Visit to Lawrence, Kansas plus Nauvoo, Illinois

Kent and I arrived in Lawrence on the 24th of July to visit Garrett and Krystal's family.

As usual, we enjoyed interacting with the grandchildren.

Matthew is 14 months old and getting close to walking by himself.

Almost every evening after dinner and before bedtime Garrett wrestles with the kids. Their dog, Indie usually wants to be in the middle of it all!

We brought the Indian tepee that our kids had played with when they were little for the Carson kids to use.

Matthew is at that really adorable toddler age so I took lots of pictures of him!

Playing out on the back deck with Granddad.

The youngest three kids playing in Grandma and Granddad's bed.

While we were visiting we decided to visit Nauvoo and Carthage, since it's only about a five-hour drive from Lawrence. On the way to Illinois we stopped to see Adam-ondi-Ahmen, which is in Missouri.

We spent a whole day at Nauvoo.

The temple is so beautiful from every view!

One of the first things we did after we arrived was to have a tour in a horse-drawn wagon.

Kent and I had been to Nauvoo several years before, but we didn't visit the sites in Nauvoo owned by the Community of Christ church. We made sure to do that this trip.

We saw the burial site of Joseph and Emma and Hyrum Smith.

We also toured the Joseph and Emma's Nauvoo home. 

We saw Joseph Smith's office.....

It was on the 2nd story of the red brick general store in Nauvoo. This store is known for it's old-fashioned root beer in brown bottles, so we bought some and tried it.

The kids held up pretty well.

When they got tired of walking we hitched a ride on another horse-drawn wagon.

A couple who used to live in our ward in Stafford were serving their mission in Nauvoo. It was really fun to see the Kidbys. Here Nanette is showing Daniel how to make a rope.

In the late afternoon Garrett, Krystal and the kids left to eat dinner and to go back to the hotel to put the kids to bed at a reasonable time. Kent and I stayed in Nauvoo so we could attend the pageant that night. (Note the Nauvoo temple in the background of our picture.)

The pageant didn't start until 8pm so it could be dark for the show. We'd been warned about needing bug spray, but we'd forgotten ours at the hotel. Fortunately people sitting next to us were willing to share.

The highlight of the show was when they lifted the completed temple. The play was well done.

On our way home after the pageant we stopped to take a picture of the real Nauvoo Temple at night.

The next day was Sunday, so we found a ward to attend in the morning. Then we drove to Carthage.

We ate a picnic lunch as we waited for the Visitor's Center opened for tours of Carthage Jail.

We got some family pictures, though with five kids it was impossible to get one where everyone was looking at the camera.

In this picture we're standing under the window where Joseph Smith fell out after he was killed.

 Adam is checking out the                                                             bullet hole in the door of the room where Joseph and Hyrum were shot.

Granddad was very honored when Matthew started cuddling with him!

On the way back to Kansas on Sunday evening Kent and I stopped at Adam ondi Ahman again.

We got out and explored for a bit, which was easier without a van full of children.

The countryside was very peaceful and beautiful. I'm not sure how many acres the church owns there.

There were some trails through the woods that we followed. It was a nice ending to a short, but very informative and enjoyable church history tour. We're glad we could share it with the Kansas Carsons!

Roswell, New Mexico and Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas

 Our next visit would be to Garrett and Krystal's family in Lawrence, Kansas. On the way Kent had mapped our course so we went through Roswell, New Mexico, which wasn't too far out of our way.

Surprisingly, the Welcome sign didn't mention aliens.

Here's a picture of our van parked outside of the UFO museum. We didn't waste our money by going into the museum, though.

 We did go into a souvenir shop across the street. Kent posing with a couple of the locals.

I found a building with a trim that I much preferred to the alien theme!!

Several of the places used aliens to advertise their business.

 We didn't spend too much time in Roswell, but continued on our way. Along the route we passed through the town of Clovis, NM, where I'd lived for a few months while my dad had some pilot training before he went to Vietnam in 1970. I finished up my 5th grade year of elementary school in Clovis, and remember learning New Mexico state history.

Our hotel stop for the night was back in Amarillo, Texas, though we had to drive through New Mexico to get there. We'd stopped at the Cadillac Ranch in December 2018 but I didn't get out of the car because it was too cold and muddy. Here's an overview to see how it's out in the middle of an open field.

It's set back from the road about 100 yards.

 People are encouraged to bring some spray paint and decorate the vehicles.

 It's definitely an unique landmark!

 After our night in Amarillo we headed out the next morning, passing through Oklahoma on our way to Kansas.

Visit to the Carsons in El Paso and to Carlsbad Caverns

We arrived in El Paso on July 18th to spend some time with Tyler and Rachel's family.

One of our first outings was taking the kids to the library on the day after we arrived. 

 The kids found plenty to keep them busy, in addition to looking for some new read aloud books.

Almost every night I read books to the kids at bedtime.

That evening Rachel had planned an early 6th birthday party for Andrew.

We were glad we could be there to celebrate his birthday.

Andrew received several Lego sets, including one from us, which are his favorite toy right now.

Rachel made a fancy and beautiful birthday cake with layers of colored crepes and whipped cream in between each layer and on top.

 It was gorgeous inside and out and also tasted great!

Kent wanted the kids to pose with the wooden swords he'd made for them so he could take pictures to use when he prints out his dragon stories.

I guess Sylvia didn't want to take a picture with the sword, but the twins looked adorable in their pictures!

On Saturday afternoon we went to Carlsbad Caverns, which was about a two-hour drive away.

Granddad walking with his little buddy.

The kids looking at a display about some of the bats which live in the caverns.

This map shows the layout of the caverns very well. 

It's an amazingly extensive series of caves.

We took quite a few pictures but it was really impossible to show in pictures how interesting they were inside.

 The twins were pretty wiggly and didn't want to stay on the paths, so eventually Tyler and Rachel took all the kids on the shortcut out of the Big Room and waited for Kent and I at the end.

After we got out of the caves, Rachel took Andrew and the twins back to El Paso in their van, and Tyler, Kent, Sylvia and I stayed to watch the bats come out of the cave below.

Andrew said he didn't want to stay. Here we are waiting for the bats to come out, which happened at about 8pm. Because of the bats sensitive ears, the audience wasn't allowed to talk or to take pictures as half a million bats flew out of the cave and into the night to hunt for food. It was an awesome sight. We drove home in our van after we'd watched the bats fly out for about 20 minutes.

The following are just some every day activities while we were there.

Melody bonding with Grandma.

Christian and Melody looking very grown-up on their bikes and wearing their helmets!

A picnic outside for lunch

Kent had built a small Barbie "condo" to give to the granddaughters of our sons. Here's a picture of Sylvia wearing a dirndl I originally made for Lissa and standing in front of her new Barbie house. 

Granddad also set up a rope swing and Andrew and Sylvia really had fun with it. 

A proud papa with his brood, and the twins trying to help Granddad load the van before we left. Or was Granddad trying to get them smuggled in the van to take them with us??

It won't be too much longer that I'll be able to hold both of the twins in my arms, they're getting big!

Our traditional photo with the grandkids in our church clothes. It was tricky getting all four of them to look at the camera and to stand still! 

We packed a lot into our whirlwind visit to El Paso. We're always so happy to spend time with our grandchildren so they'll have good memories of us!