Summer Vacation 2011 (trip home)

Before we left the Palmyra area, we made a stop at Peter Witmer's farm. This is the place that the church was organized on April 6, 1830. It was so neat to visit the sites on church history that we have heard about for so long.




Coming home along I90 we stopped by Mt. Rushmore for another look at this monument to some famous US Presidents. What an awesome sight. But I still maintain they should clean up the rock piles in front of the mountain and let the natural landscape grow back in. I think it would look a lot better.




In Mitchell South Dakato they have a corn palace. If you look closely at the following picture you will be able to tell that the outside maurel of this building is done by using different color corn still on husk. the corn husk is cut lengthwise and by using the different kinds of corn they decorate the outside of the building. The maurel changes every year. It was fun to walk around on the inside of the building and look at all the decorations they have done over the years. Its amazing what you can do with corn.




On the way home, we had to of course stop and visit the Jolly Green Giant. I don't remember how we discovered this statute but we did on the trip we took a while ago to Milwaukee. So we decided to stop and visit him again. It was good to get out and walk around.




Our next to last stop on the way home was a visit to Devil's Tower. This is the mountain that was featured on the movie Close Encounters. It was pretty cool to see it. After a delicious breakfast in Jackson Hole we visited with Monica, Sean, Ayden and Gavin for an overnight visit. Daryl got to ride bikes with Ayden, and we got to watch Ayden at his swimming lessons - were he did awesome. Then the next day we headed home. We were gone for 2.5 weeks and as you can tell from the blogs we did a lot and had a ton of fun. Now we just need a vacation from our vacation.

Summer Vacation 2011 (Palmyra)

We finally made it to Palymra, after being on the road for over one week. We meet up with Daryl's dad and his wife Judy and was able to visit with them for a while. We saw the sites like the following picture of Joseph Smith's home where the Angel Moroni appeared to him. We also made it to the Hill Cumorah pageant that I have wanted to see forever. It was wonderful.




This next picture is of Daryl and I in the Scared Grove. I took my kindle in and we sat on the bench and read the story of the First Vision. The Spirit was strong in the Grove and it was a highlight of our trip.





This is a picture of the Palymra Temple. We did not get a chance to go into this one. But it is beautiful as usual. This temple was built on the Smith Family farm and can be seen through the trees from the Scared Grove

2011 Vacation (Kirtland & Niagara Falls)

The next stop after leaving Chris and Cathy's was to Kirtland Ohio. I didn't realize how many of the revelations found in the Doctrine and Coveants were given to Joseph Smith while he lived in Kirtland. While there we saw the John Johnson farm were D & C 76 was given on eternal marriage. This was a great stop. We also saw and was able to tour the Kirtland Temple.



This is the Newel K. Whitney store. This is where Joseph and Emma stayed for a while. This is where the School of the Prophets was.




This is the room where the School of the Prophets was held. This is also the room where the Word of Wisdom was given. There was just a small group touring this building when we were there, so the Missionary let Daryl teach about the word of wisdom. It was really cute to do that in the very rooom where it was given.




On the way to Palmyra we stopped off at Niagara Falls. They sure are beautiful falls. We heard the Canadian side is even better, but we didn't want to take the time to cross the border. We were anxious to get to Palmyra.

2011 vacation (Chris & Cathy)

After our visit to Nauvoo we then headed to visit my brother Chris and his wife Cathy. It has been a while since we have had a good visit with them and we really enjoyed it. they were able to take a day off work and took us to visit the Abraham Lincoln sites in Springfield Il. WE first visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. It is the first Presidential Library we have been in and it had some really cool exhibits. Abraham Lincoln was a great president, one of our heros.


Here is a picture of Daryl and I posing with the family of Abraham Lincoln. What a great president.


We got the opportunity to visit the resting place of Abraham Lincoln. Out side the tomb is a statue of him, the tradition is that you rub his nose - so we did. the nose is really shiny from everyone that has rubbed it. this is a picture of Daryl, Chris and Cathy. I had a hard time reaching the nose, I had to stand on my toes to do so.


Here is a picture of the tomb that holds the remains of Abraham Lincoln


While visiting Chris he took us to St. Louis to see the arch. It is called the Gateway to the West. Can you believe that people actually ride up to the top of the arch. Needless to say we didn't, the cars that you ride up in are very small. Chris told us that when you are at the top of the arch that it does sway sometimes. That did not sound fun to me. But there is a pretty neat museum in the bottom on the arch that we enjoyed looking at the exhibits.

Vacation - 2011 (Nauvoo)

Daryl and I went on vacation this year, we decided to drive back to New York to see the Hill Cumorah pageant (something that I have always wanted to see) and the Scared Grove (someplace that Daryl has always wanted to be). so we loaded the van and took off. The next several post will be about our vacation and the sites that we were able to see

We were able to do the tourist things in Nauvoo. This is a picture of us at the drainage canal that the pioneers built. It was pretty special to stand there and image that your ancestors might have been there helping with the laying of these very stones.



Nauvoo has a great family living center for visitors to watch and participate in pioneers skills. We learn how weaving was done, how the pioneer women made bread, had thread was made from weeds, how to make buckets and as you can see from the picture we participated in making rope. It was a great place to learn and get some hands on experience as well.




One of Daryl's highlight of our vacation this summer was the gardens at the Visitor Center in Nauvoo, there are some wonderful statues in the garden with all the beautiful flowers around. This statue is located at the doors just before you go outside. I thought it was great!




We did not make an appointment to go to the temple before we left home.We didn't know for sure when we were get to Nauvoo, so we were surprised when we went to the temple that they actually had an opening and we were able to do some initatory work. It is a beautiful temple and has such a strong feeling.




Daryl's brother Alan and his wife Liz, have been called to be in charged of the bagpipe band that performs in Nauvoo during the month of July during the pageant. We were able to spend a little bit of time with then when we were in Nauvoo. The band really adds a lot to the pageant and it was fun to watch and hear them.