Day #24 Kirtland, Ohio

We arrived in Kirtland about 3:00 today and went to the temple site. It is owned by the Community of Christ (RLDS) and they gave us a tour of it. It was very interesting having a tour of our church history by a young lady who isn't of our faith. Her parents joined the Community of Christ a few years ago but she said she was still on her journey to find what she believes. We couldn't take pictures of the inside, only outside. The upstairs and downstairs are almost identical rooms, large assembly-type rooms with pulpits and stands at both ends. A lot of the woodwork, especially upstairs was original. It was very beautiful. It was a large tour. I wished we could have sat in there and had a few minutes of quiet to enjoy the special place.

Across the street is a small cemetery with many old, old grave sites. We've been to several cemeteries on this trip and the kids always try to find the oldest date on a head stone.

We then headed over to our visitors center and took a tour of Kirtland with a cute pair of Sister missionaries. We all really liked the Newel K. Whitney store. The kids thought it was fun to see all the things that were for sale. He was a jack-of-all-trades! We ran that store and was the town's postmaster.
Upstairs was really special, where the first School of the Prophets was held. It was a smallish room, not as big as I'd imagined... about the size of an average bedroom nowadays. The Spirit was really strong as the Sisters testified that this was one of the four places that the Father and Son appeared to Joseph Smith and others here in Kirtland. The other three places in Kirtland are the John Johnson Farm, the Isaac Morley Farm, and the Kirtland Temple.

We took a tour of the old saw mill and the ashery nearby. That was fun to see how it all worked! They said the ashery was one of the ways the saints earned money to build the temple. Everyone would bring their ashes to the ashery and they would add water and other material to a big pot, then cook it at extremely high temperatures (like 1000 degrees or something crazy) for several days until it turned into potash, an important fertilizer for crops that was previously only obtained from England. People came from all over to buy their potash. This ashery is the only one left in North America. Very cool!
(I don't think I'd want the job of tending the fires night and day!)

Day #24 Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls was crazy!!! Eric bought us tickets to go to the Cave of the Winds. I didn't know what to expect. We went down an elevator 180 feet and came out in the middle of the falls. We walked along the wooden walkways out to the water. Eric and boys went out on the platform called "Hurricane Deck". They got soaked!! The water was just pouring down right next to them. They played there for ten minutes and had fun. The rain ponchos didn't protect them much from the raging water. ;)
The elevator man told us they tear down the wooden walkways every fall and rebuild them in the spring so we wouldn't have to worry about safety issues. It still is a little scary being surrounded by such powerful water!

There are lots of different waterfalls there, American Falls, Bridal Veil and Horseshoe Falls are some of the names. It was definitely a fun stop and it broke up our six hour drive from Palmyra to Kirtland.

Day #23 Bonus Palmyra

We had planned to leave Palmyra this afternoon, but decided to stay another night. We attended a session at the temple. It was so beautiful. It is a small temple and there were only 7 of us there, but it was really nice. There is a window from the lobby area where you can look out to the Sacred Grove. It's wonderful to think in the very place the restoration began-- there is now a temple!!

The kids hung out in the RV and that cute note & flower from Anne was posted next to the door when we got back from the temple. She is a little piece of heaven on earth!

Since we had time this evening, after dinner we went back over to the Sacred Grove and walked through it at dusk. As it grew darker the fireflies came out in force and we spent the next hour chasing and catching them just at the entrance of the Grove. It was so cool to see the fields all around us sparkling with little lights. I tried to take pics in the dark but they didn't do it justice. It was fun!

Day #23 Peter Whitmer Farm

We went out to the Peter Whitmer Home in Fayette, about a 40 minute drive from Palmyra. There is a beautiful chapel and visitors center with lots of fun interactive displays for the kids. This is the site of the restoration of the Church in 1830. There was a very special spirit there. It's amazing to think that from this humble beginning the church has grown to be a worldwide organization in more than 180 countries. Seneca Lake is near here and that is where Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith were baptized along with a several others.

Day #23 Palmyra Temple

Eric took the older boys to do baptisms in the Palmyra temple this morning. Yesterday a sister missionary told us they have a room for the younger ones to watch a video while we waited. Anne was so excited to go in the temple she got dressed in her church clothes and wanted me to french-braid her hair around her head so it would be fancy. She's so sweet!
We walked all the grounds first (and had a mini photo session. ;) ) The girls have loved all the beautiful flowers at each of the church sites we've visited and always want their pictures taken with them.

Day #22 E. B. Grandin Press

The Grandin Printing Press was a very cool place to visit. The old building has been preserved as much as possible and the Sister missionaries gave us a tour of how the first 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon were printed, sewn, cut and bound. It took six months to complete the job, one by one! Amazing!
Bottom pic is one of the original 5,000 copies.

Day #22 Palmyra Temple and Hill Cumorah

We left the Sacred Grove and drove to the temple. It's tiny but beautiful! The stained-glass windows all look like a grove of trees- very pretty!
Around the corner is the Hill Cumorah and the Palmyra Visitors Center. We had lunch at the top of the hill in the grassy area.