The long anticipated family vacation

WASHINGTON D.C.
I have been working on this post ever since we got home a week and a half ago! I gave much more detail in my journal, and I know that Kylee has done a very detailed and awesome job of telling about it on her blog, but I did want to say a few things about our best ever vacation. Mike and I got the idea for this trip about 2 1/2 years ago when several of our friends went and told us about how wonderful it was (Shaws, Hunts, Lamberts). Then Mikes former boss from Mesa (Robert) gave him all the information that he uses when he takes church history tour groups to Palmyra, Kirtland and Nauvoo. We started saving and planning. Along the way, I questioned whether or not it was going to be worth it. Because of saving for so long, I just felt that no trip could live up to that much anticipation! But it far exceeded my expectations, and I'm so happy we were able to do this for ourselves and mostly for our kids.

We woke up at 1:50 a.m. the morning of June 17th to get ready to be in SLC for our 6:a.m. flight. (that took a day or two to recover from!) Our first stop once we landed in Baltimore, was the Washington D.C. temple. It is so beautiful. We toured the visitors center and saw some neat pictures honoring Pres. Hinckley. We loved it. The next two days were full touring the national mall and seeing all the buildings and museums we had heard so much about. It was all so cool. We loved everything we saw. The weather couldn't have been better.
One night we walked around in downtown Alexandria (where our motel was) and saw a cool street name- well at least Cam thought so.
I was impressed with the metro system. We got around very easily, and it was so clean and nice (can't say as much for the subway system in NYC. . .)
The Arlington Cemetary was so unbelievable. It was a very reverent place which I loved.

We met up with my niece Haley Griffin one day for lunch. We hadn't seen each other for 12 years. I had to tell the boys to stop asking about "that girl" that is their COUSIN! It was good to see her and have the kids get acquainted with their cousin from the east. We were sorry we didn't hook up with Magen. We didn't find out until after we left that she works in Alexandria! I was so disappointed.
The World War II monument was very cool- as were all the monuments honoring those soldiers from the different wars.
A rare moment of rest while waiting for the boys to find a bathroom.
NEW YORK CITY

My favorite part of our 1 1/2 days in NYC was seeing "WICKED" with the girls. I love that musical! The girls loved it too. We had a nerve-wracking time getting ourselves from our motel in New Jersey to the theatre, but we did it! The boys had an exciting time driving to and attending a Yankees game in the Bronx. We crammed a lot of activities into the next day with our first stop being the empire state building, then canal street, little italy and chinatown. We then saw ground zero and wall street, then rode the staten island ferry so we could see the statue of liberty w/o having to pay to do so! We went to central park, rockefeller center, St. patricks Cathedral, and ended up at times square! What a busy, but fun day.


This is what Mike spent most of the day doing- trying to figure out which way to go next!

NEW YORK CHURCH HISTORY

We had a much needed day of rest on Sunday. We attended sacrament meeting in a branch in New Jersey (I loved it- I'm so glad we went. It was very interesting to see what it's church is like outside of Utah!) We stayed in a nice motel that night near Harmony PA, and enjoyed a few hours having fun in the pool.

The next morning we stopped for a minute to see the monument marking where the Priesthood was restored in Harmony, then drove to Fayette NY to see where the church was organized. The sister missionaries were fun to talk to and they did a great job telling us about the history there.
We then drove to Palmyra where we had lunch and an awesome tour of the Grandin printing building where the first 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon was published. It was very interesting.

Next we went to the visitors center near the Sacred Grove. We had another awesome tour by a senior missionary couple, then went into the Sacred Grove. There are no words to describe the feeling that is in that place.

The spirit was so strong you felt like you could reach out and touch it. It was so cool. We walked around for about 1/2 hour,

then drove to the Hill Commorah and watched the Joseph Smith movie that also plays in the Joseph Smith Building in SLC. It had so much more meaning after just having been in all the places portrayed in the movie. I loved it so much. We then walked up to the top of the Hill Commorah. It was incredible imagining all that went on there- as it was in everyplace we went. So worth every penny saved.

NIAGARA FALLS

Seeing Niagara Falls is something I've always wanted to do. I'm so glad it worked out to swing by there on our way from Palmyra to Kirtland. It was so cool. We paid $82 for us all to ride the "maid of the mist" boat to get a closer look. It was so pretty. I really loved it. I love the sound of rushing water- especially the waves in the ocean.

KIRTLAND, OHIO

Our next stop was Kirtland. I honestly had no idea we were in store for so much there! I thought we had seen it all in Palmyra. We were able to see the Kirtland temple led by an RLDS guide. It was very interesting, which is what she said when Mike told her we were LDS after she asked us to fill out a comment card. It was so incredible to be in the places where the early saints were and where they sacrificed so much- and also to be again where the Savior appeared and other prophets. There is a lot of history in Kirtland! The church has done an outstanding job of re-creating some of the sites and purchasing some of the original homes and businesses. The NK Whitney store was formerly a bar before the church came along and purchased it. An area stake president did much to get the city council to approve a new road and eliminate the present road that went right between the Whitney home and store. It is now a quiet, peaceful area where you can feel the spirit so strongly. I'm sure that was not the case so much when you were right on top of the road in the middle of the city. We had an awesome senior couple give us a almost 2 hour personal tour and told us many more stories and answered questions we had that they aren't able to do when it's more crowded. We planned this trip perfectly as far as that goes. I'm grateful to all who made it possible for us to have this experience in Kirtland.

CEDAR POINT

The last day of our vacation, we planned to spend a day at "the roller coaster capital of the world" amusement park Cedar Point. It's located on Lake Erie and was so beautiful. We waited in a lot of long lines, had to wait 2 hours in the afternoon for a rain delay, and got rained out entirely two hours before close, but still it was a fun day. We got to ride on the coolest ride called "dragster" which takes off 0-120 mph in 3.8 seconds- the 2nd fastest roller coaster in the world. It was a rush! It was so incredible. Definately worth the hour wait for that 17 second thrill! I'll close with these less-than-flattering pictures of the kids. (although Kylee and Brody's is pretty cute) This is what kept us sane during the time spent waiting in lines, at the airport and in our van. We had a lot of laughs, learned much, and grew closer together as a family. It was definately worth the years of saving money and careful planning. We are all excited for our next adventure!