Well, we survived our first family road trip/vacation. It was so much fun! Russell did great and we got to see and do a lot of fun things. We are loving this summer and wishing it will slow down!!
On Thursday we left Philadelphia and drove about 2.5 hours north to a beautiful state park in the Poconos mountains. It is called Ricketts Glen for those of you locals who want to go. The park is HUGE and has something like 15+ waterfalls as well as a great beach on a lake. The lake water was actually warm, which was amazing! We only planned a few hours to spend here because we didn't know how much there was to do, so we are definitely making plans to return!
The water coming off of the waterfalls was freezing-here's Ricardo dipping his toe in it in preparation for jumping off one of these cliffs. Russell and I were content to watch, though we did both enjoy the water at the beach until one of us got hungry. :)
Ok, so I'm the worst action photographer ever. We tried 3 takes of Ricardo jumping off the cliff and this is about as good as it gets. He didn't think my excuse of it being difficult to stand in the lake while holding a baby AND taking pictures held much weight either. You'll just have to take my word for it that he jumped and did a great job! :)
Also at the top of the Hill Cumorah with a monument for Moroni, one of the major prophets in the Book of Mormon. We believe he appeared he buried the record of his people, which is now known as the Book of Mormon, at the top of this hill.
Us in front of the Palmyra Temple. We didn't get to go inside this time but the outside was very beautiful!
Ricardo and I in front of Joseph Smith's log cabin in Palmyra. He lived in this house with his family as a boy.
Ricardo and Russell in front of the Sacred Grove, where we believe Joseph Smith had a vision when he went to the woods to pray.
The beautiful sacred grove.
Us with one of the 700 cast members of the Hill Cumorah pageant. We literally were in our seats with our dinner when it started raining and lightning.
Shayla and I at the falls!
Happy boys
Ricardo was holding Russell and Shayla and I were walking behind him. Russell kept peering his head around Ricardo's shoulder to look at us. It was so cute.
Ricardo really wanted a picture of all of us in front of this Canadian telephone booth. I didn't notice poor Russell's hat was covering his face!
Saturday night we hung out at Shayla and Brenton's house playing with Russell. Look at these two cute matching boys!
On Sunday we went to church with our friends and then drove the 6 hours home. Russell did really great in the car and only added an hour to trip for the stops he needed to take to eat. We had such a good time on our mini vacation!!
On Thursday we left Philadelphia and drove about 2.5 hours north to a beautiful state park in the Poconos mountains. It is called Ricketts Glen for those of you locals who want to go. The park is HUGE and has something like 15+ waterfalls as well as a great beach on a lake. The lake water was actually warm, which was amazing! We only planned a few hours to spend here because we didn't know how much there was to do, so we are definitely making plans to return!
The water coming off of the waterfalls was freezing-here's Ricardo dipping his toe in it in preparation for jumping off one of these cliffs. Russell and I were content to watch, though we did both enjoy the water at the beach until one of us got hungry. :)
Ok, so I'm the worst action photographer ever. We tried 3 takes of Ricardo jumping off the cliff and this is about as good as it gets. He didn't think my excuse of it being difficult to stand in the lake while holding a baby AND taking pictures held much weight either. You'll just have to take my word for it that he jumped and did a great job! :)
We left Ricketts Glen and headed north to the finger lakes region of New York. Along the way to our hotel in Geneva we passed another state park that looked interesting so we stopped at Watkins Glen State Park. It was really beautiful also and there were parts of it that looked like they belonged in South America. So cool!
We definitely didn't take enough pictures of the picturesque finger lakes, but they were beautiful! We wished we could go sailing-it was 100 degrees on Friday when we were there!
After we left Lake Seneca on Friday morning we headed to Palmyra, New York. This is a big historical site for our church because it is where many major events in the early days of our church occured. Every summer there is a huge outdoor play which recounts some of these events as well as events in the Book of Mormon. We were really excited to plan our trip for this weekend so that we could see the production because we heard it is amazing! Sadly, a HUGE storm came to the area about 30 minutes before the play was set to start on Friday night so they actually had to cancel the show. We were so bummed! But we did have fun hanging out in the town of Palmyra on Friday and seeing the sights!
The view from the top of the Hil Cumorah. Below are the 6000 seats they had set up for the production. Look how nice and sunny it is!
Also at the top of the Hill Cumorah with a monument for Moroni, one of the major prophets in the Book of Mormon. We believe he appeared he buried the record of his people, which is now known as the Book of Mormon, at the top of this hill.
Ricardo and I in front of Joseph Smith's log cabin in Palmyra. He lived in this house with his family as a boy.
Ricardo and Russell in front of the Sacred Grove, where we believe Joseph Smith had a vision when he went to the woods to pray.
The beautiful sacred grove.
Us with one of the 700 cast members of the Hill Cumorah pageant. We literally were in our seats with our dinner when it started raining and lightning.
On Friday night we headed west to Buffalo, NY and spent the night at our good friends Shayla & Brenton's house there. We haven't seen them for 3 years so it was really fun to catch up and introduce them to Russell. Brenton had to work on Saturday, but Shayla was able to go with us across the border to Niagara Falls. It was Ricardo AND Russell's first time to Canada!
Shayla and I at the falls!
After the falls we drove to the cutest little down called Niagara on the Lake. I had gone there last year when I went to Toronto for a PA conference. The drive is very scenic from the falls to this town which is on Lake Ontario and the town is full of food and shopping. We had a delicious lunch here.
Happy boys
We ran into this shop during our walk through town and definitely had to take a picture here for Russell's sake. So nice to have Shayla with us so we didn't have to keep asking strangers to take pictures!
Ricardo was holding Russell and Shayla and I were walking behind him. Russell kept peering his head around Ricardo's shoulder to look at us. It was so cute.
Ricardo really wanted a picture of all of us in front of this Canadian telephone booth. I didn't notice poor Russell's hat was covering his face!
Saturday night we hung out at Shayla and Brenton's house playing with Russell. Look at these two cute matching boys!
On Sunday we went to church with our friends and then drove the 6 hours home. Russell did really great in the car and only added an hour to trip for the stops he needed to take to eat. We had such a good time on our mini vacation!!
What a fun trip! We're just planning a trip to Ricketts Glen and Watkins Glen. We'll have to talk next time we see you.
ReplyDeleteThat is so great! We literally both told each other while we were at Watkins Glen that Bra would love that place!
DeleteI mean Brad :)
ReplyDelete