Kirtland Temple & West Virginia Zip Lining!

The last leg of our 3.5 week vacation came.  We headed up to the Kirtland Temple in Ohio.  

Late dinner at Chick-fil-A

We made it to Kirtland!  Sadly the temple was closed because of COVID.  But we enjoyed walking around outside.  We also saw the house that Joseph and Emma lived in. The church will be or is renovating it.

We also went to the Newel K Whitney store and their home which is below--the yellow house. There were so many incredible stories that we heard at each location.  What wonderful places to visit and feel the Spirit. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared in the upper room of the store.

We found a park to eat at.  We grabbed some stuff from Aldi and had a picnic lunch.

The geese were very entertaining.

We drove out to the John Johnson farm as well.  Again, another great place! 

Next up: zip lining in West Virginia.  We stayed at Adventures on the Gorge last year and wanted to do zip lining this summer since Elden would weigh enough to do the big zip lines. 

Time to get hooked up.  We did a morning zip line session to get back home late afternoon.

The guides joked that we signed the waiver not for the zip lining, but for the bus ride.  Wow, craziest bus ride I've ever been on!

Finally heading home.

We stopped to pick up the keys to our "church"! 

Usually when we get back in town, we fill up our vehicle at the gas station before heading home.  Some kids opted to run home.  Our big 10,000 mile road trip came to a close.  But not much rest ahead as YM/YW camps are next week along with Clark's 18th birthday, and upcoming endowment and family visits!

Dinosaur National Monument, Adam-Ondi-Ahman, Indiana!

Here we are in Rock Springs, Wyoming.  Not far from Utah.  Why not head back and meet up the Bunkers again?!  So we did!  We met them by Vernal at the Dinosaur National Monument. 

Touching a dinosaur bone!

We enjoyed a fun hike to Box Canyon, and also we did a little hike after the monument center as well.

More from the monument.

Yay for butane stoves!  It was super hot out, but we found some shade and made some lunch! After lunch we headed to the Box Canyon hike.

Interseting trip food finds.

After Dinosaur National Monument we said good bye to the Bunkers and met up with Lee's childhood friends Wendy and Rachel in Vernal.  Rachel's in-laws own a cute burger/milkshake place.  We met there for a treat and visited.  It was fun to meet them after exchanging Christmas cards for years! 

We drove through the to head to Adam-Ondi-Ahman. Here is a little about it from Arthur A. Bailey who wrote about Adam-Ondi-Ahman:

After Adam’s many, many years of great and noble faithfulness, near the end of his life another great event occurred. The Prophet Joseph Smith said, “I saw Adam in the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman. He called together his children and blessed them with a patriarchal blessing. The Lord appeared in their midst, and he (Adam) blessed them all, and foretold what should befall them to the latest generation” (Teachings, 158). The Prophet recorded that this event took place three years prior to Adam’s death and that Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, and Methuselah, all of whom had been ordained by Adam, were present. These righteous descendants were “high priests” in the order of the priesthood established “in the days of Adam” (see D&C 107:41–53). This meeting was also attended by the “residue of his posterity who were righteous” (D&C 107:53).

“And the Lord appeared unto them, and they rose up and blessed Adam, and called him Michael, the prince, the archangel.

“And the Lord administered comfort unto Adam, and said unto him: I have set thee to be at the head; a multitude of nations shall come of thee, and thou art a prince over them forever.

“And Adam stood up in the midst of the congregation; and, notwithstanding he was bowed down with age, being full of the Holy Ghost, predicted whatsoever should befall his posterity unto the latest generation” (D&C 107:54–56).

Adam later died. Then, in these last days, the Prophet Joseph Smith reported that he saw Adam in the celestial kingdom (see D&C 137:5). However, Adam’s great work is not done and continues today.

It was great taking our family here!

This is Preacher's Rock.  Joseph Smith stood on this rock and preached to about 1,000 people. There was a settelment in Adam-Ondi-Ahman too.  It was cool being were Adam walked and Joseph Smith.

Our trip to Adam-Ondi-Ahman was brief.  But well worth the effort to go there!  Next stop was Indiana.  We hung out with Stephanie's family and also enjoyed going to the temple.  Because of our colds and from texts from Stephanie she agreed that it wouldn't be a good idea to come.  Well, we talked that night and she totally wanted us to come!  So we did!  I just felt bad about the possibility of giving her family our colds. Thankfully we did not. 

We had fun at an Amish market getting some goodies and lunch! Fun walking around and spying out the wares. Odd as they were!

Jake seemed to like Uncle Lee!

When we arrived Darrell and Stacie were there as well.  They were headed out to Idaho and Yellowstone.