Palmyra

 Palmyra {a history site for our church -- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints} was the next stop on the trip.  Thankfully, the drive from Niagara was not very long and we made it with plenty of time to spare for the Hill Cumorah Pageant that night.  Perhaps TOO much time.  Hahaha.  I had never been to Palmyra, so I didn't realize that other than the Hill Cumorah and the visitor's center, there wasn't much else in that exact vicinity to check out as part of our church history tour.  As a result, we accidentally gave ourselves 5 hours to kill while waiting for the pageant to start.  Whoopsie!  Hahaha. 

The Visitor's Center was not going to cut it for entertainment purposes.

These are their "we hiked to the top of the hill, NOW what are we going to do??" faces.

{Statue of the angel Moroni at the top of the Hill Cumorah}

Yay for trees to climb!

It was a bit dicey for a few moments, but luckily between the trees, the wide open spaces, and the food tents in the next lot over, we managed to make it all the way to the pageant's 9 PM start.  :)  It helped that they found a new friend to run around and play with (one from Canada, no less), and it was also fun to try and spot anyone we might now who had also come to the pageant.  We ended up seeing a few people from our ward and as the pageant members milled about mingling and talking with all the people who came for the show, we discovered a young lady from another ward in our stake.  In fact, she recognized Grace first, and remembered that Grace was the one who could make the goat noise at Girl's Camp earlier this summer.  Hahahahaha.  Oh Grace.  Such a memorable young lady. ;)

Waiting for the show to start!

{By the time the evening started to fall, it was getting pretty chilly outside.}

Jane wanted to show off her Canadian coin purse.

Finally time to start!

The pageant itself was quite impressive.  I guess I didn't really know what to expect, but it was so well done and even though it was a little long for the little ones to sit through, it still mostly held there attention as it told the story of The Book of Mormon.  Even Isaac was mesmerized until almost the end, when he was just getting too tired and too punchy to sit still any longer.  Overall, though, it was really cool and we're glad we added this stop to the road trip.

The next morning, we took a walk through the Sacred Grove after attending sacrament meeting at the local ward.  As we walked, I couldn't help but think of the hymn and the words, "Oh how lovely was the morning!  Radiant beamed the sun above. Bees were humming, sweet birds singing, music ringing through the grove."  It really was a lovely morning and there really were birds singing in the trees!  It was so peaceful and set apart from the rest of the hubbub of the outside world, and I was grateful we had the chance to visit this sacred spot.  I was also grateful that the kids managed to hold themselves together without any major meltdowns or fits of fighting while we were strolling along.  {They were just holding it in for later -- when we were in the car for a good 6 hours driving to Vermont.}

Ethan forgot his church shoes at home.  Grace just didn't want to wear hers anymore once church was over.  ;)

The morning was a delight.  The rest of the day?  Not so much.  Womp womp.  Hahahaha.  Seriously, though.  This was one of the longer days' drives and things were pretty rough by the end.  We misjudged timing for how long kids could last in the car without stopping for a break and by the time we arrived in Stowe, we still hadn't found any food to eat and there was quite a bit of "hanger" to deal with.  The light at the end of the tunnel for the day, though, was the absolutely BEAUTIFUL surroundings of the Green Mountains.  Stay tuned for more adventures!

How cute is that little dumplin'???