Due to the floors being redone, we needed to leave during spring break. Since Robbie wasn't old enough to attend youth conference this summer on their trip to upstate New York, we decided we'd go there as a family instead. It had been six years since our last visit.
Of course, we had to stop at Hershey Chocolate World on our way up. The kids got to design their own candy bar!
Clara was very distressed about the requirement to wear a hair net (which was completely for show because we didn't even touch the food and it was all behind glass, but whatever), and mercifully a kind worker let her go in without it as long as she was holding it.
We chose the three inside toppings (pretzel bits, cookie bits, mini chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, or toffee bits) as well as the base, and then it was coated in milk chocolate.
They designed their own covers--Henry's was called Billy Bob, and Robbie's was Thingamabob. Clara's was based on a K-pop artist she likes.
We headed up to Palmyra, and our first stop the next day was the Peter Whitmer farm.
Here we are six years ago in 2018--Benjy was asleep in his car seat on the side, I believe.
A couple more of these handsome boys were added in the mean time. It's been neat reading and learning more in the Doctrine and Covenants in seminary and then re-visiting these places with more meaning.
One of my favorite parts of these church history sites is seeing the Book of Mormon manuscript page that Oliver Cowdery transcribed without punctuation.
We stayed in an older home in Palmyra during part of our visit. It wasn't amazing, but a golden moment was the fun evening we had watching National Treasure as a family during a stormy night.
More of the printing press--truly amazing how much work it was for any book to be printed, much less one as long as the Book of Mormon. I am just humbled by how much work it was to do
anything then. And I complain when my printer runs out of ink . . .
After an evening of icy hail and rain, the next morning was clear and we were able to visit the Sacred Grove. As often happens, what we hoped would be a quiet, contemplative spiritual experience sharing testimony in the forest was in reality one where the boys were running around, playing with sticks, "avoiding" wet spots. I am hopeful that they'll remember these experiences, but honestly, it's the private personal moments with the Spirit that are more meaningful. I truly pray they'll have those.
We love this crew.
After the Sacred Grove, we traveled up to Ontario to see Niagara Falls. What an amazing sight! It was also fun that the kids could say they've been to another country. I was so thankful that the weather cleared for us, as the day before it was forecasted to have 4-5 inches of snow there.
We splurged and stayed in a Marriott hotel that overlooked the falls, on the 30th out of 31 floors. The view was phenomenal, and we didn't realize until our tour guide informed us that the falls were lit up at night. So magical.
The next morning the view was incredible as well.
After cleaning up in the morning, we stopped at a fun, old diner back in Rochester for breakfast. Giant pancakes and omelettes where lots of the locals visited regularly, as evidenced by the friendly conversations they had with the server. Then we headed to the Strong Museum of Play, an amazing children's museum we've visited twice before. It had been six years, and the workers informed us that in that time, 99,000 additional square feet had been added. We have yet to see the entire thing, even though this time we spent about four hours there.
Six years ago, Michael was hanging off of Henry.
Six years later, he's still holding on, albeit to someone who seems to be barely hanging on herself . . .
The car ride was better than some we've had as a family. I admit that sitting in the back is not my favorite, but it's the best way we've found to promote a peaceful traveling environment.
In other news, this is an idea of what we've been eating while the main floor has been remodeled:
Yum.
Thank goodness for the sanity of date night. #kohrsbrothers
