Family Vactaion Day 2, Palmyra New York

We woke up in time to make it to church in Palmyra, New York. The night before we had decided that if we didn't wake up on time we wouldn't stress it because it seemed miserable to try to get 5 kids ready for church from a hotel room. Happily, everyone woke up early and in a good mood and got ready for church without a hitch. Something about taking the pressure off makes things go more smoothly. The promise of having lunch at McDonald's and getting a Happy Meal might of helped with the good behavior. Watching TV the night before we saw that McD's had Littlest Pet Shops for toys. That is something we collect, so it seemed worth it. I usually don't buy Happy Meals because no one finishes their food and the toys are usually lame. If we do go to McD's I usually order hamburgers for Ariel and Adriana and chicken sandwiches (aka a giant chicken nugget on a bun) for Annika and Dallin, and one large fry. It is way cheaper than 4 Happy Meals.
Anyway, back to the story.....
Church was fun. My kids kept commenting on how much fancier their building was than ours. It was fast and testimony meeting, and that is always interesting. After sacrament meeting we went to the temple grounds to walk around.




Doesn't Alice's hair look way red in this picture. It gets that way when the sun shines on it.
There were two other vacationing families who had the same idea that we did and were kind enough to take our picture.
You can see in this picture that Annika wasn't feeling her best. That night she had a fever and I couldn't get her to smile all day. :(
The next stop was the sacred grove. There are tons of trails in there and it was fun to get a little lost and try to find our way back. We had our eye out for the largest trees that could have been around when Joseph Smith was. One of the most memorable things was when Papa and the kids found a glowing tree. The sun was shining on it just right to make it look illuminated. I didn't get a chance to sit quietly and ponder the First Vision, but just being their with my lively family was enough. I can picture coming back when they are all teenagers and the significance of it all sinks in a little more, and everyone taking a moment to to really commune.

Next stop, Hill Cummorah Visitor's center.
He snapped this picture of the kids listening intently to the articulate and kind sister missionary, who took the time to give us our own tour.
We took a similar picture last year in Washington DC. I had proper foot attire problems the whole trip. After church I let them change out of their church shoes, but then it looks funny in this picture and the temple pictures. Oh well.This is last year's picture in DC.
This was in front of the Moroni statue at Hill Comorah. The sister in the visitor's center convinced us to go back to the Sacred Grove site to get a tour of Joseph Smith's house, and the frame house that the Smiths later lived in. We didn't take any pictures, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. At first I stayed in the car to feed the baby, and for some reason they thought that we were French. Or maybe they were expecting a French family to come, so they had a sister from Tonga, who I presume knew French give the tour.
After that we drove about six hours to the Miner's house. Everyone was so excited to see the cousins. More tomorrow.