A very quick trip to Palmyra NY to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant

A couple of months ago our good friends the Buhl's invited us to meet them in Palmyra to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Well, they are such a good time and Cohen has never been to Palmyra so it was totally a win in our book!

We left on Thursday morning (stopping at Animal Adventure Park on the way) and arrived at Palmyra around 3:30pm. We first went to the Sacred Grove and the Smith Family Farm. About three minutes into the Sacred Grove Cohen decided it would be fun to play in all the mud puddles left over by the rain storm that passed through a few hours earlier. While I'm ok with Cohen splashing in mud puddles when we are on our way home and I can throw him in the bath, I wasn't too excited when on our trip and washing machines are not readily available. Well, after I told him not to play in the puddles he did one last jump which resulted in him tripping and face planting into a big puddle.  Please note all the mud on his "digger" shirt. One of the sister missionaries said she didn't even notice because she thought it was part of the shirt :)

We went to the visitor center for a quick look around. I mean quick cause Cohen was going crazy after riding in the car for so long, so we didn't stay long.

We then headed over to the Pageant to make sure we got seats (since the ground was so muddy and wet). Well, we got there VERY early and really had a large selection of seats to choose from. While we waited for our friends to arrive, Cohen and I made the trip to the top of the Hill Cumorah. We also spent some time talking to the cast members. Cohen LOVED it because so many people came up and wanted to talk to him and he in turn chatted their ears off. He also spent some quality time kicking a ball around with anyone who would join him. He convinced this poor woman into playing with him for a sold 20 minutes!

We really enjoyed the pageant and liked being so close to the stage. Last time we went we sat in the very back, which is totally ok, but we couldn't believe how much of the details that we missed. They use so much water/mist to help them tell the story and we really got the full effects being so close (we were third row center). Cohen was not that excited about the pageant to tell you the truth. It was late and he was tired. His favorite parts were when Nephi built the boat and Abinadi.

Palmyra Trip: Camp and the Peter Whitmer Farm

I know this is probably a little out of order, but I figured I would show you a few pictures of the camp we stayed at. The camp is called Seneca Lake Camp. It's an LDS owned camp and is located only 45 min south of the church history sites. While working with the Missionaries running the camp was slightly difficult (They messed up our reservation, then denied that we had one even though we had email communications...Awesome). I would recommend youth groups staying there!

On our way home we stopped at the Peter Whitmer Farm. It was a quick stop, but I'm glad we did.

Palmyra Trip: Temple

Ok, now for some more Palmyra trip pictures.

After the Sacred Grove and Smith Farm, we loaded the kids up for a short drive to the Palmyra Temple. I mean short. We probably could have walked it.

The Palmyra Temple is probably the smallest temple I have ever been in, but it was absolutely beautiful. The stain-glass was lovely! All the windows had images on the Sacred Grove. I hope I get to go back for another visit.

After spending some time in the temple, I forced the kids to pose for a couple of pictures. The boys were being very difficult, so I never got a nice picture of everyone. You would think it would be easy. One, Two, Three....look at me. Apparently this is not the case for the YM in my ward. That was just too many numbers for them. Look at met trashing the YM on my temple post! Terrible! I will repent later.

Palmyra Trip: Smith Family Farm

 After spending some time in the Sacred Grove, I made my way to the Smith Family Farm. There were't any tours going since it was the week of the pageant, so I just quickly walked through and took a few pictures. I really hope I get to go back and listen to the sister missionaries talk about life in the Smith home.

Palmyra Youth Trip: The Sacred Grove

After we had lunch and got into some church clothes, we headed to the Smith farm house and the Sacred Grove. We were running low on time by this point, so we didn't really get to see much of the Smith farm (I totally snuck away and got some pictures...I'll share those later), and decided to prioritize the Sacred Grove. What's the Sacred Grove you ask...you can find a little information here

It was quite a lovely experience and I'm so glad I got to be there with the youth.

Of course I had to have the young women do a little mini photo-shoot before we headed in. This totally annoyed Jeff by the way. I didn't care! One of my favorite pictures from the trip is the one of Brother Swindler taking a picture of the girls. He was totally my photo buddy. We went all paparazzi on them!

I'm just so grateful that I live on the east coast and can visit these church sites! Totally a testimony building experience!

Palmyra Youth Trip: Cooling Off In Seneca Lake

We took the youth up to Palmyra, New York to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant, the Sacred Grove, Palmyra Temple, and the Peter Whitmer Farm. I've been looking forward to this trip for quite some time and let me just say it was truly a wonderful trip. I'm going to be posting about our trip over the next few days.

I missed the first day of the trip, which consisted mostly of driving, settling in to the cabins at Seneca Lake Camp, a rousing game of ultimate frisbee, and a devotional. I hear the devotional was very good, so I'm a little upset I missed it. I showed up late that evening (I had to work).

The next day we got up and had a little breakfast and then headed straight down to the lake. We had a great time cooling off (it was in the high 90's for most our a trip) and boating. We really have the best youth! They're just so much fun.