Kirtland, OH

Josh and I decided that since we weren’t going home for Thanksgiving, we would use his Holiday days off of work to go on another adventure!  We drove out to Kirtland, OH.  We had an invitation to eat  Thanksgiving at my friend’s house in Indiana, and if we would have planned better- it would have been Perfect!! 

We ended up having a nice Thanksgiving dinner at 6:30 pm at Cracker Barrel.  It was Super Busy!!  They said they had a wait list since 10 am that morning, and we were the first to not be on a wait list!  They were out of turkey, so we had yummy roast beef and got our pie for free since they didn’t have turkey for us!

We stayed in Cleveland at an awesome hotel. It was all decorated for Christmas!!

I have never been to Kirtland, and I learned a lot while I was there about the Restoration of the Gospel.  I didn’t realize so many revelations took place in Kirtland.  The Newel K, Whitney Store was neat.  Payson was a bit restless, but you could still feel the Spirit.

The Visitors Center had an excellent display of Nativity Scenes.  The Nativity Scenes were the perfect way to start the Christmas season.

Our favorite stop was the John Johnson Farm.  There Joseph Smith and his family lived for one year before moving back to Kirtland.  This is where the story of him being tarred and feather took place .  This is also where he had another vision of God, the Father, and Jesus Christ.  He also translated  the bible in the Johnson’s home with Sidney Rigdon.  It was very neat.

This was the Johnson’s home.  It was very nice for the time period.  It was very New England.

On this front porch Joseph Smith would often teach the people in the area.  He would give his sermons here and people would stand around to listen- including the people who tarred and feathered him.

And- of course- we saw the Kirtland Temple!  It was a very beautiful building, and very different from the Temples today.  We got to go inside, and we learned about the many things the temple was used for.

A small detour on our trip was to Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  All we did was drive on one of the roads through the park on our way to Kirtland.  It was pretty, but cold outside so we never got out of the car.  Plus, Payson was sleeping!  We did see some deer.  They were cute with the snow in the background.  The day was beautiful because it was snowing, but just flurries-  not enough to stick to the road and make driving conditions rough!

I really loved Kirtland, OH.  Visiting really made me think of the Restoration of the Gospel and how amazing it is.  I was trying to imagine being Joseph Smith, and receiving all the revelations- especially, the ones where Families Are Forever, and we don’t just go to Heaven or Hell, but there are different kingdoms.  It’s pretty amazing.  The Gospel is pretty amazing.

Tennessee Trip

Southwest had an awesome Autumn airline deal.  We got Nashville tickets out of Chicago for only $49 one way.  Since Josh didn’t have to work Monday, the 12th of November because of Veteran’s Day, we left Saturday and came back early Tuesday morning before he had to go to work.

In Nashville we drove by the Parthenon.  We didn’t stop and get out of the car because Payson was sleeping.  Maybe someday we will see the real Parthenon in Greece!

We went to The Hermitage- Andrew Jackson’s mansion. It was pretty fancy for its day.  Andrew Jackson had a big cotton plantation, so we got to see his house and grounds.

Andrew Jackson was a slave owner, and this was one of the cabins that housed slaves. 

This was in Jackson’s garden.  It is a monument for his death.  His whole family was buried in that garden.

Some other cute pictures on the Hermitage grounds.

We did a quick visit to Stone’s River Civil War Battlefield.  It had a huge graveyard of soldiers who died during the Civil War.  It was pretty sad to see that many graves, and to think these soldiers were all brothers.  They were fighting each other in our country. 

For most of our trip we rented a Jeep Liberty. We actually own a Jeep Liberty, but this one was new!!  Our last leg of the journey we rented a Toyota Corolla. We also own a Corolla!  We thought it was funny that the two cars we drove on this trip were the same as the cars we already own!  ha ha

Anyway, we drove to Knoxville, where we had true Southern food- shrimp and grits, and where we stayed the night.  Payson had a ton of fun flirting with all the Southern girl waitresses.  They thought he was just the “Cutest Thang.”

The rest of our trip was in Great Smokey Mountain National Park.   It is the most visited National Park in the country.  It was very pretty because all the leaves hadn’t fallen from the trees, yet.  Fall was the perfect time to go!!

As we climbed to higher elevation (only 5,000 something- ha ha- we grew up in that high of elevation) we found snow. It hasn’t snowed where we live, yet, so it was kind of neat to see the little patches of snow in the Great Smokeys!!

Payson is the best little traveler.  We drove a lot on this trip because we didn’t want to hike for different reasons.  He got sick of his car seat by the end of the trip, but he makes the trips all the more fun because he likes to travel, too!

At one point we stopped because I needed to feed Payson.  Josh got out of the car to look around, but happen to leave the windows down.  A huge dragonfly flew in.  Luckily, I was done feeding Payson when it flew in because I jumped out of the car!! 

Josh got it out with a big ole stick!!  ha ha- It was pretty funny to watch.

The National Park has a lot of history as far as settlement in that area goes.  In the mid to late 1800s people built a community in the area.  There were a lot of historic cabins and even some churches and houses.  We saw a real corn mill at work.  (I didn’t have my camera with me when we saw it). 

One of the coolest buildings we saw was the Palmer house.  It was built as a cabin in 1860(ish), and remodeled into a house in 1902.  It was pretty fancy for it’s time.  You can tell from the pictures that I took that they had old wall paper and they even put wall paper on the ceiling.

The Smokey Mountains got their name because it always look like they are smoky and hazy.  It was so cool to see layer after layer of the Appalachian Mountains.

I took three pictures of Payson and Josh.  The one where Payson is actually looking at the camera- Josh’s eyes are closed, so I put the better one of Josh up because Payson doesn’t care!!

We stayed the night in Gatlinburg.  It is the gateway city to the National Park, so it reminded me a lot of Jackson Hole or Estes Park.  It was a really neat city. They had it all decorated for Christmas already.

We ate ate Bubby Gumps Shrimp Restaurant.  It was a fun time!!  One of the servers quizzed us on the movie.  I got some answers right- like what computer company did he help name (Apple) and what shoes did he wear to run in (Nike)?

The hotel we stayed at had a pretty cool swimming pool.  We went swimming with Payson, and got out his new floaty.  He really had a lot of fun in the pool with mom and dad!

We couldn’t miss out on going to a pancake house in the South, so for our Brunch we went to a REALLY good pancake house. Payson’s new favorite thing to do at restaurants is drink water from a straw.  I don’t like germs,  so it was a good way to distract Payson from sucking on the sides of the highchair or table.

Did I mention we saw a bear in the national park?  It was way cool to see the black bear.  He was pretty far up the mountain, so it was hard to get a good picture.  These pictures are of the bear with the camera zoomed in, and the picture cropped.

The trip was fast, and Payson and I slept the whole day after the trip!!  It was a lot of fun.  People in Tennessee are very nice.  I’m not a huge fast food fan, but to save money we went to Wendy’s.  We ordered 2 chicken burgers and nothing else.  They were so hospitable to us that they gave Payson a toy from the kids meal, us a large free fry, and free frosties.  Someday we will make it to Memphis and see all the cool stuff there!!