Palmyra

The main reason we chose to go Upstate on our road trip was because we wanted to see the church sites.  We live too close not to have been to all these places.  It was a cold and windy day up in Palmyra, but that didn't detract from the special places we were able to visit.

The visitors center -- The Christus statue is in the round section of the building

From the visitor's center, we walked up the hill to Hill Cumorah.  

Well, Chase didn't walk much.  He hid from the wind.

It was a bit of a walk, but I think the cold weather made it seem farther

There was a big angel statue at the top

Chase walked in circles around it several times

Our next stop was the temple.  We just drove by it and snapped a couple pictures.

The Palmyra Temple

The windows showed the Sacred Grove trees

Our next stop was the Smith's home on our way to the Sacred Grove.  Chase was getting tired and hungry at this point, so the tour was a little rushed.  

You can see the temple through the trees from this spot.  Apparently that was intentional so you can see the Sacred Grove from the windows.

Joseph Smith hid the plates under these bricks!

Taking a Goldfish break

The barn -- he also hid the plates in the rafters here, and the mobs destroyed everything on the ground but didn't think to look up to find the plates.

Then we started the walk into the Sacred Grove.

The entrance to the Grove

Chase enjoyed stomping on the leaves on the paths.

We had an interesting discussion about what kind of 'lovely morning' it was back on that spring day -- a cold one like during our trip or a green one like often portrayed in paintings˜µ,

Trying to get a family photo

Way easier said than done...

And once again, Chase wore himself out, which we used to our advantage.  We drove over to the publishing store and bought a pizza across the street.  Marcus and I ate in the car and then alternated taking the tour in the print shop.

Chase slept long enough for one pizza and two tours.

Original brick from the print shop

One of the original 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon.

It was a really interesting trip.  Crazy to see these places we've learned so much about and really put a personal memory for each location.  I'm sure it's a gorgeous area in the summer and fall!

The Strong Museum

Marcus found The Strong: National Museum of Play online while researching our trip, and we decided Chase would have a blast and needed to go.  Definitely a fun choice!

The first thing you see is a carousel, which Chase loved watching.

He'd sit on a horse for a second, but not if it was higher in the air.  Apparently he is afraid of heights or something because he had a huge meltdown about actually riding on the carousel.

Chase LOVED the train section.  He probably would've stayed there all day.

We wanted to check out other areas, so we pulled him away to the kids grocery store.

The kids get to shop around the store with a small cart.

Then they purchase their items.  So cute.

The next place Chase wanted to see was the post office -- he loves keys.

He would open up the boxes

And check for any mail

Checking the mail box is one of Chase's favorite activities at home, so this was really fun.

Of course he was drawn to a keyboard.

As well as scissors.

There were so many sections in the museum, including train stations, Sesame Street, and motion experiments.  Chase liked testing out the round xylophone.

Marcus enjoyed the percussion too.

And Marcus enjoyed the section devoted to comic book heroes and old video games :)

It's an entire family friendly museum with so many historical toys and play exhibits.  We were all pretty exhausted after all the fun.

Chase crashed and didn't move for a couple hours.
Glad we went and he had such a great time!