’s center and knocked out the class windows where we would have been standing. We were truly protected. If we had taken off and been driving down the road going back to the hotel instead of staying at the visitors center we might have had one of the trees that fell across the main highway, hit us as we were driving. What is it with our family and these severe storms? Well Friday we get up and we head back to the visitors center for one last tour and we wanted to see one or two last places. We were so amazed at the damage which had occurred right around us. It was truly a blessing that we were protected. Well we watched the “Lamb of God” video and then we went into an upstairs room and had a testimony meeting with just our family of 25 people. It started off with Grandpa and then Grandma, followed by the entire adult brother and sisters, and then their spouses. It was truly a special occasion. What a neat spirit that was with us as each told of their love one for another and then bore their testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. What a neat opportunity. Then we had to go up town one more time because we wanted to go to a soveigner shop. We bought a few items which will hopefully help us remember our time at Nauvoo and at at Carthage. It really brought the stories we study to life for us. We grabbed a quick lunch back at Wendys in Keokuk, Iowa, and then we headed back to St. Louis. We needed to get back to catch the plane at 7:20 PM departure. Terry and MaryAnn’s plane for Phoenix left 10 minutes earlier. We brought 4 walkie-talkies with us, one for each van, so we could keep in contact with each other at all times. The walkie-talkies can reach up to a 2 mile distance. It was quite fun to be able to be in contact at all times while we were in the vans. It helped in keeping the group together also. No one ever got lost. That is pretty good for having 4 different outfits. Well we hurry and get back so we can be at the airport an hour and half before departure so we can get seats together. Well because of the storms along the Midwest and eastern coast our connecting flight was delayed, taking off. We ended up leaving at 9:30 and got home in Brigham City, at 1:30 Am. Oh were we tiered. You know I think it is going to be one of those experiences in life that we have, that we will reflect upon many times throughout our lives. Just as we reflect upon our Disneyland trip and watch the video often, I think we will talk and reflect upon this trip many times. My only regret is I wished the rest of my dear children could have been there with us, to experience the things we felt and saw. However, I know each of you was doing things of an eternal purpose and that is why you weren’t there. I hope someday we can do something that spiritual and meaningful as a family.
Well I’m going to tell you about our trip with my brother and sisters families to Nauvoo. First of all I wished that all ‘our’ family could have joined us on this great trip. I kept thinking, “Oh how I wished that Britney and Mike, Brandon, and Matthew could have been here to enjoy this wonderful trip together with the extended family. I guess we’ll have to hope that there will be another opportunity. Well Tuesday Grandma and Grandpa Rip, mom, Holly, Kaylee, and I drove down to Salt Lake Airport and met Clint and Sherry’s family there, and also Debbie and Nolan and their family, along with Blaine and Nikki’s family. Tammie and Kellie flew in from Boise and met us there at Salt Lake Airport and then we all flew on Southwest airline to St. Louis. There we met up with Terry and MaryAnn. From there we rented 4 mini vans. We drove up to Hannibal and ate a quick lunch. Then off to Keokuk, Iowa. It is just across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo and Carthage. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn. That night the kids all went swimming in the little pool there in the hotel.
ReplyDeleteWednesday morning we get up, eat breakfast at the hotel, and then we are off to Nauvoo. It was quite a beautiful drive up along the river coast line heading up to Nauvoo. After arriving in Nauvoo at the Church Historical Site we went to the church visitor’s center. We went on the tour provided by the Nauvoo missionaries. I guess there are about 200 missionaries in the Nauvoo, Illinois Mission. I think we all were able to feel the spirit. It was a awesome experience. We saw a 15 minute movie presentation about Nauvoo. It was really a good video. The part I enjoyed the most about the video was the little testimony clips about each of the people who said things they recalled about their experience meeting the Prophet, Joseph Smith. After the video presentation we all went outside and got on a horse drawn wagon and rode around the city of Nauvoo. in the carriage. An Elder Johnson narrated the trip as we rode around Old Nauvoo. He told of some old and interesting stories about some of the great people associated with Church History, who had a part in the history of the great city of Nauvoo. Later on when we asked the different kids what they had enjoyed the most about the trip, they said, “the wagon ride, with Elder Johnson telling stories about Nauvoo.” On several occasions on the trip we heard about a “Dan Jones,” who was a very close friend of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I want to do a little research and see if he was related to Nathaniel Vary Jones. Nathaniel Jones was an ancestor of ours on Grandma Ripplingers’ mom’s side. We ate lunch and then went to Reorganized Church’s visitor’s center. I think several of the group made mention of how easily it was to feel a difference in the spirit. You just recognized the presence of the Holy Ghost. Then we went on their tour of the Mansion House, Joseph Smith’s house, and a couple of other places which they own. I just couldn’t feel the spirit. The tour guide just pointed out the factual information. It was really quite different. The one thing that bothered me was as we entered the visitor’s center, the young man that was a missionary for the Reorganized Church, had an earring on. I just didn’t think that was very indicative of a messenger of the Lord.
Then we went somewhere uptown and ate. In the evening we wanted to go to a couple of performances put on by the missionaries. The first was called, “Nauvoo Adventures.”
ReplyDeleteIt was performed by 16 missionaries that are on 4 month missions, and they are there to perform at the visitor’s center. They told the story of Nauvoo through song. It was really nice. They obviously added just a little storytelling and dancing to go along with their singing. That performance was about an hour long. When that was finished we went to another performance which was put on by a mixture of the full time couple missionaries and the young missionaries. They also had some crowd performance to help with the presentation. A lot of the nieces and nephews were part of the show. It was really fun. It was called, “Sunset on the Mississippi,” After they finished we did a couple of dances doing the Virginia reel. I danced with Kaylee. Mom videotaped. It was a lot of fun. Then off to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Thursday’s activity was our trip to Carthage jail. We needed to be there by 9:00 AM. That is when the visitor’s center opened up. We arrived just a few minutes early so we had Grandpa Rip tell us a little why he and Grandma wanted us to go on this trip. It was nice. Finally the visitor’s center did open up and we were able to walk around the visitor’s center and look at the different points of interest. Then we went into the visitors center and listened to the presentation about the Carthage jail and some of the interesting facts about what took place their. We watched another video about the Prophet Joseph Smith. After the video the missionary took us on a tour of the Carthage jail. We saw the actual bullet hole that killed Hyrum Smith and then we saw where he must of fallen. Someone asked the missionary where the blood stains had gone and she said that in 1974 President Kimball went there and saw the place and he told them that it was time for us as Saints to move on and had the blood stains removed. Then we saw the window from where the Prophet Joseph had fallen after he was shot. Being there really made it seem different. You hear those stories of the Carthage Jail but to actually be there, it was overwhelming. Then we stood where the Prophet had fallen on the ground and we shared some different stories about our different ancestors who were a part of Nauvoo. I shared some information about several of the ancestors who I had looked up and must of done Temple work at Nauvoo or at the Nauvoo Endowment House. We even had some ancestors who had died there at Nauvoo. Thursday afternoon, we headed back to Nauvoo and wanted to see some of the other sites of interest like; the Blacksmith shop, the Heber C. Kimball Home, the Brigham Young Home, The Printing House, the post office, Pioneer games at the park, fun past times,.. We lost a couple of rings for the games up in the big tall trees. Then we wanted to go up town and get the kids an ice-cream cone. So we headed up town and found a place for some ice-cream. As we were sitting there eating the ice-cream we had storm clouds move in and we had a cloud burst. Mom was really nervous. The clouds were dark, you know what I mean. But all it did was drench the area with a torrential downpour. It lasted about 10 minutes. We finished our ice-cream and then thought we ought to go see about the last show that we wanted to watch. It was the “Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo.” Well the town is up on the hill by the Temple.
We went up town by the Nauvoo Temple so we could take a couple of pictures of the temple being built. It is quite beautiful. So we head back down the hill and we can see these dark clouds rolling toward us. They are the ones that you don’t want to see. Up town is about a mile away from the visitor’s center. So as we are traveling down to the visitor’s center we see we are going to get some really rough weather. We pull up alongside the visitor’s center and I drop off mom, and the other passengers in the van which I was driving. I just went to park the van and the wind really starts picking up and the rain starts to come down. And so I’m thinking that I don’t want to get out in the downpour. Then the wind starts shaking the van. Not moving it around on the ground but moving it like as if several people were shaking the van. I started to actually think that I might be in trouble. I offered a little prayer that I would be protected and those inside. Nolan and Debbie with all their passengers are in the van next to me, but they backed into their parking spot, so they are facing the oncoming wind. Just as I finished offering my little prayer, mom comes running out o f the Visitors Center, and yells for us to get into the Visitors Center and get to the basement. We no sooner get into the building, than the winds really pick up. Branches are flying around. We are trying to ask the people at the visitor’s center if there is a tornado watch or tornado warning, or just a severe thunderstorm warning? They said it was just a severe thunderstorm warning. Well it knocked out all of the power. The Mission President cancelled the performances for the evening. The storm lets up a little and so he asks us all to get into our automobiles and go back to our hotels. They were several other people in the visitor’s center besides our families. Well we get into the vans and start heading back to the hotel. As we are leaving the area and going down the road we see trees that have been broken off or up rooted. There were several trees just right by the visitor’s center which had been either broken off or up rooted. The road was closed and the next one over was closed because the bridge was out. Therefore we had to go up north about 10 miles and cross the Mississippi River on a draw bridge. Then we drove down south to Keokuk, Iowa. It was on the other side of the river. Well as we drove past the opposite side of the river from Nauvoo, we did get to see the Nauvoo Temple from the other side of the river. That would have been the side where the exodus Mormons would of crossed the river as they were leaving Nauvoo. We had severe storm watch the rest of the evening even until midnight. Does this sound familiar? The show that got cancelled was the only real thing that we felt like we would have liked to have seen. We ate and then the kids went swimming back at the hotel pool.
ReplyDeleteThursday turned out to be quite an eventful day. You know as I reflect back on the event at the visitor’s center, and as I felt the need to ask a quick little prayer, I felt that somehow the Lord would protect our family and especially me while I was out in the storm. I was truly scared, but I felt a reassuring feeling come over me. Then your mom showed up and said, “Get into the building.” As we looked over the devastation that occurred as we left Nauvoo that day and also the next as we went back to see a couple of the last things which we wanted to see, I know that I had to be protected, or how else did so much damage happen all around me and us or the visitors center not be harmed in any way? I mentioned to you about being in the park and playing some games earlier? Well the tree right next to where we were earlier, playing the games at the park, was snapped right off. I mean like it was just twenty feet away from where we were. And there were several trees right by the visitor’s center, that if they had fallen in the other direction it would have probably hit the visitor’s center and knocked out the class windows where we would have been standing. We were truly protected. If we had taken off and been driving down the road going back to the hotel instead of staying at the visitors center we might have had one of the trees that fell across the main highway, hit us as we were driving. What is it with our family and these severe storms? Well Friday we get up and we head back to the visitors center for one last tour and we wanted to see one or two last places. We were so amazed at the damage which had occurred right around us. It was truly a blessing that we were protected.
ReplyDeleteWell we watched the “Lamb of God” video and then we went into an upstairs room and had a testimony meeting with just our family of 25 people. It started off with Grandpa and then Grandma, followed by the entire adult brother and sisters, and then their spouses. It was truly a special occasion. What a neat spirit that was with us as each told of their love one for another and then bore their testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. What a neat opportunity.
Then we had to go up town one more time because we wanted to go to a soveigner shop. We bought a few items which will hopefully help us remember our time at Nauvoo and at at Carthage. It really brought the stories we study to life for us.
We grabbed a quick lunch back at Wendys in Keokuk, Iowa, and then we headed back to St. Louis. We needed to get back to catch the plane at 7:20 PM departure. Terry and MaryAnn’s plane for Phoenix left 10 minutes earlier. We brought 4 walkie-talkies with us, one for each van, so we could keep in contact with each other at all times. The walkie-talkies can reach up to a 2 mile distance. It was quite fun to be able to be in contact at all times while we were in the vans. It helped in keeping the group together also. No one ever got lost. That is pretty good for having 4 different outfits.
Well we hurry and get back so we can be at the airport an hour and half before departure so we can get seats together. Well because of the storms along the Midwest and eastern coast our connecting flight was delayed, taking off. We ended up leaving at 9:30 and got home in Brigham City, at 1:30 Am. Oh were we tiered.
You know I think it is going to be one of those experiences in life that we have, that we will reflect upon many times throughout our lives. Just as we reflect upon our Disneyland trip and watch the video often, I think we will talk and reflect upon this trip many times. My only regret is I wished the rest of my dear children could have been there with us, to experience the things we felt and saw. However, I know each of you was doing things of an eternal purpose and that is why you weren’t there. I hope someday we can do something that spiritual and meaningful as a family.