Missouri

Over labor day weekend, our family was invited to accompany our friends, the Staffords, on a camping excursion to Northern Missouri. They are preparing to move west and had never yet visited some of our church's historical sites in that area. Our lives have been so busy this summer (especially the last few weeks) that we decided that a short vacation was exactly what we needed despite the soaring costs of gasoline. So we paid our three dollars per gallon, loaded up the van (kudos to Tammy - she did all the packing and preparing - I was still working too many hours every night last week) and headed to Missouri.

We arrived late Friday evening just after sunset. There was just enough light to get the tent set up and everyone settled in. We awoke Saturday to distant thunder. We had just enough time to get the kids breakfast before the thunderstorm struck. There was enough lightening and thunder to scare the kids so that they all abandoned the tent and hid out in the van. Fortunatly, the rain didn't last long and the rest of the weekend was rather pleasant weather-wise.

After our soggy breakfast, we headed out to Liberty to visit the historic Liberty Jail. Tammy and I took turns tending screaming Ben, so didn't really get to enjoy that a whole lot. Adam seemed rather impressed by the whole experience though, he talked quite a bit about the things he learned and saw there. From Liberty, we all decided we needed to drive a while so the kids could sleep so we headed north to Adam-ondi-ahman. It was a perfect day to visit there - I could not imagine a more peaceful and beautiful place than Adam-ondi-ahman was that day. In previous visits, that's not been my favorite stop, but this time was much different - I really felt that I was standing in a sacred place. It made me want to learn more about what has and will yet occur in that beautiful valley. After Adam-ondi-ahman, we made brief visits to the site of the Haun's Mill massacre and to the Far West temple site before returning to camp.

On Sunday, we got up and got cleaned up for church - that's no small task with four little ones on a camping trip. We chose a ward in Liberty that didn't start until 11 a.m. so we had plenty of time to get there. We had the unusual experience of running into another family from our home (Bettendorf) ward who happened to be visiting the same ward we attended. After church and lunch, Tammy and I decided (well, at least I did) that we were tired of touring, so we decided to just enjoy a Sunday afternoon drive while our friends toured the sites in Independence. We headed back in the general direction of our campground and ended up at Watkin's Mill State Park. The park itself is beautifully wooded with rolling hills, hiking trails and a small lake. In the back of the park are several old buildings, including the mill for which the park was named, a one-room schoolhouse and an old church. We spent some time wandering around those sites and taking pictures of the kids - it was really an enjoyable time on a pleasant Sunday afternoon.

Monday we spent a little time at the lake where we were camping, taking the kids to the beach to swim a while before heading home.

It was a nice weekend altogether. Camping seems to get more challenging every time we go - we must be getting old or something. But overall it was very good to get away for the weekend, especially after such a crazy time we've had the past several weeks.