Tuesday, August 4, 2009

July 2009

What a fun month!! We started July with our long-awaited 2 week road trip that took us through Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illiois, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and back home to Utah. It was even more fun than we thought it would be, and we saw some really fun things along the way, including 2 presidential libraries (or the outside of them anyway). Here are some of the highlights:

LIBERTY JAIL - we also stopped at Independence and Far West in Western Missouri. Very interesting and spiritually uplifting.
HANNIBAL, MO - we took a boat ride down the Mississippi River and hiked through some caves. We also hiked to a lighthouse and toured Mark Twain's childhood home.


NAUVOO, IL - We had a Finch family reunion and had a great 3 days touring around Nauvoo, going to the Nauvoo pageant and other shows, going to the temple for Alex's endowment before he heads off to Brazil for his mission and also doing baptisms and sealings for some of our ancestors there, and doing a 3 mile handcart trek in the rain - quite an adventure! Most of all, we had a great time being together with family.



WINTER QUARTERS, NEBRASKA - We all learned a lot at the Visitors Center and Pioneer Cemetary here and were very touched and humbled by what we learned. We have it so good. We also got to see the Winters Quarters temple, which was beautiful.RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA - We spent 2 full days here and loved all the fun things we got to do, like Alpine sliding, horseback riding, a cowboy show and driving through Bear Country. The highlight was visiting Mt. Rushmore - it is amazing! - and attending the patriotic lighting ceremony at night.We also stopped at Martin's Cove and saw Independence Rock and Devil's Gate on the way home through Wyoming. Pretty inspiring!!

The other highlight of the month was Devin turning 12 and being ordained to the Aaronic priesthood. He is excited to be a Deacon!

At the end of the month, Seth had a great time building his raingutter regatta boat with Bryce and blowing his way to a 4th place finish - Way to go!!

4 comments:

ECR said...

Wow what a great trip! Sounds like it was lot of fun. How was all that driving?

DMRirie said...

You did it!! Wish I could have been in your back pocket to visit all those historic places. How wonderful to have seen all those special places. Now you will all understand more about your country and the church. Loved your pictures. Grandma

Tami said...

I repeat Rob's comments, "Wow" Your trip sounds amazing. Your family will always remember this. That is so cool that your nephew got to go to the temple with all your family in Nauvoo and that the kids got to be baptized for family names. I secretly wish that Ellie will get called on a mission to one of those church sites and get to stand there on holy ground and testify of those early saints.

Michelle said...

The driving was actually a lot better than Bryce and I thought it would be. We broke it up a lot and tried lots of different activities in the car. I was surprised that we had very little arguing and whining - it really was an amazing trip!