Wilson's Orchard

Weather has been tricky this past month in Iowa City. I am not sure how to dress my children most days. It is the season of having to turn on your heat in the morning, but then you AC in the afternoon. However, it is beautiful here. It's hard to imagine a Fall without trees.

Every year... so far... not that we have been here that long, we have gone to Wilson's Orchard. Every single time we have a nice relaxing evening. It helps when you get good pictures too! Enjoy!

Iowa State Fair

We have heard raving reviews about the Iowa fair. We decided we needed to go at least once when we lived here. It is about two hours away, so we left early one Saturday morning. I do not have pictures of the car ride. It is not something I want to remember. Madison literally whined the whole way.

At the fair we saw a ton of animals. They had little ponies and horses for us to pet. We saw goats, sheep, zebras, a porcupine, and then of course pigs, sheep, and cows.

This is both of my girl's reactions when it comes to most animals. ( I can't blame them, I have a similar reaction, Jordan thinks we are ridiculous)

She observes from a far

Timid yet somewhat interested

Watching the camel rides ---- we are too poor for such nonsense :)

And of course we had to see the famous butter cow sculpture 

Another huge aspect of a fair is fair food. There are sooo many options!!! Because I had never experienced a fair before, and we don't really plan to experience too many more, we decided to buy some stereotypical fair food. We had a turkey leg, deep fried mac and cheese bites, and then same ice cream nachos. All were delicious.

This doesn't even begin to give an accurate visual of the crowds. It was packed in most places.

Showing the girls our huge turkey leg

A highlight for the girls was a little farm walk through. They had a bunch of little stops where we put on hats, aprons, and gathered fruit in baskets. We planted food, fed animals, sold our food, and bought a treat in the end. It was a fun little simulation of farm life.

There was a lot of waiting in line and entertaining babies

Look at the huge squash patch... maybe pumpkin?

Madison enjoying her spoils she bought with the money she earned from harvesting and selling on the farm. It was like a life size version of THE FARMING GAME!

Love my fam and our adventures. This isn't one I would necessarily repeat in this stage of life, but we experienced the fair!!!!

Midwest Church History Trip - Part 4

Here is the final day of our trip! We spent the day on the Nebraska/Iowa border in Council Bluffs and Winter Quarters. We learned a lot about the Mormon Battalion and the trek west.

Winter Quarters

I actually really loved this visitor's center! They were so helpful and seemed very knowledgeable. After the saint fled Nauvoo and crossed the river, they needed a place to get prepared and provisions ready for the trip out west. The Pottawattamie Tribe owned the land and lent the land out to the Saints for 3 years. During this three years they gathered and different wagon trains left each year. The saints built dugouts and log cabins, squished multiple families in a home, prepared for the trip, and then left when the season was right. They left the homes empty for the next batch of saints that came in to get ready for the following year. The saints even planted crops, knowing the next group of saints would need food to harvest and eat. After the treaty was up, the deal was that they left the land as they found it. They took down all the cabins, and the only thing that remained was the cemetery on the hill. This cemetery is where the church built the Winter Quarters Temple and Visitor's Center.

The visitor's center had a big museum about life in Winter Quarters and the provisions they needed for the trip west. They showed us this wagon wheel and we were amazed how big it was. In the beginning, when they were mapping out the trip for more saints to come west, they used a scarf tied to the wheel to measure the distance. A person would walk beside the wheel and count how many times the scarf hit the ground. They had a certain number that meant it had reached a mile. However, later, someone invented a time piece that the wagon wheel clicked and it kept track of the miles ridden. 

The graves from the time in Winter Quarters were not physically marked and a lot reside under this memorial that was built there. However, records were kept and the missionaries had tools to measure and show us an approximate place where our ancestor was buried. 

The Winter Quarters Temple

Council Bluffs, Iowa

After the treaty with the Native Americans ended the saints moved their gathering place to Council Bluffs. (Just across the river) For a while, this was actually where the headquarters of the church was. ( I think it was called Cainsville at the time). A tabernacle was built and this is where Brigham Young was officially ratified as the President of the Church. They have a replica tabernacle built on this land as well as a visitor's center where we learned a lot about the Mormon Battalion.

My brother Meltiar MCKAY Manner. One of his namesakes is an ancestor that served in the Mormon Battalion. When the members of the battalion were discharged in California, we learned that a lot of those members that stayed in California for a bit to get on their feet helped shaped the gold rushes and a lot of the major cities in California. I had no idea that the saints played such a big role in the growing of the state. 

Learning about the Mormon Battalion was very interesting. The film that they showed us gave us many details that I had not heard or remembered hearing when I learned about this time. For one, the leadership of the church actually asked the U.S. government for a way to help finance this trip west and this is the way that the government came up with. While it was a surprise to the members of the church and kind of insulting to be asked to serve a government that would not protect them, the leadership of the Church was not surprised and of course counseled the Saints to volunteer in order to finance their families. 

Cainsville Tabernacle 

Well this concludes our trip. At least the site seeing part. We still had 15 hours to drive to Idaho to see my brother Hunter off to his mission. He is going to Finland! This trip was an amazing opportunity and I loved having my family there to liven things up a bit and of course distract babies. Maybe someday I can make it out east to see the sites even earlier in the Church's history!!  So many sacrifices were made, and amongst it all, almost everywhere we went they emphasized the music, dance, and entertainment that the saints enjoyed during those hard times. "Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured" -President Hinckley

The church is true! Hurrah for Israel!

Midwest Church History Trip - Part 3

My travel buddies in beautiful Adam-ondi-ahman.

Adam-ondi-ahman

This place is absolutely beautiful. We made sure to get up early and try to be out and about before it got really hot. Adam-ondi-ahman is a meeting place revealed to Joseph Smith where Jesus will appear and a huge sacrament meeting will be held. The land is beautiful and mostly rented out to farmers. In recorded revelations, Joseph Smith found the remains of an old Nephite Altar as well revealed that this is where Adam and Eve built their altar to God after they were cast out of the garden. There are a few old couple missionaries that oversee this land. Their mission president is the Prophet, President Monson. Kinda cool..

The boys sitting on 'preacher rock.' Joseph Smith taught from this rock.

The huge open sky and beautiful green farmland! Places like this make me love the Midwest.

Haun's Mill

There isn't much on this little site. Just a little marker and a plaque. However, this land used to be a small settlement of saints that were attacked by a mob. A lot of the woman and children were able to hide, however, the men and a lot of the boys were shot and killed. We spent a few minutes here, read a little journal excerpt that told the story, skipped a few rocks in the stream, and caught a frog! 

Farwest

This was another settlement of Saints in Missouri, the biggest at the time. Here there is a dedicated temple site and stones to mark each corner. 

One of the four corner stones

The Temple site

Liberty Jail

The last stop this day was Liberty Jail. In this jail, Joseph Smith was wrongly accused and held here in the winter. The original floor of the jail is still preserved and the Church built a replica jail on top. They have a really neat presentation and a few artifacts. 

This is one of the original extermination orders that the State of Missouri filed against the Mormons.

Later, the order was redacted (like in the 1970s), and an apology was to the Church.

This day was spent fully in Missouri. A lot of questions were cleared up and facts straightened out. There is a lot of sacred land and temples yet to be built in this state! The state of Missouri was not the best of times for the early saints, but seems to have special promises still attached to it.