Author: heidi

“Oh, what do you do in the summertime when all the world is green?”

In Lexington, lots of things are all about horses, and we happened to find out about a polo game not far from us. We went to watch and learned a lot about the sport while we were there. Did you know players do not actually dismount—they just hop from one horse to the replacement horse—for substitutions. Also, teams travel and some of the players on our favorite team were from Australia and Argentina. The wives of the players seemed to be taking care of the horses throughout the game, so we also got to watch one woman braid, fold under, and triple-loop the horse’s tail after she sprayed him with cool water and took him out for a rest. Merayla loves to have me do her hair in “polo hair” now.

Did you know you can make it a long weekend and visit New York City from Lexington in just over 12 hours? We added a stop-over in Philadelphia to catch up with Mai and made it in time for Oana’s wedding celebration in Manhattan the next day. Check out the adventures:

Philadelphia

Mai’s family prepared a street BBQ when we arrived, which was so sweet of them, and the kids had fun making friends with Kelvin and his cousins. Vongphakdy, ‘til we meet again!

Manhattan

Cristian was able to attend his cousin’s wedding reception with his mom and sister. Oana looked beautiful, and everyone had a fun time.

Queens

Gogu and Gina (friends of the Icleanus) live in New York City. They were such generous hosts, and the kids had a lot of fun at their apartment as well. Gina is an excellent cook, so we enjoyed some good Romanian food and were close enough to take the metro the following day.

Battery Park

Merayla was excited to see the Statue of Liberty, so we got as close as we could get without the 2 hour wait in line for the ferry. The kids had their first trip on the “train” (metro) to get there, and it was tons of fun for them. It was also a bright, sunny day so they got into the fountain at the park immediately. Well, Merayla did and Oliver tried to throw dirt in it.

Central Park

We met up with relatives that came for the wedding at Central Park in the afternoon. There was a great place to row boats at the center of the park, and Maddy, Cris, and I had a fun time learning to navigate. 

Long Beach

On our last day in New York, we got to go to the beach on the Atlantic! It was a perfect day, and the waves were warm and big enough to have fun in but small enough that it wasn’t dangerous. Gogu and Gina accompanied us, and Cristian dug his traditional hole in the sand. Merayla chased birds, and Oliver filled our shoes with sand. I carted the stroller through the sand in true pioneer style. We had a great time.

Daddy also managed to catch some video of the two numbers she performed at the rehearsal. Here are “Never Grow Up” and “Little April Showers.” Merayla is the little ballerina in the middle.

We were very grateful for Dad’s surprise offer to truck us back to home to Kentucky! He was taking a load out to Northern Iowa so he loaded our car with the RV on the flatbed trailer, and we all piled into the truck. There was tons of room, and everyone had a great time with “Gumpa,” as Oliver kept saying after he dropped us off near Des Moines. It was sad to say good-bye and traveling together made the 1100 miles seem almost too short! Anyway, here are the pictures of the kids swinging off the truck rafters and lounging on the cloud.

We got to stay in Geneva for a week, and all of my siblings were able to come for at least some of that time! It was great to see everyone, and the kids had a lot of fun together. Some of the highlights include:

Grandpa & Grandma dancing to the “Raining Men” song with the kids:

Excursions into the wilderness:

Bonding time for the boys:

A luau complete with haystacks (my favorite!!), music, leis, dancing, and decorations. Wow, Mom, thanks for putting on such a fun dinner for us. We had a great time!

And plenty of time to just hang out, enjoy the country, and be our usual weird selves:

Oliver and Merayla are excited. Probably to be out of the car. Cristian has great fun photographing extra-large farm equipment.

And I am busy, as shown below.

From 80-90 degrees and serious humidity in Nauvoo, to breaking out the winter coats at a gas station in Wyoming, the next day was a traveling anomaly. And there was snow; it was awesome. We also battled some near-tornado weather in Iowa that I’m guessing was the result of these two climates running into each other. Sadly, I don’t have any cool funnel cloud pictures, though we did see some in the distance.

The historic part of Nauvoo is set up with original houses and shops that you can tour to learn about the early pioneers and their way of life. Senior missionaries and sister missionaries dress as pioneers and have learned weaving, making candles, spinning rope, etc., and they teach you about it. Here’s the official website if you want to check it out for yourself: Historic Nauvoo. In the few hours we had, we only toured three buildings, but we learned about:

Baking,

Spinning cotton, wool, and flax to make thread for clothes,

Making candles by dipping a rock and string in animal fat and drying it layer by layer,

Weaving on a loom to make rugs from scrap material,

Making rope by manually spinning smaller strands on a wheel,

And dancing and theater in pioneer times.

This is my favorite picture of Nauvoo.

We will definitely have to make another trip to see the rest of the sights. If anyone is coming this way or wants to do a Church History tour with us, let me know. We can do Nauvoo again (about 9 hrs away), Far West, Palmyra, the Sacred Grove, Carthage (8.5 hours), Independence, or Adam-ondi-Ahman. Since we’ll be here for five years, we should take a trip to all of them.

We drove along the stunning Mississippi River to the town of Nauvoo, Illinois. Since we wanted to see the temple the most, we went there first. It was beautiful.

There was also a Temple Arrival Center, which was the coolest thing ever for travelers. The senior missionary couple at the Arrival Center told us that the temple President really wanted the temple to be available for anyone visiting Nauvoo. So, the arrival center has a play area for kids so you can switch off going to the temple and babysitting with your spouse if you did not make arrangements, restrooms to change into dress clothes, a microwave and refrigerator for eating, and great air conditioning. They also told us that you can enter in street clothes if you didn’t bring dress clothes. Really, they made it very comfortable and easy to be able to have the experience of going into the temple.

It was very hot and humid when we arrived, so most of the pictures are squinters for us, but the background makes up for it. Though I don’t think any of the original stones were used in the re-building of the temple, they made an effort to rebuild it as close as possible to the design that the pioneers had built in the 1800s. In some of the pictures, you can see the sun and moon stones. This was fun for me to see since I remember seeing a few salvaged ones when my family visited Nauvoo around 1985. Back then, the temple site was just a hole in the ground where the original temple had stood, and they had marked where the original foundation would have been. It’s pretty incredible that it’s back again.

Nauvoo Temple VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Most of you that read this blog will know that Carthage, Illinois, is where the Prophet Joseph Smith was killed. Though the site is solemn, it is not depressing. Cristian and I both thought it was a good experience. For me, hearing the story of the Prophet’s final hours and the courage of the men that were with him reminded me how important it is for us to stand up for what we know is true. They had that courage, and it renewed mine as well.

Leading from the parking lot to the visitor’s center, there are several plaques that contain quotes by Joseph Smith. If you’re able to zoom in and read them, they really set the tone of the place and maybe you can feel how it felt to be there.