Camping in Palmyra

Last Thursday we took a camping trip to the finger lakes in New York. Sean and I have been planning this for months and it we were really looking forward to it. I had never seen the Hill Cumorrah pageant and wanted to 3 years ago when we lived here. We never had a chance to go then so I was very excited for the chance to go this summer. A week before we left I got a call from an old college roommate wanting to know what we were doing the following weekend. They were about to start an across the country road trip starting in Washington state and wanted to know if they could visit us. We told them we were going to the pageant and so they met us there and camped with us and then followed us home and stayed a couple days. It was really great to see her. The last time I saw them, Sara was Matthew's age and they had an 18 month old. Now she has 3 kids and I have 2. They went sight seeing during the day and at night Becky and I stayed up late talking and nursing babies. Sean's family also decided to tag along so we had quite a group in NY.

Sean is the assistant scout master in our ward and Sara goes with him to a lot of scout activities so when we arrived at the campground Sara started yelling "Boys! where are the scout boys? come on scout boys! Come here." While in NY we went to the Sacred Grove and the the houses there and then to the Whitmer farm where Joseph did a lot of translating. We didn't have time to go through the printing press. We'll have to do that next time. The pageant was really great. Sara got so emotionally involved. She cried when Jesus was crucified and during the wars when everyone was fighting. We had to do a lot of consoling in those parts. She was mad at Wicked King Noah and wanted to know where the good scout Noah was (a boy scout in our ward). She clapped and shouted for joy when Lehi's family made it to the promised land and when Christ came to America. She talked and asked questions almost the whole time...which is fine and really cute in an open field full of people...I don't know how that habit will hold up in a movie theater though.

We played a little Bocci ball at the campground.
The Sacred Grove
In front of the threshing barn where Joseph had taken the golden plates out of their hiding place and put them in plain sight on a shelf in the loft. That night a mob came and tore apart the original hiding place and broke open the box the plates had been in. They left disappointed not finding the plates...they never looked above them.

One of the beds in the little log house where Joseph grew up. They slept 3 boys to a bed. This bed was just a little bit wider than a twin sized mattress. There's another bed like this on the other wall where the other 3 boys slept and then through the door there are 2 beds for the 2 girls in the family.

Nothing like sharing a lollipop with a new friend.
On the lawn before the pageant started
Lehi's dream
Matt and Becky and their kids
Sara and Jacob playing in the car while we cleaned up camp.