Girls' Road Trip (You don't have to read EVERYTHING. I realize it's long.)

Last week, on Tuesday morning, I drove Trapper and Jackson to the airport. Trapper was going out to Rexburg to do a career fair and he told his Bev & Kim he'd drop Jackson off at their house. They were so excited. I was excited as well to have a relaxing week with just Braden to take care of, and I was also looking forward to having a little girl time with Ashley. For the next few days, I worked on nothing else but the boys' Halloween costumes. It was actually kind of...(whispered) fun. Don't tell anyone I said that.

On Friday, Ashley didn't have to work, so we packed up some clothes and put Braden in his carseat and drove out of Cleveland toward Palmyra, New York. Neither of us had ever been to Palmyra, let alone New York, and the boys were away, so we took the opportunity to have a road trip. Braden slept great on the way there. He hardly made a peep! He was doing so well, by the time we got half way there, that we took a little detour to Niagara Falls! And it was well worth the trip, even though it rained the whole time we were there. It is absolutely beautiful! And the trees along the falls were wearing their gorgeous autumn colors, so you can imagine how many pictures I took. With the rain, and the fact that we forgot our umbrella in the car, we put a beanie (that Grandpa Yates made) on Braden's head, and wrapped him up in a blanket. Everywhere we went, Braden was the star. He charmed all the ladies and made the men laugh or smile. He was a such a good baby.

When we finally made it back to the car, we were SOAKED (I looked like a traumatized cat that just got dunked into a bath) and cold, which that may have been the cause for my sickness today. Hmmm... Oh well. I have no regrets. It was so much fun.









































Later in the afternoon, we got to Palmyra and the first thing we came to was the Hill Cumorah visiting center. We drove up to the Moroni Memorial and walked around the top of the hill and imagined what it might have been like the day Joseph came to get the plates. It was an awesome feeling to stand there and know that long ago Nephites and Lamanites stood there too. Fighting, unfortunately, but they were really there!

After the memorial, we went inside the visiting center and took a tour looking at the exhibits about the First Vision and Christ's life. After that, we decided to find a hotel and settle ourselves for the evening. There were only two hotels in Palmyra: The Palmyra Inn and the Scottish Inn. One was very expensive and the other was just around our maximum price range but looked kind of shabby. In order to avoid sleeping at the Scottish Inn, we asked a guy at a gas station if there were any others around. Well, he pointed us in an uncertain direction and we found ourselves in Canandaigua....but no hotels. We drove and drove and then asked for more directions. Ashley was the lucky one to ask for directions, so she got to meet some interesting people. Eventually, we decided that it was probably best just to stay in the Scottish Inn even if it was a bit run down lookin'. Our reasoning was that it was close; we wouldn't have to drive far the next morning. And it might be an adventure, staying in the Scottish Inn. Everytime we'd say the name, we'd say it with a very bad Scottish accent. It was fun. haha

For dinner, we ate at Applebee's and then back at the Inn, we watched a movie about C.S. Lewis on Ashley's laptop. The room wasn't so bad. We had a kingsize bed, and a tv. But the air conditioner wouldn't turn on. We opened a window, but it never cooled down, and I started to sweat. So, I finally called the front desk and told them we weren't able to turn the A/C on. They said that that was because they shut them off for the season. HUH? I was surprised! It wasn't even that cold yet and they're already turning them off!? Thankfully, they were very nice about it and turned it on for us. Needless to say, it was definitely chillier that night.

The next morning, we got ready, ate a very meager breakfast, and drove out to the Smith Farm. There we saw the log cabin that Joseph lived in when he had his visitations from Moroni. Then we saw the nice frame home that Alvin started to build for his parents, and then we walked into the Sacred Grove. It was sprinkling with rain and there was a slight breeze, but it was still VERY beautiful walking beneath the trees. It was not hard to feel the spirit there. We'd gotten there at the same time as a group from BYU, so there were quite a few people there sitting on the benches reading their scriptures or taking pictures or just looking up at the sky. After walking around for about 10 inutes, Braden got fussy, and I was disappointed that we would have to leave (we didn't have a stroller or anything to hold him), but then I realized he was just hungry, so I found a bench on a remote path and fed him. He fell asleep after eating, so I continued to sit there and look around listening to the birds and the planes overhead. The scenery was gorgeous and it was amazing just to be there and to know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ both appeared in this very grove that we were in. Ashley went around and took pictures of the trees and tried to take pictures of leaves falling out of the trees, but it was almost impossible catching them at the right angle or finding ones that would fall really slow.
It was about lunch time when we left the Smith Farm. The next place we wanted to check out was the Book of Mormon Publication Site, where E. B. Grandin made 5,000 copies of the BOM. Before we went there, however, we wanted to get some grub. We settled for a place called "Mark's Pizza." No one was eating there, but we did see pictures and newspapers with articles about President Clinton ordering pizza from this place. So, we HOPED the pizza was decent. We were VERY pleasantly surprised though. We ordered a medium chicken bacon ranch pizza. It was MOUTHWATERING GOOD!! We ate half and saved the rest for our trip home.

The publication site was interesting. Not as fun as the sacred grove, duh, but it was cool to learn about the printing and binding process. We learned that it was a very tedious business, and I certainly have a lot more respect for Grandin who had to spend almost an entire year just to put together every copy of the Book of Mormon.

Before we strapped ourselves in the car for the journey home, we stopped at a Latter-Day Harvest bookstore and got a few little souvenirs. I also got an idea from them to make a christmas stocking for my brother, Matthew, who's on a mission in Brazil. I'm still working on it, but I'll post a pic of it soon. (Side note to Katie K.: I just want to thank you so much for letting me use your sewing machine for this long. Ever since I borrowed it, I've just been getting all these ideas and I have NEVER EVER wanted to sew THIS much. haha So, I'll probably bring it back to you next week. : ) Or when we're all feeling better. Me and Braden are a little sick right now as well.) Our next stop was a little fudge shop. Ashley bought us a few things of fudge and we enjoyed those on our way home too. We had quite a time eating all of our scrumptious goodies. MMM MMM. hehe

You can tell that the first batch of pictures are from Ashley's camera. This next batch is from mine.

This was on our way to Niagara Falls. It was SUPER steep.

More of the bridge. Ashley was taking the pictures, of course. She has skills. See how cool this picture looks?

We're so cool.

And Braden was a good little boy for most of the trip home. He slept well, and got along well, even in our rainy adventures. As for Jackson, who was having a blast in Utah, his "Ya-Ya" and "PaPa" said he was joy to be around. I'm glad they all had a good time. I missed him his sweet litte face and his cheesy grins, but the trip would not have been as easy with a toddler. I do have some pictures of his trip in Tremonton that Bev sent me. You can just tell he was having a ball over there by the smile on his face.