Palmyra

For the last two days we have spent a glorious time in Palmyra New York...visiting church history sites.  Tyler and I came here a while back with our kids and friends from Kingston and decided it would be a 'must-see' destination on this trip my sister and parents have made.

We took the afternoon to drive down, hoping Logan would have a nap on the way, which he refused quite forcefully.  So when we arrived, we went straight to the EB Grandin print shop for a tour.  Tyler worked in the van while Logan nap (upon my even MORE forceful insistence) and we all went into the book store and and the shop.  Tyler and Logan joined us part-way through the tour.

Our plan was to head to the Hill Cumorah next, but a major downpour changed our plans quite quickly.  We headed to get a bite to eat and hoped the rain would let up.  It didn't, so we visited the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center instead and decided the hill would have to wait until the next day.

The Hill Cumorah Pageant was just a few weeks ago and they still had the costumes on display in the visitor's center, so that was really neat to see.

Then we headed to our cottage that we were staying at for the night.  It was on the same street as the Joseph Smith Farm so it was cool to feel like neighbours for a night.  We settled in and watched some olympics for a bit.

Logan loves watching the swimming.  Every time it came on, he would say, "I do that!" and would lay down on the carpet and pretend to swim.  Then he took his shirt off too, because the swimmers don't have shirts on, and did it again, pushing himself across the carpet on his knees...and leaning on his head.  I was certain he'd get a rug-burn!  It was so funny.

The next morning, we got ready and headed to the Smith Farm for the tours.  Last time we went we had a 'brief' tour so it was cool to hear some of the interesting facts we had missed the last time.

Lucy Williamson in front of Lucy Mack's bed.

My kids enjoyed pulling up bricks and feeling the dirt where Joseph had buried the plates in the fireplace at one point to hide them from mobs.

When we were finished with the tour, we all headed out into the Sacred Grove.  It's always a fantastic experience.  I loved that it was the first time for my parents.

We took a longer path this time then the last and enjoyed seeing some deer eating casually.  We watched them for a long time, and they were perfectly content to let us watch.

Lucy tried to hide behind a tree and hold her arm out with a leaf, in the hopes that the deer would come and eat from her hand.  He was not that comfortable.

After the Grove we headed back to Cumorah.  It was crazy hot out and climbing the hill was again, crazy hard.

(I love these flowers.  They were at the visitor's center.  If anyone knows what they are, please tell me). 

We lost Grandpa part of the way down because he stopped at a bench and fell asleep.

We stopped at Brad and Dad's for lunch and icecream cones again and headed on the road home.  Since my sister is getting married in two weeks she wanted to stop at a mall in the states to see if she could find a suitable dress to wear.  She did.

And my kids enjoyed riding on mall rides.  Which they love.

It was late when we got home.  But we had a great trip.