Kirtland, OH

Kirtland is right next to Lake Erie so we spent a Saturday afternoon at the beach. It was a little cold that day, but we enjoyed it anyway. I must say that going to a beach with fresh water is AWESOME! 

Sunscreen

The sand was fun

Makaida enjoyed the beach on towels next to me - I was so glad I brought a jacket

Experiencing the joy of getting buried in the sand

We caught the last tour of the Kirtland Temple after going to the lake. It was really neat.

Being from out West, I am not used to this sort of vegetation growing just about everywhere. This was the parking lot by the church building

Joseph Smith's home in Kirtland #1

#2

Interesting history

After attending the Kirtland ward on Sunday morning, we had a picnic at the park and took a tiny little walk to the quarry where the stones for the temple were dug. There was a little lake on the walk where the kids checked out turtles, frogs, and such.

The quarry was beautiful too

You can still see the chisel marks on the stone

Looking for some more frogs and turtles

After the walk in Chapin Forest, we headed off to the Church sites. I loved Kirtland!

This is where the School of the Prophets was held. A very special room above the Whitney store.

This adjacent room was the Church's headquarters during the Kirtland era

This was Newel K. Whitney's home. It was really beautiful inside. The equivalent to a very nice home during that time.

The room  in the Whitney home where the first miracle of healing occurred. Joseph healed a lame arm.

Whitney Store

Saw mill - one of the main sources of income for the church at that time. The original one was built by my ancestor, Joel H. Johnson

This amazing picture was in the visitor's center. The artist who painted this picture heard that the Church was restoring Nauvoo so he painted this picture and another huge, beautiful picture and donated them to the Church. I love it.

We had a couple of awesome experiences at Kirtland. My mom had mentioned that a couple in her ward were serving a mission in Nauvoo. She said they were really great and we should look for them. I did look for them in Nauvoo, but never found them. When we were watching the introductory movie at the Kirtland visitor center, an elderly missionary couple were introducing themselves and Brandon said, "Did they just say there were from Inkom, ID?" I went and asked them and sure enough, they were the missionary couple from my parent's ward. My mom had accidentally thought they were at Nauvoo. My mom was right though, they were AMAZING tour guides. They had wonderful stories and it was such a neat experience learning from them and having a special connection with them since they knew my parents. They were not even supposed to be helping at the time we were there. On their way home from church they had noticed that the Visitor Center parking lot was very full so they had stopped to see if they could help a few hours before their actual shift. During our Kirtland stay we heard a lot about the church historian and patriarch, Karl Anderson. He is the foremost expert on the Church's Kirtland era. As a history-lover, I was really wishing I could hear him speak. As we were doing bathroom and drink stops on our way out, Karl Anderson happened to walk into the visitor center and we got to meet him and talk to him for a bit. It was a perfect ending to a perfect trip.

P.S. If you ever stop in Kirtland, DO NOT stay at the Travel Lodge. It was horrendous. I would not let anyone sleep with the bedding. I would not put Makaida down on the carpet. Even the sheets were stained. At least there was no chance of getting cold at night, the air conditioner would not bring the temperature down below 85 degrees, or something like that. It was a very uncomfortable, disgusting night.