2014 Nauvoo Trip - Part 1

Tuesday, Jul 29, 2014

The rainy day was spent packing, cleaning, and preparing for our trip. That evening, around 8pm or so, my sister Lindy, her husband, and seven children arrived, having driven two cars from their home in Utah. That night, our small home was full. Lindy and her husband slept in Hannah's room. Most of the boys (Our three and the youngest two of their boy cousins) slept in the boys' room, (although I think one of the cousins ended up on the dining room floor before the night was over.) The four girl cousins and Hannah all slept in the living room and the oldest boy cousin slept on the sofa out in the play room.



Wednesday, Jul 30, 2014

We awoke around 6:30am, and gathered in the living room for scripture reading, after which we dressed, ate breakfast (which Lindy was kind enough to prepare), loaded up the cars, and the caravan set off through the rain on our journey east. Since we were all traveling together, we let Hannah go with her cousins in their car, and took the youngest two boys in our van. The rain cleared up after a few hours, and it was a beautiful day. We only stopped a couple times on the way, once for lunch at a rest stop just across the Kansas border, and another time for gas, before arriving that evening in Kansas City, Missouri at my sister Kristy's home.

Kristy, her husband and their four children enjoy a beautiful home in a gorgeous area northwest of Kansas City. They have a humongous yard and the kids had a blast playing on a tire swing in the back yard, and going on a ride around the property in a wagon pulled by a tractor. We had a delicious double layer pizza for dinner, and then we bedded down in Kristy's basement. My brother Tayson (formerly known as Jarom) and his wife and two children were also staying at Kristy's home. They had traveled all the way from Taiwan to attend our family reunion this year, and it had been several years since I had seen them, so it was great to catch up a little with them!








Thursday, July 31, 2014

We awoke, ate breakfast, packed up our stuff, and enjoyed playing games and talking with family. Our family left Kristy's home around 11am, leaving the other families to follow when they were ready. We arrived in Nauvoo, Illinois mid afternoon, figured out where my sister Heather and her husband and four children had set up camp at Nauvoo State Park when they arrived the day before, and pitched our tent nearby. Heather's youngest child attached herself to me very shortly after she saw me.

Gradually, other family members started trickling in. Lindy, Tayson, and Kristy arrived with their families. My parents showed up at the camp site (my parents have been serving a mission at the Nauvoo temple, so they were already in Nauvoo.) A bus load of family arrived from the airport, including my sisters Lia, Amber, April, and Heidi, and my brothers Joel and Haru (aka Daniel) along with Amber's husband and two children, April's youngest baby, and Joel and Haru's wives. In all we had forty five people in attendance.

That evening after dinner, we went to a show called "Sunset on the Mississippi". It was a variety show put on by the performing missionaries. We really enjoyed it. At the end, the young performing missionaries walked down the aisles while they sang. Peter thought they looked like zombies, because they wore serious expressions on their faces, and so he acted scared of the sister missionary who ended up at the end of our row. After the show, she talked with us for a few minutes. Her name is Sister Romney, and that would not be the last time we got to see or speak with her.