New York!

For spring break last week we took a road trip to visit Rachel & Jordan & Abigail in Rochester, NY! We were so excited to get away and have a break from school and lucky for us Rachel and Jordan let us come enjoy it with them! It was perfect. Upstate New York is so beautiful, and we weren't even there at the pretty times of the year - like spring or fall. There were so many things to do there!

Rachel and Jordan took us to the most awesome museum ever - the Museum of Play! It is apparently the biggest children's museum in the nation. It just kept going and going! It was like an inside Disneyland for kids. I don't have all the photos of that yet, so I'll post those later, but here are a few of the babies and Justin climbing up the side of a building. :)

Abigail and Braden watching for the chipmunks and wild turkeys in the backyard.
(Yes, wild turkeys. We even saw a few while we were there! They are huge!)

Jordan and his sweet girl.

Palmyra was only 30 minutes away and we got to see all the amazing sights there. The Smith farm and sacred grove with the temple just across the street were amazing. It was neat to be there around the time when Joseph saw the first vision. Obviously things weren't blooming like you imagine they were when it happened, but it was still amazing to be there and walk that ground knowing that Joseph Smith walked it also and think of the amazing things that happened on those grounds.

I love how you can see the Angel Moroni above the trees going into the grove. It must be exquisite when the trees are blooming and green!

Looking into the heavens

This is one of my favs of Justin and Braden. Braden loves riding on Justin's shoulders.

Beautiful temple! This window looks out to the Sacred Grove. Sadly, the temple was closed while we were there, so we didn't get to go inside. We were quite bummed about that!

Braden enjoyed the stairs everywhere we went. Especially the ones at Jordan and Rachel's place. We don't have stairs at home so that's pretty much all he wanted to do all week, go up and down the stairs again and again. :) Lucky for us he only fell down a few of them twice...though we did later notice that he managed to chip his front tooth. :( Justin keeps reminding me that it's just a baby tooth, so it's really okay. On the plus side Braden got some great teaching from Abigail at how to master going down the stairs backwards, so now he's a pro!

We went to the Hill Cumorah, Grandin Printing Press (where the Book of Mormon was first printed), and to the Whitmer Farm in Fayette. These pictures are from the Whitmer farm. The missionary couple there were so sweet! We were their only visitors all day and they were so happy to have us that they gave us special treatment! They were such a fun couple!

Next we went to Niagara Falls. It was incredible! It was a long walk - good exercise for sure! - but so worth it! The Canadian side was especially impressive.

My two boys walking down the street.

Me, Rachel and the kiddos

Braden was pretty slow to warm up to Abigail, but I think by the end they were better friends! Abigail is so cute and sweet - she jabbers all the time and is so friendly and social! Although Braden wasn't quite as social he did come back jabbering and sounding a lot like Abigail! It is so cute to listen to!

Taking some steps!

Having fun on the air mattress!

After that many hours in the car we all seemed to go a little bit crazy and lose our sanity. Just as we were reaching this point I gave Braden the can of Pringles chips to play with - yeah, don't ask me where my brain was. I was apparently desperate for anything to entertain him! After a few moments we heard a crashing of chips and a "uh-oh" from the back seat. I turned around and saw the chips everywhere and just burst out laughing. It was like the last straw of my sanity went out the window. Justin glanced back and saw the mess and said, "Oh my. Just don't look. Just pretend it didn't happen."
I love road trips! Something about the memories made when we lose our sanity like that just makes me happy! I had several of those moments growing up with my family and it makes me happy that we are creating some of our own.
Yay for family bonding! :)

Poor kid looks like we just picked him up off the street!

Thanks Rachel and Jordan and Abigail for the best spring break!