John Johnson Farm and Amish Country

Monday we went to the John Johnson farm for a tour and again it was so cool to see their house and hear about how they lived in the early 1800's. I love learning about history when it is so hands on and I can see and visualize people coming and going. I like the painted wood floors and how fun and unique they are and I like seeing how more simplistic they lived. 

One of the cute Sister Missionary tour guides. I spent a lot of the time while she was talking trying to figure out if her bangs were real or is they were clip ons. I never was able to figure it out, I liked her hair it just looked like a cabbage patch doll to me. She was really cute and I love that the Sister missionaries were the ones giving our tour.

After all of the church history fun we headed over to Amish Country and found a couple of Amish stores to browse through. I saw my first ever Amish Horse and Buggy and I liked seeing them.

We went to one of the store and they were selling homemade chocolates so I got some chocolate to take home to our kids. Kefford and I also got some Fry Pies, I got a sweet one and Kefford got a savory. I bought a pretzel homemade by the Amish and it was honestly the best pretzel I have ever eaten. I wish I had access to get more but it probably wouldn't be great for me to be able to get pretzels every day.

We found a Candy Warehouse and it was fun to walk through and see all of the different kinds of candy they have. It was like a Costco but with Candy. The had a candy themed mini golf course and so Kefford and I played a round of mini golf which was fun.

Karli Peterson sent me a screenshot of someone sh his friends with on instagram who posted a picture she had taken with some missionaries serving in her ward. Karli recognized that one of the missionaries was Rylee and she was so excited to send me the picture and tell ma about it. I love that Rylee is being so well taken care of and loved by the members she is serving.

Kirtland Temple

Sunday was the Temple Dedication and Kefford read online that it started at 10 am. We went to a church in Kirtland for the dedication so that afterwards we could go through the Kirtland Temple. We left our hotel early so that we had plenty of time to get to where we were going  and we thought we could walk around the Kirtland Temple grounds until we needed to be at the church. Well, it was a good thing we did, when we got to the church it was about 8:30ish, the parking lot was full and the doors were locked. There was a sign on the door that said the dedication started at 9 and the doors were being locked at 8:30 to have everyone in their seats to maintain reverence. We panicked but luckily there was a kid passing in the hall and he opened the door and let us in. We found some seats and settled in for the dedication. It was a really nice service and I am so glad that Kefford could be there for this. 

We headed to the Kirtland Temple next and found that the tours do not start until 2, we walked around the outside of the Temple and took some pictures and then we took a drive to find a lighthouse Kefford had seen was in the area. 

 

I thought it would be cool to walk out to the lighthouse and at some point people were able to do that but the pathway was closed off so nobody could do that anymore. We drove by, took some pictures and then we headed to find an Aldi's. It is a discount grocery store that is popular with the missionaries because it is cheap. Kefford thought we could get something for lunch there but when we went in a looked around it did not have any ready made food that we could grab to eat. Kefford enjoyed reminiscing about going to Aldi's and he realized it wasn't as great as he remembered it being. 

When we got back to Kirtland we were able to get in on the tour and we toured the Kirtland Temple, the Newell K Whitney store and the Whitney's house. I loved being in the Temple and seeing what they built all of those years ago. There was a special spirit and I kept imagining the Prophet Joseph Smith being there and what that time was like. 

Whitney House

Newel K Whitney store

After the tour of the store we went to the sawmill to see that. As we were in there on the tour it started pouring rain. Luckily our tour guides all gave us umbrellas and so we were prepared for the rain. 

Kefford found something about a crying angel statue that we thought would be cool to see. It was in a cemetery and upon entering the cemetery we found that is was the most massive cemetery we have ever been in and we were having a little bit of a struggle finding the statue. I asked Chat GPT for help finding and it gave us some coordinates which helped a little but then Kefford asked google and we were able to find it. I thought it was really cool to see and it did look like a crying angel.

We then found a statue of a hand that Kefford wanted to get a picture with so we stopped so he could do that. It was another fun day with a lot packed in. 

Christmas Story House and Cleveland Guardians Game

 After eating lunch we drove to the street that has the house from A Christmas Story on it. We could have done a tour through it but we didn't care enough to spend the money to see the inside. We peeked in a couple of windows, took some pictures and then walked across the street where they had a gift shop. We looked around there and then headed out and on to the next adventure.

We stopped in a Catholic Cathedral and it was beautiful inside. The architecture of these buildings just amaze me and I love seeing inside these more historic buildings.

We went to the Guardians game and they were playing against the San Diego Padres. I am not a huge baseball fan but I enjoyed watching the game and cheering the Guardians on to victory. I like that each player has a walk up song that plays when they walk up to bat and being a part of the crowd was fun.

After the game was done they had the largest and longest fireworks show I had ever seen and the music and entertainment on screen during the fireworks was all about music in the Y2K era. Kefford and I both were blown away by the fireworks and the show, it was really good and a lot of fun. It lasted at least 30 minutes with the fireworks going the entire time. I have no idea why this was happening but I really enjoyed the show.