Kansas City Temple Open House and Update

Thanks for all of the responses to my last post.  There aren't a lot of comments there, but a lot of people have asked me about it.  I have decided that I will give gluten-free a try, but I am easing my way into it. I am a little reluctant because it would require changing how we all eat, or separate meals for me.  That and gluten-free diets seem like such a fad, with some fanatical followers.

This is just a part of our food storage: a lot of wheat, noodles, and non-gluten free food. 

Two weeks ago, we went to Kansas City to visit the new LDS temple.  Before LDS temples are dedicated, they are open for tours to the public.  My children had been to the temple with us but, always had to wait outside, because they are not old enough to enter the temple.  This was a good chance for them to see what it was like and for us to get away from Huxley.  

 We decided we would drive down the day before, eat at a restaurant on the way, and stay at a hotel.  We ate at a local greasy spoon in Lamoni, IA (I am betting that Mormon's settled there at one time - I checked, it is one of the headquarters for the Community of Christ - Mormon offshoot religion).  Slow service, but good food. They had Amish crafts for sale around the restaurant and there were buggies driving on the highway outside.

 We found a great hotel that had a mini-waterpark inside.  It was an ideal place to stay, just one exit from Liberty, Missouri.  We all had a great time going down the slide, which was wicked fast if you arched your back and rode on the balls of your feet.  Emily swears I almost shot over the edge.  It was that fast.

 After 2 hours of playing in the water, we went to Liberty Jail (Too dark and scary for Kate) and found a barbecue for lunch.  Kansas City is famous for its "burnt ends", but this place had amazing burgers.

 It was very windy, a huge storm system was building.  The temple was packed.  Lots of good questions from the people in our tour group.

On our way home there was so much wind and rain we could hardly see to drive.  Leila pulled off the freeway and we hung out at JoAnns until it eased up.  There were multiple tornados in the storm, just off the freeway we learned later, but we didn't see any of them.  It was hard enough to see the semi truck in front of us.

Back home, the storm blew down the bird's nest by the front door and broke all the eggs.  It was too bad, because the house finch had laid 4 more blue eggs and I suspect that the two mottled eggs were really from a cowbird.  It would have been really interesting to see brood parasitism up close.