Road Trip

Church history weekend! Loved it. We took off for Palmyra last Friday afternoon to make it right in time for the Hill Cumorah pageant. I loved that it was 6 hours away, driving through all the trees and rivers around here is my favorite.


The pageant started the second we got there. Everything looked exactly how I remembered it, I was really excited to watch it again.
I went to the pageant 3 years ago, and Ali went last year, so it was exciting to finally go together!

The next morning we toured some more of Palmyra. This is the fireplace where Joseph Smith hid the Golden Plates.

The Smith Farm! Last time I was in Palmyra I convinced/begged/lovingly forced my parents to go through the Sacred Grove at sunrise, so none of the tours were open that early. It was really fun to meet all the missionaries serving there and tour the house and farm,
View of the temple from the Smith farm! There's 2 sisters and 2 brothers here, but not a lot of family resemblance going on at all.

The monument on top of the Hill Cumorah is beautiful.

The Sacred Grove is one of the most peaceful places I've ever been.

You should know that these cones are Kiddie sizes. We went to a place that had a very distorted view of portions.

Everyone went to the Palmyra temple, so I had a little bit of time to explore on my own. I found the Martin Harris farm, but you can't take tours of it. I went back to the Sacred Grove to wait for the group; it was a nice change from all the other times I've waited outside the temple, usually I'm watching a large number of cousins (and sometimes strangers' babies, but that's another story.)

The whole road trip crew outside of the temple.

We drove home late Saturday night and went to church a little exhausted the next day. Ask me to tell you a story about what happens when you're super tired and you're the ward chorister...it can be a bad combination :) Anyways, we got right back in the car the next day to continue our little church history tour and check another state off of my list. Vermont!

Sharon, Vermont to be exact. Joseph Smith's birthplace! It's about 2 hours away, so we added a little more driving to the weekend. That's never a problem with me, I love love being in a car. No one else seemed quite as excited about it, but I think they got over it.

The monument at the Old Smith farm is beautiful! It was a great weekend.

Total hours spent in the car: About 17
Total # of deer hit by anyone we were with: 0
The odds are back in our favor.