Alexa's Pioneer Trek

One of the things that I love about our church is the history.  If you know anything about the LDS church (or Mormon church) you will know that the early members were driven from their homes for people who were against our religion and who hated mormons.  Members were killed, homes were burned and they were forced to leave and find a new place to settle.  Their faith kept them going which led them on a trek to Utah.  It was a long hard experience.  They had very little food and men, women, and children died along the way.  They pushed handcarts with all their belongings and walked the entire way. 

Our church leaders put together a week long event for the youth to have a small sampling of the experiences of the early saints.  They had to wear pioneer clothes, pull a handcart, and experience things such as Indians and mobs coming along the way.  It was a learning experience for Alexa and she loved every minute of it.  She said it was hard but I could tell in that short time that she grew as a person.  Her sweet spirit had been strengthened and her testimony of the gospel grew. 

Here we are picking her up.  I sure missed her.

 Isn't she beautiful - even without showering for a week?

 The girls wanted to make sure she felt welcome when she came home.  They missed her too.

 

McKenna's 5th Birthday

I can hardly believe that our little baby is 5.  She is getting to be such a big girl and is SO MUCH FUN!  When we got to Grandma's house after driving on Route 66 on McKenna's birthday, Grandpa had bought a cake.  What a fun surprise.   A nice ending after a long day.

 The next day we headed home.  Here they are enjoying a movie.

 Can you say, Tired?

 Of course, we had to decorate her door. 

 Look at this cute face.  I wish she would stop growing.  I wish she could stay little forever. 

McKenna is such a joy to our family.  I couldn't imagine life without her.

Opening presents!

 McKenna picked strawberry shortcake with blueberries.  Yummy!

 

We got our kicks on Route 66!

A few days after school ended Alexa went on a Pioneer Trek for a week and the girls and I went with my mom to CA.  Her friend from Australia that she has known since she was about 12 years old was coming to the States and my mom needed to pick her up and bring her back to Prescott.  So the girls and I came to keep her company on the drive. 

Since Tim's parents were on the way, we dropped the girls off while my mom and I drove into Santa Monica.  They had a great time taking a break from the drive.

 

The drive back, Sue (my mom's friend) wanted to take Route 66 back to AZ.  We decided to give it a try.  Since it goes right through my home town, we got to reminisce a little. 

Upland High School

Lady Madonna - If I remember right, there are only 13 or so statues like this in the US.  I grew up driving by this almost every day.  

This is a picture heading out of Upland.  It has changed a lot.  This used to be a railroad track that went over the street.  It look so much nicer.



We were trying to decide on where to stay for the night.  These tee pee hotel looked like fun.  Unfortunately they didn't work out for us.  Maybe another time.

We then came to this Bottle Tree farm out in the middle of no where. We thought it was great.  There was nothing around for miles.  The gate was open so you could just go in and walk around and look at everything.  Definitely one of the high lights.

We stayed in Bartsow and then the next day we hit the road again.  This little girl got this big pink pin from Grandma Gibb.  It was a special day - Her Birthday!  What screams fun for your 5th birthday than driving across Route 66.  She made the best of it.

 Here's them passing the time.

We stopped at a Route 66 museum.  The girls that this Indian was awesome and had to get a picture with him.

 We got to Amboy and had to stop to see this crater.  It was pretty impressive.  I had to add this picture because it totally looks like my mom is about to hit me.  (She really wasn't though.)

 My mom grew up living all over.  Amazingly enough she lived off of Route 66 a few times.  We stopped at this one where she lived off of Saltus Road.  This is pretty much all that is there now.  Not much was there before either. 

 We had to stop in Needles - another place where my mom lived.  Here is the house they lived in.  It's changed a lot.  It used to only be one story and a different color - but since my mom has such a great memory she new that this was the place.

 We stopped for a little birthday celebration lunch/dinner at this little pizza parlor.  It was actually quite good - we weren't sure what to expect, after all we were in Needles.

 Grandma, Mommy and the Birthday girl

 The highlight of the trip was this place called Snow Cap.  Someone told my mom that we needed to stop there.  It was getting late and we wanted to get home to my parents but we decided to stop anyway.  So glad we did.  We want to go back.  It was a funny place and the people were even funnier.  The girls couldn't get enough of it.

 They had quite a few cars like this with eyes painted on them.  We all thought we were on the set of the movie, Cars.

 And of course, Grandma had to treat them to some ice cream.

It was a fun trip and the girls actually did quite well.  I have to say that I have never had such a great appreciation for freeways.