Nauvoo Vacation: Day 9 (Saturday)

I had my camera close today... and boy did I use it! Please forgive me for the amount of pictures to follow... but this truly is my journal and I need to make sure to record the events we experienced on this vacation.

We were thrilled to pick Kenna up at 7:00 this morning! We missed her, but we are so glad that she had so much fun this week! Courtney finally has her best friend back!!! 

 McKenna and her EFY group. She made so many great friends!!! I love the EFY program and I am so grateful for the experiences she is able to have by attending. Her testimony grows and gets stronger every summer... and she heads into a new school year ready for anything and everything!

 These were her dorm's for the week....

 Today is going to be packed so we are happy to make an early start. Not too long after leaving Nauvoo we crossed over into Iowa, back to Illinois, and then into Missouri...

 Our first stop was a little town called Hannibal. It is home to Mark Twain and the infamous Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. We grabbed some breakfast...

 Loved this quote on the wall by Mark Twain....

 Courtney "painting" Tom Sawyers fence... straw hat and all!

 This was the moment she had waited for.... she brought her harmonica from home and did a hoe-down right there on the sidewalk for everyone to see. Loved it. Love her. She is hilarious and fearless!!!

 Dan and Kenna taking turns wearing the straw hat and posing by the sign....

 After leaving Hannibal we headed West towards Jamesport... an Amish village....

 I was trying to explain to the kids why I was so excited to see the Amish people... and meant to say "Amish Civilization" and instead said... "Amish Situation". This became the quote of the day! Every time we saw horse poop in the road the kids would yell... "Looks like another Amish Situation!"

 A buggy at someones home... we saw some buggy's on the road, but they don't want to be in photographs... they consider them "graven images"... so out of respect we just took pictures of empty ones....

 After leaving Jamesport, our next stop was Adam-Ondi-Ahman. This place truly was breathtaking. I have dreamed of coming here for so long and it didn't disappoint. It is truly hallowed ground.

 There is no way to get a picture to do it justice... but you get the idea. A lady in Jamesport told us that her family just sold their property that backs the Church owned property here. I guess other churches are trying to buy property around it, and so the church is buying more as a "buffer."

 We had heard that you could go way down in the corn fields and talk in a normal voice with someone up on the top and hear each other clearly. We decided to put this to the test. Look at the above picture for a "visual reference" how far away Dan really was.

It worked! The acoustics in Adam-Ondi-Ahman are unbelievable! We could talk normally and hear one another. When the Lord is in charge anything is possible! It makes sense based on what will be happening here in the future!

McKenna and Courtney....

 We drove over to Spring Hill...

 Dan found this altar.... most likely built by Native Americans I think?

 And he found me a flower. His exact words.... " I crossed the cornfields, ran through a soybean field, swam a raging river, and hiked up the yonder hill to get you this flower." Wow. Very impressive. Glad he's mine!

 We then headed 5 miles South to Gallatin...

 We had a really weird experience here. We needed to find something for lunch and this was literally the only place in town. In the window it says "recommended by the owner". We thought that was funny so we decided we would check it out. When we walked in the cafe was full of long tables with folding chairs. There were quite a few people in there eating and everyone of them, excluding the baby in a high chair, were smoking. There was this thick cloud of smoke hovering in the room... which I imagine looked a lot like our neighborhood with the huge fires raging North and South. Everyone turned and glared at us. Normally when people look to see who just walked in, they go back to their conversations or food... not in here. They just sat and stared at us. It was REALLY creepy! We took a menu and looked it over but turned and got out of there as fast as we could.

After Gallatin, we headed for Far West. We would have stopped at Hauns Mill, but we were told the roads were really bad and there isn't much to look at, so we decided to skip it.

 One of the four temple cornerstones... makes you wonder when this one will be built?

 Next stop...Richmond. This is the site of the "Old Log House." This is where the Prophet Joseph Smith "rebuked the guards".

 Then on to the Pioneer Cemetery and the "Monument to the Three Witnesses."

 We then drove through Excelsior Springs which is located near where Zions Camp took place. It was really beautiful.

 We drove to Independence and checked into our hotel and let the kids go swimming. Court tried to practice... but kind of hard to do "laps" in a glorified bathtub!!! She was thrilled to be in the water!

Great day! We saw so many wonderful things and important places in our past and future. Now time for bed!!!1