Palmyra!

Ma, Mase, Me and Brook by the statue of the Savior in the Hill Cumorah Visitor Center!

Mason and Brook looking at the Golden Plates replica. Mase asked me "Mom, are those the REAL golden plates?" Oh my sweet little boy!

Ma with the kids, ready to watch the Joseph Smith movie!

The Sacred Grove!

We thought we were in the sacred grove but this sign was posted. This was the Smith family property line, see the big rocks? Moved by oxen.

Brook and Mason by a big tree in the grove. Maybe it was here when Joseph Smith said his prayer?

love these fences! In front of an apple orchard.

LOVE THIS PICTURE! How sweet holding hands.

The Smith family barn. Used to be Brigham Young's Father's. He donated it to the Church. Its just like the one the Smith's had.

The Smith home. Lucy Smith helped pay for the acreage and home by painting on canvas rugs...

The Smith cabin. This is where Joseph lived when he was 14.

Palmyra Temple!

See the Temple in the background???

Me and the kiddos on Temple grounds.

Monday July 11th we took to two older kids to Palmyra while my dad and Megan watched Dallas at home. First we stopped by the visitor's Center and watched a film about Joseph Smith's first vision, then we went to the top of Hill Cumorah (pictures to follow). We walked on the Temple grounds. Then we went down to the Sacred Grove and walked around the Smith family farm and the Smith Cabin!

Oh how lovely was the morning! This is the song that fills my heart every time I walk through the sacred grove! I'm so happy my kids were so well behaved. I think they could feel that it is a special place! It always strikes me how much our Father in Heaven watches over us and loves us whenever I hear the story of  how Joseph hiding the golden plates under the floor boards in his father's shed, then the spirit told him to move them, so he moved them to the loft in the shed. When the mob came to find them, they ripped apart the floor boards but they never looked in the loft and the plates remained safe! Its the little promptings of the spirit that let us know that God looks out for us!!!

Brook and Mase were amazed at that story! I sure hope their little hearts are old enough to understand these stories and to take them to heart!