When in Palmyra, New York...

Do as the Mormons do! And boy, did we! I can't believe we did ALL of this in one day. This has to be on of my favorite experiences to date...from my whole life, third to marrying my eternal companion and having children!! It was like finally meeting someone you had heard so much about. It was great to put a "face" to the historical locations of so many stories I grew up with.

We started the day bright and early, arriving at our car rental at 6 a.m. Another 6 hours later, we were in Palmyra, where we began our exploring at the Sacred Grove. I couldn't wait for this!! Hence, why we went there first! I spent half the hike rushing my kids down the trail to get "there," when Brandon pointed out that we were there...at the Sacred Grove. I had it in my head that there was a clearing at the end of the trails. I wasn't exactly expecting a marked spot indicating where Joseph was kneeling and where exactly God and Jesus were, but literally, I misunderstood what a grove was. After clearing up that misconception, it was pretty magical, and probably more fun trying to guess where Joseph might have been, where I might have gone had I been looking for a place to pray, and taking in the peacefulness of the grove. I enjoyed, in essence, walking Joseph's steps that day. Pretty humbling.

Everything is close to each other, so from the grove you can walk to the cabin where Moroni appeared to Joseph, the barn, framed house, etc.

The framed house....Brighton was literally jumping off everything. He was in heaven. 

I spy Angel Moroni!

I have to smile thinking Joseph would have appreciated my rambunctious boy!

A replica of the family cabin built in it's original location

The room where the 6 boys slept and where Moroni appeared to Joseph

Stairs down to the kitchen

We then drove over to the publication site of the Book of Mormon and did a tour through the building.

Downtown Palmyra

First edition Book of Mormon. My amazing father-in-law bought me a replica of this. 

Original floorboards

Learning about how the letters were printed on the page. The sister missionary leading this part of the tour mentioned something about a miracle, and Brighton yelled, "Yeah!" haha.  

Printing room

This picture makes me so proud! Tori listening so intently!

From there we went to scout out seats for the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Pictures don't do this much justice. When you first drive by, it's pretty amazing to see. The hill is fairly good size, and the set literally looks like a Peruvian stone temple right there in upstate New York. Specifically, Peruvian...definitely not any other style temple ; )

Before the show, the characters come out in costume to mingle and take pictures. Tori really wanted to see this "Indian princess," but got pretty start struck like her Mama.  

View from our seats.

We loved scoping out pretty head dresses!

Moon rising on the set.

Tori asked questions through the whole thing. It was so great! She loves theatre! She was extremely bothered when they burned Abinadi. As Brandon put it, the pyro-technics were pretty legit. The waters of Mormon had a pool with waterfalls flowing out of the set. It was beautiful! 

I loved it! I loved everything about this day!