One last road trip....

How could you leave the East coast without one more road trip?!  With our things all packed and loaded on a truck, our car being shipped to Arizona, and really nothing else to do, we packed the rental car and headed west for one last trip to Palmyra!  Of course, it helped that our cousins from D.C. were coming as well and that the Hill Cummorah Pageant was being performed, but regardless, we headed west.

I must say, I will miss the easy 3 hour road trips and you are in a different part of the state or a different state altogether as we prepared to leave New York.  It was sure nice to know that you could just pick up and go on an adventure in such a short time.  I will miss being this close to so many church history sites and regret never making it to a session in the Palmyra Temple.  Maybe next time I head east, we'll make it happen.  I love how you could stand on the temple grounds, look out and see the canopy of trees of the sacred grove so close.  Pictures just don't do it justice, that's for sure.

 

We had to stop one last time and tour the houses on the Smith farm and have the missionaries tell us the Joseph Smith story and where they had to hide the plates.  It's been a year since we had been back, but the kids knew exactly where they were hid before the sisters had a chance to get to that part.

 In the Cooper's barn

 And this time in the sacred grove, we got to sit on the benches where you can have a testimony meeting right there in the sacred grove.  I can only imagine how blessed those youth are that were having their youth conferences there that weekend to get to have that once in a lifetime opportunity.

 And I am so grateful that I got to share it with mine.  As we walked the forest this time, I truly felt the spirit and could imagine just as Joseph felt entering these woods and finding a quiet spot to kneel and pray and then have the blessing to see Heavenly Father and Jesus.  Such a peaceful and holy place to be, and I feel blessed with a testimony to know that it truly happened and to share it with the ones I hold dearest to my heart.

 Then as the night progressed, we met up with our awesome Parker cousins, who we will miss dearly when we move, at the Hill Cummorah pageant.  Our kids get along so well it's kind of crazy and I will miss their fun personalities and good memories we've had for the past two years with them.

 Spencer and Cole - total weirdos, and I love them!

And here's the funnier part, Emily's cousin's family was part of the cast this year AND a family from our ward was there too!  Joshua was one of my scouts for the past two years and it was fun to see him there dressed up and giving us the inside scoop of the pageant!

And how could you not just love these two crazy kids.....Lane and Lizzie, you make me laugh!

Then after a late night at the pageant, we headed further west and spent the night just to get up and head a little further to Kirtland, Ohio to see the temple there.  It's no longer owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but we still got to see where the first temple was built and to sit in the pews where the first saints sat, and see where Joseph received many revelations.  It was amazing to me to see where it all began and where we are now in such a short time.

We also got to visit the Newel K. Whitney store where the School of the Prophets began.

 Upstairs where the Whitney and Smith family lived for a while.

 The room where the School of the Prophets met

The school house where the kids went to school....the kids thought it was funny that there weren't any desks, just benches, and they figured there was probably a boys side and a girls side of the school so they sat accordingly during the tour!  Funny kids!

And we even went down to the Mill and showed the kids how things used to work in that small town and how they made things they needed to build their homes and make materials.  A little over their head but hopefully it exposed them enough to realized not everything comes from a store or ordered online!

We truly will miss our little adventures and the beauty we were surrounded with these past two years, yes, even the snow.  But one thing we have learned is that no matter where you live, enjoy where you are and explore your surroundings, and never look back, always moving forward.  So with that....good-bye New York and hello Arizona!