Labor Day Weekend

Sorry that I have been neglecting my blog lately. My focus for the last while has been on trying to keep down the food that I eat and everything else has become a second priority. I hate not knowing what to expect. Some women are sick throughout their entire pregnancy and I knew that if it kept up for me this might be our one and only ;) Today things are looking up which I am SOOO grateful for!
Last week I found out that my grandmother was in Missouri visiting her sister and when I realized how close Missouri is to Texas I knew we had to go for the three day weekend! Stephen was nervous about traveling with how sick I have been lately but we packed extra plastic bags and hoped for the best! Turns out I really wasn't sick the entire time we were there and it was INCREDIBLE!! It was about at ten hour drive to where my great aunt lives and we traveled through five states not including Texas on our weekend trip. While in Kansas we found an antique store that Stephen wanted to check out. My favorite thing was this little guy. Can you say disgusting?!? I couldn't believe that they were selling this!! They had some skulls that were cleaned but this one takes the cake. It smelled sooo bad and completely grossed me out so I knew I needed to share this on my blog.
Beforehand I had mapped out our route and we realized that we would be driving through some Church History sites and so we decided to check them out as well. Our first stop was in Independence, Missouri. I thought it would be some little town out in the middle of nowhere but it's actually in the very busy metro area of Kansas City. We went to where the the temple site is and I took some pictures but didn't really like them so instead you get a picture of the Church of Christ's temple that is right across the street. It definitely is interesting from an architectural stand-point. They hold regular services in there and anyone can go in but we ran out of time to check it out more.

OOps, how did this one get in here?!
That was in front of the LDS visitor's center that is located next to the temple lot and the Church of Christ's temple. I don't know why but I love getting shots of Stephen taking pictures!! We then went inside and got a map of a bunch of Church history sites that we wanted to check out.

We finally made it to Grandma later that night and the next morning we went to church with her sister (my great aunt). Grandma had lost her shoe and so we had to find her a different pair to wear to church. Because of this fiasco we were going to be late and Great Aunt B could not have that! So we definitely drove about 80 miles an hour down EXTREMELY hilly country roads to make it to church on time. Grandma was about as scared as can be and Stephen looked like he was going to lose his breakfast! I couldn't stop laughing the entire time! Grandma and her sister are hilarious together, if I only had the time to recount all of the humorous events.

After church we decided to go to Nauvoo which is about a two hour drive. Before we hit Nauvoo we stopped in Carthage to see the Jail where Joseph Smith was martyred. It was an incredible experience. Here's the room where the captive men were allowed to stay on the fateful day that the mob came.
It was really neat to be there especially on a Sunday and I loved that the talks in church that day had been about Nauvoo and the events that took place there. In our group that went through Carthage Jail there was a couple who were not LDS and I thought it was neat that they came and wanted to find out more about this site even though they may not believe in our church. I especially loved the movie that we saw in the visitor's center beforehand about the Prophet. It was really neat to see and hear the wonderful things that were spoken of him by others.

The next picture is at the Nauvoo temple looking west towards the Mississippi River. We all admired the statue of Joseph and Hyrum on their horses. Great-Aunt B couldn't believe how real the horses looked and was glad that whoever made the statue actually knew a thing or two about horses! Next I have a picture of the Nauvoo temple. Actually I have about 30 shots of it, but this one was my favorite.
Driving into Nauvoo was a quite a shock for us because there were several festivals going on, but it looked more like religious revivals!! I didn't realize that there were so many other denominations who lived in Nauvoo. It was quite a surprise. We ended up checking out the car show that was going on and Stephen had to show me the cars that he wants to have.

As we were leaving we pulled off to take a few pictures by the Mississippi River. It is at times like these that I despise having two different cameras. Stephen took pictures of Grandma, her sister and me at the Mississippi River but of course I don't have those. So just imagine them instead.
We saw this huge house on our drive in. We couldn't believe how large it is and how close to the River it is! How amazing!

Stephen and I left the next day (Monday) to drive back to Kansas City and home from there. We both enjoyed staying at Great-Aunt B's place. It is sooo gorgeous, she has about 80 acres of amazing hilly, wooded and fielded and gorgeous land. She told us that she lives in the middle of nowhere but that is certainly not true. Her house is up for sale and if only we had the money we would be living there right now. This trip showed me that Missouri might possibly be my favorite state, I couldn't believe how gorgeous it is!! Unfortunately I do not have ANY pictures of Grandma, her sister, or the place where we stayed. Stephen has all of those and one day I am going to make sure to take more pictures! I'm so bummed.

Anyway, Great-Aunt B lives near a bunch of Amish farmers and it was quite interesting to see these road signs!
Stephen and I traveled to Adam-ondi-Ahman first and while there wasn't too much to see, it certainly was gorgeous!


This weekend was so much fun. Stephen has a friend in Kansas City and we were able to see her and her family which I'm glad we got to do. Of course we left way too late and ended up arriving home at 3 Tuesday morning and Stephen still had to go to work! Geesh.