Knowing that it's our last year here we have a lot of things we want to do before we leave. One at the top of our list was going to the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Heather flew in a few days before we left and it was so fun to have her along.
We headed up early Friday morning. Our first stop when we got to Palmyra was the Chill and Grill. Tanner and I went there as newlyweds and it was fun to see how it hadn't changed much at all. The kids loved their ginourmous ice creams.
Then we stopped at the Grandin Building where the first Book of Mormon was printed. We enjoyed the air conditioning for a while but most of that building is better suited for adults. We visited the Smith home and walked through the Sacred Grove. I nursed Eliza while everyone else went on and it was so peaceful and I was able to reflect a lot about what had happened there. It was a special experience. Then we went through Alvin Smith's house and I learned that he had been engaged when he died. They say that his fiancee died of a broken heart. Such a sad story!
Tanner found these baby birds above a drinking fountain, they were so sweet, but I don't want to think about what that drinking fountain will look like once they get a little bigger...
After that we headed to the hill. The visitors center had lots of neat videos to watch. We also watched the First Vision video. A missionary gave a little intro before starting the video. He asked everyone what question Joseph Smith had. Mariah looked around waiting for someone to answer and when no one did she said, "what church was right?". The missionary looked down at her and said, "you are smart, and cute." After which Austin piped up, "Me cute too!". It was pretty adorable.
We hiked up to the top of the hill to see the statue of the Angel Moroni. Heather got this nice action shot of us getting our workout in for the day.
After that we headed down to the bottom of the hill to wait for the pageant to start. We laid out blankets and ate food, played frisbee and bocce ball. We had to stop bocce ball once more people started showing up because we had a few near misses with Chet and Austin's throwing skills. The kids made some friends with a family next to us and seemed to have the energy to run around. A friend from my hometown was working at the pageant with her kids so it was fun to catch up with her. She was so awesome and saved us seats and let us stay the night at her house.
Mariah and Robbie became instant buddies just chatting away. She thought it was so cool that he got to be in the pageant. The pageant was so amazing. Austin fell asleep within the first five minutes so that made it more enjoyable for the rest of us. Towards the end Chet started getting sleepy so he tried to lay down. But every time something exciting seemed to be happening he would jump back up to watch. He really liked the battle scenes and the special effects.
By the time we got in bed it was around midnight. Because of our wonderful friends we had a whole house to ourselves which was so nice. When Eliza woke up in the night I was able to go in another room so Tanner and Austin wouldn't wake up. And when Mariah and Chet woke up at 5 am (the crazies!), they wandered around and couldn't find anyone so they went back to bed and slept until 9. Thank you again Lonsberrys!!
The next day we went to another Crossley favorite, Chase Farms. They make a pretty delicious raspberry shortcake and give enormous servings of ice cream. The kids got baby cones, which was two huge scoops. Large ice cream portions must be an upstate New York thing. This was our lunch and no one complained about it.
On our way home we made a quick stop at Niagara Falls. The last time Tanner and I went to the Falls it was on a weekday. This time was a Saturday and it was crazy. There was tons of traffic, it was really hard to find a parking space and it was raining. Plus we were all starting to get a little hangry. I was ready to just get back on the road but the rain stopped and Tanner saved the day and found a place to park. We were up above the falls but the view was still breathtaking. We didn't hang around too long but the kids seemed to like it.
It was a fast trip but so worth it! I am so glad our children were able to experience some church history and see the pageant which was a big part of Tanner's family for many years.
