Chicago, IL

We went to a huge children's museum right next to Navy Pier, and the kids had a great time.

On one of the buildings, there were tons of different stones from a bunch of different famous places, like the Pyramids of Giza, the Salt Lake Temple, the Injun Joe Cave, the House of Parliament in London and atleast a hundred other places.

That building behind Mark, is so large that it has its own zip code!

We took a little cruise around the harbor and heard a a bit about the city's history.

Looking at ourselves under the bean.

Mom and Vicky Busby in front of "the bean" at the park.

Ducks in the fountain at Millenium Park.

Walking around Chicago. It's a beautiful city; very artistic.

Kirtland, Ohio

We weren't allowed to take pictures on the tour of the inside, of the Kirtland temple, so this one is just a picture of a picture of the inside. But we did get to go inside, it was beautiful.

The Kirtland temple

This is a house that belonged to Benjamin Franklin Johnson and his family, who are our ancestors. He bought it from Joseph and Emma Smith. It was the first real home Joseph and Emma owned. Above is the house in the mid-1800s, and below in 2010.

Mom, looking up our ancestors who lived in Kirtland. We have eleven, that we found.

This building used to be an inn in the 1830's, but is now a museum for oldtown Kirtland.

If they took the process a step further, they could make "pearl-ash" which could be used to make other things, such as china.

We learned about the process that the workers used to transform the ashes, sold to them by the townspeople, into useful products like paper, soap and glass.

The ashery

The town sawmill

A room in the Whitney's house, where many priesthood meetings were held in the early days of the church.

Above the store, where Joseph and Emma lodged for a year and a half. The table in the picture above is original, and belonged to Joseph for a time.

Inside the store

We visited the old Kirtland town where the early saints moved after their persecution in New York. The store behind us in the picture above belonged to Newell K. Whitney, who was called to be the bishop of the church in Kirtland, and also housed Joseph and Emma for about a year and a half in the second story rooms above his store.

Niagara Falls, New York

We went to Niagara Falls after that and boarded the Maid of the Mist to get up close. It was beautiful! and wet!

They had some antique sleds and buggies in the jell-o building also

We stopped by the birthplace of jello and took a look through the jello museum! Although we were disappointed that they didn't actually sell jello.

Palmyra, New York

Above is the Whitmer house, where Joseph and Oliver did most of the translating of the Book of Mormon.

Around the farm

This is the house that the Smith family moved into a few months after the first vision, just fifty or so yards from the original cabin.

After that, we went to the Smith family farm.

Just by chance, one of the missionaries showing us around the Grandin building was from our old ward in Loomis!

After the Hill Cumorah, we went to a really yummy pizza place, then we went to the Grandin building, which was the printing house for the Book of Mormon.

We had the whole hill to ourselves!

In the visitors center for the Hill Cumorah