Day 11

And it's Day 2 of our busier days, it was super tiring. We started in Palmyra, New York starting with the Hill Cumorah. It was on top of a steep hill, so mom suggested to some to cut through the grass straight to the top. Me, Brayden, Mason and Landon took to the hill (I had a running start [it did not last]) and the ones who went on the grass wished they went on the trail and the ones who took the trail wished they went on the grass. No matter what it was still steep. We next visited the Smith's farm and the Sacred Grove, the Grove had more paths than I remember (yes I went there before, we were living in Michigan then so it was pretty much a hop skip and a jump through Canada, besides I was 7 or 8, I barely remembered it) but it was filled with the spirit. It was kinda helpful to have hymns playing in your head. Ok, I have to tell you about this game we learned from the sister missionaries (not the ones from yesterday), it suppose to show you where you are going on your mission. You walk around a table full of Book of Mormons in different languages (they have one at every Temple Visitor Center) with your eyes closed and your hand waving back and forth until someone says stop. You then put your hand down on top of a Book of Mormon and that's where you are going (hopefully). When I did it I landed on one of the five Mayan languages they have there, I'm going to South America. Now after all that, we went to where the first copies of the Book of Mormon was printed. We had to cut the tour short because Landon was going wild. We sent some of the family to this pizza place to order lunch while me, mom and Aurora went into this one store that is very similar to Deseret Book. Why? Because mom is now doing themes for our birthday presents and this years is all from Deseret Book (or places like them) so we were finally getting me presents. I got the Tennis Shoes Series Book 7, the first book of Five Kingdoms, and an awesome looking CTR ring. After lunch we drove to the Whittier Farm and did the tour. Then we hurried to the Priesthood Restoration Site where we made it about fifteen minutes before they closed and took the tour. We didn't go to the Sugar Bush where they received the Priesthood because of how dark it got and there were bears in the woods, though we didn't get to see one. I better get to bed, we've got a busy day tomorrow.
See ya tomorrow,
Hannah

Day 10

Today was the start of our busy days, you can tell with the schedule. We started by going to Kirtland and enjoying the visitor centers and the tours. The first tour was of the N.K. Whitney Storehouse and surrounding buildings. Our tour guides were Sis. Edwards and Sis. Lutz (I think that's how you spell it), they are super fun and they both lived pretty close to Cedar City, if you count Las Vegas and American Fork as close. After that we went on a tour in the Kirtland Temple, it was very interesting. The interesting part is that the church doesn't own it, a church called the Community of Christ owns it, it used to be known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or RLDS for short. This one was made by members who thought that Joseph's son, Joseph Smith the third, should have been the next prophet. The next tour we went on was at the Johnson Farm where our tour guide, Elder Bahr, was almost as fun as the aforementioned Sister Missionaries and with just the same amount of facts. We ended today by going to Niagara Falls at night. It wasn't much of a view, especially since they are currently undergoing construction.
See ya later,
Hannah

Day 9

We spent a day at the beach! Nope, JK, we only spent an hour there but we still had fun. We played in the sand, kicked a ball and splashed in the waves. Dad got done with his meetings for AYSO at noon so we had lunch on the road. We had deep dish pizza from where the first deep dish pizza was made, Pizzeria Uno.  We drove out of Illinois, through Indiana and into Ohio. We went to the Christmas Story House, where they filmed the movie. And we took a picture in front of it. Then we got lost in the hood somewhere in Cleveland, Ohio, and finally got out somehow. We then met up with a storm we talked about a couple posts ago. And now we are at the end of the day ready for another adventure tomorrow.
See Ya Later,
Hannah

Day 8

Happy Birthday, Mom! She is now officially 39 years old. And we started her birthday celebration with discovering that there is pretty much a city under Chicago, and all we were looking for was a parking garage. We wound up near the Millennium Park which we walked through for a while. As we were walking to where we were going to eat, we saw the Memorial Day Parade begin, there was a lot of people in it, most of them was in, will be or was in the army, navy or marines. For lunch we went to the Rainforest Cafe, the platters were huge but delicious. There was this one guy who wandered around making balloon animals for the diners, and believe me they were intense. Then we went across the street to MacDonald's for ice cream, the place looked awesome, I mean, that place had an escalator and an elevator. That's not something you usually see in that place, not to mention it was also a kind of museum. Only museum we have seen so far. We next got onto a trolley which took us to Navy Pier where we wandered around for a bit. At the end of our wandering about we went into the "Amazing Chicago Funhouse Maze." We were lost for a bit but we got out. We ended our day with another trolley ride and a bunch of sore feet.
So see ya,
Hannah

Day 7

I might as well admit it now... we didn't do that much today. We slept overnight in Nauvoo, left at our usual time. We drove straight to Chicago, though I think almost everyone slept the rest of the way. When we finally got there it was huge. Huge in a tall sense. We got super stuck in traffic downtown (someone in the car actually started to sing the song) trying to get dad to a meeting for AYSO which he was already late for. I remember passing the prison almost immediately after entering the city. That's all I got, Good Night and see ya in the morning,
Hannah