Spring Break in Kansas City

We only had a day in Kansas City, and this one was about family. We decided to meet Ty and Savannah and the boys. They wanted to go to the zoo, and that sounded great to us. We met about 9:30 at the gate and their boys immediately took to our boys, excitedly showing them all their favorite things in the Kansas City Zoo. This zoo is quite a bit larger than our zoo, so we did a lot more walking. They had some cool animals, too. We even rode the Skyride over the top of the zoo, and you could see the animals below.

The boys loved Seth!

We had so much fun with the Alders.

Riding the skytram.

We chuckled about these signs all over the zoo. 

The zoo was a ton of fun.

They also have a small aquarium.

Mom and her best buddy!

Such a fun morning!

We spent most of the day at the zoo, and then took Ty to a quick lunch for his birthday. Then we ended up back at the hotel to relax for a few minutes before our biggest adventure of the day, the Royals game. The game wasn't all that exciting. Bobby Witt, Jr. had a double and made an amazing double play. But that was about all the Royals managed, as they lost 2-0. Still we had great seats right down by 3rd base. Ty's family even came down from the upper deck and watched the last few innings with us.

We walked to the stadium from our hotel.

Add another stadium to our growing list.

George Brett is an iconic player.

There is a cool fountain at this stadium.

We enjoyed sitting with Ty and Savannah and the boys at the game.

We loved seeing them in Kansas City!

It was a long drive home, and we started out early. We listened to General Conference and Harry Potter. We stopped at a rest stop and Mom made lunch. The weather was good, though. Finally, we arrived in Rifle, Colorado, and checked into a hotel. 

The next morning, we drove up into the hills above Rifle to see the waterfall at Rifle Falls State Park. We'd seen this way back before Utah's Adventure Family began. It was just as good as we remembered. There was a huge triple waterfall that you can walk right under and on top of. Then there were some shallow caves that we explored. We ended up spending around an hour, which didn't delay us coming home too much. Luckily, we were in time to pick up our new baby chicks!

Rifle Falls is gorgeous.

It is so picturesque.

Can you see the boys?

You could even walk behind the waterfall.

The caves were fun to explore.

We had fun checking out all the little caves.

This was a great stop.

We climbed up into all sorts of places.

The rock formations were so cool.

We saw a little rainbow as we were leaving.

Leaving Nauvoo

On Wednesday we woke up to breakfast in the hotel in Nauvoo. This was breakfast made by Mom, and it included eggs and sausage, along with the pancakes left over from the day before. Today we had a lot more driving to do, but we want to do a few more things in Nauvoo. First, we wanted to walk around Nauvoo State Park. This was a short loop trail around a reservoir. It was a nice hike, and we saw a red-bellied woodpecker, along with a lot of other birds.

We enjoyed this nice lake trail.

It was shady and all along the lakeshore.

After the hike we decided to drive down to see if we could see a bald eagle reported to be down by the river in Nauvoo. But then, miraculously, the Mansion House was open. As it was closed all week, it was the one site we hadn’t seen in Nauvoo. We quickly parked and hopped out, but the building was really busy. Luckily, our favorite sisters from the day before saw us and agreed to sneak us in between groups, giving us our own private tour. We accepted that little miracle, and never really worried about seeing the eagle after all. 

Then we began our long drive down into Missouri. Mormons have never really been welcomed in Missouri, and we don’t really care to visit even today. But there were a few Church history sites we wanted to see. Our first stop was Adam-ondi-Ahman. This has been much expanded, and we hiked two short trails, visited two viewpoints, and read all the signs. Miraculously, we ran into our next-door neighbors, who were headed to Nauvoo, and chatted for a little while, too.

It was so windy when we visited!

We could barely stand up!

It was so fun to run into our neighbor.

Dad and Mom hiked down into the valley.

Adam-ondi-ahman was a nice little stop.

Next, we made another short drive to Hawn’s Mill. This site has not been updated at all, and there was very little to see. We were glad we went, as Mom’s great-great-grandfather died there, but there is only a small plaque laid nearly 100 years ago.

The Hawn's Mill site.

The gravel roads took us up and down over blind hills as we drove to our third destination, Far West. We were excited because this was our final Church History site in all the country. We’ve now seen them all from Sharon, Vermont, to San Diego, California. 

Farr West Family Pic

On the way into Kansas City, we stopped at a park called Penguin Park. It was not hard to see why. There was a massive statue of a penguin, along with an elephant, kangaroo, and giraffe. Each had an opportunity to climb, slide, or hang from. We didn’t stay long.

The giant penguin was super fun!

You could climb up into the kangaroo pouch.

We had skipped lunch in favor of snacks, and we were very hungry. So, we stopped at a place called Joe’s BBQ. Since Kansas City is known as the City of Barbecue, this seemed appropriate. It turned out to be a great decision as the barbecue was amazing! We had brisket, ribs, and pulled pork. Sides included pork and beans, street corn, cornbread, and fries. We loved it and ended the day full!

This meal was so good!!

We all loved it!

We enjoyed a lovely sunset on the way to the hotel.

Spring Break in Nauvoo

After leaving Iowa on Monday morning, we had another long drive into Nauvoo. This was made even longer when we had to stop for 40 minutes at the Mississippi River crossing. We watched as several barges came through before they rotated the bridge back into place. Finally, around dinner time we made it into Nauvoo. We dropped things off in the hotel, and then walked downtown. There was a restaurant called Red Front that was the only open restaurant in town.

We had to wait for a long time at the bridge.

Finally heading across the Mississippi.

This river is huge! 

The Red Front Store is one of the few things open in Nauvoo right now.

The ice cream bricks were delicious.

We did find two museums open. The first one was called the Martyrdom Museum in downtown Nauvoo. It was the owner's labor of love, and he is just getting opened up for the year. We spent some time walking around looking at the displays.

There was a second place open in the basement of the mercantile. It was called Joseph Smith's Tomb. This just opened a year or two ago, and it claims to be the site where Joseph commissioned a place for his family to be buried, which was never used. 

After dinner, we watched the NCAA championship. (Mark picked the winner, but Seth had the most points in the bracket.) Then we went to bed.

Joseph Smith's Tomb??

This museum was super interesting.

Dax's face was too good to not share this picture.

We love the Nauvoo Temple.

Seth really hoped UConn would win again. 

Tuesday was all about Nauvoo. This time, though, we took it slowly. We tried to focus on our relatives and family roots in this town, rather than trying to get every shop and home visited. The sister missionaries just arrived the prior week, and several of them recognized us or people we knew. It was kind of fun to have Nauvoo basically to ourselves, since it only fully opened on April 1. 

We did a few things we hadn't done before in Nauvoo, like take a carriage ride, visit two ancestors home sites, and run to the basement of the Visitor Center for a tornado drill. Of course, many spiritual experiences were had along the way. We also played at the Family Learning Center, carding wool, dipping candles, making rope, and building a barrel. It was really fun. 

We got to hang out in the basement for a minute due to the tornado siren.

It was FREEZING!!

We had a ton of fun at the Family Living Center.

Seth and Mom made a really good bucket.

We enjoyed visiting all the houses we missed last time.

Dax had a double ham sandwich.

Nauvoo is so great!

After walking the Trail of Hope, we drove down to Dairy Queen for dinner. Along the way, we stopped at a waterfall, and watched the birds on the river. There were scaups, herons, and great egrets. We added that to the cardinals, pileated woodpecker, and numerous bald eagles we'd already seen, and this trip became quite a bird watching adventure. 

To top the day off, we even let Seth and Dax swim in the pool. 

Mom and Dad walked the Trail of Hope.

We stopped at this cool bridge.

The waterfall was a quick stop, but so pretty!