A JOURNEY OF 1600+ MILES....

Sometimes I feel so blessed, and this weekend was one of those times.  Scott and I got to share a WONDERFUL trip with our daughter and her family, our niece and our nephew.
We left Friday for Palmyra.  We rented a HUGE vehicle.  And bought lots of snacks. 

Off we go....

With my favorite man!

I absolutely LOVED seeing the bug!

The detail was amazing!

And yellow really does make me happy!

We got to our hotel at midnight and went to bed... a boys room and a girls room.  The girls had a pajama party, complete with  matching pjs.  The poor guys missed out.

These nightgowns are so comfy, cute and have pockets!

I love these two, sweet girls!  (Just missing my baby!)

Saturday we headed to Hill Cumorah, where the golden plates were buried.  It was beautiful!  And the Moroni monument on top of the hill was beautiful!

Before climbing the hill...

Cousins

What a miraculous event - when the plates were finally given to Joseph.

Selfie time!

Lovin' my "adopted" daughter and son....

The Hill!

Silly.

Lookin' up to his daddy!

More silly selfies!

I love this guy so much!

Then we headed to the Smith farm and the Sacred Grove.  This was my favorite part!  The Smith home was humble and typical of the 1800s.  But the Grove was incredible.  It was peaceful and beautiful!  Everything I imagined my entire life when I heard the story of Joseph's First Vision.  At one point, I took my grandson and whispered the entire story to him as we walked through the woods.  It was wonderful!

The Smith home...

Skittles is "walking" where the prophet walked!

The temple view from the farm.

1800's bee hives - with my 2000's Bee Keeper

I loved the fences.

Inside the Grove!

Sharing this sacred experience with some of the people I love best!

I caught Sheila and Scott walking together...

And what a handsome, Kade!

My posterity!  And I truly find joy in them!

These silly kids were walking and doing a kick line at the same time.

I love 'em!

Cousins looking back at the Smith farm from the temple.

Aunt Sheila is teaching Skittles to love flowers!

The Palmyra Temple

Holding my grandson!

Then we decided to head to the Aaronic Priesthood Restoration site.  It was a few hours of driving to get there... but it was also amazing.  Emma's childhood home was extremely extravagant compared to Joseph's upbringing.  It was quite a contrast.  Emma truly was a great woman!

Here we are.

Emma's childhood home.

After a day of seeing ALL the sights, we headed back to the hotel.  It was after midnight, again, when we crashed.
Sunday morning we checked out of our rooms and went to church.  After sacrament meeting we went to Niagra Falls.  We expected the Niagra Falls part of the trip to be about an hour trip - total.  Because of events, Labor Day weekend, and traffic, our short side trip ended up being 4 hours long.  It was still an amazing sight.  God has created such amazing beauty - and the falls are spectacular!

Before seeing it....

WOW!

INCREDIBLE!

GORGEOUS!

EXCITING!

Then it was more driving as we made our way to Kirkland, OH.  We got to see the Newl K. Whitney store and the Kirkland temple.  It was another memorable part of our church's history.  

Touring in the rain...

N.K. Whitney was such a good man!

These two needed to be separated....

Good thing I love both of them so much!

We made it back to Kentucky at 12:40 AM.  We were exhausted, but we were grateful for all the things we got to see...  What an fabulous vacation!
(Sorry for the MANY, MANY pictures!  It was so fun... I had to share everything... well... not quite everything... I had over 300 pictures!)