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.