New Apartment

It took a week or two, but we eventually got everything moved out of storage, into our apartment, and set up in way we liked it. Christie made sure we got some new decorations so it actually looks nice and doesn't have bare walls. I'm glad she's good at decorating because I certainly am not!

Here is a video and pictures of each of the rooms.

The front room, looking insideThe front room, looking outside
Our bedroom
More of our bedroom
The guest room/office
The office part of the guest room
The kitchen, with the root beer racks. There are now 138 root beers in the collection.

Santa's New Space

After moving into our new apartment, Santa made it clear that he likes the patio area we have. This picture shows about half of our patio, which is fenced in.

Far West, MO

As we drove out of Kansas City on our trip back to Michigan, we took a short detour and stopped by Far West, MO. Back in 1838, this town had about 5,000 people. An ambitious city plan was put together and is posted there today:

The plan included a temple and lots for many families. The roads were laid out in nice square patterns. Brigham Young must have loved the layout since Utah is laid out in a very similar manner.

The up and coming town was abandoned in 1839 after it was sieged and church leaders were arrested. The siege was not long after the October 30, 1838 massacre at Haun's Mill only 25 miles away (on today's indirect roads). Most of the church members left Missouri and moved north to Illinois.

Today, most of the area is farmland. The LDS temple plot and a Church of Christ (formerly Reorganized LDS) building are still there.

LDS Temple plot

Community of Christ (formerly RLDS) building - still used!

RLDS Temple in Independence, MO

After a bit of a hiatus, it's time to start trying to catch back up with the blog. Just before we left Kansas City, MO this summer, we made a short trip over to Independence, MO to see the (formerly RLDS) Community of Christ temple. It certainly looks different than LDS temples. I tried to go inside, but the doors were locked and nobody was there. When it is open, anybody can enter.