Hello All,Here are some pictures of our trip we took last weekend. We had a great
time visiting The Church sites and finished our trip with Niagra Falls. We
left Thursday mid-morning. Three hours into the drive, we stop in Columbus,
Ohio for lunch. We then continued another three hours to
Kirtland. The Kirtland Temple tours had closed just as we arrived, but we
were able to make it to the LDS tour of historic sites. We saw a number of
things, some were the newly built Ashery (where lye was made for soap,
amunition, and glass) and a working saw mill. We also visited the Whitney
store and the Whitney home, as well as the Johnson Inn. It was amazing to
imagine the period of time where so many historic events took place in the
church. 65 sections or revelations of the Doctrine and Covenants took place
in Kirtland. That is half of the revelations. This was the longest time
period where the Saints lived and thrived. So many good and bad things
happened here. You can really feel the Saints' sacrifice as they gave up so
much for their testimonies. We only spent a couple of hours in Kirtland
before everything closed at 7PM. It was for the best since we needed to get
to our campsite before too late.
We arrived at midnight and quickly set up camp. The girls fell asleep in
their carseats and easily transferred into their sleeping bags. We woke up
and let the girls play at the nearby playground. We then headed another 1
1/2 hours to Palmyra. We first went to the Hill Cumorah. There is a
beautiful visitors' center there with rooms full of interactive multi-media
displays. The girls loved watching all the different segments on the Book of
Mormon stories and the account of Joseph receiving the Book of Mormon from
the angel Moroni. Elsa was mostly intrigued as we walked to the top of the
hill. She was excited to be in the same place where the Golden Plates once
were. It was amazing to see her express her testimony of the accounts that
happened there. It made me a little emotional. From there, we continued on
to the Smith family farm. There is a log house that was replicated to their
original house using the same type of tools that would have been used to
construct it. 13 people lived in this tiny house. It must have been
crowded! We were able to go upstairs to see the room where Moroni appeared
to Joseph and instructed him about the Gold Plates. We also saw the house
that Alvin and Hyrum built, in which the Smith family later moved too. This
was also the place where Joseph hid the Golden Plates in mulitple places to
protect it from theft. Ava was hungry and tired, and melted at this point.
We went into town for lunch. While in town, we visited the Grandin printing
press where the first copies of the Book of Mormon were printed and sold.
The process was so time consuming and required so much attention to many
details. By the time we finished with this tour, it was pouring rain. We
returned back to the Sacred Grove, waited 20 minutes for umbrellas to arrive
back from a tour, then dashed out with the girls. We didn't last long
because the girls were cold, had mud up to their knees, and mulch in their
shoes. This was the one place I was hoping to just sit and contemplate, but
no luck. Our experience felt less than sacred. We'll just have to return
again. We headed back to our campsite for a hot dog dinner and bedtime.
Then Saturday, we drove about 2 hours to Niagra Falls. It was stunningly
beautiful and majestic. I don't know how to better describe the force and
power of the falls. While waiting to meet up with Brian's friend, Justin
Hohl, and his wife and 18 month-old son, we ate lunch at the top of the
falls. The girls had fun throwing berries into the water to watch their
rapid descent. We took a Maid of the Mist boat ride along the base of the
falls. Ava was ducked the whole time while Elsa's knuckles turned white as
she clenched the railing with her nose over the edge. Neither wanted Brian
nor I to pick them up to "better see the falls." They loved it,
nonetheless. Afterwards, they both asked if we could "do it again." We
hiked a little to a vantage point of the falls. Ava didn't like all the
mist blowing on her, but Elsa thought it was fun. It was lots of fun! By
the end of all of this, the kids were tired and ready for camping. I would
have liked to walk to some of the other vantage points to see the falls from
different perspectives, but I was a minority in this thought. Once again,
we'll just have to return!
We toped it all of on our drive back on Sunday. We stopped once again in
Kirtland and were able to do a tour of the temple. It was pouring rain, so
we didn't get pictures. We were fortunate to have rain after we had packed
up and headed out. Otherwise, it would have been a chaotic mess with all
our supplies getting soaked. The girls were great travelers. We all
enjoyed the sites and camping together. The girls especially loved the
campfire on the last night and being able to roast marshmallows. I was
thinking that for the past five years, we have been to a church history site
each year - Nauvoo three times, Sharon, Vermont, and this year, Kirtland and
Palmyra. We have definitely taken advantage of living near these great
places. I am especially grateful that I get to teach my children about the
gospel in a way that they can visualize and experience some of what took
place in the great history of the Restoration of the Gospel. My own
testimony was strengthened as once again, I was reminded of the sacrifice of
so many people for this gospel. I wonder if I sacrifice enough, or
sacrifice with the right attitude. I have lots to work on. We're looking
forward to going a similar trip again. There was so much we didn't get to
see - the Johnson Farm, the Morley Farm, Martin Harris' home, etc. If any of
you are interested, we'd love to have you visit us. We could all go
together. For now, we still have room in our mini-van for three other
passengers.
I didn't want to crash your computers, so I've only sent pictures from
Niagra Falls. I will send pictures from the Historic Church sites later on
this week. We hope you're all doing well. We love you.
Natalie
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