More Church sites and the State Fair

We recently had my family's reunion in Nauvoo, but with all the site seeing and kids (19 grandkids mostly under 8) there was just not enough bonding time, so we headed down to my brother Justin's house in Kansas for some more family fun. We had a few stops to make on the way. First we went to Liberty Jail. I can't believe the horrible conditions they lived in for so many months. As the sister missionary was giving the presentation and tour of the Liberty Jail, she kept asking our feelings on certain things. Jensen kept responding to her, very loudly, "AWESOME!" Somehow it didn't quite fit with the spirit of the place.


Then we headed to Independence and saw the RLDS/Community of Christ temple and the cool museum inside with many artifacts such as Liberty Jail door and key, Joseph Smith's "dressing kit" and lots of other stuff. Then we headed across the street to the Temple Lot to see the temple markers (since they took our the cornerstones)


On the way home from Justin's, we stopped at Adam-ondi-ahman, which is very beautiful and different from other church sites I think. All of the roads were gravel and what there was to view or "site see" was just the beauty of the place.


We also stopped at Far West and saw the 4 cornerstones at that site.

We had so much fun with Justin's family. We got to be there for Miles' birthday party and go to a lego exhibit and build some lego exhibits ourselves and go to a lake water park...it was a very fun weekend. Best of all, our kids got to play with their cousins who they love so much.

Yesterday we went to the Iowa State Fair. We were there for 9 - yes nine - hours. We got there around 10:30 and left around 7:30pm. We saw all sorts of amazing stuff including this pumpkin weighing in at 1295 pounds! Image carving that thing for Halloween!

Luke saw this roller coaster and had to ride it. Of course he's not big enough to go on it by himself so Austin went too. Austin and I were sure Luke was going to cry the entire time and be scared of roller coasters the rest of his life (this one was huge and known to scare people) but Luke did pretty well and actually loved it. He was proud of himself for going on it. I couldn't believe he wasn't crying by the end.

The petting zoo is always a favorite. They had all kinds of animals for the kids to pet and feed: camels, bison, yaks, apalca, antelope, goats, porcupine, zebras, etc. Really fun and neat.

Even Eliza got into it. I took this picture especially for Bethany as she loves this animal.

While at the fair, the kids got to see a gator show and got to touch one. It was pretty cold, so the gators were all over the place. I was afraid the guy was going to drop him on the boys.

Two proud conquerors of the "Crazy Mouse" rollercoaster.

Of course we saw tons of buildings full of horses (huge and miniature), cattle, pigs, "Avenue of Breeds" and of course huge boars. This guy weighed almost 1200 pounds! His name was Fatty. He's on facebook if you're interested in "friending" him.

Austin said that this ostrich nearly pecked Luke on the head while we were taking this picture!

What's wrong with that guy?

Austin, Luke and Jensen signed up for a "grape stomp" competition. They took a 5 gallon bucket of grapes and dumped it in a big barrell. Then Austin, Luke and Jensen took of their socks and shoes and climbed in to smash the grapes (see video at the bottom). They had so much fun. They smashed out 17 cm worth of grape juice and won second place in the competition! I can't believe how much fun they all had....they definitely changed my love for grape juice though!

We had so much fun at the Iowa State Fair. The kids were so good and loved every minute of it. Wish you all could have been there!