Kirtland

There are some perks to Toby traveling. He had to go to Cleveland for some training and then we realized he would be 5 minutes away from Kirtland! I have never been, and have wanted to go badly! So thanks to a saintly Grandma, I left the kids and jumped on a plane to meet Toby at the end of his week.
It was such a great trip!! It was like reading a book and then finding out that it was all true and real! Of course, I knew it was real, but it was just so great to see it for myself! Coming up the hill and seeing the temple, was just how people had described it in all the books I've read! Beautiful! I kept looking around at the town and the people in it, and I just wanted to grab them and shake them and ask them if they knew about all the amazing things that had happened in their little town?!
We went to the temple first, then to the visitor center back down the hill. Then we headed to the Isaac Morley Farm, then to the Johnson Farm. The 4 places that Jesus AND Heavenly Father appeared!! Isn't that insane! And I got to go there! I guess I never realized how many awesome things took place in Kirtland until I was able to see it and put it all together. So amazing.
I LOVED the temple. The woodwork in there was beautiful! I had no idea there would be such intricate carvings inside. It was very frustrating to be in such a holy place that is now owned by a different church that doesn't appreciate or believe in what happened there anymore. I had to control my anger. But it was still amazing.
The visitors center was also great. We went through it with a non-member couple which was kind of fun, but that also meant we got the REALLY long tour. We almost missed being in the school of prophets because Elder Richards (formally in the 70) was there with Carl Anderson (the mucky muck church historian) inside the room for a couple of hours. I just asked why we couldn't just join them? I'm sure it would've been awesome. But the missionaries just laughed at me like I was joking - I totally wasn't. But we eventually made it inside, and that's a place I'll never forget.
The Johnson Farm was also a favorite. So many wonderful and sad things happened there. I loved being in the top room. I had just finished studying section 76 in my institute class, and now I was standing in the room where Joseph had the very vision that revealed the 3 degrees of glory and many other things that he couldn't write down! Mind blowing!

The Ashery

This picture was to show Sam - he'd be in heaven with all those nails and animal pelts

I don't know how husbands and wives marriages survived sleeping in these tiny beds. I am grateful for my King size bed!

School of the Prophets. Awesome. We got to bear a short testimony to the no members - so amazing!

We're not very good at selfies.

I thought the house was so cute!

All the woodwork that was painted was fascinating and beautiful!

Since it was off season - our guide took us into the basement of the Johnson home to show us just how huge the base of the fireplace was! I couldn't back up enough to get an entire picture of it! Impressive!

The bed Joseph was torn from. (Aren't the floors cool?!)

Loved the china!

The room where Joseph received the vision of the 3 degrees of glory!

 We went down the road a few minutes from the Johnson Farm to see Amish country! Fascinating! We went to the Nauvoo Market where they sell lots of things - we were told to go to the bakery. It did not disappoint! The fruit pies were so good, we didn't even get a picture before they were devoured!