Detour!

I love road trips. I think I always have. Maybe not always the long ones, but especially the unplanned road trips. Yesterday Shaun mentioned that he'd like to show the boys where their grandpa grew up, the cemetary where Shaun's grandparents and numerous relatives are buried, and a church that is very significant to his family. So, I'm always up for postponing the end of a vacation, even if only for an hour or so, so we stopped in Victoria, Kansas. This is where both of Shaun's parents grew up, and I think they were both born there.

First we tried to find my father-in-law's parents' house. We think this may be it, although Shaun wasn't certain. If this isn't it then it use to be on a neighboring empty lot. We still need to check with Shaun's dad.



Next we visited the Cathedral of the Plains, which used to be the largest church this side of the Mississippi River. Shaun's family painted, sculpted, built, and created in most ways this beautiful old church. We didn't take any pictures inside because the 5:00 pm mass was going to start shortly, although we were still encouraged to walk around inside the chapel. It's gorgeous and this wasn't my first time seeing it. The boys were amazed! I told Shane just wait until he sees the inside of the temple. I think they are probably equally beautiful, if not more so, but I may be a bit biased. My father-in-law also attended seminary in the building right beside the church, but was drafted into the army before he could complete his studies to become a Priest.



After peaking into the church we drove just outside of Victoria, back toward I70, to the community cemetary. It's amazing to me to see so many Linenbergers, Brungardts, Brauns, and Drielings in once place. There were many other family names which I'm sure Shaun is related to in one way or another as the cemetary and the town are very small. Below are pictures of his grandparents' head stones and his uncle whom he is named after (Shaun Thomas aka Tommy or Tom). We hope to someday go back again with the boys and let them do rubbings of the stones (big paper and crayons used to rub a copy of the stone onto the paper). I remember doing that as a kid and really liked to have something to keep the memory with.