Palmyra and Niagara Falls

Some of these photos imported funny from a chatbooks album...whoops!

Brandon took a few days off so we could go to the Hill Cumorah pageant. The previous day we drove up to my cousin Jared's home which is about halfway there. We stayed the night there, the kids had a great time playing together, and they took us to Watkins Glen State Park which is a beautiful river gorge with stairs along the side to hike through it. Brandon's phone estimated we climbed 23 flights!

Carter liked walking up the stairs, there were so many though I had to carry him sometimes to catch up!

Tyler, Brielle, Lily, Lyla, Jared, Ray

Then we drove up to Rochester to check into our hotel; there was a problem with it so we actually got moved to another hotel so that took a little extra time. Luckily Lauren had gone directly to the Pageant to save us some seats. We had a great view! Our favorite scenes were the trumpeting angels and the Lehi's family on the ship.

Jared's sister Nicole and her husband were on a Church history bus tour and just happened to be at the pageant that same night we were! We found each other afterwards, so crazy we were all there together!

The next morning we spent some time in Palmyra visiting the Smith home, Sacred Grove, and temple grounds. There was a special feeling in the Sacred Grove. We shared the story with the kids and hopefully as they grow they'll gain a greater appreciation for that amazing place. For lunch we went to a popular burger/ice cream place. The portions were huge and the little outdoor seating area was crowded with pageant performers.

Then we drove to Niagara Falls. Our hotel was new and nicely appointed with a yummy breakfast each morning. We were lucky that nothing went wrong with our reservation, some rooms were overbooked and they had to turn people away 🙀 We walked over to the national park and got some amazing views. We walked all over and stayed to watch the lights on the water and the fireworks. I'm glad we did it the first night because the fireworks were cancelled the second night!

The next day we did the Cave of the Winds tour and the Maid of the Mist and watched the video in the theater which was a little scary since it told lots of stories of people going over the falls.

The next morning we went to the aquarium and nature center then walked over the bridge to Canada!

On Rainbow Bridge

We walked all the way up to get a close view of Horseshoe Falls. There were so many tourists everywhere! We had Tim Horton's sandwiches and donuts for lunch then walked back to America. It was a lot of walking (about 7 miles total!!) but the kids were troopers. We loaded up and drove back to Jared and Lauren's place, spent the night, went to church with them the next day and drove home Sunday afternoon. We had such a great time!