The only good thing about having siblings live in other states (or countries) is that you have an excuse to go on a vacation to visit them. This past week Casey and I trekked across the U.S. to Buffalo NY to see Stephanie, Travis, Collin and little Duff who is due to be born in February.
We flew in Wednesday at midnight. It was pouring rain and freezing cold. Stephanie picked us up and drove us to her very cute house and even had dinner waiting for us even after we told her not to! We ate and talked until 1:30 in the morning then figured we better get to bed because we had a full day ahead of us.
Our first day was spent in Palmyra. Two of her friends offered to watch Collin which meant we were able to squeeze in a temple session. Travis had school so he wasn't able to do anything until Saturday.
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We left her house and drove about an hour to Palmyra. I was kind of bummed because it was supposed to rain all day and be super cold. It rained on us the whole drive there but once we got closer to the temple it had stopped. During our session Stephanie and I figured out that this was the first session we had done together so that made it a little more special! Once we walked out of the temple the weather had totally cleared up and the rest of the afternoon was still cold but absolutely breathe taking.
Stephanie packed us a picnic lunch for us to eat. It was too cold so we ate in the car. We went to change clothes in the restrooms where Stephanie and I made a new friend whom we like to call the poo lady:)
We started with the Smith family log and frame home tours. We had a great sister missionary tour guide who shared stories about these pieces of church history. This is the log home where Joseph Smith was visited by Angel Moroni telling him about the Golden Plates.
The Smith family frame home. This home was built a few feet away from the log home. Joseph had many hiding places for the Golden Plates in this home.
The path leading into the Sacred Grove. I don't think we could have visited at a better time of year. The trees were unbelievable.
Next we drove up the road to the Hill Cumorah. Below us you can see where they would set up the pageant stage.
Our last stop was the E.B. Grandin building where the first 5,000 copies of the Book Of Mormon were published. Our tour guide was an Elder couple missionary, and boy did he like to talk! Haha, I think we got on extra 30 minutes of stories added to our tour. Casey was the lucky one who got to fold a page of the Book Of Mormon just like they use to.
As we were leaving our last historic stop it started to rain again. We really got lucky with great weather that day!
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Across the street from the Grandin building is Mark's Pizza that is a favorite with the locals. Casey and I have a motto while on vacation which is, eat big or go home. With that said we ordered the biggest size called "the sheet." It was gooooood.
Friday we went to Niagara Falls. Can I say BRRRR! We went the 2nd to last day before it closed for their winter season. As we were walking to the falls you could see the half frozen mist in the air and poor Collin would start to cry every time the bitter cold wind would blow. They stayed behind while Casey and I did the Maid Of the Mist.
After the Falls we picked up sub sandwiches from Wegmans (a grocery store we are not fortunate enough to have on the West coast) and ate lunch over at Travis' school. He gave us a tour of his classes and operatory where they have patients come in to have dental work done.
Saturday we drove to Kirtland OH. We visited the Newel K Whitney store. There was a lot of history in this store that I did not know about. Upstairs is where Joseph received Revelation for the Word of Wisdom in the Revelation room and also where the School of the Prophets was held. We also walked to the Saw Mill and Ashery buildings.
Before the airport we went to see her friend Rachel's house down the street then off to the airport.
