Oops: Trip of the Decade 7

 

After visiting Kirtland, we left for Rochester, New York (9)! Doug, my brother, graduated with a Masters at RIT, so we went to his graduation ceremonies. I am so proud of my brother. He works so very hard to reach his dreams and to provide and do all he can to be a better person and to help others feel love. He is my hero and I am so very glad I got to be there for his graduation.

 

That night, we stayed in the home of good friends from when my parents lived in Rochester 28 years ago. It was neat home that was first built in the 1850’s!

 

There were more ceremonies the following day.

The international sign of cool is hard to do with a baby in one’s arms.

Afterward, we headed to Palmyra to see the LDS Church sites there, too! The Palmyra temple has beautiful stained glass windows. The Smith farm and frame house, barn and property were cool. But the highlight was the Sacred Grove.

Elise and I spent quite a long time in there enjoying the silent peace and contemplating on the wonder and beauty of what took place there. You know, when you think about the story of how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came about it is nothing more than crazy but I do know that it happened through many experiences of the Spirit witnessing the truth of it.

From there we went to the Hill Cumorah.

The following day, Sunday, was my birthday! On top of taking me on this trip and all of the billions of things they had going on, my family still made a special point to celebrate me. That was awfully kind of them.

We attended the same ward (then branch) that my parents attended when they lived there. They used to meet in a building they rented out that was actually a Masonic Temple. Now it is a restaurant. They really enjoyed seeing old friends and catching up, and learning they were still strong in the Gospel.

Isn’t my mother gorgeous? And pretty much everything anyone would want to be? The answers are “yes”. Oh yeah, and she is super stylish! I felt very uncool walking next to her.

We then went to the building where the Book of Mormon was first published. The E.B. Grandin building. It was a very cool tour. They taught us how books were published then, as well as going through the story of what happened. Very neat.

Did I mention that Bekah joined us for the whole trip? It was real neat to have her with us. A wonderful experience for all.

After a long, exciting, filled trip, Elise and I were very ready to be home with our man.

              

 

Brandon is such a trooper letting us leave him like that. It is nice that he recognizes the need for me to be able to do things without him since he won’t exactly be available for about the next decade. :)

 

Thank you, Madre, Padre, Russ, Anne, Doug, Emily, Nikki and Jason for making this trip possible for me. I really appreciate it. It was such a wonderful trip full of so many great memories.

 

(P.S.I flew through Salt Lake City, Utah (10), Atlanta, Georgia (11) to home (Oregon (12))