MORE of El Paso and grandkids

Nov. 18-23

Being with my cute grandkids that I don't get to see very much was pretty fun. Being only 5 1/2 hours away, I need to go more often!! 

Off to school early Thursday morning.

For Thanksgiving the school invited parents to come have lunch with their kids. Zallen had his little turkey hat on. He could've cared less if I came!

Milea was looking for me and was glad I came. I had to leave her and go and get Bolden from preschool, then came back and we had

lunch with Kaemon.

 

 When the kids are still in school, Bo konks out when he gets home.

 When Milea gets home from school, she starts cooking!

 Kaemon plays with his millions of legos!

 They all like to watch 'cooking shows' and then they make up their own food with me being the judge!

 They are all pretty creative, well Bolden had play dough stuck in

the bottom of his cup for his milkshake! (hehe)

 More real cooking! Little crepes this time!

 Saturday Zallen had his soccer party at Chuck e Cheese!

 They even had a band!!

It was a pretty fun 5 days spent with Mark & Kids and I think Holly got to enjoy being with her Mom & sister too.  We'll be seeing them all  in a couple days for Thanksgiving too!!!

Off again to El Paso, TX

We just got home from Dallas on Monday and we came home to SNOW! We worked in the temple on Tuesday, then Wed. Nov. 18th, I headed to El Paso, TX to help watch Mark & Holly's kiddos.  Its a 5 1/2 hour trip, which I drove myself with NO radio or anything in the car, but I made it! Kaemon had a scout pack meeting which I went to with all the boys and Holly took Milea to her choir concert.

 They were having their 'Rain Gutter Regatta', so that was fun. I remember our boys racing their boats in REAL rain gutters!!

 Zallen-  I forgot my camera and my tablet doesn't 

take that great of pictures! Bolden was running around somewhere!

 Kaemon's 'Speed Demon'.  He did well, he raced 4 races

and won 3! 

 Their scout master explaining the rules.

 "GO and Blow!"

Being at the pack meeting reminded me of our 4

little boys and all the fun we had with them at Scouts!

Day 2 Kansas City, MO Nov 14

Our 2nd Day in Kansas City. We slept in a little since we didn't get to our motel room until after 8pm! We had a great breakfast and then headed out to see more church history sites!  First stop- Liberty Jail. The Church has a wonderful visitors' center here! 

 They have rebuilt the jail on the original site of where it stood in the 1800's. They know this because the only thing left was the stone floor. Because of a church historians' journal, they had the exact measurements of the walls, the interior and exterior. After it was a jail, it was used as an ice house, then it was torn down and a house was built over the cellar. 

 Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, and 3 others spent 6 months inside this cold, dark prison. They really weren't expected to survive, it was one of the coldest winters in history.

 The Community of Christ church has the original Jail door, but we have the brass key that went to it on display at the Visitor Center.
Hmmm... is that symbolic??

 Another church history monument Reed found, no signs or markings leading to it, he just followed the GPS co-ordinances!

The Kansas City Temple.

 This is the Community of Christ Temple. They still own a lot of the land and think that theirs is the temple that Christ will return to.

The LDS Visitors Center right next to their Temple.

Had to have MORE BBQ!! This time we waited 45 minutes in line! Just too many BYU fans in town for the big game!!

Dad & Reed went on to the game, I stayed in the nice warm motel room!! BYU vs University of Missouri!

 GO COUGARS!  We were ahead most of the game, but because of some bad calls at the end, they beat us!! BUMMER!

 It didn't end well, 16-20, but BYU fans are still 'true blue'. It was  way fun to be able to go on this little trip, to spend time with Reed and Natali and to see their home in Dallas, and to be able to see the church history sites there in Missouri!!  Thanks again Reed for making this possible!! It was all GREAT!! 

Another FUN trip!! Day 1

I feel like Dad & I are part of the 'jet-set'. Thanks to Reed, who got us the plane tickets, we flew to Dallas, TX on Thursday, Nov. 12th, where we spent some time seeing where he and Natali live in their new home! Then we flew into Kansas City, MO the next morning, where the BYU Cougars were playing University of Missouri in the beautiful Arrowhead Stadium. While there, we got to visit all the church history sites!

Sitting in the PHX airport. We can always depend on Uncle Bryan to take us to the airport. Waiting --our flight was 45 min. late leaving! Reed picked us up around 11:30pm!!

The next morning, Friday the 13th, we were up early to catch a 7:30am flight to Kansas City!!

Reed made all the arrangements, even the car rental!  Such a good, helpful son!

First thing, was breakfast at Kate's!! Rated #1 on 'yelp' for good reason, their food was excellent and the staff friendly & nice!

I did NOT eat all this food!! I was cutting it in half to give 

some to Reed!!

Why do I love posting pictures of FOOD???

Reed ordered this delicious carmel banana french toast!  Yummy!!

After breakfast we headed to Far West!  It was so nice to have an

efficient, patient driver to take us to all these places, thanks Reed!

In early church history, Far West was where the Saints gathered for safety after being ran out of the other places in Missouri. They laid the corner stones for a temple to be built here, which never got built, because they were also forced to leave from here too. 

They have covered them with these glass enclosures. 

The only thing here is the fenced in temple lot with the four corner stones plus some historical markers and this monument. There was also two facilities management missionaries there cleaning the bathrooms that we talked to for awhile. They told us if we didn't mind dirt roads, that there was a back way to get to Haun's Mill, our next destination!

Not really sure where we were going for the directions we were given, we came to this bridge. We stopped to let a car pass, and he stopped to ask where we were going. We told him "Far West" and he told us we were lost, but he could help us.

This is Wayne Galbraith, and he was one informative guy! He told us lots of church history of the area in the 15 min. he talked to us!

This is what the back roads to Haun's Mill look like and this was just one of the little puddles we went through! The funny thing was, we were not the only ones on them!! Lots of other Mormons flock to these places!

We finally found it-- and this is all there is at Haun's Mill!

At one time it was a thriving settlement, but had a very sad outcome for the Saints. It was attacked from the State militia men and 18 men were killed, woman and children scattered, everything burned and destroyed! 

The church now owns the property and they have plans for a visitors center here in a few years.

Then it was on to Adam-ondi-ahman!!  Again, not much here but a sign and an overlook onto the meadow that is Adam-ondi-ahman!!

We know from Joseph Smith that this was where the Garden of Eden was and will also be the place where many prophesies will be fulfilled in the future!

The church just purchased 6500 acres here that they currently plant in corn! 

There was a tour group there and we got in on a little of what he was telling them, so interesting!!

It is a beautiful, peaceful place that has a very special feeling when you walk there.

Thanks Reed for taking us to all these wonderful places!!

You can't be in Kansas City and NOT have BBQ!! We went to Joe's Famous BBQ and it was so GOOD!! We timed it great, not a long line to get in, but the place was full of people with BYU shirts on!!

The BYU Football team!

After eating, we hurried over to a Stake Center where the BYU football team was giving a fireside. It was PACKED full, over 1500 people were there! Mormons sure love their team- Go Cougars!  I was really impressed with these players, the ones that spoke shared their testimonies and at one point I looked over at your Dad and he had tears running down his face. He said to me, "This is why I love BYU, its not just about football, its about what they stand for!"