Our Adventures In Up State New York Part 1:

As we were driving up to New York I learned a few things. One its crazy you can drive 2 hours and have driven through 2 states already and two New York is a lot of nothing...beautiful nothing but man its just country for hours. Once we made it up to upstate New York we stayed at a B&B in Palmyra NY and it was so great to sleep in a bed again! It was a fun little place where other LDS families were staying to see the sights and the hill Cumorah pageant as well.

In the morning we made our way over to the Smith Farm to see where Joseph Smith lived and to visit the Sacred Grove. The church has made it a really nice place to visit with a meeting house and then the buildings to tour. There are missionaries there to answer questions and then you can walk around the sacred grove for as long as you want. It was fun to see where the family lived and how small of a space they all fit. The Sacred grove was peaceful and lush and not to hot, which was great. It was fun walking around and trying to feel the spirit of it all. We stopped by the temple for a second just to see it. Its a tiny temple but its beautiful and close to the Smith Farm. We later made our way into the town to see where the first Book Of Mormon was printed and get a tour of that building. The town is still pretty original to everything and there is a corner that has a church on all 4 sides just how Joseph Smith described.

In the late afternoon we made our way down to the pageant. The hill Cumorah has a visitors center as well as a large statue of Moroni at the top of the hill. There were lots of tents set up for food and kids playing on the grass until it became dark. The pageant was in the evening and it was so stinking cool. Seriously Larry and I had our doubts about the pageant but it was amazing. It told the story about the book of Mormon and Christ coming to America. In the events leading up to Christ appearing everything is destroyed and then silence and Christ appears in the sky. Its crazy because someone from the road must think that looks nuts as they drive by, Larry and I got a laugh out of that. I loved it and it really was amazing to be surrounded by thousands of church members out in the grass watching the production. I am so grateful my parents came to visit and we made the decision to come up to New York to see these sights. We would not have made it up here due to lack of funds and transportation. It is something I will never forget and I hope one day I can bring my kids to see everything here.

A Little Place Called Gettysburg.

My family is here! Did I mention that? Well we took a trip of a lifetime in my opinion. Larry took two extra days off so we could have a 5 day weekend. We went up from Virginia to up state New York. On our way we made lots of stops at different places and now I am documenting them on the dates we were actually there so the next few posts are of our trip. We stopped and spent the day at Gettysburg. Really you could spend probably spend more then a day there driving around the battle fields and taking tours. There is a great museum and then you can take car rides out throughout the town and see the different battle sights. There is all these different statues and monuments on the fields and all sorts of different facts. Larry was loving all the Lincoln information and it was weird to think of such a bloody battle on the fields we were walking around on such a sunny beautiful day. If you ever have the chance to go back east I highly recommend you take the time to drive out to Gettysburg to see the amazing battle field and to remember those who fought to save our broken country. Here is the proof we made it!

Happy 4th of July from D.C.

We got to spend the day on the national mall. It was awesome. It was really crowded and busy all day but it was amazing fireworks. John and David are visiting right now and got to tag along. It was a long day and it took a good 2 hours to get home on the metro. It was insane the lines to get on the trains, people cramming in but it was so worth it. It was the best fireworks show I have ever seen. It really was such a cool experience to be in the thick of it on the 4th! We spent the day with our friends Jake & Brianna Issacson and at one point we spotted some missionaries in the madness and pretty soon Mormon people were popping out left and right to say hi...gotta love being in the church! We are so grateful to be Americans and live in the promise land!