Ammon’s 8th Birthday Party

Pizza!
more pizza
and more pizza!
Brothers waiting their turn for a go at the pizza
Pizza for brothers also
Two table feast
Cake and presents
Helicopter present from James
King for the Day
King Anthony holds court
James and Ammon
Ammon on the obstacles
Sam flip
Jacob flip
Battle: Ben vs Sam
Battle: Ben vs Jacob
Battle: Ben vs James
Battle: Ben vs Anthony

Ben’s High School Graduation

The 2022 Graduates of Maple Mountain High School in Spanish Fork, UT assemble
Ben walks up to the stand
Ben on the big screen
Ben receives his diploma
Ben posing
Family picture – Jacob, LaReita, Sam, Ben, Ammon, David, Anthony, James
Strong men
Ben and younger twin, Ammon
E, Julles and Ben
Kaleigh and Ben and Ammon
Dressing up for the graduation dress rehersal

Nauvoo Trip

We bought the cheap tickets on the flight so we were all scattered around on the plane.  They didn’t even put LaReita and Ammon together, which I think is against the law, but Ammon was fine and we decided not to make a big deal out of it.  James, Anthony, Ben and I ended up in a group of 4 seats in the back of the plane, but the other 4 were scattered around the middle area. We got into Kansas City airport about 12:30am and to our hotel for the night around 1:30.

In the morning LaReita and I went back to the airport (on the hotel shuttle – had to take an Uber from the airport to the hotel since no hotel shuttles were running at 12:30am) to pick up our rental cars.  We ended up with a couple of smallish SUVs.  One has room for 6.  Renting 2 cars was cheaper than renting a passenger van.  The SUVs were free upgrades since they didn’t have any of the mid-sized cars we reserved.Friday we had a burger lunch at a local restaurant which was in the basement of a building in the town square (of Independence) then visited the Harry S Truman Presidential Library.  Then we went to the church Visitors Center near the temple site and next to the spiral Community of Christ tower across from the temple site.  We also walked on the temple site and sang the 12th article of faith about the New Jerusalem being restored.  We then checked into our AirBnB which was across the street from Truman’s home and served as the offices/home of the Secret Service detailed to Truman back in the 70s.

Saturday morning LaReita went to Legoland with Ammon and I and the older boys went to the WWI museum a couple hours later.  In addition to touring the museum we did a 15 min VR tour of being in the trenches.  LaReita and Ammon joined us after they were done at Legoland.  We then went to a local Mongolian grill-type all-you-can-eat restaurant and we ate all we could eat.  We then returned to the Secret Service House and watched afternoon conference.  We worked on a 1000 piece puzzle, napped and just hung out for the evening.

Sunday we watched morning conference and then went to Liberty Jail and took the tour there.  Then watched afternoon conference in the basement of the visitors center where they had a small auditorium and projector.  The boys were able to get one of the older missionary’s phone to connect with the projector so we could stream conference through Youtube – it’s a modern world.  After conference we made and sandwiches out of the back of one of the cars then headed to Richmond to see a monument to the Three Witnesses in an old pioneer cemetery.  Then headed home to relax for the evening.

Yesterday we cleaned up the AirBnB and headed to Hannibal MO.  On the way we stopped at the Far West temple site, then a local general store which was church oriented, and then on to Adam-Ondi-Ahman.  We had the boys separate for a while and spend some time alone thinking and praying.  We also took the opportunity while there and overlooking the valley, to give each of the boys a father’s blessing, and LaReita a blessing, then James gave me a blessing.  It was a great spirit.

We then drove into a local town and had a fried-chicken buffet and got our money’s worth.  Then kept driving to Hannibal and checked into a hotel.  Hit the pool and hot tub, and LaReita went to the next door restaurant to get some cake and appetizers to celebrate James’ birthday (23 y/o).  Then we hung out, watched TV then went to sleep.

Today, we got up around 8:30 – everyone was tired – had breakfast and are hanging out in the room. We have 12pm tickets to a riverboat ride.  Then we’ll go to a “Mark Twain” cave system and then finish driving on into Nauvoo.  We’ll need to plan meals for the next few days – we’ve been eating out a big meal once a day and having meals at the AirBnBs or hotels for the rest of the meals to save some money.  But there’s no grocery stores near Nauvoo so we’ll need to plan and then purchase food for the next few days.

Truman’s Oval Office

Independence temple lot

Ammon at Legoland

Family at WWI museum

Puzzle during conference

Liberty Jail

Three Witnesses Monument

Nauvoo Trip – More Pictures

Kansas City Temple after doing Baptisms
James and Ammon in the Truman Library/Museum
Anthony and Truman’s post-presidency cars
James and Sam posing
Ammon at Legoland
Ammon posing with Lego “mini-figs”
Ammon and a wizard “mini-fig”
Ammon building a race car
More building
Ammon and a giant Lego football
Boys (and Dad) at the WWI Museum
WWI cannon
Another cannon
Machine gun
Another machine gun
Trench mortar
Tank (armament photos courtesy of Anthony)
Lunch/dinner at local Mongolian Grill-type restaurant
Anthony takes a selfie with Jacob in the background along with our rental cars and Pres. Truman’s home in Independence, Missouri – We stayed at an AirBnB across the street that was the post for Truman’s Secret Service detail in the 60s and 70s
Far West, Missouri Temple Site
Scenes from Adam-Ondi-Ahman
Adam-Ondi-Ahman valley overlook
The family at Adam-Ondi-Ahman
Ammon and Jacob get cozy at the hotel in Hannibal, MO
Sam and Jacob in the Mark Twain cafe
Sam, Dad, and Jacob
Mom, Ammon, Ben, Anthony and James
Mississippi river boat tour
Dad and Jacob
Ben and James
Jacob, Sam and Anthony catch some rays (and Zzzs)
Ben, the ‘ol man of the river
“Are we there yet?”
Jacob’s bed in the kitchen of the old Nauvoo home we stayed in
Touring the Browning gunsmithing home
Appreciating the Browning guns
More guns
Browning machine gun
Ammon’s ready to roll
Gunsmith shop
Learning how they made the barrels
How they added the rifling
Inscription on one of Browning’s rifles
Early shotguns
Ammon approved
Guns + boys = smiles
One of the restored homes in old Nauvoo
In the wheelwright’s shop, showing how a wagon wheel was assembled and weathered
Monument to Sarah Leavitt on the “Trail of Hope” leading from town to the river
Visiting Carthage Jail
In the jailer’s bedroom where Joseph et al were their last night
Anthony checks out the the original door and bullet hole through which the bullet that killed Hyrum Smith was fired
Looking out the window Joseph Smith fell to his death
Standing below the upper window
Period “record player”
Period piano
Horses that pull the visitor tour wagon around part of old Nauvoo
More horses
More horses
Ammon poses at the Kansas City Federal Reserve Money Museum
Sam curls some actual gold
Old US coins on display
Gold dollars in various denominations
Ben talks to the pilot after our flight back to SLC

Random

Ben takes a flight
Anthony chops his hair
Ammon leads the cub scouts in opening ceremonies
Sam performs with the Jazz Band (middle trombonist) – 3/2/2022
Pumpkin poses for a picture – 3/2/2022
E (Julles dog) poses – 3/2/2022
Sam working on his truck – 3/9/2022
James showing off his Christmas shirt – 3/24/2022
Ammon (throwing in the ball) at soccer practice – 3/25/2022
Jacob and James eating at a Korean restaurant – 3/25/2022
Cat vs. Dog standoff – 3/26/2022
Ammon at swim lessons

Random pictures

Dad and James (12/2/2021)
Jacob – nice hair (12/3/2021)
The family gathers for Grandma Grace’s 91st birthday (12/5/2021 – her birthday is on the 7th)
Ben helps to bring home the family tree (12/6/2021)
Mom helps out at Ammon’s school (12/7/2021)
Sam’s Christmas concert (12/8/2021)
Mom and Dad on Dad’s birthday at Zuppas (12/9/2021)
Celebrating Dad’s birthday at Tucanos – Anthony, Ben, Stewart, Sam, Jacob, June, Julles, Ammon
Grace, James, Dave, Lynette, Kris, LaMont, David, LaReita (12/11/2021)
Jacob at Walmart in the Lego isle – a bit short this year
Mom and Dad catch a movie during their anniversary trip/stay in SLC (12/27/2021)
Anthony gets his wisdom teeth removed (12/29/2021)
Pumpkin enjoying a warm body in Ben (12/29/2021)
Big snow (12/31/2021)
Ben wrestling tournament waiting his turn (12/31/2021)
Guys waiting for their match – Ben on far/top end