The Keith Family Journey of Journeys

Editor's note: Be prepared for a very long, drawn out account of a typical, mormon family vacation. If you don't have the patience just skip ahead to the slide shows, but since this is like a journal for us, ready yourself for a novel!

A couple of months ago, Ari's parents decided to throw out the idea to our family about a huge family vacation. We were all on board and excited to vacation out east. Elder and Sister Leinbach finished their mission on July 6th, so we told them we'd love to go and meet them in Murphy, NC and go to church with them on their last sunday as missionaries. Everyone came at different points in the trip as you'll see, but Ari and I started it off with just us and the kid.

Our good 'ole pal Chad was nice enough to wake up at the crack of dawn and drive us to the airport in our car. (We won't mention that when we got home, our tire was flat. . .ha ha, just kidding Chad we know it wasn't you. But thanks for making it look like our stereo had been stolen.) Don't you just love having to be at the airport at 6:00? Jaxon was so cute and very excited for our trip. He held onto his blanket like it was his lifeline.
Jax was great for the most part on the flight there. Thank heavens for that DVD player we invested in. It literally saved our lives a number of times on the trip. We flew into Atlanta and that was about when Jaxon had had it. While we waited for our bags at baggage claim he let out a scream I'm sure you were all able to hear in AZ and UT.

Our first obstacle was getting the rental car. Since Ari and I don't use a credit card they wouldn't let us pay for it with our debit card. I had to sweet talk the Alamo worker and complimented her on her jewelry and Whala. . .she ran our card through and said this was very rare that she would do this for us. Let me tell you, those brown sugar mommas just cannot resist the charm of this white chocolate soul.

We were off to Murphy and the second we were outside, I was literally drenched. My clothes hung on me the whole trip like I was walking through a sauna. After much deliberation, it has been decided that I would take the dry heat over east coast humidity ANY DAY!

We arrived in Murphy and spent some quality time with the neighbors. It was so great to see the love these neighbors have for Elder and Sister Leinbach. We were told countless times that we couldn't have them back, and they had to stay there. Literally every neighbor on their street came to tell us what a wonderful blessing this missionary couple has been in their lives.
This is a neighbor's garden across the street! One of my favorite pics:


We were able to go to church in the Murphy branch the next day on Sunday. I got up during sacrament meeting to calm my son down and as I was standing I felt prompted to bear my testimony and thank the branch for being kind to our missionary parents. Their building is currently under construction and being upgraded to the next phase of a chapel so they are going to a school gym for their block right now. There is no air conditioning there, and they use fans with Jesus on them as their "homemade Murphy A.C." They split the gym up into about four different classrooms after sacrament. I couldn't believe it. Everyone was talking and trying to teach over each other. It was all I could do to chase Jax around and keep him contained in the building since all the doors were open. They definitely will be excited to have their chapel up and going next week. (Yep, that's right, the week after the Leinbach's leave, and then the chapel's ready.)

We had a couple of dinner appointments set up for that afternoon. When we got back to their house we realized their A.C. was BROKEN! I'm talking sweltering 90+ degree heat with 100% humidity! We were all dying. Thankfully the nicest sister in the world put us up in her house (the thermostat was set to 72 degrees!) Her name was Sister Holton and she was a hoot. Her husband was an actual peanut farmer. I never thought about where peanuts came from. I kind of thought they just "were," but yeah, they definitely farm them in Georgia. There were some CRAZY thunder storms that rolled in in the middle of the night. I've never heard such loud thunder. They had a river in their back yard, and I thought it would be fun to take Jax on back and wade in the water. It wasn't long before he went "kerplop" and practically went for a swim instead. Don't worry, I didn't let him anywhere near the current.

We have to give major props to Sister Holton for putting us up in that wonderfully chilly house. We were finally able to catch up on our sleep. Jaxon slept forever and we were all well rested for the next leg of our journey.

Here is the slide show up to that point, so if your reading the condensed version, just slip to slide shows. If you are our true friends you'll stay with us on this wonderful EPIC journey.

Now. . . on to Greensboro. We stopped in Franklin, NC and visited a member who owned the ultimate shop. Are you ready for this. . ."Chocolate Obsession." That's right she makes all her own homemade goodies and we loved it. We drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and if anyone ever has the chance to do that, TAKE IT! It is an incredible drive, and when you look out on the horizon all you see are ridges and ridges of blue mountains. So, it's very appropriately named. When we got off the parkway we were literally famished and when you have a 2 year old and pregnant wife, YOU MUST STOP for food. I think that was a bit hard for zippy, grandpappy missionaries to remember. (ha ha.) Well, what happened next was one of the worst drive through experiences in our lives. We went to the first fast food place we saw, Arby's, and ended up being in the drive through for almost half an hour. NOT happy campers were we. And Elder Leinbach was just raring to get to Greensboro.

We finally arrived to the wonderful Keith Leinbach home and had some good southern cookin. Fried chicken, potatoes, and watermelon. mmmmm. . .Jaxon was a great eater on the trip and snarfed down whatever we gave him. While we were in Greensboro I had to go get our light fixed on the rental van (the front blinker was out.) When I took it to Firestone they checked it out and told me that the light was unhooked, and all they had to do was plug it in. Nice Alamo, real nice! While we were out Keith and Bob kidnapped me and took me to a member's house to help a single mother move with her kids. We carried down beds, furniture, and odds n ends. Yes and all this was in 100% humidity. All I could think was, "I have to do this with my own family next week," and "How I spent my summer vacation. . ." no but in all honesty it felt good to serve a fellow sister in need, so I'm glad I had the chance. Even if I was SOAKED. Humidity and me are not friends, did I mention that?

Later we were able to load up both fams and head to the famous Yum Yum's! Ari talks about this place all the time, apparently it's one of her favorite childhood memories. All I saw was a hot pink hot dog with watered down chili and coal slaw, doused in mustard. The funny thing is, this is the second time I've gone, and I believe the taste is acquired. I'm actually craving a Yum Yum's hot dog while writing this, and we just had hot dogs for lunch!
After dinner, we of course had to drive down "the hill." This is another of Ari's favorite childhood memories. There's a steep hill in the road right after the light, and if you gun it after the light, it's a bit like a roller coaster. I'll insert a video so you can see the ridiculous excitement we were having.



It was time to say goodbye to Keith, Glenda, and the kids for now and head on to. . . .D.C.!!!

Next we had quite a drive ahead of us. Once again, THANK HEAVENS for the little portable DVD player we got for the trip. The drive to DC was about 5 1/2 hours. We drove through beautiful country. The Shenandoah Valley was especially beautiful and I couldn't help but sing to myself. . ."Oh Shenandoah, I long to see you." It brought back some great EAC memories. We stopped for dinner at the Cracker Barrel, (It's kind of the Leinbach's family restaurant. Just a side note, it was at the Cracker Barrel in Provo, UT that I first met the Leinbach's, and that was the night Ari and I started dating, so the Cracker Barrel has a huge significance in our lives!) We arrived just outside of D.C. and had a great night's stay at the hotel. The room was great, Jaxon went right down and Ari and I cozied up to watch a movie in the room. Of course we were OUT within seconds :)

The next day was jam packed. The Arlington National Cemetery was the main plan for the day. We headed out in the morning and drove into town. DC traffic is crazy. (I wish we could have gotten together with you Rachel, sorry about my lack of planning!) We got an all day pass on the subway and then had to maneuver around the station with a stroller. I told everyone we were just going to have to pretend like we were handicapped and use all of those exits, elevators, and stuff. We finally made it to the cemetery, and once again, it was quite humid. The weather was a little cooler though, and there was a nice breeze. The cemetery is beautiful. It was awesome to see Robert E. Lee's house, J.F.K.'s headstone and eternal flame burning and the changing of the guard.

Now let's discuss this changing of the guard situation. We got there right when they had changed so we decided we'd wait around for the next half hour for the next guard to come and take his post. Basically this is what we saw for a half hour.
Very painstakingly long. . .but it was pretty cool how every thing was timed to the second, and every time he walked across it was 21 steps (I think. ) Jaxon didn't last very long, then finally the main guard came in to state his piece. He was very robotic.
Then the guard changed.
And that was the changing of the guard! My advice is get there right when they change. Every half hour on the hour.

We left Arlington National Cemetery with all intents of seeing other sights in the city, especially Lincoln Memorial. But when it came down to it, we were just too hot, and we wanted an escape from the heat, so we decided to head to the temple and relax awhile in the visitor's center.
Jaxon LOVED the visitor center. He ran in and just stared in awe at the Christus Statue in the foyer. The spirit was strong and I sincerely feel Jaxon recognized his Savior (it hasn't been long since he's seen him you know! And Kodee's right there with him right now!)

It was there in the visitor's center that I saw one of the grandest sights of my life. (Definitely on a less-spiritual note here.)

Yes it's true, this picture of this great teenage boy's mullet was on one of the family pictures on the wall. Ari and I were dying! Can we please make this hairstyle the rage!!?

After Jax had reeked all the havoc he could in the center, a sweet little missionary asked us if we would like to watch a movie. It was a great movie about families that was actually made at the Mesa Visitor's Center. Way to represent Arizona! Go check it out if you have the chance! Jax loved having his own seat.
We then went back to the hotel (it just happened to be full swing rush hour DC traffic so yay for us and our planning) and had a dip in the pool. Jaxon has a new game that he LOVES! Check it out!This time our hotel was in Baltimore, and Kim, Dave, and Clay were now ready to join our party as we headed on to . . . .Gettysburg!

Kim, Dave, and Clay all came in really late that night, so we didn't see them till breakfast the next morning. The theme every time we left somewhere was, "let's get out as fast as we can." And unfortunately Ari and I attributed to many a late start getting all our luggage and little boy together. It's just harder with an almost two year old. I made a solo trip to Wal-Mart while we were in Maryland to get some things for the road and it felt very strange to be alone. Almost like I was a missionary who ditched my companion. Weird, huh?

We didn't have to drive too far to get to Gettysburg. When we got to the visitor center we decided to take our own trip and not pay for the professional tour, or the audio cd. I learned a lot about that battle sight. Fortunately Grandpa Leinbach is a regular old Gettysburg expert and was able to fill us in on many details. From what I understand the South troops were making a stop at Gettysburg to load up on supplies and repairs when the North took them unawares. There's many monuments to all the states and you can even see bullet holes in some of the older buildings in town.

After our tour we stopped at the Abe Lincoln Diner (we thought that was pretty appropriate) and Jaxon had THE MESSIEST spaghetti experience EVER! He seriously inhaled it, and I had to go through almost a whole roll of paper towels in the bath room to get him cleaned up. We'll have to post pics of this later, cause we don't have any right now. Next we were ready for another drive. . .on to Lancaster County!

Let me tell you, driving into Lancaster County was like driving into one of those pictures you see on a Country Kitchen wall. The place is so green with fields and fields of corn. We went right to our Bed and Breakfast and were mildly disappointed when we saw it was located next to the county fire department. The first thing we thought was "oh no, how's Jaxon going to stay asleep." Come to think of it, that was always our first thought. The house itself was BEAUTIFUL, very victorian, and the owner was a chef who had studied in Germany. After we unpacked our things we decided we'd head out and paint the town red. After taking many a wrong turn on those windy country roads, we found the place we were looking for, The Lapp Family Dairy Farm. I think we kept getting lost because we couldn't get over how beautiful the yards are and how well the amish and menanites keep them up. They were immaculately landscaped, and it wasn't uncommon to drive by and see them using the push lawn mowers cutting the grass. The Dairy farm was beautiful. We found out the corn was basically just to feed their dairy cows. They made the best ice cream I've ever tasted. I got Maple nut, and it was crazy good. They had a sort of drive through set up there, and I'm not kidding you, when we walked in, there was an amish family going through the drive through on horse and buggy. I know you're not supposed to take pictures, but I could not help myself. I had Ari pose with the true intent of getting this picture. Here's the original.

Now a nice zoom in.


I got some of my favorite pictures I've ever taken of Jaxon. I'm sad to say it, because I can't stand them, but his favorite animal of the moment is definitely cats. (ugh) He just LOVED this kitty.





He also had fun on the homemade swing.


Seriously, I would go all the way back to Pennsylvania just to get this ice cream again. Dave and I actually did the next morning.

That night we went and saw a real live covered bridge. It was a pretty magical moment because when we got there the sun was setting, and the fireflies were just coming out. It was liking walking into a puzzle. Ari and I took a nice, romantic stroll across the bridge, and I tried not to think about the Legend of Sleepy Hollow:)
We crashed hard core that night. So tuckered out! Luckily Jaxon was able to wake up bright and early the next morning at about 5:45 (partly due to the sirens maybe. . .) so we tried to put in the Little Mermaid for him, but that didn't last long. Usually that movie magically puts him in a trance, but not that morning. Oh quick recap, the night before I was trying to catch So You Think You Can Dance, while Ari was giving Jax a bath. Um. . .how do I put this delicately. She was "occupied" for a moment and all of sudden I hear a panicked call, "Jordan, Jordan!" I run in there, and see that Jaxon has pooped a huge poo in the bath. He was standing in the corner of the tub as far away from it as possible on his tip toes, pointing at it saying, "EEWWW!" I pretty much died. What a mess! Sure makes you appreciate what our parents did for us.

The next morning we had our breakfast. At first we thought we were royally jipped, because there was a fruit plate and dried cereal on the table. I tried to take it as positive as possible (especially after hearing all this crap about our owner being this fancy chef.) So I poured my cheerios and tried to smile, and then he pranced in with his hands clasped in front of him. . ."for the menu this morning I have planned a poached egg with a white, basil creme sauce served on toasted krostini. My eyes bulged out of my head and I got the biggest grin on my face. This is what I was waiting for. The eggs were poached perfectly and the sauce was out of this world. It was also served, but not mentioned on the menu, a seared, lemon garlic pork loin. Basically I cleaned off everybody's plates, and I don't think I've ever enjoyed a breakfast as much as that.

This Bed and Breakfast was a couple of houses down. Still next to the fire department, but we thought it was Gorgeous! Doesn't it look like a Thomas Kinkade painting? What do you think Kerrie?
Next we packed up and were all ready to go. I ran to the bank, did some errands, came back and left all the van doors open. Jaxon started to play in the car, and I left my wallet and keys on the passenger seat. I told Ari, I'm going to get our luggage so we can pack up. We were actually on time, even ahead of the game. Well, when I left, Ari decided to take Jaxon out of the car and close all the doors, not knowing mind you that this is a fancy shmancy automobile and the doors automatically locked when the last door was closed. That's right people, once again we were responsible for a late start on the day. While Triple A was on their way, this was when Dave and I made one last heavenly ice cream run.

For the most part I think everyone got over the locked incident and forgave us eventually. Sorry Dad!

On our way out of Lancaster we stopped at the first Leinbach home on American soil. This was such a neat experience. The house was built around the 1800s, and was SO old! It's great that the people who own it keep it up so nice and take care of it. The drive that we took that day was definitely the longest of the trip. We were heading from mid to southern Pennsylvania and driving all the way to upstate New York. We watched Star Dust on the way, and that was fun to listen to that. I ended up getting a little sleepy so we stopped for a bite to eat in Scranton. I wanted to take a picture of the Scranton sign so bad for "The Office" purpose, but never had the chance. It was funny how we had such a hard time deciding where to eat. Dad pulled into the first place he saw that was a "subway" gas station, and nobody was too excited about that, so we had to cross A CRAZY intersection to get to McD's so we could shop off of the dollar menu. Can you believe they don't have the 4 piece chicken nuggets there for a dollar! RRRGH!

For the next driving stretch I was offered a nice relaxing drive with Elder Dad. I brought my ipod, and book, and was out within seconds. I slept a good portion till we arrived just outside of Palmyra. It was the first time on the trip I hadn't driven and I was in need of a break, for sure!

When we got to Palmyra we pulled up to the cute Yorkshire Inn. When we got in there, we saw two huge, massive, had to be part husky, dogs. There was a great little master suite that Ari and I could have stayed in, but when one of the dogs plowed over Jax we knew it probably wasn't going to work. So, we left Kim, Dave, and Keith's family there, and we were off to Peaceful Haven B&B in Clifton Springs, NY, just outside of Palmyra. If you ever go to Palmyra, you should stay there. They're so nice, and the house was beautiful and cozy. This is also where we met up with Kevin, Sitlally, and Kevincito. They stayed with the big dogs, apparently Kevincito could handle them. That night everyone was off to the Palmyra Pageant on Hill Cumorah, but I opted to stay and put Jax down to bed, because he was a wreck. He needed a good night's sleep SO BADLY. They left us and Jax and I had a nice stroll into town to get some Chinese. I thought this was my best chance cause Ari wasn't with me and she hates Chinese. We came back to Peaceful Haven and we ate on the porch. Our host was so sweet and kept getting things for Jaxon like fruit, and juice. Jaxon slept great, and was like a new boy the next day. (Once again, this DVD Player was a lifesaver, that and the Little Mermaid!)
We had a great breakfast the next morning, and met up with the rest of the family to go the temple. We did some sealings for Ari's ancestors and it was so neat to be in the temple with the family. Jaxon had a blast with Glenda and her kids. He's especially taken a liking to Katelyn. He loves girls around the age of 8, just like Lacey. We don't know what that's all about.

We took some great family pictures outside of the temple. The weather was awesome.




This is the famous four corner intersection where the four churches are:

Afterwards we went to Nima's the best pizza in town. It was full of mormons. In fact the people who had our table before us offered to give me their leftover breadsticks and soda. I accepted, after all they were mormon. Just kidding.

We went through a tour of the Book of Mormon publishing site, Grandin's Printing Press.


It's so neat to see how that wonderful book of scripture was first printed, and all the miracles that helped it to come to pass. (pun on words there.) The only way we were able to get through all the many tours we took there was to let Jax play with our cell phones, it was another saving grace.

He apparently called my friend, Alisha Andrus many times because she was the first on my call list alphabetically. She's had many a conversation with Jaxon's babbling.

After the Book of Mormon tour we went to see the Martin Harris farm.
Can you believe the exterior is covered in stones carried over from Lake Ontario? They're all exactly the same size. Then we tried to find Joseph Smith's older brother, Alvin Smith's grave. It was a hard find, but we finally found it at the top of this little hill, with almost no marking. The headstone looked way too new, so I looked at the back, and sure enough the original was still intact on the back.
Kim was especially adamant about finding this grave, and she's the one who found the hill. GO KIM!

Next we went to Fayette New York to see the Peter Whitmer Farm where the church was first organized. It was there that I took one of my favorite pictures of all time:
It's very cool and spiritual to see the place where the church was orgainzed! It's almost like you can imagine it happening there in the room where you are standing.
That night we went back to Peaceful Haven and had a game night.




Don't forget me! The porch was awesome. It had a fan and everything. It was somewhat muggy but we were able to deal. First we played Quiddler, and then we moved on to Ligretto. The bugs started attacking us, and Elder Dad was quite the bug killer. It wasn't until the huge black bumble bee came and scared us all out of our witts, that we ended up going inside to the dining room. What commenced was pure insanity. We had a ligretto marathon, and I don't think we've laughed so hard as a Leinbach family in all my years of being part of the Leinbach family (which is 3!)

We had another great night's sleep. I'm telling you that pillow top mattress was to die for! Then we headed to church the next morning. It was a drizzly, humid morning. We drove awhile to get to Canandaigua, and the ward house was PACKED! We decided to go back to the B and B's and get a refreshing nap then head on to the Hill Cumorah and the Sacred Grove.

It was a nice mist of a rain by the time we got to the hill. We watched the Joseph Smith movie in the visitor's center, then Ari and I hiked up to the top with the stroller. I literally felt like I was walking up a 90 degree incline, almost straight up. Fun with the stroller, let me tell you.


Once we all met up with everyone again it was on to the Sacred Grove. At this point we'd been together for quite a long time, and maybe some of us were in need of distancing ourselves from the pack. The grove was the perfect place to do this and allowed to regroup and have our testimonies strengthened and amazing spiritual experiences. It had rained all day until we pulled into the parking lot of the Sacred Grove. As we walked into the grove the sun was streaming through the branches, and there was no doubt that this was the place Heavenly Father had chosen to begin revelation again and talk to the young boy Joseph Smith face to face.
Jaxon just barely started praying on this trip. He thinks he's pretty cute when he does this. . .and we do to. He says his prayers softly and tries to imitate our words. We asked him to pray in the grove for a picture and he did. We love how the pictures turned out. This must have been just what it looked like on that wonderful spring morning.
This was the Smith's first house in Palmyra.

Inside the Smith Home:

We went home that night and had a quiet evening preparing to leave the next morning.

Last but not least on our trip we had to head over to Niagara Falls! We got there around noon, and had to leave at 2:15 so we could get back to the Airport for our 5:00 flight. Needless to say the visit to the falls was very stressful cause we were being very cautious and mindful of the time. Ari and I were the only ones to cross over on the Canadian side, because Sitlally's papers weren't in order for her to go over, so we crossed the rainbow bridge with Jaxon.

He loved the roar of the water, and how scarily high the bridge was. The wind was whipping us all over the place and one side of the sky was grey and cloudy while the other was bright, and sunny. Very strange weather there in Niagara.



On our way back we were SHOCKED that we had to pay 50 cents to get back into our own country. Being that we only had a ten, and the change machine took fives and lower, we were in trouble. I had to flag down some poor tourists to change our ten for us, so we could get the lousy two quarters to get back into our country. We had just enough money to share a quesadilla, so we grabbed one, and ran back to the car to get on our way to the airport.

The drive to the airport was crazy cause we were in a huge rush to make the flight, and we kept thinking we'd pull over for "gasoline" but Elder Dad kept passing all the gas stations. Finally we filled up, said our goodbyes and flew to NYC for our transfer flight.
Jax was a jewel on that flight, but from NYC to Phoenix was another story. (I guess we won't complain though, because poor Clay was stranded in the JFK airport all night.) But seriously, Jax decided to have the biggest screaming fit of his life. I can only compare it to a crazed-out, wild horse, the way their eyes roll back in their head, and they're completely out of their minds: this was our Jaxon. I ended up taking him into the bathroom for ten minutes to scream his head off. He was sure mad at me, but then when he saw his mom LOVED her and went right to sleep. He eventually forgave me. That kid holds no grudges. Every morning we wake up as his best friends.

All in all the trip was amazing. Very thoughtful and spiritual. Thank you so much mom and dad for getting the family together and allowing us all to come on this amazing, testimony-building adventure.

Whew. . .that's it, the longest blog entry of our lives. Hope you enjoyed, and till next time just know. . .the church is true!