Turkey Day, the Ohio Way.

This year, Thanksgiving found us in Ohio. Many of you already know that Shayla's parents are serving a mission in Kirtland right now, and ever since they left St. George last September, we have been planning to go visit them for Thanksgiving. Our Brother-in-law Jeremy has a small airplane that we were going to fly out there on. We were all looking forward to it. Unfortunately, the day before we were supposed to leave, Sharla called and said the airplane needed a part to be fixed, and also broke the news that there was bad weather in Ohio, and thus the airplane was grounded. Of course we were a little dissapointed but decided everything would be fine and we could spend Thanksgiving in St. George.

A little while later Sharla called back and said she had purchased us all commercial airline tickets and we would be leaving Las Vegas later that afternoon. Once again, we were very excited to go. When we got to Vegas and checked in our luggage to the airline, Jeremy upgraded all our seats to first class. This trip just seemed to keep getting better and better!

First Class was very nice and is the only way to fly with little kids. Max loved looking out the window and would wave to all the airport workers, trucks, luggage carts, and airplanes he could see. We had a late flight and when it got dark he would look out at all the lights of the cities below. Our first class seats also gave us enough room for Max to crash out on the floor, where he slept for about half the flight, and also a wide enough armrest for him to sit on when he was awake. Max also liked to listen to the earphones they gave us to watch the movie "Hairspray", and when ever a song would start up he would begin to dance!

We flew in to the Cleveland airport late that night and promptly rented a bright red Hummer H3. We then drove straight to Kirtland (about 25 miles away) to Shayla's parent's house. When we got there it was very cold and wet.

The next day was Thanksgiving day and we all met together with the other senior missionary couples and some of the sister missionaries in the Kirtland Visitor's Center for our Thanksgiving Feast. It was a very good dinner and all of the missionary couples cooked lots and lots of tasty food. It was also kind of cool to be eating Thanksgiving dinner in the Kirtland Visitor's Center with all of the pictures of the old buildings and displays around. After dinner we went for a drive through the Ohio countryside and stopped at the quarry where the pioneers excavated the stone for the Kirtland Temple. The quarry was in the middle of a river and it seemed like a very cold place to quarry stone. The rest of the day we just hung out at Shayla's parents house (which is very small but also very cozy).

The next day we woke to a light skiff of snow on the ground (Thanksgiving Day it snowed off and on throughout the day) and very cold air. We took a short trip up to Lake Erie, but only stayed long enough to walk from the cars to the shore. The cold air coming straight down from Canada was blowing directly into our faces so we hurried back to the cars to warm up. It was fun to see such a big Lake though.

After freezing our bums off at the lake, we went on a tour of the Kirtland Temple. It was hosted by the Community of Christ, formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka, the "We want Joseph's kids and grandkids to be the prophets of the church, screw revelation, we're going to start our own religion" church) , and it was interesting to see their perspective on the temple and the early history of the church. We only stayed at the temple long enough to go on the tour, after which we went back in to the historic Kirtland district and went on a tour of the old pioneer houses, sawmill, store, and ashery. Personally, I thought this part of the tour was much better than the temple tour. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that Shayla's dad hosted our tour and thus let us into rooms that usually are not stops on regular tours. I'm sure he also let us in on some of the stories and facts that usually aren't covered in normal tours as well.

Later that night we went to the lighting ceremony where they turned all the Christmas lights on for the first time. That was pretty fun but it was bitterly cold outside. They kept having different people go up and speak to the crowd and had a small brass band play a few Christmas songs, but I was just wishing they'd hurry up and flip the switch so we could all go inside and warm up!

Our last day in Ohio was a busy one. We drove down to the Johnson Farm in Hiram, Ohio and went on a tour. The Johnson Farm is where the church was headquartered for a time and is also the place where Joseph was pulled from his bed into the street by a mob to be tarred and feathered. This happened when his newborn twins had the measles and he and his wife were holding them in bed. One of the twins later died. The farm is also the location where a number of revelations were received and many sections of the Doctrine & Covenants were written.

After the tour, we drove down through Amish country. It was neat to see all of the Amish driving their horses and buggies down the street. We stopped at a very cool little Amish store in a small town called Mesopotamia, and also ate lunch at an Amish restaurant. We also drove past the local Wal-mart and saw the parking stalls for the Amish buggies, complete with covered parking for their horses!


This marked the end of our trip and we hurried back to Shayla's parents home to pack up our things and head for the airport. It was a great trip and I have to give a HUGE thanks to Jeremy and Sharla who made the whole thing possible. Thank you so much.


Here are some more pictures from our trip. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them! There are a lot of pictures, so if you don't like looking at them, then go look at somebody else's blog.

Family dinner on the airplane. Max and Shayla got to listen to the tunes, I got stuck with the incessant humming of the airplane and the oh-so-soothing beep of the "fasten seatbelt" light.


This is the small home Shayla's parents live in, and where we stayed during our trip.


Since it was so cold we stayed inside as much as we could. Max loved playing outside any chance he got. Thankfully Shayla made him a cute little hat to help keep his ears warm!


Stoney Brook winds its way around the Visitor's Center. This is the building we had our Thanksgiving dinner in.

Here's a picture of the Newell K. Whitney store. Notice the little red house in the background where Shayla's parents live.


This is the quarry where they cut the stone for the temple.


Shayla, Max, and I outside the Kirtland Temple.


This is inside the Ashery, where they would make potash from regular old ashes. Don't ask me what they used the potash for. You'll have to go to Kirtland and ask Shayla's dad yourself, because I don't remember what he told us.


This is Shayla's dad touring us through the School of the Prophets in the N. K. Whitney home.


This room is in the Johnson Farm house. This is the room Joseph and Emma Smith were in on the night Joseph was tarred and feathered. Joseph was in the bottom bed with their twin son, and Emma was in the top bed with their twin daughter.

Max had fun playing in the snow. I don't think he really knew what it was, but he did know you're supposed to eat it!

While in Mesopotamia, we 'jacked an Amish buggy from an old Amish man.


Max and Liam thought it looked fun, so they 'jacked one too. Those kids are thugs!

In Ohio, the horses know how to read stop signs.


When the horses aren't reading stop signs, they hang out at the bar.


Max and his little Amish hat he found at the store.