Church History Vacation cont'd

After leaving Palmyra, we stopped by Niagara Falls on our way to Kirtland. So, this is us stopping by the gorgeous falls in March. The temperature outside seemed so pleasant until we got close to the falls and saw icicles everywhere and trees frozen solid from the mist. It was so cold! Again, Adam had never seen Niagara so we had to go-it was so fun! We drove in to Kirland and straight to the sites. First, the Newel K Whitney store I love the School of the Prophets room. It always reminds me of my dad doing his own 'School of the Prophets' for our family. Actually, this whole trip I have been so grateful for Dad and teaching us LDS church history from the time we were young and making so many flash cards for us so we really knew where our church came from. I've actually kept some of his memorization helps and flash cards so I can teach my kids too. Other very special revelatory rooms. This table is an original from when Joseph Smith was living here with the Whitney's. Since we had some extra time we stopped by the stone quarry where they cut the stone for the temple. (Surprisingly hard to find.) If you look closely you can still see the rough edges where they cut the stone out of the creek bed. We also saw the Kirtland Temple. Our tour guide was an incredibly theatrical old man, which was so entertaining, but he almost blinded us with one of his climax moments. That was funny. They do the tour different than they used to. Now, it is standard for every tour group to see all three levels of the temple, instead of just select small groups. I was glad Adam got to see the top floor of the temple. I think it is such a special spot. On our way back to Pittsburgh, our last stop is the John Johnson Farm. This was probably my favorite memory when we came as a family years ago. I love the miracles that happened while this farm was the church headquarters and all the revelations that were received here. This was just an amazing and devastating time for the church. Also, Mrs Johnson loved bright colors and could afford to buy colorful paint for her house so each room is vibrant and exciting. This room that Adam is standing in is where Joseph Smith was dragged out of his bed and tarred and feathered in the night. And yes, Mrs Johnson chose this vibrant floor pattern. Saving the best for last....this is where Joseph received many revelations for the Book of Commandments, including what is now D&C 76. I am so grateful for this room and the powerful experiences that happened here. It is hard not to tear up when thinking about the many revelations that led to D&C 76. Also, it was so nice to stop by the Johnson farm because our Girls Camp is actually going to be in tents on the farmland here! How cool! This farm is only an hour from Pittsburgh so the Stake YW President was able to reserve this land for our girls - I am SO STOKED for our girls! What an experience they get to have. So, while we were there, I poked around and got an idea of what to expect for August. I'm pretty excited.

Church History Trip

So I know we went to Palmyra months ago, but I said I'd post pics from our trip so here they are! Since I am pregnant, my doctor said that I need to get out of the car ever couple hours to stretch my legs. For this reason, we made a couple detours on our drive. The most anticipated detour we made was to ERIE, PA!!!!! Now, if you know the movie, "That Thing You Do" then you will understand why I was stoked to stop here. I'd been watching this movie since childhood and had a special place in my heart for the Wonders and Lenny and Erie, PA. First Stop: town of Erie As we drove through the town here is a typical house: I even tried to see if there was a Patterson electronics store on our GPS....nope...sad Even though Adam didn't grow up watching 'That Thing You Do' regularly, he was excited to stop in Erie just to see Lake Erie. After my quick stop at Erie, PA we drove straight to Palmyra, NY. Now, Adam has never been to any of the church history sites in the east (and I haven't been since I was 16) so we definitely had our priorities of what we wanted to see. However, we wanted to cram in as many sites as possible since who knows when we'd be able to come out here again. It was Adam's spring break and I got a few days off work for a Jewish holiday. So, even though it was March and freezing we really wanted to go. Besides it being absolutely freezing, it was a really wonderful time to go. No one else was there yet so we had every place to ourselves. The best experience we had was in the Sacred Grove. It was really special to be there - and the only ones there - it was perfectly quiet and sacred. Here is a helpful map of the layout of the Smith farm and the Sacred Grove Adam walking through the Sacred Grove. I wasn't expecting it to be so leafless at this time of year. At the log home: After the Sacred Grove, we ran over to Grandin's Bookstore before it closed. I loved seeing where the Book of Mormon was first published It was amazing to see ink splots that have been on the wall since the 1830's The next day we drove down to Fayette to the Peter Whitmer Farm and, again, since we were the only ones there he let us take a picture behind the railing where Joseph would have stood to organize the church, and where Spencer W. Kimball broadcast from for the 1980 General Conference. We were able to do a session at the temple that night, but we stopped by the next morning to grab a picture of it. One of my most vivid memories of being here at 16 was doing baptisms for the dead and the sweet temple worker explaining the significance of those temple windows. When President Hinckley described this temple he made sure there was a set of clear windows on the side of the temple that overlooks the Sacred Grove. He said it was one sacred spot looking onto another. Here is the view from the top of the temple hill that looks onto the Sacred Grove....it was FREEZING! Then, before we drove out of town we ran by the Hill Cumorah and snapped some pictures. Every other time Adam and I went to the Hill Cumorah it was pouring rain so it wasn't exactly the 'special' experience you hope for there.

Oh hello again.

So, it has been quite a long time since I've updated this at all. Ever since being pregnant I haven't been very good at it but the last couple months I've really been out of commission. Let's be honest, I haven't really talked to anyone if they weren't at work or Young Women. However, even though I haven't been up to talking to too many people, Adam and I have kept busy doing random, fun activities and adventures.

here are 10 of the things we've done in the last 5 months:

1. We went to DC for Thanksgiving to stay with Adam's sister and her family.


While there we took time to see some Smithsonians and had to take a picture by the Dorothy shoes and reminisce of when I was Dorothy in the school play.


Of course we HAD to take a picture of Michael Jackson's hat in honor of Mariah and the larger than life cut out in our apt last year


And of course we had to take a trip down the National Mall and see the WW Memorials, Washington Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, etc



Last, we all had a picnic out by the rapids and the most intriguing thing was a man stuck in a huge hollow tree


2. Going to the blessed AZ for Christmas, spending weeks in the glorious weather, and telling the fam the big news.


While there being able to show Adam the absolute HIGHLIGHTS of growing up! What would we have done without The Wall? Believe it or not this cinderblock wall that we carved our initials into in 1996 holds the very best of memories for me, Garret, and my cousins. Amada, Steph, Garret...I didn't initiate Adam without you, but I hope it's okay I showed it to him :) We took these pictures of it too.



I also went through everything my mom saved for me from childhood. I threw most of it out and took pictures of the very best things I wanted to remember. First, I love that I made this page for a school class - in case you haven't noticed, my cousins mean the world to me!
Second...Steph, Amada...please tell me you remember this "life's a bummer"
Third, I found these old pics of my dad. I don't know if they were pre-mission, pre-marriage, pre-med school, but isn't it fun to see him since pictures of him are so rare?





Of course, Mom and Dad were so nice to treat us with real food at real restaurants since we're on such a tight budget :) Rustler's Roost is a fam favorite since it overlooks the Phoenix Valley.


3. Because of my calling we've been able to do a number of fun activities with the youth. Here is me trying to ice skate. This is a bad idea for 2 reasons: first, I am an AZ girl through to my bones and don't function well on ice. second, my doctor specifically told me no ice skating while pregnant. oops! Obviously I was barely even moving.

4. Hostess went bankrupt. Personally, I don't really like Twinkies as much as the other hostess products but Adam loves them and has great memories eating twinkies and chatting with his sister so of course we had to mourn the bad news and try making a twinkie shake from the recipe book I found for Adam for Christmas (yuck). It was gross, but I made some modifications and turned it into a delicious chocolate shake.


5. Visiting the Big Mac Museum. There is a "museum" (that's free) 15 minutes away from us in the township that invented the Big Mac. After we found that out we HAD to go and check it out for ourselves. Had I ever tasted a Big Mac before? no Do I really even like McDonalds? Not usually. But because we live SO close to a museum honoring the Big Mac we just had to go.




Even though I didn't really like the Big Mac, I'm so glad we went.

6. Conservatory. They have a famous plant conservatory in Pittsburgh that we've been wanting to go to. We waited till a particularly gray stretch in the weather and treated ourselves to a nice date night in the ginormous conservatory among the India display, flowers, plants, and greenery.



It may be hard to see but they had a desert room which reminded me of home!


Last, I made Adam take a picture of this fish display because it said "get your fresh fish!" It's for you Amada - "fish, get your fresh fish"


7. It's a boy! When we found out our little guy is going to be a boy I made steak and potatoes for dinner.



8. The Tradition - RED dinner for Vday. (red lasagna, red potatoes, red jello, red Jones, red fruit, red apple craisen salad). thanks to mom we even had v-day plates and chocolates!


9. Dr Dreadful Date Night. We went to a baby consignment sale to try and find super cheap baby stuff. While we were there Adam found this 'at home science zombie lab' thing that his older brother had growing up. Adam always wanted to try it. Since it was only a couple dollars we got it and did it for date night. strange, i know. It was fun but super disgustingly sugary.


10. St Patty's Day!!! This is my second favorite holiday and we are SO FORTUNATE to live in a city where the second largest celebration parade takes place. So, we joined 250,000 people on St Patrick's Day to see the parade. Punxsutawney Phil was there, St Patrick came, VP Biden came, the unicyclists came, and the clowns came. fun! Big City Parade! Green, green, green!
(they also randomly decorate these stone dinosaurs around the city so this one is dressed in green Irish garb)





Okay, finally, we took a trip to Palmyra, Kirtland, Erie, Niagara a couple weeks ago....that would definitely be on the list but this is already way to long. Maybe I'll post some of those pics later.

I hope this makes up for going silent for the last little while and that you enjoyed it!