Harmony and Palmyra -- May 12, 2014

One of the things that my parents wanted to do while visiting was to tour many of the church history sites in this area of the country.  So Monday morning we got up early, dropped Hannah off at a friends house, and then took a rental car and headed north east.  Our first stop of the day was Harmony (now called Oakland), which was about 3 hours away.

Harmony, PA church history site

Many events took place in Harmony.  Joseph and Emma moved here in December 1827 to escape persecution, and Joseph began translating the plates.  Emma was a scribe to Joseph at Harmony, as was Martin Harris for a time, and then Oliver Cowdery came in April 1829 and helped Joseph finish the translation.  One of the most common known events that took place here was the restoration of the priesthood of God on the banks of the Susquehanna River.  We were lucky that we could access this church history site when we did because the Church is getting ready to start construction here, which means it will soon be off limits.

This is where Joseph's and Emma's home was.  You can see a wood stake just off to the left.  There were several of these stakes located throughout the site as the construction is about ready to start.

Restoration of the priesthood monument.

The trail heading to the banks of the Susquehanna River was so pretty.

On the banks of the River.

After visiting Harmony, we then drove up to Palmyra (about 2.5 hours away).  Our first stop was the Smith family farm and the Sacred Grove.

Smith Family Farm

There are two homes on the farm.  The first home is the family log home.  This was the house that Joseph's family lived in at the time of the First Vision.  It was also in the house where the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph multiple times that evening in the upstairs bedroom, just three years after the First Vision.

The Frame Home

The second home on the Smith family property is the Frame Home.  The family moved into this home late in 1825.  It was Alvin Smith (Joseph's older brother) who started construction on the house in 1822. Unfortunately, Alvin died in 1823 and was unable to complete constructing the house, so his family finished the home and later moved into it.  It is significantly larger than the log home.

One of my favorite things about this property is when you are walking down the lane/trail to the frame home, you can see the Palmyra temple through some of the trees.  Gorgeous!

Sacred Grove

After touring the Smith homes, we then walked into the Sacred Grove.  This is one of my favorite spots on earth.  The best way to describe it is by it's name: it's sacred, and it is a beautiful grove.

The Grandin Building

After the Sacred Grove, we then went to the Book of Mormon publication site, also known as the Grandin Building.

This is where the Book of Mormon was first printed, and the man who owned the printed shop was a man named Egbert B. Grandin.  Printing the Book of Mormon was no small job. First of all, Martin Harris mortgaged part of his farm to guarantee $3,000 of printing cost (that was a lot of money for 1830).  With that $3,000 Egbert then took on the task of printing 5,000 copies.  This type of printing job was a really big deal for a small town. Something this big didn't even really happen in New York City. Again, this was no small job in 1830.

There are a few originals still in this building: one is the wood floor photographed below.  The second  original is the brick, but it's only from the second level and up.

Hill Cumorah

After the publication site, we headed over to the Hill Cumorah.  It was here that the plates were buried. The plates were translated by Joseph Smith, and the product of that translation is the Book of Mormon.

There was still a little bit of daylight left so we headed over to the temple to take some pictures.  It's such a pretty temple, and there was so much detail President Hinckley put into planning it.

After temple pictures, we headed over to Olive Garden for a late dinner, and then headed to the hotel. Upon arriving at the hotel, we go a fun and pleasant surprise: it turns out I was the guest of the day.

My Mom and I had the giggles for a while when we got to the hotel and saw the sign.  She and I were so tired that I think our exhaustion made us silly.  I was also still sick so I imagine my medicine made me a littly goofy too.  But after some time, we caved into our exhaustion and went to bed.

Mother's Day -- May 11, 2014

It was nice spending Mother's Day this year with my parents.

We got up in the morning, ate cereal for breakfast, got dressed in our Sunday clothes, and headed off to church.  By this time I was starting to feel a little better, but I had completely lost my voice so I sounded terrible, and kind of like a de-barked dog.

During the 3rd hour of church, our bishop came into young women to take care of some business.  One item of business was to give me my Young Women Recognition because I had completed the Personal Progress program a few weeks earlier.  Unfortunately, the medallion I was supposed to get was missing from the closet, so I had to order another one.  On the right is what the medallion looks like (photo courtesy of thisismyreallife.blogspot.com).

After church (and temple recommend interviews for Nathan and I), we headed home.  I put Hannah down for a nap, and then my Mom and I got started on dinner.  I wanted to make a turkey/thanksgiving dinner for Mother's Day.  My Mom is the master at making turkey dinners, and I wanted her by my side while I attempted my first one in the oven so she could show me her tips and tricks.  I've made turkey dinners before in my crock-pot, but never in my oven as it's always been Nathan and I.  Making the dinner was actually pretty easy and not bad at all. I think I'm ready to host larger groups for Thanksgiving. Thanks mom for the tutorial and help.  I didn't take any pictures of the master piece though.  I was too exhausted and tired from traveling and also from being sick that I didn't even think about pictures.

While the dinner was cooking, we made a trip to the park to feed the ducks.  The good news: it was a gorgeous and beautiful day outside.  The bad news: because it was such a gorgeous day, everyone was at the park and none of the ducks wanted to be fed because they were so full from being fed all day. Despite the full and fat ducks, we enjoyed the park, the weather, the company, and the cute baby ducks swimming around.

Grandpa taught Hannah how to blow dandelion weeds.

Here's a 3 generational shot, on Mother's Day.

After dinner we all re-packed and got ready for the next few days of traveling, and then we went to bed as we were all exhausted.

Valley Forge and Gettysburg -- May 10, 2014

We had an interesting night in the hotel on May 9th.  I was feeling so congested in my nasal cavity and also in my chest that I hardly slept -- not kidding.  Plus, Hannah woke up around 3:30 am.  She laid in my bed for a while, but ended up throwing up around 4:15 am.  It wasn't too bad seeing that there wasn't much in her stomach by this time, but it was still not a great experience.  Nathan got her all bathed while I cleaned up the sheets and bed.  Glad I packed extra PJ's and blankets.  I always come prepared!

I was so worried that we woke up my parents who were sleeping in the next room, but they were so dead tired they didn't hear any of the commotion.  Phew! Hannah, Nathan, and I finally fell back asleep around 5:30 am and managed to get a few more hours of sleep.  It did us a world of good.

After we got up and ready for the day, we went downstairs to an AWESOME continental breakfast. It was amazing: eggs, bacon, french toast, omelets made to order, fruit, orange juice, cereal, yogurt, granola, etc. You name it, they had it.  After breakfast we went back up to our room to get all our stuff, and Hannah finished getting dressed for the day with all her jewelry that Grandma gave her the night before.

After getting loaded in the car and headed off to Valley Forge.

This was the site of the military camp under George Washington of the Continental Army during the winter of 1777-1778 at the time of the American Revolutionary war.  Valley Forge is very large.  There are acres and acres of land, and it is (currently) very green.  I'm glad we did the driving tour.  If we did the on-foot tour it would have taken us all day to only cover a fraction of the national park.

When we finished with Valley Forge, we got in the car and drove 2 hours to go to Gettysburg.  Hannah slept pretty much the whole time, which was nice.  She was so tired (we all were).  Gettysburg is famous for a few reasons: this is where the famous battle took place that was the turning point for the Union in the Civil War.  It was the bloodiest battle with 51,000 casualties.  Another reason why Gettysburg is famous is because this is where President Lincoln gave his famous "Gettysburg address."

After Gettysburg, we got back in the card to head home (another 2 hour drive).  We stopped and grabbed some food at Subway and Wendy's and ate in the car.  When we got to Harrisburg, Hannah fully threw up in the car.  It was gross, smelly, and not a pleasant experience.  I think she was just so exhausted from the last two days, and a little car sick as we were making lots of twisty turns on the highway.  My parents were awesome troopers and helped us get Hannah all cleaned up.  I noticed they had a few smiles on their faces during the incident.  There were plenty of times I threw up in their cars on road trips.  I guess what goes around comes around.

We finally got home around 10:45 pm that night.  Nathan quickly bathed Hannah and put her to bed while I cleaned up her clothes and car seat cover for the washing machine.  It didn't take much longer for the rest of us to go to bed as well.  We were all SUPER exhausted.  It was a busy and fun day (except Hannah vomiting. That was not fun).

Philadelphia -- May 9, 2014

My parents came out to PA and visited our little family!  It was so much fun to have them.  We wish all family could come and visit with us.

To say that we did a lot of sight seeing and traveling while my parents were visiting is an understatement.  We went everywhere!  Unfortunately, just before my parents came I got sick with a nasty head cold that eventually traveled down to my chest.  So I didn't wear much make-up as my eyes were watering on occasion.  Not to mention, I was just too tired to put make-up on.  Luckily, I started feeling better a few days after they arrived.

Our first stop during their visit was in Philadelphia.  Mom and Dad took a red-eye flight into Philly (bless their hearts), and then we picked them up at the airport.

My parents lived in Philadelphia when they were first married as they were attending school, so our first sight seeing adventure was to drive by their old house where they lived.  It was fun to listen to them reminisce about their memories of that house.  I can somewhat relate now that we no longer live in our Iowa home.  I hope we can one day drive by our Iowa home 30 years from now with Hannah.

We also drove by their former church building their ward met in.  It is no longer owned or associated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  It looked like a really neat building as it was not the average layout for an LDS chapel.

We then headed over to the dental school, and toured the building.  There have been many changes and additions since my Dad was there, but it was still fun to see.  I liked the gargoyles on the building.  I only took one picture inside the building.  There were several dental students working on patients, and I didn't want to violate any HIPPA confidentiality.  Gotta love HIPPA.

After touring the dental school, we went and got some Philly cheese steak sandwiches at Pat's King of Steaks.  I have never had a Philly cheese steak before, but I've been interested in eating at least one in my lifetime. I was holding out for the true experience of eating a true Philly cheese steak sandwich in Philadelphia. Honestly, it was pretty good.  Very, very greasy and definitely not weight watcher friendly, but it is something you do at least once in your life.

While we were trying to get to the restaurant that made the Philly cheese steaks, we ran into a MAJOR traffic jam, and got completely barricaded by the cops.  There were several white vans and large crowds everywhere.  I saw a woman wearing a red, white and blue dress being photographed, but I couldn't make out who it was.  Since we were stuck in traffic, my Mom and Dad decided to get out of the car and walk to the restaurant to order and pick up the sandwiches.  Of course, once they got out of the car traffic started moving.  Go figure.  I had Nathan park a little ways away, and I ended up meeting my parents on foot to help navigate them back to the car.  When I met up with my parents, my Mom informed me of what all the commotion was about.  It turns out that Wendy Williams (pictured below and photo courtesy gettyimages.co.uk) was hanging around the same place we were trying to go for lunch.  All I could think of was "I'm glad it wasn't Oprah.  We would have been stuck there all day!"

After a very filling lunch, we drove over to Independence Hall.  We could not tour the hall as there were no more tours for the day (bummer), but we were able to walk around the grounds. We also got to see the Liberty Bell as well, which was pretty cool.

After Independence Hall, we drove down the Italian Market, saw all the fresh produce and raw meat hanging from the butchers ceilings.  We also stopped at a place called Isgros that was by the Italian market. Apparently, they make world famous Cannoli's.  So, we ordered four and they were very yummy!

We then drove around downtown Philadelphia.  One building that we saw was City Hall.  It was in a round about so I took picture from the front and the back.

We also drove by the Philadelphia Temple.  It's under construction, but it was neat for my parents to see this.  This temple is located right downtown, and it is going to be a fantastic addition to Philadelphia. I'm excited for it's completion in 2016.

We also drove by the Rodin Museum and saw the famous statue "The Thinker."  Sorry it's not a great photo.  I took it as we were driving by.

By this time it was starting to get late and we were getting tired (especially my parents) so we drove to the hotel and got checked in.  We still needed to eat dinner though so we headed down a few blocks to a place called Saladworks.  Since we stuffed our stomachs with greasy and unhealthy food throughout the day, we decided we needed some produce for dinner, and salads won that vote.  Ironically, after we ate dinner, my parents and Nathan ordered malts from a diner a few blocks down the way for dessert. So much four healthy eating.

After eating dinner (and for some, dessert) we arrived back at the hotel and my Mom surprised Hannah with some play jewelry (3 necklaces, 3 bracelets, and 3 rings).  You can tell by Hannah's expression how elated she was at her surprise present.  It was really, really adorable.