Chickens, church history sites, zoos, and fireflies!

We have had some fun the last few weeks.   It all started with a chicken massacre.  Shall I call this a ward activity?  It pretty much was.  We have some awesome ward members that are willing to raise a bunch of chickens for whoever wants them, then they teach them how to kill and clean them.  Even though we didn't "order" any chickens, we decided to join in the fun.  Learning how to kill and clean a chicken could come in great use some day.  :)  Here are 3 not-as-grusome pictures.  They really have a clean way of getting the job done, but I figured you still wouldn't want to see ALL the details. 

This family was so patient to teach everybody the ropes of chicken slaughter.  We tried plucking them and skinning them. In the end, skinning was much quicker.  As a pregnant woman, the smell of the wet feathers about sent me to the toilet, so I stuck with the job of pulling out all the innards, after I recouped from the wet feather smell.  Pregnancy is so weird.  As a whole, 30 chickens fulfilled the measure of their creation that day.


Sunday of memorial day weekend we headed up to Independence MO after church to meet some friends on their way to flight school in Alabama.   First thing Mon morning, we stopped at the visitors center only to find a hoard of mini vans from Utah and MANY children waiting out for the doors to open.  Utah outside Utah.  Mark had to take a picture of some of the vans.

We then went up to Adam-ondi-Ahman and Far West and ended with Liberty Jail.  What a peaceful beautiful area!  There was a LOT less to Adam-ondi-Ahman and Far West than we thought there would be, like no visitors center or people telling you all about it.  Just beautiful hills and valleys out in the seemingly nowhere.... I think there is a reason for that.  :)  We loved it.

This is the new Kansas City MO temple!  It was closed that day but we are excited to make trips to this temple now too!

This last weekend AGCO did a family day at the Wichita zoo.  We were there after zoo hours and many of the animals had started to head in, so we didn't see a lot but it was still a blast, especially the children's petting zoo area. They had baby goats, sheep, peacocks, ducks, geese, pigs, and camel!  It was pretty great.

The camel was only 6 days old and just laying out in the sun.

Also, to our delight, we have been seeing fireflies everywhere lately.  Here is a little video of a couple we saw by our beautiful pile of apartment complex garbage.  Next step is to catch some.  So excited.