Justin had a medical conference in Toronto so we decided to make a family vacation of it and take our family and see the sites! Robbie and Cammie live in Missisauga right next to Toronto so we stayed with them and had our fun. We visited their ward, went to Lake Ontario, went to Palmyra, visited Niagara Falls, and visited my Uncle Bob all before Justin's conference. We had a great visit!
Uncle Robbie could totally have twins! Helping Everett eat delicious breakfast.
Looks like the ocean! Family trip to Lake Ontario for walk and park.
Cool hamburger rock and conglomerate rock.
Grant and Everett!
Cute brothers on our way to the Smith family farm, the boyhood homes of Joseph Smith Jr.
Us in front of the remake of the first home they had there in Palmyra.
Kids had fun learning and exploring life in the early 1800s.
Kids wishing they could all sleep in a loft and most in the same beds every night!! ;) Kids these days are so spoiled!
When we were walking in here Kara said, "What if we knocked and they really answered?" What a great question. What if? What would I do? What would I say? How COOL would that be?!
The fireplace where Joseph hid the plates when he returned from the Hill Cumorah.
Here they told the girls a story about a time when the Smiths hid the plates in bed with the girls in their beds because they thought the mob wouldn't disturb them. They were right. How scary though!
Sweet Sister missionary trying to entertain Everett in the Smith Home.
Cuties on their way to the Sacred Grove. Such an awesome experience and great weather too! Pretty lucky for the beginning of November!
Here it is! Even though it doesn't look green and beautiful, this is probably more what it would have looked like on an early Spring morning.
I love them. They have really grown up even since this picture! Embrace it!!!!
It really did feel so special to be in the Grove and speak to the kids about what happened here.
Kate really wanted to pray in the Sacred Grove! It was adorable and neat to watch her walk off and find a spot. So special.
Another nice thing about going to the Grove in November is that we were the ONLY ones there. It was awesome and peaceful and personal.
The light of the Sun streamed through the trees. I couldn't help but thing about my testimony of when the light of The Son really did stream through the trees somewhere in that grove and opened up a new dispensation when the gospel was on the Earth again. I am so grateful for that. I am so grateful for Joseph Smith and for me testimony of the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ on the Earth. It is true and it brings me peace in my life.
My boy, in the Sacred Grove. :)
View of the first Smith Family Farmhouse. to the right is the apple orchard where Joseph was again visited by Moroni and told to go back and tell his father all that he had seen so far.
It was a little bright. :)
Cute girls in front of the second Smith farmhouse one more time.
Next we visited the beautiful Palmyra Temple. Loved the flowers there! Even in November!
All 7 in the frame!! Thanks for holding Kara's head in Zachyboy! ;)
We walked around the temple. I loved the windows!!! They had stained glass of the Sacred Grove. And the windows facing the Sacred Grove on the west side of the temple are just like normal windows so the people in the temple can look at the grove as they ponder in the temple! So neat.
Cute girls, cool windows, and Angel Moroni!
Next stop was the Grandin Printing Press in Downtown Palmyra (which was adorable). This was actually one of my favorite places we went! I learned a lot and the kids even loved it too. This sweet missionary couple was great with them. Again it was very slow so we got our own tour! Turns out this was Ryan Harrison's wife's friend's parents! She saw my instagram post and said "Hey I know those missionaries!!" Small world.
They taught him how they printed and bound books and showed them the materials used.
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Kara is a model student here! :) They really were so great teaching the kids and it was very interesting.
And finally showing them the final product!
Addie with an original copy of The Book of Mormon. It originally cost $3000 to print 5,000 copies.
Last stop in Palmyra was a sunset trip to the Hill Cumorah. The kids were bound and determined to find the rock where Joseph found the plates.
Beautiful views from the hill. Pictures couldn't do it justice.
Isn't he cute?
Love Everett in this shot! All my kiddos.
Taking some selfies with my babies.
The kids opted to take the quicker more fun and more dangerous route...I questioned whether they should be doing that at such a sacred place. Then I thought, Joseph Smith would have been doing that right there with them!
Addie and I opted for the safer route and Justin opted to take a picture of me Momming. Thanks hon!!
There was a neat audio presentation to listen too and the whole time Everett just kept pointing to the statue and saying "Jesus!"
When Addie went up to Jesus she couldn't stop touching his owies on his feet. He did that because he loves you baby! So grateful for the Atonement of the Savior of the World!!!
One of those moments where it seemed like life was great and your kids loved each other. :) Just watching exhibit videos in the museum. The 3 hour drive home without a DVD player would prove otherwise once again, but we will appreciate it when we can take it!
We were pretty hungry after this full day so we finished off the night with a late night trip to Denny's. Kara was pretty excited about her reindeer pancake and wanted a picture.
