Palmyra...

I guess sometimes there are benefits to Shane's travels.

Like when I got to go with him this week and visit two places that I have never been...

We flew in to Buffalo and drove to Niagra Falls...

Definitely a place I had on my Bucket List.

It was amazing of course.

Shane found friends to chat with right away...

We stayed on the Canada side... and saw the "lights" on the falls.

We woke up to this view...

 And started out the chilly morning @ the "Behind the Falls" Tour.

It was fun, but I'm not sure what I expected.

You went down in a tunnel, saw the falls from the side

 and then the falls from the backside... :)

The power of the falls was amazing...

but there wasn't much more to the self-guided tour than that. (they did say some parts were still closed for winter though.)

It was chilly... really chilly but totally incredible!

After thawing out we headed down to Palmyra...

which was the Temple that Shane was going to be working at.

We spent the day touring the Church sites.

We visited Hill Cumorah...

Then headed to Joseph Smith's 1st home... 

We had personal tours almost everywhere we went... it was pretty quiet (and cold).

We learned all kinds of interesting things and heard lots of cool stories.

One thing was that I never thought about Joseph sharing this room with 5 brothers...  when the Angel Moroni visited him. :)

We saw the Smith's 2nd home...

Most of the homes were reconstructed on the same sites, but this one was about 80 percent original.

The fireplace that Joseph hid the plates under.

Our "missionary" guide pulled out a brick for us...

all I could think was how bad you'd feel if you dropped one of those!

Then we got to go through the sacred grove.

We took the short route because it was cold, but came back on a warmer day for a longer walk.

We then took a drive to the Peter Whitmer Farm where the church was organized in 1830.

We then went to pick up Shane's nephew Nick who was there to help on the Temple.  We spent the rest of the time together...  (he wasn't keen on getting in the pictures that he knew I'd be posting on the blog.)

We went straight to the Book of Mormon Publishing site.

They were having a big celebration since it was March 26th... the date the Book of Mormon was published in 1830.

It was a fabulous day!

That ended with Shane dropping his coveted salad in the hotel hall.

Nick and I were dying at how sad he was about that. :)

The next day those 2 got up early and headed out to spend the day working at the Palmya Temple.

I stayed at the hotel and spent the ENTIRE day scrapbooking it was fabulous!!  I was totally surprised when they said they would finish up that day...

I was hoping for another day of scrapping!

But I was happy to see more sites too.

I had a tour of the Temple... the only Temple with clear glass windows that look right out into the sacred grove.

Other stuff we did was...

Drive to Sodus Point for dinner on Lake Ontario.

The next day we drove past the finger lakes to Watkins Glen for a little hike.

It was beautiful.  We wish we could have been on that lower path that wasn't open from winter yet.

Then we did some more touring of the sites that Nick hadn't seen yet.

The week was relaxing and wonderful.

So greatful for all who helped to care for our girls while we were gone.

Lydia shunned me only for a minute...  she went straight to Shane and pretty much ignored me at first!

Heartbreaking...

Thanks for letting me tag along Shane.
I hope your knees hold out long enough for me to come with you everywhere one day!