We spent the second day in Fayette and Palmyra, NY. I love going to see the church history sites in these places!
Whitmer Farm...where the church was organized.
Outside of the Smith barn. Renae and Connor were very intent on picking these little wildflowers. Of course they were too cute to not take a picture of!
The Sacred Grove. When we came to the Sacred Grove, the rest of my family (parents, sibs, etc) walked on a path through the woods. Our kids were getting a little cranky, so we sat on a bench and softly sang some songs with them. It was a really sweet experience to share with them in such a place.
After seeing the main church sites, our large group separated into three smaller groups: my parents went to save us a spot at the Hill Cumorah Pageant, Scott and Family did their own thing, and our family + Chris and Jinha did our own thing. We were trying to figure out what to do, so I opened up the map section at the end of the D&C to see if there was anything else in the Palmyra area worth visiting. We ended up going to the Martin Harris home. It was closed to public, but still had a parking lot and a few historic marker signs to read.
We also went to the Alvin Smith (Joseph's older brother) grave. It was a very peaceful place...until a few anti-Mormons came and left some of their paraphernalia on his headstone. Then they stood back and meandered through the rest of the very small cemetery, waiting (I think) for us to go and take their pamphlet off the headstone just so they could be confrontational about it. Instead, Renae picked a little flower and wanted to put it on his headstone to go with the other flowers already there. I thought it was a sweet gesture.
We also stopped by the Erie Canal. Brandon and Chris were the only ones to get out there, though. Jinha, the kids, and I were tired and hot and just wanted to stay in the air conditioned van!
My parents had saved us some really great seats just 5 rows from the front. The wait really wasn't too bad...especially for those who were able to enjoy a little nap!
I think my mom was much loved by her grandkids on this trip! I'm pretty sure she had at least one grandchild glued to her at any given time!
Grandmas like having kids glued to them!
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