Wednesday, October 5, 2011

NY Vacation

Back in August we made our yearly trek back to Northern New York to see friends and family. As usual, we very much enjoyed our time there and the opportunity to get our kids together with their cousins.
One of the highlights of this year's trip was taking the time to stop in Palmyra, New York on our way through. We have wanted to take the kids to see the church history sites and the temple there for a while. This time we made it happen and we had a lovely time. We stopped at the Hill Cumorah and climbed to the top.

The path was really steep, so here the kids are pretending to fall down the hill.







We then drove down the road to the Smith farm and walked in the Sacred Grove.
It was fun to bump into my niece, Molly Bryn, and cousin Alexis there.






We finished up by taking the kids to the temple. We walked around the grounds and touched the temple.






Another highlight this time was being able to attend family reunions for both Lincoln's family and my own. It was great to see extended family that I hadn't seen in ages, and lots of fun to meet so many people in Lincoln's family that I had previously not had the opportunity to meet. I was really struck by how friendly and welcoming his extended family was. They seemed genuinely excited and happy to see us. I'm so glad we were able to be there, despite Lincoln's father telling us the wrong location for the reunion. (We love you anyway, Grandpa Jesse, but we are a little concerned about the fact that you are losing your mind.) It was not easy to make the connection and we were almost ready to give up and go home but luckily we persevered and found the location.


Lincoln's aunts and uncles. You can tell from the pictures that they are a fun crew, can't you?

Lincoln and I participated in a horse tournament with his Dad and his Uncle Larry.

The kids had a blast in the pool with Grandpa Jesse.


We had to leave my reunion early in order to make it to Lincoln's, so I only got a few pictures.





Later in the evening, after going to Lincoln's reunion, we went back to my parents' for the post-reunion campfire. I don't always enjoy campfire sing-alongs these days, but I had a lot of fun at this one!






Coming soon: haying, horseback riding, and Lake Placid.