Winter Quarters

I've returned to the land of the living. I slept about 12 hours last night and woke up refreshed! I've eaten some toast and am tempting fate by drinking a Diet Pepsi. So far so good. As promised, here are some of the pictures from our trip to Winter Quarters in Omaha. They have a bunch of gingerbread on display and here are some of the highlights. I think I should probably mention that Winter Quarters is the place where the Mormon pioneers camped during the winter of 1846 before their completing their journey westward to Utah. Now there is a visitor's center, the cemetery, and the Winter Quarters Temple. You can find out more information at www.mormon.org

They were all really well done. They had some more on display in the Kanesville Tabernacle in Iowa but I didn't take any pictures of those while we were there. This next picture is of one of the statues in the pioneer cemetery.

In front of the statue you can see a little grave of a baby. Most of the pioneers that died that winter were under 2 years old. One happened to be a child of some of my ancestors (Joseph Skeen, age 2). Being there with my own 2 little kids made the hardships they faced more real to me. It was nice to visit there again.

After Winter Quarters, we drove to downtown Omaha to see some of the ice sculptures set up along the riverfront. I only took pictures of one of the tents. They were pretty elaborate.

And now, so as to not annoy the family members that read this blog...here are some pictures of the kids.

Winter Quarters

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