Day 5 - Adam Ondi Ahman, Carthage, Montrose, and Nauvoo

We got up this morning, had breakfast at the hotel and got on our way to our next destination.  We first went to Adam Ondi Ahman.  Through revelation, we know that this is where Adam and Eve went when they were cast out of the Garden of Eden.  The Saints also were here for a time before being driven out.  It was so beautiful!  The trees and rolling hills were just so pretty.  We took lots of pictures and just sat there in the peacefulness for a while.  We left there and headed through the country on our way to Keokuk/Nauvoo.  Sean decided he could live there.  We saw several Mennonites and the country was just gorgeous.  We stopped in a small town (can't remember the name) and had lunch at a park that had a metal slide, merry go round, and teeter totters.  We couldn't believe it!  The kids had never seen such a sight!  As we stopped for gas and candybars on our way out of town, Sean congratulated the workers at the store for growing up in a town with those dangerous parks and living through it (funny man).

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We headed straight to Carthage, Illinois and Carthage jail where we met up with Diane and LaMarr.  They had received permission from their mission president to join us there that day.  Ken and Jen and their girls were also out visiting, so we all were able to spend some time together and do the Carthage tour together.  Another great presentation.  I was amazed at the dungeon cell (I guess it was actually in the upstairs, but it felt like a dungeon)  Somehow in all my years growing up, I didn't realize it was there.  I just thought they spent the whole time there in the room upstairs.  It was a humbling experience to hear the presentation, see the bullet holes in the door, and be in those same rooms where the prophet of our church had once been.

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We left Carthage and headed to Nauvoo and to the Hotel Nauvoo for dinner.  It was a big huge homestyle buffet.  The food was really good.

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After dinner, we decided we wanted to spend some time with our own boys since they had been riding with Uncle Greg the whole time and we hadn't really seen them the whole trip.  We went over to Montrose, which is on the opposite side of the Mississippi River from Nauvoo.  As the Saints crossed the frozen Mississippi river as they were being driven out of Nauvoo, they turned around and saw their city burning.  We went there right at dusk and it was cool to see the temple light up and to see what it might have been like  as they Saints were being cast out of their beautiful city and leaving their temple.  The boys threw rocks in the water and had a rock skipping contest.

We went to WalMart to grab a few things and then Sean and I went to the laundromat with dad to do some laundry since the hotel only had one washer and dryer. Diane and LaMarr met us there and we sat and talked with them while we did our laundry.  It was fun to hear their mission experiences and visit with them for a while.  They came back to the hotel with us and the boys came down and visited with them in the lobby.  The boys had fun swimming at the hotel as well.

Day 4 continued............Liberty Jail - Harley Davidson

We left Independence and all headed towards Liberty Jail.  It was kind of comical because everyone's GPS sent them in different directions.  Our car got their first and everyone else took FOREVER.   We finally all got together and started our tour.  Looking back (since I'm writing this after the fact)  I think this was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  The church has done a great job with the replica and the whole feel of the presentation there.  I was reminded of all that the early leaders of the church went through to restore the gospel as we now know it.  So much persecution and sacrifice so that we are able to have the gospel here on the earth today.

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After Liberty Jail, we decided we wanted to try to see the Harley Davidson factory on our way back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  We got there, and it was closed.  Just our luck.  We did walk around and look at all the bikes outside.  They are all owned by employees and they have this cool little motorcycle parking lot and they looked cool all lined up there.

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Everyone headed back to the hotel, but our car (Kirk, Heidi, Sean and I) stopped by the Harley Davidson dealership and looked around.  Sean wanted a Harley hat and we got t-shirts for me and the boys.


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We headed back to the hotel, relaxed for a bit, and then headed to Jack Stacks BBQ because apparently it is some kind of a sin to go to Kansas City, Missouri and not eat BBQ.  It was good.  I'm not a super big fan of BBQ, but it was good and now I can say I've had Missouri BBQ.  On our way back, we realized we were only about a mile from Kansas City, Kansas, so, we decided we wanted to say we had been to Kansas so our car went there, got some gas in the car, and then went to Baskin Robbins for an ice cream cone.

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Back at the hotel, Sean and I sat outside because we wanted to see fireflies.  We saw them, they are pretty cool.

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Day 4 - Independence, Missouri

We got up, had breakfast at the hotel, and headed to Independence this morning.  Sean and Kirk were getting a kick out of all the people in Kansas City that seemed to have no regard for crosswalks.  We saw numerous people just crossing big huge busy intersections diagonally at just random times I guess hoping people would stop for them.  It gave us all a good laugh.  Kirk was driving and his instructions on his phone for how to get places was totally different from my parent's Garmin and Greg apparently was getting different directions than both of us as well.  We were all turning different directions and all went different ways, but we all seemed to end up at the same place at the end.

We went to the visitors center in Independence and one of the Sister missionaries took us on the tour.  We started downstairs and saw some of what the early Saints endured, being kicked out several times from several places.  It was amazing what they endured.  They had a set up of the printing shop where the first copies of the Book of Mormon were printed and an actual first edition there on display.

Upstairs, the kids spent a lot of time thumbing through the Books of Mormon in the display with the globe of the world. They were translated in many different languages. They found the Russian one and took it to my dad because we had told them that he had learned Russian when he was in the Air Force. He told them the difference in the alphabet and letters and then read to them a little bit. They were pretty impressed, as was I, that he could still remember how to read and speak Russian.

We saw the building of The Church of Christ built across the street from our church's visitors center. Sean thinks it looks like an upside down screw. We saw the site that was dedicated for a temple by Joseph Smith and went to the Church of Christ Visitors center, but it smelled musty and old and no one was there to tell us anything or help us out, so after standing around for 15 minutes, we gave up and left.

We left the Visitors Center there, grabbed some drinks (it was fairly warm and muggy), and took off for Liberty Jail.   More to come on that in the next post

Day 3 - Kansas City, Missouri

Pretty much all we did today was drive.  We went from Sterling, Colorado to Kansas City, Missouri.  We were going to stop in Hildreth, Nebraska to see where my grandparents were from, and where my dad spent a lot of his time growing up, but we were worried about the long drive and getting there in time to pick up Sean and Kirk as they were flying in to Kansas City.  We stopped at a rest stop somewhere in Nebraska for lunch and the kids played frisbee a little bit and then we were on the road again.  We got to our hotel and we were right downtown, so we decided we were too tired to find a park to make dinner and took all the kids to Burger King a couple of blocks from the hotel.  They were all very happy with that.  Greg and grandpa headed to the airport to pick up the guys while we hung out in our hotel rooms and rested.  Since we only had two beds, Trevin ended up sleeping in the window.  The hotel rooms had these really big deep window ledges and we set him up with extra blankets and pillows and he slept like a king.  The guys were dead tired when they finally arrived at the hotel and were glad to finally be there and be able to rest for the sight seeing the next day.  It was good to have Sean with us.  One of the fun things on the drive there were all the places to buy Fireworks.  We didn't stop at any but planned on stopping on the way back to get some.

Day 2 - Sterling, Colorado

We got up today, had breakfast with the Breakfast Nazi lady in Grand Junction, who was very grouchy, she yelled at Heidi, and she got mad at Trevin saying he wasn't old enough to make his own waffle in the waffle machine at the hotel (come on, he is 13 and has been cooking things since he was like 5, how hard is it to pour pre-measured batter into a machine and close the lid.)  We headed out and stopped in Denver to get some groceries and had lunch at a park, eventually, when we finally found one.  The one mom programmed into the Garmin wasn't really there, so we wandered and found one eventually.  Then we headed to Sterling, Colorado.  We warmed up dinner that we had brought in the microwave in the hotel, and the kids swam again.  The bottom of the pool was really rough, so they all ended up with cuts all over the bottoms of their feet.  I didn't take any pictures today, so all you get is words.

Day 1 - Grand Junction, Colorado

The first day of our family trip wasn’t too long.  We just went from our house to Grand Junction.  We stopped for sandwiches in Price and went in circles for a minute following dad to get back on the freeway. Mom forgot the food and the pan for what we were going to eat at the park that night, so we ordered pizza and ate by the hotel pool.  The kids were totally fine with that, go figure.  We ran into a HUGE dist storm right before we got into Grand Junction and were all lucky enough to come out without any accidents.  We couldn’t see in front or behind or to the side for probably at least 100 yards, it was pretty scary.  My first impulse was to slow down, but then I was worried about the vehicles behind us running into us, so we tried to pull over to the side and drove on the shoulder until we got out of it.  When we got out, there were semi’s and cars spun out and in a mess on the other side of the road, so we were lucky that none of us got hurt.  Scary way to start the trip, so we were glad we had said prayers before we left.  Uncle Kyle met and visited with us at the hotel that night as well.  The kids had a blast playing in the pool and the boys were all excited that they got a hotel room to themselves (with Uncle Greg, becuase he is the “cool uncle”.)

The Graduate

I ask again, "When did I get so old?"  Travis will be graduating this week.  He is having a hard time wanting to grow up.  He wishes he could stay this age forever.  He has had such a good group of friends this last year and they have had so much fun, especially this year as they have been seniors.  He kind of wishes it wouldn't end, but I know he will love the coming years as well.  We are so proud of him and the great young man he has become.  Love you Trav!