Kansas trip part III--Independence

The Christus was beautiful and I couldn't pass up Livi's pose.
Monkeys

Lyssa driving the horse and Amber

Cabin replica in the LDS visitors center

Community of Christ Temple

By the time we got here the kids were REALLY tired of being in the car. Our first stop was to the RLDS temple, now known as the Community of Christ. It was really interesting. They had a whole different set of apostles and church leaders. They said that after Joseph Smith was killed and the church left for Utah there were several offshoots and a few years later they all got together and elected Joseph's son as the new leader. He then passed leadership on to his son and on down through the years. However, now they are so different I think it would be hard to recognize much of our own faith in theirs. They had a museum with great artifacts. Original paintings of Joseph and Emma, and a picture of Emma just before she died. Letters, books, and other belongings of the early saints. Scott and I could have stayed longer but by then the kids were playing tag in the foyer and the babies were climbing on the exhibits so we called it quits.

We headed over to the Visitors Center across the street which was much more kid-friendly. They had touch-screen computers and a play area downstairs. The kids climbed on everything and played to their hearts' content. They had a neat exhibit of Arnold Frieberg's work because he just passed away. Other than that, it was a typical visitors center. And we were finally off for Kansas!