We spent all day Saturday visiting the church sites in Missouri. What a great experience! The kids were so well behaved and enjoyed it, even the 3 1/2 hour drive each way. We started at Independence and worked our way north.
Outside the visitor's center...so green. So many trees. I will miss the trees when we move.
The entire area downstairs in the Independence Visitor's Center is devoted to the history of the Saints, showing how they lived and the trials they went through, including mobs and the eventual extermination order that forced them out of Missouri. They also have a small corner downstairs just for kids:
Aidan riding Tony the pony
driving the covered wagon
Christian had to talk me into putting this one on the blog: me attempting to hula-hoop. I was good at it once upon a time. When I was nine I hula-hooped for 30 minutes non-stop (attempting to beat the world record; then I got tired and decided to watch Saturday morning cartoons.)
Then upstairs they have a 15 minute interactive-type video about how families can be together forever (yes, Christian and I both cried). They also have some cool touch-screen stories and interactive type things that the boys loved pushing and listening to. This is a display of all of the Books of Mormon in the many different languages it is written in. The earth spins...the boys thought that was cool.
Next, we went to Liberty Jail. 
Liberty Jail is called the "temple prison" because even though Joseph Smith and others spent over four months there (and the living conditions were horrific), Joseph received many revelations and the spirit was strong there. They have re-created the jail itself and built the visitor's center around it. They tell of some of the neat things that happened in the jail, and some of the revelations received. There really is a special spirit there.
The basement cell wasn't tall enough for the men to stand up in. And they were there for over four months. One man walked with a hunchback for the rest of his life after this experience. But Joseph said this experience refined him and helped him to become the man he needed to be.I'll write about Far West and Adam-Ondi-Ahman tomorrow. My eyes aren't even focusing anymore. Let's see...10:20 PM. Ah, yes. Time to go to bed.
3 people wanted to leave a comment:
Those are such great places to visit. I laughed about the hula hoop. I used to be good too...I was showing my boys how to do it just the other day and they watched in amazement. We are such cool moms, huh!
I wish I could make myself go to bed at 10:20pm. I really need to make that my goal.
Cool pictures! We drove through that area once on our way to Kansas, but we never did the sites. Now we don't have to! You've provided a great little tour. We did go to Adam-Ondi-Ahman. It was cool and we were the only ones there.
I'm glad you're getting it all in before you move. And nice hula moves!
I didn't know you had a little weekend trip...or I guess a Saturday trip. Looks like it was beautiful there, and the boys are all smiles. Ethan sleeping with the open book is a classic. Talk about worn out.
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