Easter Vacation...part 1...more to come

What a great trip we had visiting our family on the east coast. We took a trip to upstate New York with Marylynn and Tyler to visit a church history site in Palmyra, then down to Pennsylvania to visit John and Jaime along with Katie and Clayton. We made our trip to mecca at Hersheyworld, John and I went to Baltimore to see the the Orioles play the Yankees, a trip to Gettysburg, and much, much, more. We celebrated Gredtel's 3rd birthday and celebrated Easter at Katie's, but I think the kids favorite was visiting the bounce house while poor John was recuperating from shoulder surgery earlier that day. Enjoy the pictures...

This is Mary and an old woman (Mary is the one on the right) outside of the donut shop in Hershey.

Here we are with the kids ready to eat donuts. What pretty girls!

We had great weather at Palmyra and the the morning we left it got very cold and snowed.

This is the temple in Palymra and from here you can see the sacred grove.

This is inside the Grandin building where the Book of Mormon was published.

This is one of the original copies of the Book of Mormon on display at the Grandin Building.

Inside of the Peter Whitmer home where the Church was organized on April 6, 1830. This is the upstairs bedroom.

The room in which the first meeting took place on April 6, 1830 to organize the church. It just so happened that we the date we were here was April 6th.

Outside of the Peter Whitmer home. Cricket and Buster were great during our trip with all the traveling and the several sites we visited

What a great looking young man holding up this granite stone identifying the Whitmer home. You know, he looks a lot like me.

This is the top of the hill Cumorah with the angel Moroni. This is the dominate site in Palmyra which overlooks the town and farmlands below.

Mary and Marylynn made the trek together up the hill Cumorah and you can see they shed the coats they had been wearing.

This is a view half way up the hill.

The visitors center at the base of the hill.

Mary and I inside the Sacred Grove. This was about the time that Joseph Smith received the First Vision, and as you can see the trees are still without the beautiful green leaves, but you can see the beginning of spring growth all around, much like the beginning of the restoration which began with the First Vision.

Here is some of the spring growth within the Sacred Grove.

Inside the Sacred Grove. It was very peaceful and inspired one to reflect and meditate.

Cricket and Buster inside the Sacred Grove.

Mary and Don at the beginning of the path inside the Sacred Grove.

This is the bridge just outside the Smith Family home towards the Grove. What a great family!

This is the framed home that Alvin started prior to his death for his parents, Joseph Smith Sr. and his mother Lucy. It was 3/4 finished when he passed away and charged his brother Hyrum to finish it.

This is inside the framed home. It was quite an improvement from the log cabin that the family lived in previously which is only a few hundred yards from this site.

The is the black oak tree that the family planted right after the death of Alvin in his memory. This is just outside the framed home

This is between the log cabin and the framed home. You can see the Palymra temple in the background.

I think Tyler was envying the cute rabbit ears Cricket is wearing. I must say, she looks adorable!

Lucky grandma with Cricket. The trip would have been worth coming if just to be with the kids.

Beautiful girls patiently waiting for their orders to be served.

I am tracing Buster hand and he thought that was fun. This is the extent of my artistic ability, but it doesn't matter to Buster

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