Saturday, October 11, 2008

We made it!


Well...we actually made it to New York. We left on wednesday afternoon and finally landed in Rochester, NY around 9:30 pm EST, after catching a connecting flight in Cincinatti. I think I was dreading the plane ride the most with the boys. Wes hadn't been on a plane for over a year, and this was Beckett's first time. They did FANTASTIC! I was so SHOCKED! Wesley just loves airplanes and he thought it was the coolest thing to be flying in one. He got a little restless during the middle of our long flight, but the super bumpy landing hyped him up again. I thought for sure he was going to lose it on our short flight from Ohio to NY, especially since it was a tiny plane. But I was proved wrong again! Beckett on the other hand was a dream flyer. Not a peep out of him. He was all laughs, giggles, and snores the whole time. We couldn't have asked for anything better.
Thursday morning all the adults (except Lil' Brady) attended an endowment session in the Palmyra Temple. It is a smaller temple, but definitely beautiful! It overlooks the Sacred Grove. My favorite part on the outside of the temple was the stained glass windows. They had gorgeous trees on them. The spirit was so strong there and it was a great way to start off our trip. After leaving the temple, we went and picked up all the kids and went back to Palmyra. We visited the Smith Family Farm and the Sacred Grove. It was absolutely amazing how strong the spirit was in these sacred places. To think that Heavenly Father and the Savior actually walked the paths that we were walking, and that the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph many times in the farm house we were standing in. Nothing can describe how I felt while we were there. It definitely solidified my testimony of the first vision. Not to mention that this part of the country is SO beautiful! We came at the perfect time of year as all the leaves are changing.
Yesterday we took a road trip to spend the day at Niagara Falls. What a fun and beautiful day we had! We spent the whole day in Niagara Falls, Canada. The falls were so breath taking. I have never seen anything like them. We experienced pretty much all that you can while there. We took a boat ride on The Maid of the Mist that took you as close as you could get to the falls. We went on a journey behind the falls to see and feel how powerful the falls are. We watched an imax movie on myths and magic of the falls. It reinacted various stunts that have been performed over the falls, like tightrope walkers, people going down in barrels, trying to make it through the whirlpool rapids, and there was also a reinactment of a 7 year old boy who went over the falls after a boating accident on the Niagara river. It is amazing he survived. At sunset we went to the top of the Skylon Tower to look at the falls from above. What an amazing view! It was a long and tiring day, but definitely worth it! We had so much fun!
We still have 9 more days to go, but if we went home today this trip would have been so worth it. Sorry that I didn't post any more pictures. I need to go through them all and find my favorites. So stayed tuned for lots and lots of pictures!

4 comments:

Andee said...

Sounds incredible!! That's so neat that you went straight to the Palmyra temple. How fun for you guys! And way to go boys!

brookiebaby said...

Very cool experience! i'm impressed that you're doing it all with two little ones - but it sounds like they're good travelers! Hope the rest of your trip is just as fun!

Megan D. said...

That sounds so great! Have a fun rest of your trip! Talk to you soon!

Kyle and Jamie said...

Jill...I'm glad you had a fun time on your trip! I'm excited for you to come home...I wrote that friend blog when you were gone...I was lonely!! The cancellations were not my fault!! I'm sorry!! Call me when you get recovered from your trip.