7.16.2012

Our last day was spent in Indianapolis. Jaime's flight didn't leave until later in the afternoon, so we took Jonah and Emerson and went to visit the museum at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where they hold the Indy 500 every year.

We're all racers at heart.

I told everyone to choose their favorite car and we'd take pictures in front of them. They have the winning cars of most of the races they've been doing since the first one in 1911. Mine was from the 60s I think. Or the 50s maybe.

Jonah chose the original winner from 1911.

Emerson won the most recent winner they have in the museum: the 2011 winner.

Jaime's was also from the 60s maybe. Or the 50s. Or the 40s...

That big guy in the back is actually from the races they do on the Bonneville Salt Flats in western Utah.

While watching the Bachelorette the previous week, we learned that Arie's dad actually won the Indy 500 in the early 90s. So we tracked down his car. It's fine, we were pretty excited about the Bachelorette, ok?

We hit up a tamale place for lunch afterwards (another Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives find), then took Jaime to the airport. As always, I wished we could've had more time. We were both commenting on how we would've liked to have had more time in Indiana to just hang out with my family and see a few more places. Next time.

7.15.2012

Sunday morning we got up, went to church, ate our leftover steak from Roadhouse, and then got on our way for the last leg of our trip.

We passed Lake Erie, so we had to stop of course. I can't let a perfectly beautiful lake go by without admiring it.

We entered into Ohio. Thank goodness. The roads in Michigan were awful. Seriously, I was a little worried I was going to pop a tire. As soon as we went under this sign, the quality of the roads improved drastically. Apparently, road quality is not high up on Michigan's list of priorities.

Back home again in Indiana!

We finally made it back to my sister's house at about 5:00 that night, just in time for some grilled hamburgers and corn on the cob. Mmm... We played with the kids for a while, and Campbell asked Jaime to read her stories. Ridiculous. She doesn't warm up to people easily, but Jaime is some kind of child whisperer and children love her instantly. Campbell has allowed me to read her stories I think one time in the month since I've been here. Geez.

7.14.2012

Saturday morning we had planned to go to the temple in Palmyra with my parents. They forgot to bring their temple clothes, so they couldn't go, and then Jaime and I didn't get out of bed. I still regret that, actually. I wish we would've just gotten up and gone.

Instead, we slept in (which was also nice), and had lunch with my family before they headed to the Hill to start their day's worth of rehearsals and preps for their second show. We went to Chill 'n' Grill, which is apparently famous in Palmyra. It's a burger and ice cream place where you order at a window and then sit outside in the sweltering heat to eat your food. The ice cream and burgers were pretty good. Apparently, not good enough for Thomas who got...the dump plate? Something like that. It was pretty much everything they have piled on one plate. It looked disgusting. Don't let the picture fool you into thinking it's a nice plate of regular chili cheese fries. 

Before we got on the road again, we visited the memorial on top of the Hill Cumorah which has a statue with Moroni on the top (he was the angel that showed Joseph Smith where the plates were hidden).

Before we started this road trip, my mom suggested we get a book called "A Lamb and a Lion" to read as we drove. The book is about Willard and Rebecca Bean, who were called to live in the Joseph Smith house in the early 1900s and prepare the area for the Church to return, since the feelings about Mormons hadn't been too positive there since Joseph Smith had to leave to avoid persecution. The book was really entertaining and I loved learning about the history of the area and all the time and effort that went into gaining possession of the sacred sites in that area, including the Hill Cumorah. If you haven't read the book, you should. We both really enjoyed it and it made our drive go much more quickly.

We headed up to Niagara Falls that afternoon. We'd both been before but it had been several years.

We were crossing over into Canada anyway, so we decided to see the falls on the Canadian side. We had to go through a checkpoint and promise we weren't planning on staying the night in their lovely country. (Which turned out to be really boring, anyway. At least the part we drove through).

The Falls were, of course, incredible.

As I mentioned before, I love bodies of water. The great lakes are some pretty significant bodies of water. And they're beautiful.

Finally, Michigan! Seriously, the drive through Canada from Niagara Falls to Michigan was one of the worst parts of the trip. We were tired, we were both over driving, and the scenery was not impressive. And I couldn't convert the kilometers into miles so I couldn't even figure out how close we were to being done. I was so happy to return to the United States. Not like the United States isn't boring sometimes, but at least it's home. We crossed back over in Michigan where we had to stop at the immigration checkpoint again. As luck would have it, we chose the line that had an agent who was the nosiest man alive. He wanted to know what we'd bought in Canada. Why I had so much stuff in my car. Why I had Utah license plates if I was from Indiana. Why I would choose to drive across the country. I'm pretty sure three cars went through the other lines in the time it took us to get through ours.

We made it to Detroit that night and finally found a hotel after much searching and only a little bit of quarreling.. In additional news, we saw 8 Mile. The 8 Mile. No Eminem sighting, though. More importantly, we ate at Texas Roadhouse, and it was delicious.

7.13.2012

Day seven was the first day we didn't travel, and it was a welcome break. We arrived in Palmyra, New York Thursday night and stayed with my parents, Thomas, Micah, and my cousins Mason and Harrison at a big house they were renting. They were there for 2.5 weeks performing in the Hill Cumorah Pageant so Jaime and I went to see it and visit some of the church history sites there.

It was so hot. SO.HOT. That was sad because it made me not really want to linger at any of the sites we visited, including the Sacred Grove. I love trees, and I love the Joseph Smith story. I think I've mentioned it before, but on my mission I gained a very powerful testimony that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, that he saw what he said he saw, and that through him, Jesus Christ restored His church to the earth. As Mormons, we certainly do not worship Joseph Smith. We worship Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father who are our creators and masters. We do, however, respect and honor Joseph Smith for his instrumental role in bringing Christ's church back to the earth. He was a prophet called by God and given the authority to administer in His name, as is our current prophet Thomas S. Monson. For more information about Joseph Smith, click here and for more information about the great work he was involved in, click here.

The Sacred Grove is the woods behind Joseph's childhood home where he went to pray to ask God which church he should join. In response to his prayer, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him to tell him that none of them had the authority of God and that he should join none of them. He was called as a prophet to restore Christ's church with the proper authority, which had been lost after Christ's original apostles were killed. This is a sacred place, and the spirit there is obvious. It was amazing to walk through those woods and think about how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ had physically been there and answered a humble boy's prayer.



The Palmyra temple overlooks the Sacred Grove.

Also in Palmyra is the historic Grandin print shop, where the Book of Mormon was first published. They have a great museum there which explains the process they used to publish books in the 1800s, and they also have a first edition of the Book of Mormon.

While there, I had the good fortune to run into Sister Fetuli, a sister missionary from Tonga that I taught at the MTC. When we got to Palmyra, I remembered that she had gone to that mission and wondered if I'd see her. I asked the Sisters at each of the sites we visited, and I finally found her at the print shop. She's doing well and her English is so good!

The visitor's center at the Hill Cumorah. I love this statue of Christ.

The Hill Cumorah is the place where Joseph Smith was led by an angel named Moroni (one of the prophets in the Book of Mormon) to find the ancient records which he later translated by the power of God and published as The Book of Mormon. It's another very sacred place. For more information about that, click here. Every summer, they do a pageant on the hill which tells a very basic overview of the story of the Book of Mormon. My parents and my little brother and sister have been in the pageant for two years now. This year they also took my cousins Mason and Harrison.

All the actors are volunteers that come for 2.5 weeks and perform in whatever role they're given. Most have pretty basic roles as part of crowds or groups of dancers. This year Thomas played Alma the Elder, who was a prophet in the Book of Mormon. Everything is pre-recorded so they don't have to actually say their lines, though they do memorize them and say them I think. You just can't hear them. Those who don't have lines, though, still have only a week to learn choreography and blocking. It's incredible how quickly it all comes together.

This is my little brother and sister. They're both taller than me.

We had the perk of having family in the show so they saved us front row seats.

The pageant was stunning. I've seen it before but I think I was about eight years-old last time and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep. This time, I was engaged the whole time. The costumes were beautiful up there under the lights and the stage was incredible. I think there were about 750 cast members so when they were all on stage, it was pretty impressive.

Lehi's family in the wilderness.

Lehi's family crossing the ocean on the boat. This was my favorite scene because the set was so cool. They had a big sail that came up on a central mast. Then during the storm (when Nephi's brothers bind him), water started spraying out of the top of the mast which made it look just like rain and the lights were flashing like lightning. It was so cool. I'm telling you.

That's my mom in the group on the left. She was a harvest dancer.

This was the scene of Noah's court, which both Thomas and Micah were in.

If you look up on that main podium, there's a group of four men standing together on the bottom level with mushroom hats. Thomas is the one on the left that's a head taller than everyone else.

Waters of Mormon, with real waterfalls along the sides of the stage.

The scene of Christ visiting the people at the temple. This was such a sweet, powerful scene as Christ come to the people to teach them, touch them, and bless them with such love. It made me realize how life-changing that even surely was for the people who were present and how, even though I can't physically see and touch my Savior now, I will eventually - we all will - and right now we can still feel his very real presence in our life through the Holy Ghost.

Aside from being able to spend ten straight days with my best friend, the pageant was my favorite part of the trip. It was so well done and the Spirit there was absolutely palpable. I loved it and wished we could've stayed to watch it again. I also loved being there to support my family in doing something that I know has been so beneficial for all of them. If you are ever in northern New York in July, go see this pageant. You won't regret it.