We were so lucky to be able to visit President and Sister Brown in Cleveland, Ohio and stay with them in the Mission home. It was a wonderful experience and one we will not forget. We learned so much about the history of the church and it was very humbling to walk in the footsteps of people who made such a huge impact on the Gospel.
Literally the day after school we headed out for a nice long vacation amidst all of the buying and selling a house drama.
Flying was fun but long with kiddos. I got to sit next to Drew and chat it up with him on the first flight while Brynlee and Ty enjoyed chilling together. After a layover and as we were sitting on the plane in Denver waiting to take off, Mom texted me and told me our offer was accepted for the house in Herriman. I was so excited I started slapping Ty's leg and he practically had to yell at me to stop. It was nice to hear the news just seconds before our longer flight started so we didn't have to wait any more.
I was blown away by how green and beautiful Ohio is. The trees and greenery, humidity and rain was lovely and I was in heaven. It was gorgeous! We all slept in bunk beds and that was a little different than usual but it was so dark because we were in the basement and there basically weren't any windows so we could've slept until 2:00pm thinking it was still the middle of the night.
City of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
We got in on Saturday and Sunday started off with Sacrament meeting inside the Kirtland temple.
It was really neat but, man oh man, those wood pews were soon uncomfortable. This building, however, does not even belong to the LDS church but the religion that owns it lets us use it. We were fortunate enough to be allowed upstairs in to what used to be Joseph Smith's office where he gave his own father a blessing and received the revelation about his brother Alvin Smith and the afterlife. It was very powerful and especially tender to see Uncle Mike give his own father a blessing.
The rest of Sunday went about like this: drive to a specific church history site, learn a lot about what happened there, feel the spirit, hop back in the van and repeat.
Kirtland Visitor Center
Lake Eerie searching for sea glass. It was such an adventure and we came home with a bunch of it. It was cold with biting flies and we spent forever there which was so worth it.
Love my Thomas Family
A MLB game anyone? Cleveland Indians. About 3 innings in I had my fill and turned to my book.
Ty and Brynlee enjoyed it.
Ice cream on a carousel... I think I will. Although, there was a hair in one of the shakes and they forgot another one, it was still tasty and fun.
The door to Joseph Smith's office at the Johnson Farm. Besides the gorgeous flowers there was a very tender spirit in this place. This is where Joseph was taken and tarred and feathered which resulted in the death of his twin babies. It tore at my heart to see where they were sleeping and to think of what sweet Emma had to endure as well.
Joseph and Emma's home next to the Kirtland temple. The church had just barely purchased this property and will be restoring it so we weren't able to go inside. The old details in homes amaze me. It's beautiful and fascinating.
After our Ohio adventures we loaded up and headed to Niagara Falls (bucket list: check). We were so close to Canada we couldn't help but at least take a walk across the border and we actually did a zip line which gave us a gorgeous look of the falls from the Canadian side.
It was a blast to be on this boat and take this tour. Getting close enough to seriously feel the heavy spray of the falls. What was even more cool is it was our 10th Anniversary so I MADE him give me lots of kisses. On the boat and up the stairs with the falls in the background. The likelihood that we will ever be somewhere that cool on our actual anniversary is slim to none so I made sure I got the pictures I wanted.
Our house rental in NY was cool. Everything is super old there. Our rental wasn't an exception so it had a cool spiral staircase and some crazy storage areas, entrances and layout. A lot of character. We played darts, legos, the girls swam in the pool, played on the play set and found a birds nest inside the play set
Smith Log Home in Palmyra, NY
Joseph's view of the Sacred Grove...
Three places the plates were hidden.
Ty and I had a sacred moment of praying together in this holy place. (bucket list: check)
Palmyra, NY LDS Temple
The detail in the glass was beautiful even though you can't tell in the pictures.
Hill Cumorah was a bit of a hike and a peaceful place to ponder. Such rich history.
Grandin Print Shop. Amazing stories of the printing of the Book of Mormon and the owner of the shop plus how it all came to be was divinely inspired. This is where the first 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon were printed.
Original ink stains on the walls.
The Amish sure know how to cook. Saloma cooked some of the most amazing food I've ever had. It was a privilege to sit at their table in their home.
Some random canal/park we stopped and walked around and enjoyed the scenery.
Another park in some river bottoms.
On our way home, finally. We waited at the airport for several hours waiting for a flight attendant and when she finally showed up they informed us our plane had a flat tire and they would be flying one in from Columbus. We found a flight out the next day so it was back to the mission home for one more night. Kind of a mess but gave us another night to stayツ Plus Brynlee and I didn't have seats in front of us so we had a ton of leg room (which I felt bad and offered it to some of my longer legged family members but everyone declined).
Other memories include watching the deer and BBQ'ing in the backyard. I went on a walk with Janet one morning. That lady sure knows how to speed walk. The tooth fairy even came to visit Brynlee while we were there. She also fell off the bottom bunk one of the first nights too. I slept a lot which was divine, really needed it. We saw the Whitmer farm, some random field where Parley P. Pratt camped out. Rode a tour bus to tons of other places. Not gonna lie but I slept through a lot of it. Throughout the whole trip we were doing all our paperwork to sell our home and buy a new home. It was kind of crazy. It's really great that we were able to do it all online.
I was so glad we got to go on this vacation. We wouldn't have had that same experience if Mike and Janet were not serving there. It was truly beautiful in so many ways. A trip for the books that we won't forget.
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