What a great trip!!

What do you do with five days - no work - no school!!  Road trip!!  Manhattan has been reading the Work and the Glory series and she was dying to do some church history visits.  We decided we would make the drive to Palmyra - it is only 6 hours so not a big deal!  We left on Tuesday and drove like the crazies!  Actually it was a great drive!  We got a great hotel outside of Palmyra with a great heated pool, yummy breakfast, and the best thing ever - hot huge cookies every night!!  Awesome!!!

Our first night (Tuesday) we went in town for dinner (Olive Garden - thanks for the Christmas gift card!) and came across an LLBean store - we love LLBean!  We can't afford it but we love it!!  The best part was the huge version of my winter boots!  Morgan was hoping for a spring picture but this was not it!!  Gotta love Maxwell's hat too!  We finally made it back to the hotel and it was warm cookie and swim time - awesome end to a busy day!

The next morning (Wednesday) we headed into Rochester to go to the National Museum of Play.  This place is crazy - so huge and filled with tons of stuff.  I think it used to be a toy museum but now it has lots of interactive things - a butterfly exhibit, superhero spot, and a huge grocery store where the kids can shop, scan, checkout, and restock their food!!  The mini train was a huge hit with the kids too!  Morgan took a ton of great pictures but I had to pick a few!!

Back to the hotel and it was too late to swim but we did not miss the cookies - no way!!  We got up the next morning and went swimming!  Yes, that is how early our kids get up - we had breakfast, went swimming for an hour, and still got to the Peter Whitmer Farm (20 minutes away) by 10 am!

Thursday was filled with church history tours - Peter Whitmer Farm (church was organized), Joseph Smith's log cabin, the Sacred Grove, the Smith Frame home, the Palmyra temple, E.B. Grandin Printing Press (where Book of Mormon was printed), and the Hill Cumorah!  It was a great visit -Manhattan loved every second of it, Marin really started to understand things, and Maxwell was completing oblivious - he totally missed it!  The best Maxwell moment was as we reverently walked into the Sacred Grove passing several people resting on benches in quite reflection - Maxwell starts skipping and jumping down the trail - laughing and shouting!  No amount of shh shh would convince him that this was not an awesome walk through the forest!  Oh well - we will make the trip when he is 6-7 years old and then he will get it too!!

Our visit to the Sacred Grove was a little humorous but not so reverent but still worth it!  Manhattan really loved it!  Maxwell's favorite part was running free outside - crazy kid!

 The girls loved the Sister Missionaries - they were fabulous at every site!

 The last stop of the day - Hill Cumorah!  Maxwell fell asleep during the 11 minute video!  Of course, as soon as we went outside to hike the hill he was awake and ready to run the hill!  All the kids loved running up the hill and were begging us to let them roll down it - didn't happen - too bumpy and too many pipes!!  It was a great adventure up the hill though!!

We were all tired but not too tired for some SWIMMING!  We ended the evening with swimming, pizza, and COOKIES!! 

On Friday we packed up and headed home.  We made a stop at Niagara Falls - it was so cold!  No spring picture taken here either! To be a spring picture we should not be bundled up!!

We made it home late on Friday and we were whipped!  Road trip a success - next trip will be in July out west to Yellowstone and Salt Lake City to see our families!  Bring the miles on!