We celebrated Penny's 5th birthday last week. The Utah cousins came over on Monday night for cake and ice cream. Penny was very excited to be 5 years old. Now she can stay up until 8pm and play the Nintendo Switch with the other kids. She got a new backpack for her birthday and a new Lego set. We took her out to Penny Anne's Cafe for her birthday lunch. She wanted sourdough pizza for her b-day dinner.
On Saturday for Spring break we left on our epic journey to Nauvoo, IL. The weather was nice when we left. It took about 5 hours to get to Martin's Cove in Wyoming. It's a remote spot where there is now a cattle ranch that the church owns. We got to pull some handcarts and some nice senior missionaries showed us around. There was a visitors center there with artifacts and exhibits and a video about the
Willey / Martin handcart rescue. We went on a hike to the Devil's Gate landmark pictured in the background. It was a pretty landscape.
Most of Wyoming along I-80 is very desolate with nothing but giant windmills and snow fences and no trees. We did find a nice park in a small town to eat our lunch. We also found an excellent pizza place near the University of Wyoming in Laramie to eat dinner at called Hambone's. It snowed as we traveled to Nebraska for the night.
The next day we drove all the way across Nebraska to Winter Quarters. It was a long drive. Luckily the kids had games, snacks and some activity books to keep busy in the car. There was a
visitors center there that was probably the best we visited. The senior missionaries were helpful and the kids got to do a look 'n find activity thru it. We stayed the night in Kansas City.
The next day we visited several sites. The first was
Independence, MO where Harry Truman was born and plans for Zion were made. Then we went to visit Liberty Jail. It was a cool building that had a replica cut-away building of the original jail inside where Joseph Smith and other leaders spent several months in the winter of 1838. We then visited two monuments one for the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon and one for the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Then we drove out to a site called Haun's Mill where a terrible massacre took place. It was a pretty place but nothing was really there to see.
We then drove out to a gathering place called Far West where a temple site was placed. It was really enjoyable to drive thru the rolling green hills and farmland. We passed by the town where Walt Disney grew up. Of the states we visited, Missouri had the most beautiful countryside. There were small farms, ponds, woodland areas, fields of lavender and magnolia trees everywhere.
We finally arrived in Nauvoo, IL after dark and stayed in an Airbnb for two nights. Our day in Nauvoo was cold and windy but we kept busy. There were friendly sister missionaries on call all day to give us and others guided tours thru the various homes and shops. We visited the Red Brick store, Mansion house, Smith Homestead and cemetery, a bakery, blacksmith shop, print shop and schoolhouse.
There was also a family living center with pioneer activities for the kids. They made rope and some clay bricks. We took a wagon ride all around the old town and learned some interesting facts.
The next day it rained in the morning and we drove to Carthage to see where Joseph and Hyrum were martyred. We enjoyed our visit and the tour there and then made our way down to St. Louis.
We went to the big Gateway Arch which is the smallest national park. We rode to the top and enjoyed the view for a few minutes. Following Heath's suggestion we visited the
St. Louis City Museum which is 10 stories of madness. It was a really fun and inspiring place to explore and we were pretty exhausted after leaving. We spent the night in a town called Columbia.
The next 2 days were spent driving home. I think we listened to every CD we brought on the trip (~50). The kids were exceptionally excellent and we got really good at loading and unloading all our stuff into hotels. There were a few meltdowns and one bathroom accident but nobody got sick. In the end we were excited to get to our home in Bountiful but I think we all enjoyed the week-long getaway. It was awesome to get a feel for the landscape, distances, environments and actual buildings where all the amazing people lived the history we are studying this year.
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