Weekend Trip

We decided to go on a quick little trip for Thanksgiving weekend.  We celebrated Thanksgiving the prior weekend with all the trimmings - and it was delicious.  This way we weren't giving up any of the yumminess.

We decided to go to Cleveland and visit the house where A Christmas Story was filmed as well as visiting Kirtland and seeing the temple and Newel K. Whitney store.  It had been since before my mission since I was last there, and Eric and Emma had never been to Kirtland.

The Community of Christ who owns and operates the tours for the Kirtland Temple were very nice. Of course, they make you watch a video before going into the temple, and much of the video contains inaccurate information.  It's so sad to think of all the misinformation their members have been taught.  The temple was very nice, and both Eric and Emma enjoyed seeing it.  It is so wonderful to be in the same space where so many wonderful things happened.  The same goes for the Newel K. Whitney store.  The church (our church - LDS church) has really built up the area right around the store and added several other building to see since I was last there.  And it's fun for me to think of Erastus Snow (my third great-grandfather) having been there in Kirtland to at the time of so many amazing things.

It was fast, but a very fun getaway.  Most of the pictures are from the Christmas Story house, so if you don't know the movie, they won't mean much to you.  :)

You could touch anything in the house you wanted.  Just inside they had some hats you could try on.

The details in this place were wonderful.   Even down to the huge bundle of plugs in the wall.

The bb gun box hidden behind the desk in the corner. 

If you know the movie...

Eric trying to steal a taste of the turkey.

"Daddy's gonna kill Ralphie!"

If only she had been wearing a pink bunny suit

Upstairs you could pick up this phone and listen as they played the scene when the mom
calls Ralphie's friend's mom and tells her that her son taught Ralphie the F-word. 

The decoder pin in the bathroom.

Emma had fun acting out some of the better parts of the movie.  No, she didn't really taste the soap.

The bb gun has just hit her glasses and now she's conjuring up some tears.

While Eric "fixes" the tire, Emma is in the middle of saying "Oh Fuuuuuuudge."

There is a museum right across the street where they have more movie memorabilia,
much of it behind glass, as well as some fun information about the movie.

We stopped by again in the evening to get a better picture of the leg lamp in the window.
It was on earlier in the day, but it definitely looks best at night. 

"It's a major award!"

It was a rainy day in Kirtland, but was still lovely to be there.

They had huge umbrellas for us to use as we walked from the visitor center to the temple.