Driving to Kansas

In August we took an almost 2 week vacation to visit Jacob's parents in Kansas.  We all had a great trip and loved spending time with Grandpa and Grandma!  There are a few church history sites that are only a few hours out of the way when driving to Kansas so Jacob and I decided to makes some stops along the way.  The whole trip took around 17 hours to drive to Kansas.  That is a long way for two little kids to be in the car, but overall they did wonderful!  Jacob and I were so pleased.

 

The Saturday we left we drove to Columbus first and attended the temple for our ward temple trip.  After the temple we drove 7 hours to a little town called Hannibal, MO.  This was our half-way point for the trip to stop and stay at a hotel for a night.  This little town is actually the birth place of Mark Twain so there were a lot of historical things to do there, but we didn't have enough time.  In the morning (after Tommy fell off the office chair in the hotel and hit his face on the table on the way down resulting in a bad line/mark on this face and lots of tears) we left the hotel and drove to Adam-ondi-Ahmen.

The kids sitting on rock at Adam-ondi-Ahmen.  This place had such a wonderful feeling.  We were the only ones there so we really got to soak up the peace there.  There are no buildings to visit or tour so the area was just a lot of land surrounded by farming land.  It was a very beautiful and special place.

The kids going to the look-out over Adam-ondi-Ahmen

 

Next stop was Far West, MO.  The early saints gathered here and began to build a temple, but they were forced to leave before the temple was completed.  The kids and me are where one of the 4 cornerstones to the temple was laid.  All four cornerstones are still there and are preserved by the glass box you see.  This place was had a nice monument to read and was a very peaceful place to be.

Our third stop was Liberty, MO were Joseph Smith and other church leaders spent about 5 months in jail while awaiting trial.  The conditions that the prophet and others had to live in was horrendous and it really is amazing they survived.  After this building was a jail it was used as an ice house to store ice.  It must have been so cold down in the jail and they were there during the winter months.

The building you see is a replica of the jail where the leaders were housed.  The building is set on the original foundation so many of the stones at the bottom are original.  The Historic Site gave a great tour and explained the events that happened at the jail.

Our last stop was to Independence, MO which was a huge gathering place for the early saints.  The church has a really nice visitors center there and we enjoyed a great tour there.  Tommy was so cute and wanted to sit on the stool next to our sister missionary giving the tour.

After the tour there was a play area for the kids so both Tommy and Claire enjoyed playing and riding this horse!

After Independence, MO we were finally on our way to Jacob's parents in Kansas!  We were so glad we saw those historic sites and I'm sure we will go again when the kids are older.  It is so nice to actually see the places we often read about and it is easier to imagine the events that happened at each of these sites.