Thursday, August 7, 2008

We are a Nauvoo Family


This weekend we dodged turtles, and sped through clouds on a white rollercoaster road all the way to Nauvoo, Illinois. We might have hit a construction worker except the signs threatening a ten thousand dollar fine deterred us. We were tempted to take a detour when we saw the “World Famous Mark Twain Cave,” but began to question if we were driving in circles after seeing the same billboard no less than five times.

We stayed in a fabulous new Bed & Breakfast in Keokuk (fifteen minutes outside of Nauvoo) called the VictoriInn. The king sized bed was an upgrade. Having Bella squeaking and hiccupping in a Pack’n’Play next to the bed brought back the insomnia Celia fought in our multipurpose room in Ogden.

For the first time since before Bella was born Ryan and Celia got to do a session together. At the end we made the mistake of asking a temple worker to see the top two floors. She wouldn’t allow us to retract the request after we watched her flit from worker to worker searching for someone who had a moment to take us upstairs. The temple president gave us a more than adequate tour including Joseph Smith’s saber and the elevator. We swapped kids with a couple in our ward while they went. Atreyu (2.5 years old) and Jonah (5 months) added excitement to our unremarkable lives for a few hours. Celia hasn’t teeter-tottered that much, ever. Her quads don’t even endure such abuse with her All Body Attack video.

Isabella continued in her glorious tradition of commemorating special events. She commemorated our session at the Nauvoo Temple, our arrival at the Visitor’s Center, as well as three times on our visit to the Keokuk branch. Ryan got to wear a little bit of it on his shorts for the rest of the day Friday. After her jubilations on Sunday we canceled our last jaunt to Nauvoo and postponed our trip to Carthage to do an emergency load of laundry.

At the site of Joseph Smith’s martyrdom Bella was overcome with grief and couldn’t contain her tears, not even for the eighteen minute movie that begins the tour. Fortunately she was able to recompose herself as the last tour of the day flocked into the jail, but not before leaving her contribution on the visitor’s center carpet. Ryan and Celia were both amazed at the feeling that permeates the atmosphere there, but they were able to refrain from crying, almost.

We left Illinois on Sunday night, Ryan with a red brick, Celia with a Nauvoo Pageant souvenir newspaper and Bella with an eye infection. We all hope to go back, and maybe even go inside a Nauvoo building. We might have better luck when Bella is older?

Those are the most exciting happenings for last week. Sorry it took so long to get this posted, but Celia decided to crack down on the thousand plus emails that have been accruing in her inbox since its inception in 2005. They are all sorted and archived, so she won’t use that as an excuse again. More coming soon…

Love,

Ryan, Celia and Bella

4 comments:

Milly said...

Wow, that sounds like a wonderful time! I am so jealous, and can't wait for the time when I get to go on a Church History Tour. We were going to do that for our honeymoon, but when we got married in January, that kind of got thrown out the window. One day. Bella is getting Huge! she almost fits in her car seat now, and Keith almost doesn't fit in his anymore. Too bad we can't turn him around when he is 20 lbs. He would have been turned around at 6 months. Glad to see you are all doing well.

Jess said...

I'm glad you left a comment on my blog, I had no idea you had one too! Now I can keep much closer tabs on you. The trip sounds like fun! Except for the emergency laundry of course.

Lani said...

Sounds like a great trip!

Tiffany Winters said...

I'm so glad you got to go to Nauvoo. We went this summer too, and Alyssa didn't do so well with the 18 minute video either. haha. I love the profile picture of you with Joseph Smith. That makes me smile.