New York Part 2

Thursday, July 9

This day we wore our Family Reunion T-shirts that my friend, Cumorah, made for us. She did a great job!

We started the day at The Strong Museum of Play in Rochester. This is an amazing place with tons of fun places and activities for kids. There is a music area, mini Sesame Street, Berenstein Bear village, Videotopia (tons of video games from the
1980s to the present), mini grocery store, train, lego village, Barbie displays from past to present, mini radio station (the kids could actually pick the songs and talk on the air), Adventure Land (with a pirate ship), Fairytale Land, and other places (like a Butterfly Pavilion) that we didn't get to visit.

This display was made completely out of legos.



Ryan and his cousin Emma with Brother Bear


We were playing with the pretend food.


The kids with their cousins Andrew and Zachary on Sesame Street


Alyssa and Tyler playing in a "mind trick" house.


Then we had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and headed to Palmyra, New York. When we got to Palmyra we visited an old replica of Joseph Smith's log home where he grew up. It is amazing to be on the actual land where his family lived and farmed. They had an apple orchard and beehives that they made out of Beech tree stumps. We then visited the frame house which is 85% original. This is a house that Alvin Smith built for his family. He wanted his mother to have a beautiful home, unfortunately he died soon after completing the house.

You can see the Palmyra Temple from the log house.


Ryan in front of the fireplace of the log home.


This is my dad, my neice, and my nephew inside the log home.


This is the outside of the home. On the main floor it had a big room with the fireplace and then off to the side was the parents' room and a small room for the baby. Upstairs there were two small bedrooms.


This is the outside of the framed house. This house has an amazing feeling to it, especially when you think that Moroni visited Joseph Smith in the upstairs bedroom of this house. The bedroom consisted of two beds with 3 boys sleeping in each bed and right next door was the bedroom for the girls.


These are the beehives made out of beech trees.