Surprise Crazy Granny!
Crazy Granny is turning 90 years old! That calls for a special celebration!
We all knew that the best present we get for grandma would be ourselves. So we began to plot out a surprise party that we could deliver to her....in person! The Thornocks went ahead and told Crazy Granny that they would be driving out to visit her for her birthday. But what she didn't know, was that they were going to be bringing Clara with them or that both Scott and Shane's families would be flying in to surprise her as well.
We flew in to Kansas City, Missouri for a few days first to meet up with the Thornocks and do some church history sites and see our family and friends there. While waiting for our flight to take off in Portland, they announced that the flight was full and asked for any volunteers to check their carry on bags for free. Dad was all over that! There isn't much that stresses dad out more than trying to carry on 7 pieces of luggage and try to find space for them all in the overhead. So we said good bye to our luggage...literally. Who knows where it went, but it was not waiting on us in Kansas City. Everything we packed was in our bags so we made an emergency stop at the local Walmart.
The girls had fun picking out fun underwear and it is a good thing the boys were already Royals fans because it gave us a good excuse to stock up on some new fan gear.
Then we were finally off to the hotel! Apparently we have been gone from Kansas City too long and forgotten where the sketchy parts of town are. Well, our memory was quickly refreshed upon arriving at our new home for the next few days. Note to self: Ramada = sketchy part of town.
It looked like our hotel had been in a war zone, both inside and out.
It is hard to tell from the photo but it looked like people had been shot in the elevator with blood stains on the floor, the walls in the hallways had what looked to be bullet holes all over them and most of the hotel was taped off with plastic. Not sure if they were trying to remodel and improve the place or if it was a crime scene!
The hotel made up for it though by having a well stocked room of good family reading materials.
We made the rounds visiting our friends from our old ward in Lee's Summit. It was so great seeing our good friends the Glenn's and had a blast at the dinner they set up for us with so many other familiar faces to see.
We even took a drive down Ball Street so the girls could see the house they use to live in and where Karsyn was born. What a wonderful 4 years we had in this little house!
No stop to Missouri is complete without seeing our wonderful and crazy family there!
Kennedy and Cassidy especially enjoyed seeing everyone since since they remembered spending time with them while we lived there.
We got to see Aunt Delores, and her girls, Kim and Michelle, along with their families.
Before leaving Kansas City, we took the kids on a tour of the many church sites in this area. Uncle Brian had assigned certain people to do site reports at the different locations we would be visiting so everyone was well informed of everything we were seeing. The first stop has always been one of our very favorite church history sites - Liberty Jail. This is where Joseph Smith along with 4 other men where help for about 5 months through the winter awaiting a trial. It was while in this jail that Joseph received the revelations for Doctrine and Covenants sections 121, 122, and 123.
We visited Far West where cornerstones for a temple were laid in July 1838. Although the Saints were not able to complete the temple, the cornerstones and property remain as a testament of the faith and devotion to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Not far from Far West, near the grave sites of two of the eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, stands the monument to honor those special witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Christian and Peter Whitmer are buried nearby.
Scott couldn't wait to get to Haun's Mill. He has always loved this site but it has so much more meaning to him now since he has gotten his original 1830 Book of Mormon from Jacob Meyers that resided here at that time and owned the largest Mill in town.
Adam-Ondi-Ahman is in Daviess County and the site where Adam settled after being expelled from the garden of Eden, it is where Adam gathered his righteous prosperity together before his death to give them blessings, and will be the future meeting site of the Lord, Adam and the Saints as spoken of by Daniel.
There was also much church history to be found in Richmond, Missouri. Joseph Smith was put on trial here after being arrested in Far West and was represented by one of the great men in history, named Alexander Doniphan. Doniphan also represented Joseph Smith while in prison at Liberty jail and tried to stop the persecution of the Saints by giving them two counties created just for the Mormons. He also prevented the execution by firing squad of Hyrum and Joseph at Far West by refusing to carry out that order. There is a statue that stands of Doniphan today in front of the courthouse.
Not far from the Richmond courthouse is the Pioneer Cemetery where we found the monument to the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon; Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris. Also found nearby is the gravesite of Oliver Cowdery. David Whitmer's grave is in a cemetery not far from this monument and Martin Harris is buried in Cache County, Utah.
Before leaving Kansas City, we took the kids to see the RDLS (which is now called Community of Christ) temple and headquarters and the cute little Church of Christ that stands on one of the four corners of the temple lot in Indpendence.
Then we were off to Nauvoo, the Beautiful!
We had fun looking at (and impersonating) all the statues in the Relief Society Gardens outside the Nauvoo Visitor Center. We had to recreate this statue with each one of the kids since we have this one at home!
We made a quick stop by the quarry where the got the stone for the temple.
The kids (and Scott) had a lot of fun in the Seventies Hall pretending to give sermons, dramatic ones at that!
Will got to sign our names in a special book they keep for those that had relatives that were part of the Seventies at this time and would meet here for worship and lectures. Layton's namesake, Christopher Layton, was one of the Seventy at this time.
One of the highlights of Nauvoo is attending the show the couple missionaries put on in the Cultural Hall. The kids said they could totally see Scott and I doing this when we are older. That's good because Nauvoo is definitely on my list of missions to do!
Then we had an outdoor show of music, dance and entertainment that took us right up until sunset when we could do the Trail of Hope walk. This was a wonderfully spiritual way to end of last day in Nauvoo. You start up in town, working your way all the way to the Mississippi, guided by the missionaries there, as they tell the story of what it was like when the Saints had to leave Nauvoo in the middle of winter.
Our last stop before heading to Carthage was one last look at the beautiful temple that has been rebuilt to look just like the original one that was destroyed.
One of my favorite places to visit is Carthage Jail. There is such a power in sitting in the very room where the mobs came and took the lives of Hyrum and Joseph. It was here that Joseph finally found rest in sealing his testimony in his own blood.
After a great few days of church history sites, it was time to hit the road again and make our way to Memphis. Any road trip is a good road trip when the road leads you to Lambert's Cafe - home of the throwed rolls! This was one of our favorite mandatory stops when we lived in Kansas City and Memphis and traveled the road between the two!
We stopped by and got Memphis barbecue from Corky's and had a big 'ole southern picnic in grandma's backyard!
I made grandma a special birthday book with pictures and letters from each grandchild and great grandchild written especially for grandma. Of course she loved it! Her eye sight isn't very good anymore so she had us read every single letter to her out loud.
After we finished up with food, cake and presents, we all went to cemetery to visit Papaw Rushing's grave. This was the first time most of our kids had been there.
Scott got grandma this amplifier for grandma to wear that helps her hear everyone better - she loved it and it makes her look hip!
We also found grandma Kennedy's grave which is in the same cemetery.
We spent the next day as tourists in Memphis. First stop: Graceland to visit the King!
Then we went to the historic Lorraine Hotel where Martin Luther King was shot as well as went through the very informative and emotional museum.
He was standing outside his hotel room #306 when he was shot.
We finished off our tour of Memphis by driving by all the old homes that we had lived in there.
This little white house was Grandma and Grandpa Kennedy's home where Grandma C.C. grew up.
This is the house that Scott lived in for several years on Sybil Street.
This is the house in Germantown where Scott lived after leaving Sybil Street. Scott and I both lived here for our first 6 months in Memphis while we waited for our duplex to be completed. We made Kennedy get in the photo with us too since this is where she was made. She didn't appreciate that knowledge!
And this is our cute little duplex that we brought both Kennedy and Cassidy home to live in!
And this of course, is the House of the Lord. It is so wonderful to see a temple so close to where we use to live. It wasn't built until after we left Memphis, but it now stands right next door to where we went to church.
These were precious memories that we made here with our cousins, grandma and great-grandma.
Happy Birthday Crazy Granny - you are so worth it!!!
Comments