SO, the family took a trip up to palmyra new york to see the {hill cumorah pageant}. we left on friday morning thinking we would have a leisure drive up, relax in the afternoon and then do all the church stuff and pageant on saturday. turns out it was supposed to have massive thunderstorms all day saturday, so we had to scramble to alternate our plans. we decided that we would go to the pageant on friday night no matter how tired we were from the drive up. and man, i was tired. i got a short 3 hours sleep thursday night, drove the seven and a half hours up and then didn't go back to bed until 1:30am saturday morning. but it was all worth it. the pageant itself was amazing as usual. i just love the spirit that resides in that incredible place. the girls loved every minute of it. michelle would come over and give me a hug every time jesus would come onto the stage. elise would give me a tight hug every time the people were being unrighteous. and wesley slept the whole entire time! i KNOW the Lord had something to do with THAT. i also know that the spirit was with the congregation since the peace and respect brought to one another at the end was apparent trying to get out of the parking lot. their would be no other place that would go as smoothly as that parking lot did.
Saturday was a day of leisure. we walked the mall, swam in the indoor pool, watched the buckets of rain fall from the sky, were grateful at being smart to attend the pageant the night before, went to a chinese buffet with the girls for the first time, the girls realized what a buffet truly means, getting sick off the buffet, vowing to not go to buffets again, doing some resting on the beds, watched movies, shopped at target, walmart, toys-r-us (you know the essential stores to shop at on vacation) baths, and sorta kinda sleep (since the kids were sick).
Sunday
was better. we awoke early to pack things up and we went to the local ward for sacrament. it was fun to see another ward and the corks that they have. the couple who spoke were new to the ward, and the more they spoke, the more the mister and i would laugh. {they sounded very familiar}. oh well, their talks were lovely. at least that's what the mister said since i was wandering the halls with a terribly upset boy because we left his bottle back at the hotel. yeah, that was no fun. but after checking out of the hotel and traveling to the hill cumorah and {joseph smith's house} WAS fun and such a spiritual edification. i would have been able to show you lots and lots of pictures if i would have been clever enough to charge my camera battery but all i know is that being on sacred ground, being in the only truly known place that our savior and heavenly father have been, was humbling. my kids of course being sick, were tired before we got there. they were such troopers though. elise just wanted to see everything that joseph smith did. where he lived, where he worked, the farm, the grove. michelle poor thing was just tired. we were able to sit in the sacred grove for a time as a family and listen to the birds, to the wind in the trees, the water running in the creek. to try and imagine how joseph would have seen the very same trees as he knelt in prayer. then we too, listened to the mister say a prayer for our little family. what a wonderful day. i am so grateful that i was able to make it up to new york again. the last time i was up there, it was for a family reunion and i was alone with a year old elise. the mister was still back in england and i was facing a crisis with another family member. i couldn't bare to be around my family and i opted out of going to visit the sites. after going there this weekend, i really wish i would have gone. i could have used the sacred grove in healing my soul at the time. i could have used some humbleness in my thoughts and actions. i wish i was stronger back then, but i'm relieved that i wised up and found my way back there. we have amazing prophets. we have an amazing heavenly father and savior. we have an amazing church. we have an amazing gospel.SO, now we are home and my girls have ear infections, elise might also have a UTI, and wesley has diarrhea and a fever. WONDERFUL. welcome home....
