Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Family Vacation Summer 2013

5000 miles + 4 kids + 12 states= a long fun family vacation. We left in July for a family trip to Nauvoo Illinois to palmyra New York. We made lots of stops along the way and got to visit with lots of family. The trip started out driving through Texas and Kansas on our way to Independence Missouri. We say Liberty Jail and Adam on diomi and Far West Missiouri. We caravanned with Mimi and Papa and Brandon and Shannon's family.
^^^^This is the house Mark Grew up in in Dumas Texas^^^^
The Wizard of Oz in Kansas
^^^^^^^Temple Site at Independence Missouri^^^^^^^
^^^^^^Liberty Jail^^^^^^
^^^^^Far West^^^^^^^
We enjoyed the sites of Nauvoo. It was extremely hot and humid while we were there which made the 3 mile handcart trek we went on even more difficult.
^^^We went to carthage jail^^^
After Nauvoo we headed to Holly's house in Ohio. We stayed there one night. It was fun for the cousins to spend time together since they don't get to see each other very often. We also goto see our new nephew baby Luke. He is a cutie.
From Holly's we drove the 7 hours to Palymyra New York. It was so green and beautiful. We stayed in the Palymra Inn. That evening before the pageant we visited the hisotric sites in Palmyra like Jospeh Smith's log Cabin and their big house. Then we went to the pageant it was amazing.
The next morning we hiked up Hill Cumora. It was quite a steep little climb. We also stopped by the printing press where the book of Mormon was first published. We then drove to Niagra Falls. It was amazing. I don't know if I've ever seen so much water. I was surprised at how touristy it is. I don't know what I was expecting, but that definitely wasn't it.
From Niagra we traveled to Mark's cousin Mike's house. Craig and his family were already staying there. It is so green and pretty there. There are lots of farms and beautiful houses. We had planned on staying 2 nights, but by this time we were ready to head home.
On our way to Mikes we stopped in Kirtland Ohio. Again it was beautiful. I didn't know a lot about the Saints years in Kirtland so it was very interesting to hear the stories abd see the buildings.
Our next stop was to stay with Stephen and Meghan in Seymore Indiana. We had also planned on staying longer with them, but we were really tired and ready to be home.
After Their house we stayed one more night in a hotel and then finally made it home. It was a wonderful trip and a great experiance. I was incrediably nervous about being in the car with the kids for that long, but they really did great. I was happily surprised. Even little Karley was a great traveler. Mark would say she was the best. These are just some fun things we saw along the way:

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