Bucket List Victory 2015: Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri Day 3

http://www.beerorkid.com/2009/03/tinas-cafe/

We woke up on Thursday Morning and had breakfast with Alian at Tina's Cafe in Lincoln Nebraska. It was delicious. J.D. was excited about the Cinnamon Roll.

Oh Cinnamon roll, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

From there we drove back toward Omaha to go to Winter Quarters. It was a fun experience.

Onward!

J.D. got a chance to feel what it was like to pull a Handcart. 

Backward!

Of course he didn't have to pull it very far since it was indoors and he didn't even have room to turn around so he needed to push it backwards into the corner.

Mic, Kat, and I got to sing "Come, Come Ye Saints" for the Sister Missionary giving us a tour.

What would we have packed in a covered wagon?

We enjoyed the time reflecting on the sacrifices made by those who came across the plains to find a place to worship freely. The temple was beautiful, right on cemetery grounds and doubly holy.

From there it was a quick 5 hour drive to Independence Missouri, at least it seemed quick after the 20 hour drive of the previous 2 days.

We were able to meet up with my cousin Gilbert and his family, in Leavenworth, for an awesome dinner. It was delicious and really hit the spot after a long drive. FUN FACT: Leavenworth has at least 4 prisons including the Army Disciplinary Barracks.

After Dinner Gilbert and his family took us into Kansas City, Missouri for a quick tour of the town. The WWI Liberty Memorial there is impressive. 

Kat and Justice took some pictures for scale.

 Sadly, we were too late in the day to go into the museum, but that is a good reason to go back to Kansas City. I liked it there. The memorial was a good place to see the skyline of Kansas City.

My cousin Gilbert and most of his family.

Another impressive place downtown right across from the museum was Union Station. You can see the building just behind my head in the picture above. There was so much inside. This picture is one of the fancy restaurants on the first floor. Most everything else was closed, but again, it is a good reason to visit again.

We went on to visit with Mic's Uncle Rick, Aunt Sue, and Cousin Matt, in another part of the city. By the time we left it was almost 10 pm and we still had to get to our campsite about an hour away near Independence. 

It took us a while to figure out which part of Fleming Park in Blue Springs, Missouri our campground was located. When we finally found it, the arm on the campground was down and it looked like we may have to park the car outside the gate and pack our stuff to our reserved site. Thankfully, someone going on a late night bike ride took pity on us and gave us the code to get in. We pitched out tent as a whole family for the first time by the light of our headlights. And settled in for some much needed sleep after a long day.

Bucket List Victory 2015: Wyoming & Nebraska Day 1&2

In planning the trip, I had very little input. When I asked questions about what people thought we should do or where we should go I was often met with blank stares. So I developed some options. 

We chose to leave on June 30th in the evening after my work. One the options I offered was to ask the other two drivers (Mic and Kat) if they would rather camp or drive straight through to Nebraska. 2-1. We drove straight through the night. 

This was supposed to save us some time. But in the process of taking longer breaks when we stopped for gas or rest, we ended up taking about 24 hours to go 12 hours. I was so tired I honestly don't know how we did this, but we had some fun along the way. 

Did you know about the Lincoln Highway? I did not, but we found a cool rest stop in Wyoming that had a huge monument to President Lincoln because it is along the Lincoln Highway. 

J.D. stood in front of it for Scale. 

Since we were traveling through the night we skipped the handcart visitor sites, but they are close enough to Utah the we feel like we can get to them another time. What we did do was take a little time off the beaten path to see what the Pioneers crossing the west on the Mormon and Oregon trails would have used as a marker to  gauge their distance:

Chimney Rock

The rest of July 1st was simply trying to get to Omaha then Lincoln on time to meet with a dear friend of my youth, Alian who is ready to defend her dissertation at University of Nebraska Lincoln. She was gracious enough to hold dinner for us while we went to visit the Winter Quarters site in Omaha. I had decided that we would skip the Kanesville Tabernacle in Council Bluffs, Iowa because I was unsure it would have information I was interested in. We plugged LDS history site into the GPS and followed the directions. When we saw where we were, we realized we had crossed the Missouri River to Council Bluffs and so we ended up at the Kanesville Tabernacle instead of Winter Quarters.

We were so glad.

Kanesville is the place in LDS Church History where Brigham Young was sustained the 2nd president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over two years after the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. The saints present that day recorded in their journals that he took on the countenance of Joseph and so they knew he would be the next President of the LDS Church. 

It is also the place where Oliver Cowdery, one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon was re-baptized into the LDS faith, but more on him later.

It was a beautiful place and we felt the beauty of the stories associated with it.

Shortly after we traveled to Lincoln to spend the night with Alian. She made a delicious dinner and was a wonderful hostess. We chatted as long as we could and then went to bed on a very comfortable mattress. So ended a very long two days.

Bucket List Victory 2015: Boston Trip and Church History Tour

Since before we were married Michael and I knew we wanted to go on this trip. 

We both had a deep an abiding interest in Latter-day Saint church history. We even discussed going for our honeymoon. At the time we thought we would wait to get married until I had finished my degree and he had obtained more stable employment. When we chose to get married before either of those goals materialized, the lack of resources delayed this bucket list trip indefinitely. 

When Michael's parents were called on a mission to Boston, MA and the family decided that we would go to them for our reunion in 2015, we knew it was now or never.

J.D. was recently baptized and would receive the Aaronic Priesthood prior to our leaving. The trip would provide a visual dimension to the things that we taught him over the last year. 

Kate would be graduating from High School the following year and would either be off to college, a mission, or other possibilities next year and we may have lost our chance to do this trip as a whole family.

We began to plan and to save & just completed a most wonderful tour of the LDS history sites. We will post some of the amazing things we did and saw along with our thoughts in these blog posts over the next few days. We hope that in sharing them, you get to feel a little as we did on our journey.

Herps in Need of Good Homes

Classified Ad at Utah Herps: MY husband and I have taken in and fostered Herps over the years, but the current recession and my husband's unemployment status have made it so that we can no longer properly take care of these beautiful guys. One is a Carpet Python. He needs some TLC and consistent care and handling. If he is always fed to satiation he can be a good natured guy. When he is hungry he has a tendency to snap. Make sure he is fed with a feeding box. The other is a Ball Python. He is not a very picky eater for a ball, but he has had some bad experiences with live feedings before we received him. We still feed him live food, but he will probably do better once he is trained on frozen. He is not snapping, but is a little shy. More consistent handling will help him out. If possible he would also prefer a tank companion. He is alright on his own, but seems to find comfort around other Ball Pythons. Pictures will follow. Tanks will be included if needed. Theses guys really need someone who already understands snakes or is vigorously trying to learn about them and both will require some patience and TLC. Please help me with these guys before my husband and I have to take them to PETCO or a Shelter. I am posting here because I would prefer they are adopted by knowledgeable HERP lovers.

This is Crickey the Carpet Python

This is Dino The Ball Python

The Family Dog

Also in June, my brother got his family a dog. I was so excited for him. Then his family discovered they were getting something even better than a dog: A baby brother. And rambunctious puppy + pregnant mommy = difficult situation. So I got a phone call: "Libby, do you want my dog?" I said I would have to talk to Mic about it hoping that he would be the logical one because I am a total push over. Alas, Mic, like I, believes that we are the saviors of animals in need. And so "Sniffer"- Ella came to stay with us.

She has a beautiful black coat and gorgeous brown eyes. She is a Weimaramer and black German Shepard mix.

She looks glamorous at first,

But look at her laughing at me! She knows she's a powerful ball of destruction. "Sniffer"-Ella came into our lives to show us that even though we thought we were patient people, we are wrong. And so it is the job of "Sniffer"-Ella to teach us patience.

As she settles into our lives and our hearts.

The Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge

As part of my goals for the new year I decided that, whatever Mic decided, I would begin to make choices for where I wanted to be and not necessarily what the best thing would be long term or even short term. This summer marks 3 years since I received my Bachelors degree in Anthropology and not utilizing it was beginning to bother me. June 2010 marks my 33rd birthday. I do not believe that it is old, but it is definitely too old to be waiting for life and career opportunities to begin. Since field school would be expensive and probably not possible in the near future, and since I didn't really want to do archaeology if it meant being away from Michael, I decided to explore what other jobs were out there for someone with an anthropology degree. I was pleased to find the the federal government had many options and one really close to home:

The Fish and Wildlife Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge

I worked as the the summer leader for the Youth Conservation Corps on the refuge. I was an amazing experience. I was able to plan work activities for the corps. Much of the time was spent doing maintenance like weeding are structures, painting an old duck blind, and organizing storage facilities. BUT, I was also able to get my group opportunities to catch and tag geese off air boats, catch and tag seagulls chicks, wade through the reeds to catch and tag white-faced ibis chicks, monitor snowy plover nests, and do service at local animal care places. Although by the end of it the kids were glad to see me go and I wasn't all that sad to see them go, the summer itself, the work, and the learning was AMAZING!!

RenFest

In mid-May Kat returned to Mic and me for the summer. HUZZAH!! The first thing we planned to do was go to the Utah Renaissance Festival and Fantasy Faire. http://www.utahrenfest.com/

Together we designed and sewed our costumes. I always get in too deep when I am planning to sew something. I don't give myself enough time to get it done. So it was with the Faire. We wanted to be at the Faire when the gates were opened, but we were at Mom and Dad Shelton's until about 2 hours later because we were finishing costumes. The results were great.

Mic carried a pouch and Kat and I carried woven baskets with our lunch in them.

On the way to the Faire we exchanged our budgeted paper money for gold coins. We decided that if we were going to pretend we would go all out.

At the Faire we watched a magic show, a puppet show, jousting, plays, and minstrels.

Each of us had $5 for a souvenir.

Kat got her parasol. I bought a snood. And Mic got a Clasp for his cape.

By the end of the day we were hot and tired, but satisfied that we had gotten our moneys worth of entertainment.

It was a fun day.