On June 18th (the day after the last day of school) at 6:45 am. we departed Seattle and flew to Buffalo, New York. Thankfully the flight was uneventful and we landed on time to the open arms of Aunt Sandy, Uncle Pete and Jeff's parents. The kids were so thrilled to see a swimming pool at the Mangs that they jumped right in their pool eventhough it was cool and rainy. We're from Seattle and not afraid of a few sprinkles. In one day we enjoyed seeing cousins at the pizza/buffalo wing dinner at the Mangs,
Niagra Falls,
Jeff's Grandma Mertie's gravesite,
and Grandma Slichta in her Nursing Home. She looked great!
We drove to Rochester to excited cousins who had been waiting "forever" for us to arrive. For one week we played and laughed and ate and ate and played with Jeff's parents and sisters and families. The cousins had so much fun being together that they had to sleep together every night too. It was one big party at the Tripps. We went to Kellen's battle of the bands in the park... had fun at the Strong Children's museum... went to a movie... made smore's in the backyard pitt, watched Garrett's baseball game and played lots and lots of Wii. So much fun together and so sad that we live so far away.
Taking some Father's Day pictures at Lorey's house. Such cute siblings.
Our last day together was spent packing and getting cute for family photos. It was worth the craziness of the day because the pictures turned out great. Here's the whole entire Slichta gang doing a big family squish!
Off to Palmyra, the Sacred Grove, the Hill Cumorah and dinner at our favorite Chill 'n Grill in Palmyra. Isn't the Palmyra Temple so pretty peeking out of the green trees?
We drove down near New York City where we stayed the night and woke up the next morning to have a lovely outdoor breakfast with Christ Slichta and his 2 boys. The kids could have stayed there much longer with their pool and all the fun toys but as we soon realized the theme of our trip was, "So much to do, so little time."New York City was pure craziness! We saw so much, even the famous naked cowboy...
We surprised the kids with tickets to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. We bought tickets the night before as we were driving so it really was a surprise for all of us. The show was FABULOUS!!!
Washington DC was our next stop. We picked up our RV in DC from a family that lives a few blocks from us. They had a reunion in DC and didn't have time to drive the RV home too. Definately chalked up as a tender mercy for working out as perfectly as it did. We toured the city at night which actually was REALLY neat looking and without crowds of people.
Arlington National Cemetary.
The Washington DC Temple is amazing. Besides a potty break in the visitor's center a quick picture in the parking lot is all we had time for. 
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was our next visit. Did you know that Alaska was the only state not involved in the Civil War? I was the only one who guessed the answer right thank you! It's the only state that makes sense. Why would Alaska care about the North and the South?? Hawaii even had 1 soldier present in the war. These soldiers were full of interesting facts.
We got to spend a whole day at this super duper funnest ever water park in Sandusky, Ohio called Cedar Point. It also has a huge roller coaster themed amusement park but we focused on the water portion. Our campground was right at the park and on the coast... could have definately stayed there longer.
Shipshewana, Indiana is a definate must stop if you're ever in the neighborhood. It is an Amish community. It was so crazy to drive down the street in an obese RV and to pass planely dressed Amish people riding their carriages. We really went back in time. Jeff and I also came to realize that the Amish have something going on that we need to get in touch with. They are so happy and live such simple lives. They're not distracted with the cares of the world or with STUFF. Their sole purpose is to help build the community and serve God without all the fluff that we get involved in. We went to a real Amish family's working Dairy farm and helped milk cows and saw their cute teenage girls. It gave us a teeny desire to be more like them in some ways or at least to eat at their amazing food more often. (My mouth seriously just started watering when I thought of what we had for dinner in Shipshewana.)
Chicago was nostalgic to pass through. We were overwhelmed with ALL we wanted to do there and all our friends and relatives we wanted to see. We ended up doing nothing but camping in our old church parking lot, playing some football there, eating a Chicago Dog, and showing Maryn and Adyson where we lived when they were born. Our favorite was taking this walk down the Riverwalk in Naperville... a favorite past time for us.
On the way to Nauvoo we stopped in Gailsburg, Illinois to see Jeff's Great Grandma Jone's house where everyone came to visit in the summer. We had dinner at the park where Jeff played at as a kid. We also went to the cemetary where many relatives are burried and after 45 minutes of searching as the sun was setting and finally with divine intervention we found all of the relatives grave sites and took pictures.
Nauvoo, IL was a favorite. We were happy to finally stay the night twice in the same place. We even supported the Community of Christ Church by staying in their campground. You're welcome. Nauvoo has so many entertaining, family things to do that it made the whole time fun for everyone. They had a pioneer pastimes where we could play pioneer games and dress up. Kaden found this hat and shirt and would not take it off. He wanted to be a "pioneer dude." We loved the temple and the tours of the homes. Our favorite was the evening show put on by the senior missionaries and the young performers. It was so hilarious. Definitely made me want to serve a mission in Nauvoo when I am older just to be in the show.
We took a wagon ride pulled by horses and this wagon ride pulled by oxen. Oh my! I would have walked too as a pioneer if my wagon were pulled by oxen. BUMPY!
The temple was shimmering and inspiring and majestic. Loved it! Maryn remembered going through the Open House when she was 5 or 6. Carthage Jail was our last visit in Illinois. I am always amazed at how strong you can feel the Spirit in a jail and to see the bullet hole still in the door where the bullet passed that killed Hyrum Smith.
Hannibal, Missouri was only an hour and an half away. That's Mark Twain country in case you don't know. We took the tour of the Mark Twain Caves where Mark Twain played as a young boy. In his Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn books he takes stories from places and people in his own life. We saw certain places in the cave that are mentioned in the books. We even saw Jesse James' signature where he hid from the law for a while. So much character in Hannibal... so much to do, so little time.
Independence, Missouri was where we suffered our worst night's sleep because of a terrible storm. A definite tender mercy that we survived that one. It was the 4th of July when we woke up in Independence so the only thing open was the Mormon Visitor's Center. Yea for the Mormons. A short but oh so sweet visit as we spoke with a senior missionary couple and learned the importance of what did and what will take place in Independence and the surrounding areas. Liberty Jail, Haun's Mill, Far West and Adam-Ondi-Ahmen were all so spread out from Independence that we couldn't squeeze those places in too but the senior Elder said with emotion in his eyes, "you are standing on holy ground here."
Our longest drive of the whole trip proved to be the longest drive of the whole trip. Things were absolutely going too perfectly up to this point that we couldn't complain when the front lights didn't work in the RV. As it was getting evening we knew we couldn't drive in the dark so we camped where we were... York, Nebraska in a mobile home park. We bought some fireworks and root beer floats, posed in our Old Navy flag shirts and celebrated the 4th of July Nebraska style. Ah, memories. The next morning we had some making up to do with our driving but we had to stop in Scottsbluff to see Chimney Rock... an important landmark to the pioneers and tradesman and Indians and pony expressers. The amazing part is that it's no where near as tall as it was 150 years ago. It freaked us out to see these sign postings everywhere about "rattlers" but imagine being a pioneer and walking THROUGH the weeds and rocks and homes of the rattlers. At least we had sidewalks to walk on. Our love for the pioneers continued to grow with each pioneerish thing we saw.
About 45 minutes from Custer, South Dakota we saw some Buffalo out on the beautiful hills grazing. We pulled over and watched them for a long time. (We also had our "church" in the RV as we kept our eyes on the roaming buffalo) I saw something that I knew we just HAD to have... buffalo chips. The pioneer children gathered them for their family's campfires so that's exactly what I had my children do for a future campfire of ours. They could not believe their mother would make them do such a gross thing.
My family, and I mean ALL of my family miraculously and I mean miraculously worked it out to help us finish our trip. They met us in South Dakota where we stayed for 4 nights and had the best time seeing Mt. Rushmore.
Crazy Horse (can you see it in the background above Jeff's head?). Robbie Yellow Hawk did some neat dances from his tribe for us. My question is this...do Indians call themself Indians or do they call themselves Native Americans? At the museums we saw here they said Indians but we thought it was because they hadn't spent the money to become politically correct yet. Write in if you have the answer.
We stayed at the silliest campground that the kids and everyone loved. Admit it. The Flintstones campground. They had a goofy theme park that cost way too much money but we sure got some good pictures.
We drove through Custer State Park and saw some wild donkeys, lots of white tailed deer and lots and lots of buffalo. We saw this buffalo right smack on the side of the road. There were tons of warning signs everywhere telling you to stay away from the buffalo. Apparently every year many tourists are either killed or injured from attacking buffalo. Now, how could this cute, cuddly creature hurt anyone? Can you believe how close we are?!
Lovell and Cowley Wyoming were our next stops as we visited the house where my Grandpa Harston and his 10 other siblings grew up. We saw the church in this minute-of-a-town where my mom got her Patriarchal Blessing and we also went to the cemetary where we saw my mom's grandparents gravesites and well as some uncles and aunts. Before we got to Cody, WY we passed through our scarriest drive of our trip up the side of a mountain, on some dirt roads and down the other side of the steep mountain. Yikes! We stayed the night in Cody and went to the Buffalo Bill museum the next morning. Look! We saw him!
Yellowstone. Ah, need we say more? It was relaxing and divine and not as smelly as I remembered it as a kid. Old Faithful was faithful and did it's thing as usual.
We went wading in the Yellowstone River that was too inviting to pass up. Jeff just pulled to the side of the road and we all cooled off.
We took a "little" hike to see the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Pretty amazing. Can you see Spencer on James' back? barely. We couldn't believe he didn't go right over the falls since he was "over" them anyway. James, give me that baby right now!!!
Here we are before we were to head home to Seattle. Can you believe what a gigantor vehicle that is? It treated us well and was actually like saying good-bye to an old friend. We were truly sad to be ending our trip. We wanted to do more, to see more. We realized that the world is big full of beauty but small with everything we humans have in common. The favorite parts for us were: starting the trip with Jeff's family and ending it with mine and having SO much alone time in the middle where we weren't bothered with anyone or anything. We had Jeff 100% to ourselves with no stresses. We didn't have friends taking our children away. We didn't have responsibilities outside our trip or family. We LOVED being with each other and we actually liked being together. We are nice people. We were surprised that our kids hardly ever asked, "how much longer?" like they are famous for asking. The joy was in the Journey for us.
Twenty six days and 17 states and (10 pounds) later we are fully aware at what a gift and blessing this trip was in our life. If we weren't responsibile people in the Church or school or in needing money we would consider doing this for much longer. It was awesome!!!
We surprised the kids with tickets to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. We bought tickets the night before as we were driving so it really was a surprise for all of us. The show was FABULOUS!!!
Washington DC was our next stop. We picked up our RV in DC from a family that lives a few blocks from us. They had a reunion in DC and didn't have time to drive the RV home too. Definately chalked up as a tender mercy for working out as perfectly as it did. We toured the city at night which actually was REALLY neat looking and without crowds of people.
Arlington National Cemetary.
The Washington DC Temple is amazing. Besides a potty break in the visitor's center a quick picture in the parking lot is all we had time for. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was our next visit. Did you know that Alaska was the only state not involved in the Civil War? I was the only one who guessed the answer right thank you! It's the only state that makes sense. Why would Alaska care about the North and the South?? Hawaii even had 1 soldier present in the war. These soldiers were full of interesting facts.
We got to spend a whole day at this super duper funnest ever water park in Sandusky, Ohio called Cedar Point. It also has a huge roller coaster themed amusement park but we focused on the water portion. Our campground was right at the park and on the coast... could have definately stayed there longer.
Shipshewana, Indiana is a definate must stop if you're ever in the neighborhood. It is an Amish community. It was so crazy to drive down the street in an obese RV and to pass planely dressed Amish people riding their carriages. We really went back in time. Jeff and I also came to realize that the Amish have something going on that we need to get in touch with. They are so happy and live such simple lives. They're not distracted with the cares of the world or with STUFF. Their sole purpose is to help build the community and serve God without all the fluff that we get involved in. We went to a real Amish family's working Dairy farm and helped milk cows and saw their cute teenage girls. It gave us a teeny desire to be more like them in some ways or at least to eat at their amazing food more often. (My mouth seriously just started watering when I thought of what we had for dinner in Shipshewana.)
Chicago was nostalgic to pass through. We were overwhelmed with ALL we wanted to do there and all our friends and relatives we wanted to see. We ended up doing nothing but camping in our old church parking lot, playing some football there, eating a Chicago Dog, and showing Maryn and Adyson where we lived when they were born. Our favorite was taking this walk down the Riverwalk in Naperville... a favorite past time for us.
On the way to Nauvoo we stopped in Gailsburg, Illinois to see Jeff's Great Grandma Jone's house where everyone came to visit in the summer. We had dinner at the park where Jeff played at as a kid. We also went to the cemetary where many relatives are burried and after 45 minutes of searching as the sun was setting and finally with divine intervention we found all of the relatives grave sites and took pictures.
Nauvoo, IL was a favorite. We were happy to finally stay the night twice in the same place. We even supported the Community of Christ Church by staying in their campground. You're welcome. Nauvoo has so many entertaining, family things to do that it made the whole time fun for everyone. They had a pioneer pastimes where we could play pioneer games and dress up. Kaden found this hat and shirt and would not take it off. He wanted to be a "pioneer dude." We loved the temple and the tours of the homes. Our favorite was the evening show put on by the senior missionaries and the young performers. It was so hilarious. Definitely made me want to serve a mission in Nauvoo when I am older just to be in the show.
We took a wagon ride pulled by horses and this wagon ride pulled by oxen. Oh my! I would have walked too as a pioneer if my wagon were pulled by oxen. BUMPY!
The temple was shimmering and inspiring and majestic. Loved it! Maryn remembered going through the Open House when she was 5 or 6. Carthage Jail was our last visit in Illinois. I am always amazed at how strong you can feel the Spirit in a jail and to see the bullet hole still in the door where the bullet passed that killed Hyrum Smith.
Hannibal, Missouri was only an hour and an half away. That's Mark Twain country in case you don't know. We took the tour of the Mark Twain Caves where Mark Twain played as a young boy. In his Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn books he takes stories from places and people in his own life. We saw certain places in the cave that are mentioned in the books. We even saw Jesse James' signature where he hid from the law for a while. So much character in Hannibal... so much to do, so little time.
Independence, Missouri was where we suffered our worst night's sleep because of a terrible storm. A definite tender mercy that we survived that one. It was the 4th of July when we woke up in Independence so the only thing open was the Mormon Visitor's Center. Yea for the Mormons. A short but oh so sweet visit as we spoke with a senior missionary couple and learned the importance of what did and what will take place in Independence and the surrounding areas. Liberty Jail, Haun's Mill, Far West and Adam-Ondi-Ahmen were all so spread out from Independence that we couldn't squeeze those places in too but the senior Elder said with emotion in his eyes, "you are standing on holy ground here."
Our longest drive of the whole trip proved to be the longest drive of the whole trip. Things were absolutely going too perfectly up to this point that we couldn't complain when the front lights didn't work in the RV. As it was getting evening we knew we couldn't drive in the dark so we camped where we were... York, Nebraska in a mobile home park. We bought some fireworks and root beer floats, posed in our Old Navy flag shirts and celebrated the 4th of July Nebraska style. Ah, memories. The next morning we had some making up to do with our driving but we had to stop in Scottsbluff to see Chimney Rock... an important landmark to the pioneers and tradesman and Indians and pony expressers. The amazing part is that it's no where near as tall as it was 150 years ago. It freaked us out to see these sign postings everywhere about "rattlers" but imagine being a pioneer and walking THROUGH the weeds and rocks and homes of the rattlers. At least we had sidewalks to walk on. Our love for the pioneers continued to grow with each pioneerish thing we saw.
About 45 minutes from Custer, South Dakota we saw some Buffalo out on the beautiful hills grazing. We pulled over and watched them for a long time. (We also had our "church" in the RV as we kept our eyes on the roaming buffalo) I saw something that I knew we just HAD to have... buffalo chips. The pioneer children gathered them for their family's campfires so that's exactly what I had my children do for a future campfire of ours. They could not believe their mother would make them do such a gross thing.
My family, and I mean ALL of my family miraculously and I mean miraculously worked it out to help us finish our trip. They met us in South Dakota where we stayed for 4 nights and had the best time seeing Mt. Rushmore.
Crazy Horse (can you see it in the background above Jeff's head?). Robbie Yellow Hawk did some neat dances from his tribe for us. My question is this...do Indians call themself Indians or do they call themselves Native Americans? At the museums we saw here they said Indians but we thought it was because they hadn't spent the money to become politically correct yet. Write in if you have the answer.
We stayed at the silliest campground that the kids and everyone loved. Admit it. The Flintstones campground. They had a goofy theme park that cost way too much money but we sure got some good pictures.
We drove through Custer State Park and saw some wild donkeys, lots of white tailed deer and lots and lots of buffalo. We saw this buffalo right smack on the side of the road. There were tons of warning signs everywhere telling you to stay away from the buffalo. Apparently every year many tourists are either killed or injured from attacking buffalo. Now, how could this cute, cuddly creature hurt anyone? Can you believe how close we are?!
Lovell and Cowley Wyoming were our next stops as we visited the house where my Grandpa Harston and his 10 other siblings grew up. We saw the church in this minute-of-a-town where my mom got her Patriarchal Blessing and we also went to the cemetary where we saw my mom's grandparents gravesites and well as some uncles and aunts. Before we got to Cody, WY we passed through our scarriest drive of our trip up the side of a mountain, on some dirt roads and down the other side of the steep mountain. Yikes! We stayed the night in Cody and went to the Buffalo Bill museum the next morning. Look! We saw him!
Yellowstone. Ah, need we say more? It was relaxing and divine and not as smelly as I remembered it as a kid. Old Faithful was faithful and did it's thing as usual.
We went wading in the Yellowstone River that was too inviting to pass up. Jeff just pulled to the side of the road and we all cooled off.
We took a "little" hike to see the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Pretty amazing. Can you see Spencer on James' back? barely. We couldn't believe he didn't go right over the falls since he was "over" them anyway. James, give me that baby right now!!!
Here we are before we were to head home to Seattle. Can you believe what a gigantor vehicle that is? It treated us well and was actually like saying good-bye to an old friend. We were truly sad to be ending our trip. We wanted to do more, to see more. We realized that the world is big full of beauty but small with everything we humans have in common. The favorite parts for us were: starting the trip with Jeff's family and ending it with mine and having SO much alone time in the middle where we weren't bothered with anyone or anything. We had Jeff 100% to ourselves with no stresses. We didn't have friends taking our children away. We didn't have responsibilities outside our trip or family. We LOVED being with each other and we actually liked being together. We are nice people. We were surprised that our kids hardly ever asked, "how much longer?" like they are famous for asking. The joy was in the Journey for us.
Twenty six days and 17 states and (10 pounds) later we are fully aware at what a gift and blessing this trip was in our life. If we weren't responsibile people in the Church or school or in needing money we would consider doing this for much longer. It was awesome!!!
3 comments:
Sounds amazing. And yes I read the entire entry!! I believe they call themselves Native Americans???
how fun! I've been wondering how your trip went, so glad it was so fun!
Wow....what a fantastic adventure for you all.....Uncle Pete and I should have hid in your luggage! Wonderful memories for you all. We loved you coming to Tonawanda - hurry back!!
Love you ALL, Aunt Sandy
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