Me, Ryan, Hyrum, Cora, Mindi, her roommate, and my mom and dad all stayed in my sister’s two bedroom apartment for a week. And we survived! Aunty Mindi really knows how to get on my kids’ good side-chips!
Part of what I liked about the trip was there were days full of activity, but there were also days that were mostly downtime, which was great for my kids. They could just go outside and play for awhile, which was awesome- we only get to do that here in the winter.
Bubbles and blowing with cousins:
The first evening we were in Ithaca, NY we took a little tour of the Cornell campus with my sister. It is sooooo beautiful! Definitely the coolest and most beautiful campus I’ve ever seen. Also, the biggest. They have all sorts of little gardens and forest-looking vignettes throughout campus and in those we saw a few squirrels, a chipmunk, an opossum, and a groundhog. The kids LOVED it! And I thought it was pretty awesome too.
Hyrum loved holding Maya’s hand and leading her around:
Cornell has a display of real human brains, which totally grossed out some of the kids:
Rolling down one of the hills on campus:
This hall totally looks like that one on Harry Potter! We had to take lots of pictures here:
Chasing the opossum:
The next day we went to Niagara Falls on our way to Kirtland, OH:
Waiting to board Maid of the Mist:
Cora’s face for pretty much the whole experience:
Hyrum mostly hid way in his poncho because he didn’t want to get wet!
Maid of the Mist was one of our favorite things we did the whole vacation (even though we’ve done it before). So cool! Nothing like getting rained on by a gigantic waterfall
We had to do this for a lot of the trip:
On our way to Kirtland, we stopped at this travel center for like an hour figuring out what to do. There was an arcade there and the kids had fun playing with the games (with no money). This was Hyrum’s choice:
The next morning we visited Kirtland, OH, a place where the LDS church had a lot of its beginnings. This trip I feel like I learned a lot about Ann Whitney (N.K. Whitney’s wife) and am so amazed what their family sacrificed for the gospel and how they stayed strong no matter what. I hope our family will also stay strong through whatever happens in our lives.
School of the prophets (Cora slept through most of this):
She’s awake! In N.K. Whitney’s house:
Ashery:
Kirtland temple, now owned by the RLDS/Community of Christ:
The next couple days it was time for graduations! We are SO proud of Mindi and how she has persevered through her program to get her PhD in economics. We know the Lord has a hand in her life, and that she will be a great addition to BYU-I in the fall!
Way on the right, she’s getting hooded:
Mindi also graduated on her birthday! Wahoo! So we got to celebrate with her:
After her ceremony on Sunday we went to a potluck picnic for her branch for all those who were graduating. It was nice to see all of the support Mindi had while she was there.
That Monday we went to Palmyra (sans Ryan- he had to work). Here is the Whitmer farm:
At the Hill Cumorah, Hyrum and the kids tried to find the stone that Joseph Smith found (I don’t think they found it):
We walked down the Hill Cumorah to the visitor’s center, and I am so glad we did because it was so peaceful and gave me some nice time to reflect on what happened there.
We went to the printing press, and saw some cool (original) paintings:
We had lunch at a yummy place that had HUGE ice cream cones!
The sacred grove:
Hyrum amazed me while we were there with his ability to sleep. Once he has decided to go to sleep, he can sleep through anything! One night he went to sleep with my whole family in the little apartment, singing karaoke at the top of their lungs. He fell asleep this night too, in the middle of a lot of commotion:
We really, really loved our time in NY with my family. It wasn’t always peaceful, or easy, but that’s what family vacations are all about, right? Making memories together even if it isn’t the most relaxing thing ever. Especially with kids in the mix. We shared so much laughter, fun things, and good food. Loved it! Next post- our trip to PA!
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