I'm finally getting to our trip. This is a very long post so beware. It was painful downloading about 250 photos : )
Our first stop was in Wyoming
We stopped at this wetland to eat and use the bathroom.
We were loosing it a little after being in the car all day
Our new friend. The worse part of the trip was having to use public restrooms. If you know me I HATE public restrooms....YUK....this was a trial for me but soon remedied
after using a million of them. The showers were another hard thing. I'm glad to be home with my own shower that no other naked strangers can use : )
There was so much open space all throughout the USA. Some people will stay that there is not enough room for more children. There are millions of acres!! Wyoming was mostly open space with nothing but sage brush and cattle.
Subway was a common place for us to eat.
Nebraska was full of farms and crops (mostly corn).
We were just coming into Nebraska when noticed cars pulling off to the side of the road. I jokingly said it looked like a tornado ahead of us. It was! Only 15 miles up the freeway. we stopped earlier to camp. The tent trailer had trouble but after 2 hours we had it up and went to bed. It was rough getting use to putting the trailer up and down everyday. I really felt like I understood the pioneers a little bit better.
We were so cramped in our little mini van. This is what we looked like.
And this is what happened to me when a certain girl was board.
This is a picture of a farm. You'd drive for miles and miles and then see a
clump of trees and a farm house.
Our second night we slept in Nebraska. We saw our first lightning bugs. They were so cool.
We also had another tornado watch. The guys told us not to worry and if the tornado touched down the alarm would go off and we could run to the storm shelter. Not sure how a few hundred people were going to fit in a small storm shelter. That night was the worse thunderstorm I have ever been through. The tornado went right over the top of us but never touched down. I was praying all night that the tent trailer would not go on fire or the tornado would not touch down.
Our first stop in Missouri was liberty jail.
This replica was built in the same place as the original.
This is the RLDS churchs temple (now known as the Church of Christ). It's right across from the visitors center in independence Missouri.
Having fun in the visitors center
This was our all time favorite camp site. It was in St Louis, Missouri.
This is our set up. Yep, all 7 of us lived in this for 3 weeks. I really thought we'd kill each other but after a week we all got used to it and started having fun.
It was Gorgeous! It had a small lake with frogs everywhere.
It had a fun playground.
We went to 6 flags for the older kids. It was okay but so humid and I wished we would have just dropped Savannah and Matthew off and went back and enjoyed the
campground with the younger kids.
The water was the best part of 6 flags. Oh and that one really scary ride.
Virginia was beautiful and so green with trees everywhere. I guess that's what you get with the Humidity. It was way humid. I gave up trying to do my hair and sported a beautiful ponytail most of the time.
Finally!! We made it to the other side of the USA. Virginia Beach!
Our cramped quarters. Yea, I slept in that bed with my husband and two youngest kids.
We spent the next day at the beach and LOVED every minute of it. It was warm and wonderful and so nice after traveling for 4 days.
Soaking in the rays.
Fun in the waves
Justin was sick. He got a fever the day before and still had one half way through the day. It broke and he felt mostly better the next day.
Ouch, sunburn!
After burying Tanner a big huge wave came up and totally covered him by a few inches. I was frantically trying the get him out. He coughed all the rest of the night. I worried about it but the next day he was better.York Town!
Replica of ships they used.
The trenches that they dug were still there. It was really neat seeing where this battle took place. You could feel the spirit of liberty there. I could imagine the men fighting for our freedom and Washington having to make all those really important decisions.
Washington DC!
Us watching the parade on the 4th of July.
They were reading the Declaration of independence.
The National Archives. It was pretty neat seeing those original documents.
It was so humid and Justin wasn't feeling 100% yet so it was pretty miserable the first day. He screamed most of the day. It was hard. The second day he was good and it was much more enjoyable.
The capital
The fire works were pretty neat behind the Washington Monument.
Mount Vernon
The next day we went to Mount Vernon and then back to DC. I loved Mount Vernon!
Cute : )
The slave quarters.
They had a small ration of food that caused some malnutrition. It was sort of sad.
Mrs. Washington talking about George.
Getting ready to tour the house.
The back yard.
I loved the house. I'd love to live there, furniture and all. The back yard was to die for overlooking the Potomac river.
Washington and his wife's remains were in these coffins.
Back in DC at the White House.
The White House Garden.
Washington Monument.
This is the World War 11 Memorial. We missed Utah so much that
we kissed the words when we saw them.
Justin and I found these cute little ducks. We had some left over food and fed them. Little did I know that there was a sign behind us that said Do Not Feed the Ducks......oops!
The Lincoln Memorial.
The Vietnam memorial.
We are off to New Jersey and NYC
NYC
The Empire State building.
From the top looking down.....WOW!
You can see Central Park here. It's pretty weird seeing everything so cramped and then there is this HUGE park in the middle of it all. I guess that's a good thing since there are no places to have a picnic. Too bad it took about 6 hours for us to get there. We ended up eating on the side of the street. We sure did get a lot of looks.
We went to put our names in a drawing to get $30 tickets to Wicked. We didn't get our names pulled. Savy was pretty bummed the rest of the day. She really wanted to go to a Broadway show. Next time: (
Finally we made it to Central Park. The play ground closed right when we walked in to the park. That's about how the day went. Oh well, the kids got to climb the rocks and the lightning bugs were amazing. There were so many and the park looked magical.
The play ground
Catching lightning bugs.
See all those little lights. Those are the bugs. So magical.
Us at the Subway. I would not recommend taking little kids on the Metro. It was so busy and everyone is in a hurry. They seemed annoyed by us. We also ended up in a bad part of town on the way back at 10:00. It was pretty scary seeing cops on every street corner and people hanging out everywhere and other stuff that you never really want your kids to see. UGGGGG!
Waiting for the Metro.
There was a homeless guy with all his belongings fast asleep. He must have been so tired to be sleeping in the Subway. It was really sad.
The next day we went on a fairy ride to Liberty Island. It was a lot of fun and relaxing.
We were all so worn out from NYC.
Ellis Island
Us on Liberty Island.
The next day we went to Palmyra
The Place the first BOM was printed. The original building is inside this one.
We also celebrated Matthew's 18th birthday in Palmyra by going out to eat and
then to a homemade ice cream place. We went to a "homemade" restaurant. The serving sizes were huge and the food was anything but homemade. It was so processed that I think they just slid it out of some bag and deep fat fried it. We were so hungry that we were happy and pigged out anyway. Our meals were so big they lasted two meals.
I think Brady made the healthiest choice.
I wanted a homemade turkey and gravy. I was so sick afterward that I just threw the rest away.
Those were the chicken fingers in the kids meal. They were so huge that the kids could only eat one.
Joseph's family farm house. Right out side the back is the Sacred Grove.
A garden like they would have had
Path to the grove.
Justin contemplating the meaning of life.
Entering the Sacred Grove. It was gorgeous and such a reverent feeling.
This is a special place.
This is the house that Alvin built for his future family. He died before he finished it. The Smith family moved in shortly after Alvin's death. They planted a tree in his honor in the back yard that still stands today. They lost the house a few years later and had to move back to the log house.
We didn't get many pictures of the pageant but this is when Jesus comes out of the sky.
The park we stayed at was really fun. They had all these wood shaped toys to play in.
The Hill Comorah. Apparently we don't know how to read or just wasn't paying attention because I never saw this sign behind us until I looked at the picture when we got home.
The Palmyra Temple
Niagara Falls
Right behind us is Canada
Kirkland Ohio
When Joseph and his family came to Kirkland the Witney's
let them live it the top part of their store.
Some cute original houses in the neighborhood.
This yellow house was the Witney's house. They were really well off. You can imagine how hard it must have been for them to leave everything they owned to go to Nauvoo.
The store
The lumber yard. The Witneys owned this and many other places in town.
Do you recognize those pulpits behind Matthew? Yep, they are in the Kirkland temple.
The school house
After driving all day we came into Nauvoo with this site greeting us. So beautiful!
Our camp ground had a lot of wild life. Savannah was so proud of finding this turtle.
I LOVED Nauvoo! There really is a VERY strong spirit there. I almost wanted to live back when the saints were there. It seemed like everyone was so loving and friendly there.
They had many live plays that were excellent! They set apart acting missionaries that come all summer and put on these shows. I was very impressed with their talent.
An hour before the pageant they have a fair. The kids get to make crafts and play games that the saints would have played.
We had a blast! Savannah and Matthew went to the dancing and meant some youth their age.
The Pageant was wonderful. We are going back in a few years to be in the pageant.
We were able to to baptisms and endowments. Everyone is so nice here!
Another play!
They have wagon rides that take you on a toue of the town. There are so many original house up or they've been rebuild.
The Mississippi River.
We also drove about 45 min away to Carthage Jail. It was such a sobering experience. My testimony was strengthen about this man Joseph.
This is the very room that he was shot and the window on the left was the one he fell out of.
This was were he fell. So sad to be standing in that spot. This place was almost all original.
Time to go home. We drove 14 hours the next day. We just wanted to get home.
The next day we drove 6 hours. We were so happy to see this sign : )
Our yard was out of control. The garden was full of weeds as tall as Brady and the flower beds were full of weeds. It took us weeks to catch up.
Over all this was an awesome experience and I'm so glad we went! My testimony was strengthened and it was really neat to see so much of America and realize that those people all over the states are really there and they have dreams and hopes just like we do. We are all connected and need to be there for each other.
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