Kirtland Post

Over Labor Day weekend we went to Kirtland, which I've already written a little about.  I wanted to elaborate a little, which basically means I want to post more pictures.

First, we got up there later than we wanted to and I was grumpy by the time we arrived late Saturday afternoon.  The drive, however, was fantasticly scenic, with all the trees barely turning fall colors.

The family we spent the weekend with.  She's been my friend since I was 5 years old, and I can't imagine that will ever change.  Now we're both married with 3 kids, and that's fun.  The kids like each other and call each other "cousins" on occasion.  That's pretty close, we figure, since Laura and I feel more like sisters than friends.  In fact, it was a beautiful thing to spend all weekend with someone who knows me so well, and knows my past, my family.  I didn't have to explain things or past events.  She would just nod her head because SHE WAS THERE.  It was therapeutic. 

I've already posted this picture, but I have to re-post it, because it really captured what the whole weekend was like.  Crazy, chaotic wonderfulness:

On Sunday we figured out that M, the one in Laura's arms in the picture, had Hand Foot and Mouth Disease.  Seriously.  And poor M, she was miserable.  The sores in her mouth made her not want to eat, so on top of feeling crummy, she was hungry.  We didn't prepare for such an event, so we spent some time hunting for places that sold milkshakes, just to get her something she could eat.

Here's Laura holding M while she slept and the rest of us explored Kirtland:

They have more things there than they did last time I went.  Now they have a sawmill and an ashery, and those are both fascinating.  It was a much more interesting place to visit.  The kids even liked it:

Here's M later, posing for the camera, even though she felt so horrible:

And here's the picture I was able to take when she wasn't paying attention.  I'm pretty proud of the picture, given the circumstances:

Sunday was our big sight-seeing day, so we took it easy on Monday.  We took the kids to the beach area in the campground and let them play before a storm rolled through.  Then we parted ways.  They had a 7 or 8 hour drive back home.  We didn't have to drive so far, so we visited the John Johnson farm first.

I LOVE the John Johnson farm with all the colors and history. I'm not going to post those pictures on the blog, because I posted them all on Facebook.  But this is one of my favorites that I did not post on FB:

The kids, and particularly Miciah, loved the missionary couple that took us on our tour, and they loved the kids right back.  Here Miciah is leaning on the sister while she listens (ACTUALLY LISTENS!) to the brother bear his testimony.  Elijah and Teancom, by contrast, were running around the room like wild children.  They were pretty done with the whole sight-seeing gig.

And on the way home they were slightly calmer wild children.  Here's Teancom:

He insisted on putting his Carebear under the seat belt with him.  Very safe.
And here's all 3 of them, showing how "calm" they were:

Elijah was being a ghost (which at least was quiet for a few minutes), Miciah was drawing something, but vying for attention nonetheless, and Teancom was yammering up a storm.  Totally awesome.

All in all, a fun trip.  I would do it again, just the same way.