I walked today where Joseph walked

Today (Monday) we got the tour of Kirtland. It is incredible to have the opportunity to walk in the same rooms where the prophet Joseph Smith received revelations and to be inside the first temple in this dispensation.This guy was a pretty good tour guide!

Here is the Kirtland Temple. I have seen many pictures, but being there is different. To be in the rooms where God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith is so amazing.

Here we are in front of the temple.

Another shot in front of the temple. It isn't a working LDS temple anymore. It is owned by the Community of Christ church.

Here is the inside of the temple. Joseph Smith would have sat in the center seat, back row but on the other side of the building. This is actually seating for the presiding Aaronic priesthood leaders. And ok, I kinda cheated. They don't allow photographs inside the building, so I took a picture of a post card. But I really got to stand right in this room! Gave me the chills. This is the cemetary in Kirtland. This is the grave of my great great great great great grandfather, John Johnson, who was a friend of the prophet. Joseph Smith lived in his home for a time.
This is the Smith marker. It is a headstone for, among others, the twins son/daughter that were born to Joseph and Emma and then died a few hours later.

Jarod looks good as a pioneer boy, don't you think? This was in the Kirtland Temple museum.

Here we are going into the Newel K. Whitney store. In the upstairs of this store is the school of the prophets. Didn't get a picture for some reason.

This is the kitchen in the Newel Whitney home. Man I hate cooking, but this I would really hate! Way too hot for me!

This is the John Johnson home (remember his is my gr-gr-gr-gr-gr grandfather).

This is the bedroom where Joseph and Emma and their second set of twins lived. It is also the room where Joseph was dragged out of and tarred and feathered by a mob.

And this is the house we are moving to when we become independently wealthy. Isn't it awesome!?!?

Nebraska

No drama today, thank goodness. Only one stop - Lake McConaughy in Nebraska. My little water babies just wanted to be in the water all afternoon. They would have stayed over night if we had a tent!
Short post today. I lost an hour crossing a time zone so even though I only want it to be 11, it is 12 and we have an early start tomorrow!

A bump in the road (literally)

Well, the first day was just kind of boring driving. This part of Wyoming just isn't pretty. We did have a little excitement (if you want to call it that). About an hour into our trip, the cords came loose on our luggage rack and everything went flying down the freeway. Luckily all the suitcases are tough and survived all the banging around. Not so lucky for my big tub containing all my "toiletries" (make-up, shampoo, curling iron, blow dryer, etc). It SHATTERED!! And several cars behind us proceeded to run over all my stuff despite their best efforts to avoid it. I'm just glad none of it went through their windsheild. So we spent about 45 minutes playing frogger on I-80 salvaging what we could.
This is all that's left of my BRAND NEW blow dryer. It was the worst hit. We did salvage a few things, though pretty much everything is covered in road rash. So a trip to WalMart and $200 later we were back in business.

After following our very confused GPS around Rock Springs for awhile, we finally found this nice little park to have lunch. It has a water play area (Gateway style) that the boys had a blast playing in - mostly Jarod cuz he's my water child, but we did convince DJ to at least get his feet wet.

There was even a gigantic slip and slide set up for the kids to play on.

Jarod was soaked!

We then left Rock Springs and endured 3 hours of very boring driving with nowhere to stop until we reached Laramie where we very quickly unloaded all the suitcases and barely made it inside before a HUGE thunderstorm hit. It was awesome to watch!

Well, a good night's sleep, a good breakfast and we are on the road again. Nebraska here we come!

GO!!!!

It's time to hit the road. YIKES!! A little nervous. Hope we have everything cuz there is no more room in the car! Pictures later. Today is Wyoming. Probably not much to take pictures of!

Ready. . . set. . .

Totally stressing the last couple days getting ready for this trip. Do you have any idea how much work it takes to get 5 people ready to be gone for 25 days??

But, here I am. The house is scrubbed, yard is clean, suitcases are packed . . . and it's not even midnight! Wahoo! We might actually get a good night's sleep before a road trip. We've never done that before!

Sweethearts Ball

Lindsie and Trevor
The flowers

How did I get such a beautiful daughter?

Mom is a sucker

Wow! It has been a long time since I blogged. I am terrible at taking pictures, and what is a blog without pictures, right? Well, here are a couple updates.

Oh man, like we don't have enough dogs in this house! Meet Hershey . . . This is Jarod's new puppy. Who can say no to this cute little boy face when he is begging for his very own puppy? He even cleaned up dog poop for two weeks without being told so he could prove he was "responsible enough" for his very own dog.
Hershey is a Cockapoo/Shi Tzu mix. He is a little fur ball who will only get to be about 10 pounds or so. He is such a good little puppy. Sleeps 10 hours a night. Plays with the kids all day.

Can I tell you how hard it is to find a small black dog in the house? This pic doesn't really show, but he kind of blends it really easy. We looked for 15 minutes before we found him here curled up in Jarod's clothes. If he hides in just the right place, he blends in with the shadows.

He thinks he is Mr. Tuff guy. He always hassles Jo ey. Joey is very patient and gentle with him, but he will knock Hershey over if he gets too pesty. Here he is playing Tug of War with Lindsie's hair. His little "growl" and "bark" are so cute.

Two cute little dogs all cuddled up.

Oh man. I am tuckered out!