Jack looks like....

A Long Awaited Visit

So it has only been a month since we left home but that is a long time for us. We went and picked my parents up on Thursday night at the airport and we were excited to see how Jack would react. A month is a long time for him and we were hoping he would remember Grandma and Grandpa. I woke Jack up when we got to the airport and went to find them. We saw them from a distance and Grandpa started calling for Jack. He got excited but as soon as we got to them it took him a minute to warm up to them. he was a little frightened and needed his mom for a minute, but it didn't take long at all before he realized who they were. He was so cute with them once we got back to our house. He was showing off and trying to be funny. It was so fun to see him be excited, the rest of the weekend he didn't really want me anymore he wanted to play with them. Every morning he was excited to see that they were still there. Grandma brought Jack his blanket she made him.(She finally finished the blanket she started before he was born :) )We loved it. So we had an awesome weekend spending time with them. As you can tell we did alot and took lots of pictures, so bear with me, I couldn't choose which pictures to put on so I put most of them!

Take me out to the Ballgame....

So when we heard my dad wanted to come visit we knew he would be excited because the weekend the were coming the Yankees were in town. So Friday night we took Jack and Grandpa to their first Yankee game. Grandpa was a little jealous that it only took Jack 6 months to see the Yankees play and it took him 57 years. It was alot of fun. It was perfect weather and the Royals ball park is alot of fun. My favorite part of the game is Jack started clapping for the first time. He was cheering on the Yankees with Grandpa. It is so cute he claps all the time now. We saw a homerun and of course ate hotdogs and cracker jacks.

Road Trip

So the next two days we headed off to see all of the church sites which meant lots of driving. Jack was great to stay in his seat for almost two days straight. We had a few tears but he spent most of his time playing peek-a-boo with Grandma or sleeping. On the way home Grandpa insisted that we stop and buy him some licorice. So we stripped him down and let him go at it- he loved it!

A day in the life of a pioneer....

Ok so we didn't really get the full pioneer experience since we drove around in the car instead of a covered wagon, but we did get to see all of the church sites in our area in two days. We started out going to Independence and seeing the lot they have marked as the temple grounds. We went in the visiting center and learned a little about the pioneers. The visiting center is right across from the now Community of Christ church's temple (the big spirally building). then we headed over to Liberty and visited the jail that Joseph and others spent 4 months in.

Adam-Ondi-Ahman

Next we went to Adam-Ondi-Ahman. It had to be one of my favorite places we saw. There isn't much there but it is so beautiful. The pictures really can't show how pretty the country is all around there. On a walk Jack had to stop and suck his toe, he got the whole big toe in his mouth it was pretty funny.

Carthidge Jail

On the way to Nauvoo we stopped at Carthidge. It was a neat spot for our family because Luke (and now Jack) are direct decendants of Hyrum Smith. To see the exact spot where the prophet and his brother were marytered gave life to the events we have learned about throughout our lives.

Old Nauvoo

I couldn't resist posting more pictures of the temple it is so beautiful.





The rest of Nauvoo.....

Nauvoo was a really neat experience. It just breaks your heart for the pioneers to see what a nice place they had to leave. We drove around all the old building seeing things like Brigham Young's house and the old printing shop. Grandma couldn't resist buying Jack a pioneer hat, he looks pretty cute in it. We also got to go and do some geneology and looked up some relatives that died in Nauvoo. It is a big testimony builder to see what the pioneers went through to bring us what we have today.

Far West

On the way home from Nauvoo we happened to pass the sign for Far West, so we pulled over headed that way. It was worth the extra bit of time it took. It was so beautiful, they have a nice marker where the 4 cornerstones to the temple are. Luke and Jack are standing by the marker where it says that Joseph F. Smith was born there. We also saw the last standing cabin that was left. The area was just full of beautiful country. Grandpa is about ready to pack up his stuff and move out there it was so pretty.