Palmyra

Last week we decided to take the kids to visit the historical church sites in Palmyra, New York. We started out with a 4 1/2 hour drive there. The kids were pretty good, only got rowdy once when the DVD player stopped working, but for the most part they were good. When we arrived in Palmyra the first place we visited was the EB Grandin Printing Press, the place where the Book of Mormon was published. *Historical fact* There were 5000 Books printed, 500 of which are still in existence today, of those, the church owns 200. We saw 3 copies that weekend.

Original Book of Mormon published at Grandins printing press, on the right

Smith Press on which the Book of Mormon was printed

Book binding room

That night we stayed at the Palmyra Inn (great place!). They have a large hot tub that we took the little kids to and they swam around and played till Mary's face was purple from the heat!

Next morning we started the day by touring the Joseph Smith log home, frame house (that his brother Alvin started to build, but died when it was 3/4 finished.), and then took a long walk through the Scared Grove.

Joseph Smith Log Home (this is actually a reproduction that the church built in the same place where the original stood.) This is where the angel Moroni visited Joseph Smith and told him about the Gold Plates, which he later received and translated into the Book of Mormon.

The frame home that Alvin built.

This is the fireplace hearth where Joseph hid the Gold Plates from the mob that was seeking to steal them from him. They removed the bricks and dug a hole, hid the plates and then replaced the bricks. Then he gave those with him pots and pans and broom sticks and when the mob arrived they started making a racket and he yelled"Go get 'em boys", and the mob, fearing that there was an army in the house, fled, keeping the plates safe.

This is the threshing barn behind the frame house. This actually belonged to Brigham Young, and the church bought it and moved it to where it now sits.

I probably don't need to say it, but I will; the Sacred Grove was so beautiful and peaceful. It made me think of the primary song "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" where it says 'bees were humming sweet birds singing, music ringing through the grove', because excepting the bees, that's just what it was like. Birds were chirping and singing and it rung throughout the trees and was very cheerful. I now understand why he chose that place to pray to Heavenly Father.

Later that day we went to the church bookstore and bought the kids scripture cases and me some Cd's and Katey got a couple of goodies too. After lunch (Subway, yum!) we drove to the Martin Harris farm, but for some reason didn't take any pictures, duh. This was the farm and house that he mortgaged to finance the printing of the Book of Mormon.

We made our final stop of the trip at the Hill Cumorah. We went into the Visitors center and we were able to watch an amazing new video called "Joseph Smith - Prophet of the Restoration". It was an hour long and we were doubtful that the kids (well, Mary and Ethan) would sit through the whole video, but they surprised us and were very quiet and involved in the story. It was a truly awesome movie and if you get a chance to watch it - DO. The sister at the door was handing out tissues and told us all that we would need them. Yeah, she was right. Again, awesome movie - see it!

We then took the hike up the hill to the monument of Moroni at the very top. [A hike for which I paid dearly the next few days. Man, it was sooo steep, my legs were screaming at me for 3 days after we got back!] It was an awesome view from the top, you could see for miles and miles.

I'm so grateful that we had the opportunity to take the kids and learn so much about our first prophet and the history of the early church. I'm thankful for the many great sacrifices made so that we could have the Book of Mormon. And mostly I'm just happy!

Here are a few more pictures if I haven't lost you yet

This is a picture very similar to one we took 8 years ago when we visited the Sacred grove. I'll try and hunt it up and share it too. They're just as beautiful now as then.

A very rare and hard to find picture of -who is that? Oh yeah, it's me! Peter was in charge of the camera on this trip, thanks babe!

And a personal favorite, with the sun shining through the trees.