Church History

At the end of July my whole family came to visit. 7 adults and 9 kids in one house for a week. It was kind of definitely crazy, but it sure was good to have everyone together. We decided to go on a mini-church history tour, since we aren't too far from many of the LDS church historical sights (I'm not going to go into any of the history about any of the places we visited. There are books for that). The day after everyone got here, we got up very early and headed to Nauvoo, where we spent the first day and a half. I don't think that any of my family have been there before (don't quote me on that). There are a lot of fun demonstrations all over town that you can watch, and some of them the kids (and adults) got to help with.

They also have fun little shows, and we even got to the see the Nauvoo Pageant that night, which I had never seen before.

The next day we still had a few things we wanted to do in Nauvoo, but first we hunted down a friend of my Dad's who is serving a mission there, and he gave the kids a ride (which you usually have to get tickets for, but we hadn't been able to get our hands on any).

 Of course, we couldn't leave Nauvoo without taking family pictures in front of the temple!

People kept asking us if we were having a family reunion, and we were like, I don't know, are we? I don't know exactly what qualifies as a family reunion. Marie said we should have bought matching shirts for everyone. I think that would have been the real clincher.

Next we headed just a bit further East to the very small town of Carthage.

Then we drove all the way to Kansas City, and stopped at Haun's Mill on the way.

There is really nothing here, and it is not a well-kept place like other Church history spots. In fact, the roads coming into it (from both ways) were SOOOOOOOO bad, with the deepest ruts I've ever seen, and the bridges crossing the stream (both ways again), are so broken up (concrete) that we weren't sure our vehicles were going to make it across (I should have gotten pictures or video, but I didn't!). I know both ways were equally bad because we came in from one side, hoped the other way wasn't as bad, so we took the other way out, and it was just as bad. We're lucky to be alive. I mean, we're lucky we didn't kill our van.

We stayed that night in Kansas City, and the next day went to Independence, Liberty Jail, and .Adam-ondi-Ahman.

I don't know about everyone else, but the highlight of Kansas City for me was when we got some BBQ at Smokin' Guns BBQ. I didn't get any pictures because I was too busy eating, but I would highly recommend this place to anyone. SO GOOD!!!

While my family was here we also took them to the zoo. Can't miss the zoo if you're in Omah!

 

Oh look at that, I just posted more pictures of the zoo than I did of all the other places we went to combined. Sorry, but you know how I love the zoo. Plus we did a few things this time that we'd never done before, like go to the splash zone, and ride the merry-go-round. My nephew bought some salt and vinegar crickets and cheese flavored larva, and I was game to try one of each. The crickets tasted like sunflower seed shells, and the larva tasted like, well, nothing really. So when he dared me to eat ALL of the larva, I thought, how bad could it be? Well, I found out.

It was bad! And the longer I chewed them, the worse they got. I would not recommend this.

The next day, and the final day they were here, we took them out to the lake, and did some swimming and kayaking. Not everyone was sure about kayaking at first, but everybody ended up loving it.

And that was it. And then they left. And suddenly our house was very quiet.

Railroad Days

Another yearly event around here is Railroad Days, presented by Union Pacific. A family pass only costs $15, and that gives you admission to 7 different places, including museums, gardens, etc., PLUS transportation between each place. That's just too good of a deal to pass up, so I dragged 3 of my kids to with me to go check it out (Madelyn was staying with a friend, and Joe was still at language training).

First up was Lauretzen Gardens. Cora and I had been there before, and it's HUGE, so we didn't plan on spending too much time there. They were giving out free train whistles to everyone, and then I saw this sign, so right away the day started out great :)

They had a lot of fun train sets at every location.

The only reason I can think of that Lauritzen Gardens would be one of the spots on the route was because they have a miniature train ride that goes through part of the gardens. But we didn't go on that. Actually, I think they had more stuff than that, but we didn't spend a lot of time exploring there.

We did see Stinko though (no association to a railroad or train).

Stinko is a rare Corpse Flower (so named because when it blooms, it smells like a rotting corpse). It's very big! These flowers only bloom every 3 to 10 years. This one has bloomed once, in 2017. They thought that it was going to bloom again this year, the same weekend as Railroad Days, but it ended up not being a full bloom - this was as far as it got, and fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) it doesn't stink until it fully blooms, so we missed that part. Here's what it would have looked like.

The next place we visited was Durham Museum, the location of which was originally Union Station - Union Pacific's showpiece to the city of Omaha, where it's headquarters were. The station is one of the best examples of art deco architecture. It's gorgeous.

Plus Freight Train Frank was there :)

 Aside from train stuff, the Durham Museum also has dinosaurs, including Scotty, the largest and oldest T-Rex ever discovered.

And then I discovered this little bit of FASCINATING history, which took me down a rabbit hole on the internet when we got home, learning all about World Fairs.  In 1898 Omaha hosted the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition. What's crazy to me is the amazing architectural facades that were created for many of the World Fairs (especially in their hay days in the late 1800's), and Omaha was no exception. The Durham museum has a model replica of the one built in Omaha, and pictures as well.

Nothing remains - it was all wood and plaster, meant to be temporary. Isn't that a shame. Can you imagine if this was still in Omaha? That would be so cool!

Our next place to visit was  Union Pacific's Home Plate, where their No. 4014 "Big Boy" steam locomotive was out for display. They've been restoring it for the past two years, and it is the only operating Big Boy in the world - if you are a train enthusiast, I suppose this would be quite thrilling. We were just glad that there wasn't a long line we had to wait in out under the hot sun.

 It was right about this time that we decided we were all too tired to go on. Plus it was lunch time. So we went home. I was glad we went though, and I would go again next year. We didn't even get to the Union Pacific Railroad Museum - I think that's where we'll start out next year ;)

Lady Hamlet On the Green

They have something really cool here every summer - Shakespeare on the Green. They've been doing it for 33 years now. It's several FREE performances out at the UNO campus, just outside in this big grassy area. I think they do 2 different Shakespeare plays every year, and it only runs for a couple of weeks. You just show up with your blankets and/or lawn shares, find yourself a spot on the green, and enjoy the show. They have concessions and souvenirs and a few other things going on prior to the show.

I knew Cora would want to go, so I decided to take her on a mother-daughter date, just me and her. It was so much fun! We picked up a lot of good ideas from people around us, who obviously take this event very seriously. They came PREPARED! First, you gotta get there early to get a good spot.

We didn't do too bad, but we'd probably go even earlier next time.

Second, people brought food with them. And some people were going pretty darn fancy - wine, cheese, fruit, etc. Others brought more substantial dinners - chicken, meatballs, bread, etc. And we saw a LOT of people who had brought little tables to put their food on. And coolers. We decided to grab some food from one of the vendors, since we didn't bring our own. We were happy with the bangers and mash, and not too impressed with the tiki masala. You win some, you lose some.

Third, people brought something to entertain them while they waited - mostly board games, but other things too.

We saw the performance of Hamlet, and it was really great because they did a female forward cast. Hamlet was female - not just a female playing the role of a male Hamlet, but the role was a female Hamlet. She did awesome! The whole cast did.....except for one role, which shall remain nameless, which really bugged us. But other than that, it was great.

We can't wait to go back again next year, and hopefully we'll have the whole family with us. And we'll definitely be more prepared ;)

Fireworks

It's so funny to see all the firework tents going up. I don't know why they're a thing here, but the giant blow-ups never get old.

Joe was gone for the 4th of July for language training. I was planning to take the kids over to see the fireworks at Werner Park, but Cora invited some friends over, and they brought so many fireworks with them (and we had bought some too at the last minute) that we decided to just stay at the house instead.

There were some teenagers in a big grassy area across the street from us, and they were having a war with Roman Candles - like, they were shooting them at each other. I imagine it would hurt. Apparently it's a tradition that they do every year. We just watched....and judged ;) Oh well, nobody lost an eye, and they won their independence....or something like that. I should have got a video of them, but I didn't. I just got more of our own fireworks. Happy 4th ya'll.