We decided to take a very last minute trip before school started (as in, arrived back home about 18 hours before the 1st school day). Our amazing neighbors, the Olsens, were planning on going to Nauvoo and other church historical sights in the area and asked us to go with. Ummm, yes please. :) First of all, to travel with them was so fun. Our kids love their kids and it made the travel time nice. Secondly, they already knew their way around the area and we've never been there. (Well, Mike did go as a child but he didn't remember his way around, obviously.) And lastly, the fact that our kids were getting to take 3 plane rides was the bomb.com in their eyes. It was Elle's 1st plane ride ever so she would have been thrilled to fly to Barstow.
Here comes the ginormous amount of photos. Prepare yourself ....
Had to start the pictures early. This is only the tram ride from the parking lot to the airport.
Love this picture! Look how independent each kid is! No carseats, no strollers -- everyone pulling their own bag. Easy traveling. Pretty sweet, if you ask me.
Already pulling out the travel games while we waited the whole 30 minutes for our flight to board.
Her 1st plane ride did not disappoint. :)
The next morning, we set out from Kansas City, Missouri to Independence. We stopped by the new Kansas City temple ....
... on our way to the Independence LDS Visitor's Center. This was all very interesting to me. I hadn't known much about the various splinter churches from the LDS church and Independence is where they all meet up, so to speak. The LDS Visitor's Center explains our early church history up until the time that the Saints left the area. We saw recreations of their first printing press and heard about their life in Independence.
As you leave the Visitor's Center, you look across the street at this strange but beautiful building.
Here's the inside of the spire ....
This is the Reorganized LDS (now known as the Community of Christ) church's temple. It's open for tours and has a very cool museum inside, with artifacts from the early church. It was very interesting for me to learn about what they believe and where they are now as a church. I haven't known much about them before and I was intrigued by some of our shared beliefs and where we disagree.
Right across the street from that church is an empty lot, where Joseph Smith designated that a temple should be built. He put markers at each of the 4 corners, which are still there. The Church of Christ Temple Lot is yet another denomination that splintered from the LDS church. They own the temple lot and are very adamant that they are the true church because of their ownership of the lot, which is this:
All kind of strange but interesting to see for the first time. We moved on to Liberty, where we saw another LDS Visitor's Center and a recreation of the Liberty Jail, where Joseph Smith and others spent months in awful conditions. It was recreated on the exact spot where it was originally located and is pretty eerie to see.
Probably shouldn't have had them smiling so broadly in front of this scene of anguish, but there you go.
All of the kids were fantastic on the trip. They listened intently to every missionary that spoke to us and were respectful. I was proud of them.
Quick stop for lunch. Wherever we ate, people weren't quite sure what to make of the 13 of us (9 fun, sometimes rowdy kids with 4 parents in tow). What added to the fun was that we were pretty much soaking wet for most of the trip. We were catching the northern-most part of Hurricane Isaac so we were definitely feeling more than just mid-western humidity.
From Liberty to Adam-ondi-ahman.
There isn't much to see there except a large, green open space but it was still a very cool experience. And extraordinarily wet. :)
We also saw the temple markers in Far West, which is close by. And barely missed this cute little country store. Totally closed when we got there.
Then we loaded up the bigs and littles, divided into each van by movie-appropriate age so that everyone could enjoy themselves. Then we made the rest of the drive to Nauvoo.
Following each other through fields and fields of dead, drought'ified corn fields.
This is where we stayed...
Very quaint and historic accommodations. Here's the view of the Nauvoo temple from our room. Literally across the street.
We spent our first day in Nauvoo tag-teaming with each family so we could all have an experience going to the temple. The teen boys went in the morning with the dads, while Carla & I took the kids to some of the old-town Nauvoo stuff. And then the couples each took turns going, while the other family took all 9 kids to the little historic homes. We were quite the sight, I assure you.
The Heber C. Kimball home
Sporting our "diamond" rings made from bent wagon nails.
The Mansion House - one of Joseph & Emma's residences while living in Nauvoo.
Here are some of the senior missionary couples that serve in Nauvoo. They put on daily shows about the early life in the town. Super cute - seriously.
We saw the grave sites of Emma, Joseph & Hyrum and their parents.
Then we all went down to the waters' edge on Parley Street, where the Saints began their trek west.
(I'm laughing at how large and curly my hair became as the trip went on. Humidity and my hair don't mix well.)
Next, we drove to nearby Carthage, where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed. I had heard that it was a sobering place and it was very true. The Spirit was beautiful and tragic there.
The upper window that Joseph fell from.
Looking down from the window.
The room where they were staying in.
Still a bullet hole in the door.
It really was a beautiful, sad experience to be there. Probably my highlight for the trip.
After Carthage, we decided that the kids needed some good, plain fun to finish off the trip. So we drove back to where we started and stayed at a fun hotel with this set-up inside ...
Check out the water slide on the outside of the building. Suhweet. :)
The kids deserved a couple of days of swimming and water slides before school started the next day. So we did just that.
We laughed at our inability, for most of the trip, to find decent food. It's pretty slim pickings in the heartland, apparently. But everyone was still happy, mostly just for good company.
Since we had an earlier flight, we parted with the Olsens for a whole 8 hours until we were all back home and next door to each other again. Oddly enough, we had our best meal of the trip at the airport before we headed back home.
Thumbs up for a fun, last minute trip with good friends! Now the kids are back in school and life is moving fast. Glad we had a last blast before real life hit us again.
