Hello Fall

In Pennsylvania they don't just have cities and counties. They have townships, boroughs, municipalities and villages all mixed in as well. This weekend our township, Penn Township, hosted a Fall Festival. We went to the parade in the morning and then later in the afternoon we went to the festival. Like most festivals there were lots of booths, good food, games and rides. We let the boys play one game, the only one that was free and guaranteed a prize, we got some free cotton candy, and they both got to choose a ride. We didn't try any of the food but we did share some yummy Brewsters Ice Cream.

The Sacred Grove

Earlier this year Braden had a lesson in Primary about the first vision. He was so excited to tell me all about Joseph Smith and how he prayed to know what church was true. I could see the budding of his testimony as he told me of the answer that Joseph Smith received by seeing God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. I remember taking the time to talk to him about all that he had learned that day and even showed him some pictures of when I went to the Sacred Grove when he was still inside my tummy. I told him that the Sacred Grove wasn't too far from our house and ever since he has been begging to go. We decided to take a small detour on our journey home from Niagara Falls to visit.

We stopped at the Temple first and walked around it.

And then we headed over to the Smith Farm. Before we entered the Grove we stopped at the log home.

Then we went into the Sacred Grove. I love the feeling in there. I think Kameron put it best when he described the feeling as a big hug from our Heavenly Father.

We hadn't gone very far into the trees when Braden let go of Kam's hand and said that he needed to do something really quick. Right there he knelt down and said a prayer to his Heavenly Father.

It was really precious. I asked him what he said when he prayed and he told me that he asked Heavenly Father to help him to always obey his mom and dad. 

I know that he is young but I hope that he will always remember the feeling he felt while in this sacred place.

We didn't have much time to see anything else while in Palmyra but before leaving we did drive past the Martin Harris Farm; something we didn't do the last time we were here.

Out of the Country

This past weekend we took a little trip up north to Niagara Falls. We decided that we wanted to get the best experience possible so we crossed the border into Canada. Seeing the falls was absolutely amazing. I wish we had had more time to see and do everything, but what we did get to do and see was definitely amazing!

Since we did only have one day to everything we wanted we decided to do a tour so that we could learn the history of the falls and experience several things on our to-do list. Before heading out though we took a quick stop for breakfast at the Flying Saucer, a recommendation from a local. 

 

On our tour our first stop was Skylon Tower. At the top of the tower is an observation deck with the most incredible views of the falls.

The Horseshoe

The American Falls

One of our next stops was to see the Whirlpool.

We also stopped to see the Niagara Falls Floral Clock, part of the Botanical Gardens at the School of Horticulture. 

 I love these buses

One of my favorite stops was at the Butterfly Observatory. We got to see thousands of butterflies that flew all around us and even landed on us occasionally.

 Carter loved seeing the butterflies but did not like the butterfly on his stroller.

We were most excited for the later part of our tour where we got to ride on the Maid of the Mist. This was Braden's favorite thing we did. I was pretty certain that we were going to be drenched, but in fact it wasn't too bad. The mist was crazy and it felt like we were in the middle of a storm, but the view from the falls from the boat were spectacular!

American Falls

Looking back down river.

The Horeshoe

After the boat ride we were able to go down next to the Horseshoe where we got to journey behind the falls. We walked down tunnels to see behind the falls and then out to an observatory deck to get a good look of the falls from the base.

The rainbows were amazing. No matter where you were during the day you could see one.

The boys were exhausted ans so were we so we headed back to the hotel and decided to save some of our tickets for the next day. That night after putting the kids to bed Kam and I stayed up to watch the falls from our hotel room. 

 The View at Night

 The View During the Day

The next morning we checked out of the hotel and headed to do the white water walk to see the class 6 whirlpool rapids. We had to travel down an elevator and through a tunnel to get to the rapids. They were huge!

Brady wasn't too sure about me holding him up on the fence.

The walk along the rapids was so beautiful.

From here we thought about going to use our last tickets for Niagara's Fury, a 4-D experience but decided not to because we thought the kids would get scared. Instead we got in the car to drive to our next adventure.