Chicago

Saturday we traveled from Des Moines, IA to South Bend, IN. We took a little detour up to Chicago. Approaching the city. Can you tell which one is the Sears Tower? It's the tallest building in the United States.

First stop - deep dish pizza! You always hear about the pizza in Chicago so we decided we needed to give it a try. OOOHHH is it YUMMY! And I'm sure sooo full of fat! But you only live once, so what the heck.

The cheese went on for miles I swear!

Next stop - Sears Tower. We only had a couple hours in Chicago, so that was what we decided to see. Here we are heading downtown. We have never been in a big city like this. It was a little bit intimidating, but so cool!

The elevator shoots you up 103 floors in about 45 seconds. Towards the top, it starts to shake and rattle a little bit. Man most places charge a bundle for a ride like that! Here is the view from the top. It's an inside observatory, you can't go outside.

This glass box is called "The Ledge." It is a glass box that hangs out over the city 1450 feet in the air! People get in it and look straight down over the city.

So here my children are hanging out over Chicago. I think Jarod was a little nervous. And yes, the big chicken (me) even went out on the Ledge! It was getting dark so my pictures didn't turn out. But I promise I really did it!

Night view. Beautiful city.

Arriving in Ohio

Sunday we drove from South Bend straight to Ohio. No stops. And we only slept four hours the night before. Good thing we have four drivers! It was rough, but we made it.

Had to make a quick stop at Notre Dame University before leaving South Bend. That is one pretty campus. Uh, oh! We missed a turn somewhere because we ended up at the Ocean!! Haha. Looks like an ocean, but it is really Lake Erie. Once we arrived in Kirtland and met up with mom and dad, we headed down to the lake for a picnic. Didn't take my three more than 6 seconds to be in the water! Wednesday we get to spend some time swimming in the lake.

Pretend surfing!

Um, Jarod, shoes go on your feet, not your hands!

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!