32 hours cross country!

LONG POST! SORRY!

Finally I am going to blog about our trip home! We didn't end up getting out of Erie until about 7 PM on the 5th, due to some definitely unforeseen circumstances, but still wanted to get on the road that day. We only drove about 4 hours to the boarder of Ohio and Indiana. We got on the road early the next morning and made the 9 hour drive to Peavine Lane Pet Spa in Fort Madison IA, to drop the mutt off. Surprisingly the drive was not bad, except for some sore bums! We then stayed just across the river in Nauvoo IL for 3 days touring with my parents who met us there!

Seeing the sites
First off, I loved Nauvoo! That is saying a lot seeing how I toured it with a two year old. That is mostly thanks to a grandpa who conveniently needed to nap at the same time~ Ü

There is so much to see there. Many of the old homes are restored by both the LDS and Community of Christ which you are able to go through. They teach you about life back then and give you samples of food made then. Also there is the graves of many members of the Smith family, including Joseph, Hyrum and Emma. I enjoyed seeing all of those but would definitely say the Temple was the best. My dad and Phil went together and so me and my mom did the next day. It is SO beautiful. It is by far my favorite temple!
We stayed a few nights in The Nauvoo Inn. It was an amazing two room suite. It was great minus the surprise Phil found in his shoe one morning: the "pebble" didn't want to come out from hitting the shoe upside down so Phil reached in and pulled out a cricket! SICK! Boy am I glad that wasn't me!

We then stayed a few nights in the Motel Nauvoo suite. Which was huge! I kinda thought it was gonna be ghetto but it was great too! You can see in these pics the random things we found to keep K entertained.
WAGON RIDE AND TRAIL OF TEARS

We took an old Wagon ride around Nauvoo. Really fun, informational and free. K thought it was very entertaining. We walked the trail of tears which is the pathway the saints took as they left Nauvoo. It has a bunch of excerpts from peoples journals. The view looking back at the temple, must have been a hard sight to leave. The sign pic shows the names of people who died in route to SLC. We are related to the Lovells.
CARTHAGE JAIL

Cathage was really neat. My favorite part is that the jail had been made in to a house for several years but still maintained the original door with the bullet hole. Also the hole closest to the handle had been cut out after the murder as like a souvenir and was later returned to the church and put back in the door. CRAZY! There was a museum across the street from the jail that had this two headed calf displayed.
FARR WEST, LIBERTY JAIL, & INDEPENDENCE
Wednesday we made the 9 hour total trek to Adam-Ondi-Ahman, Farr West, Liberty Jail and the Independence visitors center. There is only a plaque at Adam-Ondi-Ahman but it was beautiful, we however didn't get any pics. At Farr West it was neat to see the cornerstones for the temple and also read the plauqes that told about all the neat things that happened there. I just love to go to these places and picture their cute little towns and their day to day life happening. Liberty Jail was my favorite of all the sites we saw on this trip. They have a repluica built inside the visitors center. The audio and visual things we so well done, and I really enjoyed learning about the time Joseph Smith and the other men spent there. In Independence the vistor center is also great with many things dipicting what life was like back then. My mom and Dad'd best friends daughter was serving a mission there and they were able to see her, although we missed her by only a matter of moments.
We decided to head out that night around 9 but once again only made it about 4 hours before stopping(but a total of 13 hours in the car that day). Which left us for a great journey across Kansas and Colorado. We ended up driving about 17 hours that last day but were so glad to not have to get in the car again. K was excellent on the trip, although I think he is now scarred for life. Everytime we get in the car he says "I need to get out" I think he thinks it will never end!
He thought he needed a turn holding Koda. It was short lived.