My Trip to NY and B&W 4 years!

I had such a great time visiting my sister Joy and her family. She lives in Pittsford, NY and is only about 15 minutes away from Palmyra and Rochester. It was beautiful everywhere we went. I made some lasting memories! I only wished that Brad could have been there with me... next time he is coming for sure. I took a million pictures and so I grouped some of them together to make it easier to blog about. Summer is officially over for me in 5 days because school starts again :(.

Smith Family Log Home

Smith Log Home. I don't know how they lived in such small homes! It was amazing seeing the upstairs where Angel Moroni visited Joseph. Joseph didn't have his own bedroom and private space to it was amazing to realize that he was visited in a room full of his siblings. What an amazing thought and to know that he was able to receive revelation not in total privacy.

Smith Family Frame Home

Smith Family Frame Home. Jaclyn was able to lift up the bricks near the fireplace where Joseph hid the Golden Plates from a mob of men. Jaclyn thought it was really cool that they were buried there at one time. This house was much bigger than the log home but it was amazing to think that they build this all by man power - amazing.

The Sacred Grove

The Sacred Grove. If you haven't been to Palmyra I recommend to do so - this was awesome. There were mosquitoes and so we did get a couple of bug bites. The next morning Jaclyn came out of the shower laughing, "man a mosquito really had some humor, I have a bite on my bum!" We got sacred bites :).

Grandin Press and Print Shop

Grandin Press and Print Shop was really neat. It was amazing to see how much work and effort it took to actually publish the Book of Mormon. I definitely gained a new appreciation for the 24/7 access we have to learn of Christ and His ways through the many available reading/viewing/listening options.  This article was great...

Rochester, New York

Rochester, New York! It was raining this day but the city is really beautiful. The building on the bottom left is where by brother in-law works as a corporate attorney. This day was Jaclyn's birthday and so we met him for lunch at the yummy cafeteria. Jaclyn had a grilled cheese and onion rings for lunch. She also chose mac n cheese (homemade) for dinner. Quite the cheesy day she said :)

The Strong Museum for Kids

After Jaclyn's birthday lunch we continued the celebration at this awesome museum. They had a Wegman's Grocery store where kids could play, a butterfly exhibit, and tons and tons of other adventures and activities for kids to enjoy. We had a great time.

Birthday Girl

Jaclyn sure had a great birthday. She received many packages from family that lives elsewhere. She sure got excited about every gift. We made birthday cupcakes and Jaclyn decorated them all by herself with only a little help - she did awesome. 

 Walking on the Erie Canal

The Erie Canal is huge and it's crazy to think that it was all man made. The bridges are awesome and in other villages they had draw bridges that lift up when boats come though. It was a gorgeous walk and we had fun feeding the ducks and enjoying the beautiful evening.

Lake Canandaguia

It was a cloudy overcast day so I was thinking people are crazy getting in the water when it's only in the 80's outside. Nothing like the heat here in St. George :D. Eventually, when the sun came out I pulled out the Idaho toughness in me and got in the water with Jaclyn. Surprisingly, the water wasn't as cold as I imagined. It was a fun day and was nice to just spend time with them.

Jaclyn's Baptism

What fun memories for Jaclyn. It was a great day and I think Jaclyn is the most popular 8 year old in their ward. Although a lot of people weren't able to make it to the baptism cause of summer conflicts, she had TONS and TONS of adults and kids come up and congratulated her. Jaclyn sure is a great example to the ward, she is always impressing people with her smarts about the scriptures and the gospel. Jaclyn is beautiful but she was sure shining bright on her baptism day.  My dad spoke on Baptism, it was great, and then her Grandpa and Grandma McClean spoke on the Holy Ghost. Alex, Jaclyn's dad, is the ward mission leader and conducts their baptisms so it was neat for him to be able to conduct Jaclyn's. Everything went well! We had a nice luncheon afterwords which required a lot of prepping the night before, I had cut up so many veggies that my nails were stained orange from the carrots :).

Hill Cumorah

Unfortunately, it was raining when we visited the site but it was sure gorgeous and we were the only people there because of the rain. To think what happened there is miraculous and it sure felt great to be at the site. One day I would love to see pageant.

Tomlinson Inn

I hadn't heard of this place until Joy set up a private tour by some of their ward missionaries. Check out this article if you're not familiar either.  There is a lot more to the story but the main thing is that after Brigham Young joined the church his first address took place in front of the fireplace (bottom left photo). The Inn has a lot history so it was really neat. Just down the street we were also able to check out the Young's home. It was really cool, an older sister missionary couple live there and the house is awesome. The floors were slanted and in the basement you could see how they built the house because of the exposed beams. It basically was built as a puzzle if they needed to move they could move the house.

Cemetery

This was a really old cemetery. The top headstone is John Tomlinson and below is his wife, Maria. The second to the bottom is Solomon F. Kimball who is the Father of Heber Kimball. The bottom headstone is Brigham Young's first wife, Miriam Works Young. I'm not a big fan of graveyards, but this was really neat.

I had a great time and can't wait to go visit again! 

Thanks Joy and fam for the GREAT TIMES! Love and miss you guys.

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Brad and I also had our 4 YEAR anniversary on August 10! WOWZA, time has FLOWN by! It's crazy to think that the game of life led us both to CSI and things just fell into place and it was meant to be. It's like we've known each other all of our lives but met up at the time that we were supposed to meet up :). Heavenly Father knows best! I couldn't be more blessed to be married to the best man ever, love you BRAD.