Our Little Trip

For Aspen's spring break we met Jay's parents in New York. I have always wanted to visit all the church historical sites. We spent the first few days in Palmyra and visited all the church sites there. Then we went to Niagara Falls for a couple of days. Thanks mom & dad for getting our birth certificates and over nighting them to us so we could go. We had so much fun! Thank-you so much Ron & Dot for a great vacation, we appreciate all you did for us! The kids loved spending time with you, sorry they were such little stinkers.

There was such a feeling of peace at all the church historical sites. You could really feel the spirit manifesting the truth of the gospel. I am so grateful for Joseph Smith and all the others who participated in the coming forth of the restored gospel and the Book of Mormon. I know I would not be who I am today without it and for that I am truly grateful.

This is the visitors center in Palmyra. I have been in front of a few different Chistus statues but never in front of one that had the sacred grove behind it.

Peter Whitmer home. Where the church was first organized. This is the kitchen/family room inside the Whitmer home.
This is the E. B. Grandin Print Shop, where the first Book of Mormon was printed. This was quite a "state of the art" printing shop for that period of time and it had not been open very long. It had one of the most advanced printing press in the region, which had recently been installed. The printing press was so heavy it had to be transported via barge on the Erie Canal, which conveniently, runs right behind the print shop. I think it is very amazing to think about all that Heavenly Father had put into place so the Book of Mormon could be published!
Our little family and Jay's parents.

In the E. B. Grandin printing building they have some of the original paintings used in the missionary versions of the Book of Mormon. It was amazing to see the originals in person! I was shocked at how large the original painting of Moroni visiting Joseph Smith is!

A picture of us walking to the monument of the Hill Cumorah. You can tell by the flag that it was very windy! It was also very cold! At least it wasn't snowing, like it was the day before and the day after!

Moroni 10:4

And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Our family on the Hill Cumorah memorial statue.

Aspen & Autumn on the Hill Cumorah trail. Autumn picked up a rock and brought it with her. She says it is the rock that covered the golden plates. Who knows, maybe it is a chip of the rock that did cover the plates!! As you can see there are a lot of trees on the hill, but a picture of the hill in 1907 shows the hill with almost no trees on it! We don't know if there were trees on it when Joseph got the plates or not!

This is Martin Harris's home. This is the home that he mortgaged to pay for the printing of the Book of Mormon.

The grave of Alvin, Joseph Smith's older brother. He died at the age of 25 while he was engaged to his sweetheart.

The Palmyra, New York temple.

The entrance to the sacred grove where Joseph Smith knelt to ask Our Father in Heaven which church he should join. He was visited by Heavenly Father and Jesus and told he shouldn't join any of them.

The kids and I in the sacred grove.

The sacred grove. There was just a feeling of peace here that you can't explain, you have to experience it.

We tried to get a good family picture here but with Brighton it is next to impossible. In this picture he just got done slapping Autumn's head and she is wincing.

Brighton had just hit Aspen on the head and she is turning around to get mad at him.

Brighton tried climbing this tree so Jay put him up in it.

Of course since one of my kids was in a tree the big kid had to climb it as well.

This was the first Smith home. This was the home where the angel Moroni came to Joseph three times in the middle of the night. I don't have a clue how all the other kids didn't wake up when Moroni came - if you notice the picture below the kids sleeping quarters were a little cramped.

This is where all kids slept!
This is the second home that the Smith's lived in. Joseph's brother Alvin built it for his parents. Compared to the first home this one was luxurious! It had three fireplaces and even had a sink in the kitchen.

Aspen & Autumn in the second Smith home. Joseph hid the golden plates under the bricks in this fireplace. Notice Aspen is holding up the bricks.

Brighton running around on the Smith farm. He only has one speed setting - run fast!

Our family in front of Niagara Falls on the Canadian side. These falls are massive!!

Me and my Snuggle Buns at the falls.

Autumn and Brighton in the hotel sneaking a snack before breakfast.
Aspen climbing the ropes in the fun house.

Autumn & Brighton in the jumping balls.

Brighton riding a car - he loves anything with steering wheels.

Brighton on a merry go round. We were so mad at Aspen, we had just paid for them to go on this and there was a button on the top that said stop and she pushed the button and the ride was over within 10 seconds.

We went swimming at an indoor water park that was connected to our hotel. It had 16 water slides, an indoor wave pool, and this huge water playground that is behind Autumn. This was the only picture I got, although Jay and the girls were there 3 times. Autumn was very brave, she went on all the water slides that her height would allow and snuck on 4 that she wasn't supposed to go on! This water park/hotel complex is the largest in North America!