back east part 1

to begin,

listen to how much we packed in 5 little day's time:

friday: OH. NY.  PA

saturday: NYC.  PA

sunday: PA visiting casey's mission people

monday: DC, play in DC,  VA

tuesday:  DC,  VA

wed: DC temple, drive home.

the rough estimate of drive time comes to about 40 hours.

so worth it.

we're young. we're awesome. we don't have kids. why not jam pack our time?

thursday- 

11:59: go see the midnight showing of harry potter, bc hello, it's harry potter!

i believe i've been to all the midnight showing since the 4th movie came out and was terribly excited for this one!

and the perks of living in the east: got to see it 3 hours earlier than my fellow comrades in AZ :)
ps- we watched the show friends while waiting in line for 2 hours. we're on season 6 of 10 thanks to my SIL camille .

friday 

3 am: begin our 10 hour drive to palmyra, new york.

switch off driving about every 45-60 min so the other could sleep

6:30 am: stop on the side of the road and we both sleep for 45 minutes

9:10 am: drive through kirtland , OH and decide we should stop
 and tour the area.

11:30 pm: begin driving once more

4:30 pm: arrive in palmyra, NY and tour the area

9:30 pm: palmyra pageant begins

11 pm: begin driving to PA

saturday

2 am: arrive in scranton, PA to sleep our weary heads.

***for those of you not LDS, kirtland, OH and palmyra , NY are important place in the history of the LDS church.

palmyra is were joseph smith was raised and where the first vision occurred.

and kirtland, OH is where the saints moved to at one time and built the first temple.

so, important indeed.***

details:
this was my first time back east and to any church history site so it was very special for me.

we stopped in kirtland and toured the newel k whitney store, the whitney's home, and a few other places.

we also made it over to the kirtland temple (not owned by our church)

walking through it all was so surreal and wonderful!

{we also ran into my SIL's parents at the kirtland temple! what a coincidence since they live in utah!}

once we arrived in palmyra, NY we visited joseph smith's home where he grew up in,

the sacred grove,

and the publication site of the book of mormon.

all were incredible to go through and i'm so grateful for the experience.

lastly, we were able to go to the pageant in palmyra which is all about the book of mormon and even on the grounds of the hill cumorah!
the costumes and production were incredible.
again, so happy we got the chance to go to that :)

up next: our day in NYC

and ps- happy belated birthday to my SIL blair!!
i'm a horrible person and forgot it was her birthday til night time, so officially, happy birthday darling (for the 2nd time, i called her yesterday too:)