Cuteness is not enough. There must be cake!: Palmyra, New York

Today is your lucky day!! I am going to give you a three for one. In this post, we will be covering June 12th, 13th, and 14th. I don't have a ton of pictures from these three days, so I figured I could squeeze them all into one blog post.

Well, let's get this show on the road by starting out with.....

WEDNESDAY, 12 JUNE 2019

The plan for this day was to visit the Sacred Grove. We also visited the Hill Cumorah, the Smith Family Farm, and the Grandon Book Store. The country around Palmyra is so beautiful. There is such a peaceful feeling. I absolutely loved Nauvoo and had a lot of fun there, but hands down, the Sacred Grove was my favorite.

Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center

The Hill Cumorah.

The Smith Family Farm

Grandon Book Store.

Journal entries for the day:

Interesting things I have learned: It is nothing like how I imagined it would be.

Thoughts and impressions I have had: It was very peaceful and calm.

What was my favorite part? Why? Walking in the Sacred Grove. I could feel the peace of the spirit.

How has this helped my testimony grow? Feeling the spirit so strong and profoundly.

And

Today's date is: 12 June 2019

Today we visited: Palmyra, New York

Today's weather: Sunny

Today I feel: Happy

What I saw today: The Hill Cumorah. The Smith Family Farm. The Sacred Grove. Grandon Book Store.

My favorite part of the day: The Sacred Grove.

I liked: The beauty of the trees.

I did not like: The MOSQUITOS!!!

It was funny when: We were all being silly at dinner. (I don't remember what it was we were doing at dinner that was so silly, but apparently it was funny. I mean, we are a funny group of people.)

THURSDAY, 13 JUNE 2019

It rained, A LOT, but it didn't stop us from going back to the Sacred Grove. It rained right up until we got into the grove. Now, I thought we had only spent about 20 minutes wandering around in the grove, but when we got out, we realized that three hours had passed. I could have easily spent all day in the grove.

I love that the Palmyra temple is set where it can be seen from the Sacred Grove.

We were the only one's who wanted to brave the rain.

Before going into the grove....

The peace and the spirit that permeated the grove is indescribable. There aren't words to describe the feeling. Pictures just can't do the beauty of the grove justice either. But here are some of my favorite pictures we took.

We even met a frog in our wanderings in the grove. Let's see if you can spot him.

And this is the weather AFTER coming out of the grove.

We took a tour through the house Joseph lived in when the angel Moroni visited him three times in one night.

I know Jaina is blurry, but I still like this photo.

Now then, I may get shot for posting these next two pictures, but they are just too good to pass up. If you will recall, in one of my journal entries from Nauvoo, the prompt was, "It was funny when:" and I had wrote, "We saw the I💓 Mormon boys shirts." Well, there were other funny shirts besides those and, well, naturally we bought said shirts. Maddie's shirt was a tad bit on the small side. Nathan said that he could stretch it out for her.......

He was very successful in stretching it out.

Journal entries for the day:

Interesting things I have learned: When President Hinckley dedicated the Palmyra Temple, he said that the Sacred Grove is the second most holy place on earth next to the Garden of Gethsemane. (I would have to say that it is quite true. I had some very profound experiences in the grove. However, they are special and sacred, so I will not be sharing them here.)

And

Today's date is: 13 June 2019

Today we visited: The Sacred Grove

Today's weather: Rainy

Today I feel: Happy

What I saw today: The Sacred Grove

My favorite part of the day: Going into the grove and having the rain stop.

I liked: The beauty of the grove.

I did not like: The rain

It was funny when: We tried to have a fire in the rain. (ah yes, see, it was only sunny while we were in the grove. Not long after we came out, the rain came back........and it rained bucket loads. It made fixing dinner an interesting experience.)

FRIDAY, 14 JUNE 2019

On the morning of the 14th, we cleaned up camp and began our long drive to the last and final leg of our vacation. We were now leaving the church history part of our vacation and heading towards Washington, D.C. We did make one final church history stop on our way to D.C. That stop was Harmony, Pennsylvania to the site where the priesthood was restored.

I had way more pictures than just this one. Sadly, this is the only one I have.

And now to introduce another episode of what do 8 kids on a long car ride do? Apparently Tiger Lily takes weird selfies. These are the only pictures I have of that long car ride to D.C.