Kirtland

Ian had a business trip to Ohio last week and David and I got to go. Chris picked up the girls on Sunday, Ian flew out on Sunday night, and I left with David on Monday morning. David did pretty well on our flights, the only hard times being when we went up and down. He fussed and pulled at his ear, and every now and then would let out a wail, but overall he did pretty well. Ian picked us up at the airport and when we got to our hotel there was a huge bouquet of flowers...sweet guy. :) Tuesday I drove to Kirtland in the most rain I've ever seen in my entire life:

(Picture was taken at about 9:30 am). I now fully understand the expression "raining buckets." For all I know it could have been raining cats and dogs too, I couldn't see a thing. So when I got to Kirtland it was still raining pretty hard. I had no idea if the rain was ever going to stop but I figured it wouldn't hurt to drive around a bit just in case. We ended up at the Holden Arboretum which was just beautiful, even in the rain. This picture does NOT do it justice, but it at least gives you an idea.

While I was driving around I saw this:

I really have no idea how old it is, it's not on the church history sites, but I thought it was super cute. By the time we got back it was just sprinkling so we went into the Kirtland Visitors Center. All of the senior missionaries were in heaven to see a baby there. There was one who didn't want to let me go on the tour because she just wanted to stare at David.

First we watched a movie that was narrated with the words from Elizabeth Ann Whitney's journal. It told of why they moved to Kirtland, the joys shared and hardships endured, and eventually of their reasons for leaving. There were some very moving parts in the video, especially some of the trials Emma Smith faced. Next we walked to the sawmill and the Whitney Ashery. The sawmill was powered by the river and the ashery was really very interesting. I didn't know that ash could be used for so many things, or that it was worth so much money. There's a way of burning ash in a super hot fire (I know burning ash sounds funny) but it basically refines it and the longer and hotter you cook it, the more white it becomes and the more valuable it becomes...following the symbalism? In this picture the ashery is on the left and the sawmill on the right. You can sort of see the muddy brown river next in the bottom left corner.

After the ashery, we walked to the John Johnson Inn. The building has been used for many different things, Joseph Smith sr. was ordained the first Patriarch in this building. Now it houses many different pieces of early church history. I was amazed at some of the writings and translations from Joseph Smith. They just made him seem so human, so normal. And this painting was so beautiful I had to take a picture. Joseph is ordaining Parley P. Pratt as an apostle. I just loved how the light was shining from Joseph.

Here are just some random pics of buildings. If you want to know anything about them feel free to ask.

I did a bit of a self-guided tour for part of my visit because some of the buildings were two story so I couldn't take the stroller in, and David got sleepy so I walked around outside. In the Whitney store they had records of what every person in town had ever bought. So, if you have ancestors who lived in Kirtland you can see what items they bought and when. Because they have the records, they tried to stock the store with everything Newel kept in stock. The one thing I thought was the most interesting were the bonnets. They had peach lining because they thought it brought out the color in the women's faces. The "makeup" of the 1800's. :)

After the N.K.Whitney store, David was about done and the rain had started to pour again so we went back to the visitors center, fed David and left. On my way out of Kirtland we drove by the temple, so here's my picture of it as I'm driving by:

It was a beautiful day (despite the puring rain) and I'm really glad David and I got to visit.

Wednesday I drove to Pennsylvania for a bit of shopping and to visit my Aunt Pam and Uncle George. We had such a nice visit that the server started to give us the "OK you've been sitting at my table long enough" look.

That night we went out to dinner with some sweet friends from our BYU days, Dan and Janine Smith. They live in Cleveland's Little Italy so we walked down the street from their 100 year old house to a very nice Italian Restaurant. I wish I had thought to bring my camera, it was so cute there.

That night we drove back to the hotel and David and I flew back to Cali on Thursday morning. We had a great trip and I'm really glad I went. Thanks Chris and Shannon for taking care of my sweet girls while we were gone(and Jed too, for being "stern" with the girls).

I'll leave you with a picture of a sign right outside the bathroom doors at the Canton/Akron airport...don't you think the bathroom is where you'd want to be during a tornado??