Rochester and Palmyra

Yesterday was.. Long! We got to the airport at around 8 and went straight to check-in and such... we were like the last people on the plane and we didn't have assigned seating so we all 3 didn't get to sit together... I sat by these two old rich guys, they were really nice! Apparently one of them has a home in Phoenix, so when he wants to play golf he comes down and stays for the weekend- must be nice :) They were really nice. The night before we had gone to target and made sure I had all the coloring books I would need for the plane so I wouldn't be bored :) I asked the guys I sat with if they wanted to color too... they both said they weren't very good at staying in the lines so they didn't color with me :( Our plane had left at 9:55 AZ time, and we got to Buffalo at I think 4 or 5ish NY time.. there is a 3 hour time difference, so really the flight was only a little less than 4 hours.
Brent and Emmalee picked us up at the airport and I gave Emmalee some of the cookies they had given us on the plane- she's 3 so to her that was the coolest thing ever- she's been my buddy since then. She's a cutie. We headed off to Rochester where they live and to the hospital to see Tyler and I got to meet him and Jody. They have such an awesome family!

Today we went to the church history sights in Palmyra. First we went to the Printing Press where the Book of Mormon was first published which was really neat to see how they actually did everything- it's amazing how much time and effort went into making the books. They made 5,000 copies and it took them 2 years to print and bind them all- that's a LONG time. We have lots of pictures of all the different tools they used, it's quite a process. Then we headed over to the Smith Farm and the Sacred Grove- it's really cool to be able to really picture what everything looked it- the first little cabin was a complete replica but the 2nd Smith house was 80% original, they had to of course add on a little bit and make it more stable... but it kind of makes you realize that it really wasn't that long ago- 200 years in a really long time, but it's not THAT long ago.

After that we went to the Hill Cumorah... I pictured it to be like a mountain- but it's not, it's just a hill. They showed us a picture of what it would have looked like before the church planted trees on it- and you really wonder where Moroni would have hidden the plates because there is hardly any grass... the plates were well protected to be hidden there for that long.
The visitors center there had the exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls... Kyle and his mom really enjoyed learning about that... it was kind of boring to me. I think I like things better when they are the real artifacts, because the things at the Dead Sea Scrolls were all replicas- so it didn't seem that cool to me... they did have these lamps like from the 10 virgins that holds their oil that were found in Jerusalem, and you could definitely tell those were old and not just replicas.
I love the feeling of Rochester- there is a real small town feel to it, but it's big and everything is close! All the houses are different and no one has backyard fences. They all have siding on them or brick, I don't think I've seen a stucco house! Even like he big buildings are brick, they're so pretty!If my family would all move here, I would love to live here!
We're planning on updating every night and post a few pictures- like a journal! Enjoy!