Palmyra

On our way in to Palmyra, we stopped next to one of the Finger Lakes and threw rocks in the water. It was miserably hot and humid and we were just melting, so we didn’t stay long.  At least Peter named it one of his favorite parts of our whole trip.  Throwing rocks in the water will always be one of Peter’s favorite things.

Our first church history site was the Peter Whitmer farm where the church was organized.  It wasn't open yet and it was significantly less humid than right beside the lakes, so we were content to just walk around outside.  The highlight was definitely finding a frog and watching the kids timidly (for Jane) and not-so-timidly (for Peter) chase it around.  

Jane still doesn't know how to blow properly.  She always makes and F sound.

 We drove in to Palmyra and got there around noon.  We stopped at the Hill Cumorah first because it’s the first one you come to.  In retrospect, we should have gone straight to the Sacred Grove, but this is how it happened.  We hiked up the hill Cumorah and as we got to the top, it started to rain.  We brought one umbrella that the kids used and Alice and I took shelter under a tree.  We acquired a second, larger umbrella when a nice young man came up and offered his to us.  When I tried to protest that I couldn’t take his umbrella, he simply said we looked like we needed it more than he did and he was probably right.  We were very grateful. 

We missed the sign for the Sacred Grove and found ourselves on Main Street where the Book of Mormon was first published, so we stopped there.  The kids were very tired and restless, but they did well through most of the tour.  At the end though, Peter was rolling around on the floor.  He fell asleep on the way to the Temple, but not enough to stay asleep when we stopped there.  So the kids ran around the temple grounds for a bit and then we headed to the Joseph Smith Farm/Sacred Grove.  We tried to do the tour first, but the kids were pretty done.  Also, we brought the stroller for them and left it outside each house we went into.  While we were in one, it started raining.  It was more like a downpour.  Chris ran out and tried to get the stroller back to the van as fast as possible, but Alice’s car seat was already pretty wet.  I was left to manage the three wound-up kids in the Smith Frame home by myself.   They were a little out of control and there were so many things they couldn’t touch.  At the end of the tour that we didn’t hear a word of, we headed back to the van tired of dealing with tired kids.  By then it was 6:30.  We strapped the kids into their seats in the van and I fed them snacks until they both passed out while Chris got some time to decompress in the Sacred Grove by himself.  I took a turn after that.  It was still a great experience, but I would have liked to have spent more time in there and it was the place our kids would have enjoyed the most.  We just did it all in the wrong order.  It was still a great trip and I am still surprised they did as well as they did.  They are troopers.  The Sacred Grove is such a special place.  Strolling through the Sacred Grove, I was struck with the beauty.  So untainted. So natural.  As pure as 14-year-old Joseph’s faith. In these woods, our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared and my life has been exceedingly blessed because of it. I know it happened and I was grateful to have my testimony reconfirmed that day. 

Chris took these on his phone in our hotel room the next morning.  I love these monkeys.  I can't believe they're all ours.

Cooperstown, USA

We had a great Memorial weekend, but it didn’t start out so great.  We had plans to go to Palmyra and Cooperstown leaving Friday after Chris got off work, but on Thursday Peter woke up from his nap early covered in horrible hives.  I had never seen anything like it personally.  He was writhing on the floor moaning and saying “Ouch, ouch, ouch.”  He’s pretty dramatic in general so it’s hard to tell how much pain he’s really in, but it definitely looked bad.  The doctor said it was a food allergy, but it was already starting to look better.  A little later that evening I gave him a glass of milk and it flared up again.  Milk.  I had completely forgotten about Peter’s milk sensitivity when he was a baby.  He couldn’t eat things like mac and cheese without getting a rash around his mouth where it touched.

The hives were still there in the morning, but we decided to go ahead and go on our trip.  I picked up Chris from work at 2pm and we started our travels from there.

Peter had been mostly in good spirits through the day, but perhaps being confined to his car seat made him all the more aware of his itchy, inflamed hives.  He cried and whined and we decided to make a stop.  Chris gave him a blessing and blessed him that he would feel immediate relief and that the hives would go away.  A short shopping trip to pick up some dairy-free snacks and another 10 minutes down the road and Peter’s hives were almost gone.  I’m so, so grateful for the power of the priesthood and for a husband who honors and respects the sacred gift and responsibility he’s been given.  It was a powerful experience for me to feel the closeness and significance of the family unit in that moment.

[UPDATE: We went dairy-free for a week for Peter and then started adding things back into his diet.  He never had another allergic reaction.  I don't know if it was a reaction to milk at all, but I'm very, very grateful he's back to his pizza, yogurt, and crackers lifestyle.  This potential life-change occupied a lot of my thoughts the whole weekend.]

We needed to make it to Buffalo that night and we pulled in to our hotel around 11:30.  The kids settled into bed pretty well and we had a surprisingly restful night.  Alice didn’t even wake up once.  We hit the road early the next morning to make it to Cooperstown by noon for the game.  11 hours driving time in total.  Originally we were just going to go out and do Palmyra for memorial weekend, but when Chris found out that Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame were just 2.5 hours beyond Palmyra, it just made sense to add it on to this trip.  Plus there was a big event in Cooperstown where recently retired major league players play a game at Doubleday Field and it was happening that weekend.  So, 11 hours it was.  We loved the drive in to Cooperstown.  It was quite a ways off the freeway, but just gorgeous.  The town was charming and buzzing with baseball fans.  Chris was in heaven.  The Baseball Hall of Fame was his favorite part, and he beamed through the whole museum.  

Jane was nervous about standing up there with the statue, but not about to let that stop her from drinking the fresh lemonade.