Day 2 - Palmyra

On Sunday morning, we went to church in Buffalo. After church, we drove about 1 1/2 hours to Palmyra, New York. We started with a visit to the Joseph Smith Family Farm. We toured their home and visited the Sacred Grove. From there we drove to the Peter Whitmer farm, about 45 miles away. This is where much of the Book of Mormon was translated and where the organization of the church took place. It was a beautiful place. We drove back to Palmyra and made stops at the temple and at the Hill Cumorah. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon and we loved all the places we visited. It is still a very quiet community and fun place to drive around and sightsee.

Here we are between the Sacred Grove and the temple. If you look above our heads, you can see the temple.

A view out the window of the Smith farmhouse...

Here is the tree that the Smith family planted when their son/brother, Alvin died. That's why it is called Alvin's Tree!

The Sacred Grove...my favorite place, by far!

There are paths and benches all through the grove. In fact, we all wandered off alone or in pairs and it took awhile to get back together. A calm and peaceful place to be lost!

This is the inside of the Peter Whitmer home where the Church was first organized.

The temple grounds...

The temple windows have etched trees on them representing the Sacred Grove. In the set of windows that looks out over the Sacred Grove, the middle window is clear, so that from inside you have a view of the Grove.

We also visited the monument at the top of the Hill Cumorah...

We have only had 2 days of vacation and the kids are already making faces when I ask them to pose for a picture...

Tomorrow, we head to New York City!