New York Day 9

We were so excited to see the Bills stadium. Wish we could have gone inside!!

Today we left Cleveland very early and traveled through Pennsylvania and into New York. Our first stop was Buffalo Bills Stadium. We made sure to wear all of our Bills gear and pulled up to the stadium in Orchard Park for a few pictures. Then we visited the store and picked up a few cheap t-shirts and other items. Throughout the rest of the day, we were quite the spectacle in this part of New York, and multiple people commented on our Buffalo attire.

We love the Buffalo Bills.

This is the huge store and we wanted to buy everything! 716 is the area code for Buffalo.

Just a little farther up the road we stopped at Niagara Falls. Only Mom had ever visited, and she spent her time on the Canadian side. We weren't going to be able to do that due to travel restrictions, so we decided to ride the Maid of the Mist. We got right in line and headed straight to the boat. There was not a single minute of waiting. After we walked on, the boat miraculously pulled away. We still hadn't seen the waterfalls, so we pulled on our ponchos and headed up the river. 

We were super excited to see Niagara Falls.

It was hilarious watching the boys try to save their hats under the ponchos!

The boat passed American Falls, and the mist started to cover to cling to our ponchos. Up ahead, we could see the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side looming high above us. Slowly, the boat passed the ends of the shoe, and the spray really grew strong. Then, we were right in the middle of the shoe, and the mist and spray were like a torrent pounding on us. Everyone was giggling and hiding back underneath the main beam of the boat. Anything that wasn't completely covered by plastic was absolutely soaked including our shoes and socks. You couldn't even see for the downpour! It was definitely an amazing experience, and one we won't soon forget. Seth just kind of stood there in a daze, like he couldn't comprehend what was happening. 

This is called American Falls. 

We didn't go too close, but we still felt a lot of spray.

The middle falls is called Bridal Veil Falls and is much smaller.

Once we got by Horseshoe Falls, it felt like it was pouring!

We were drenched!!

But it was so fun! We loved it!

Niagara Falls is huge! I don't think the boys had any idea how large!

Mom giggled the entire time.

She tried to take picture and videos, but the phone was soaked.

We were so glad we road the Maid of the Mist.

This pic is probably about 1/3 of the Horsehoe curtain.

After the boat ride, we walked over to the stairs where you could walk up closer to the American Falls. We got a little bit wet, but nothing like on the boat. Then we went up and checked out the view from the brink of the waterfall. We were also able to use the large Maid of the Mist viewing platform, which helped us to see upriver to the horse shoe. It was really a good way to see Niagara.

We had lunch just a street or two over at a nice burger joint called Flip Burger. Then we hit the road again. Our next stop was Palmyra.

It was fun to get even closer to the falls.

We even got a few family pictures!

Niagara Falls was one of the best parts of the trip.

Seth loves waterfalls.

It was the perfect day to visit Niagara Falls. Not too busy!

We still like each other after 9 days in the car!

We are the cutest!

Everyone wanted a lot of pictures here!

It was a great spot to see most of the falls.

Niagara definitely won our hearts.

We could have spent longer, but we had other stops planned.

At Palmyra, we visited the Smith Family Home. Since there was a large busload of kids, we started in the Sacred Grove. We enjoyed our walk and talking about the First Vision, and eventually, we looped back to the Smith home. Our tour of the reconstructed cabin and the original home was nice, but we were a little disappointed that they didn't let us upstairs where Joseph was visited by Moroni.

The Sacred Grove is beautiful!

Mom loved this pic with the sun shining through in the grove.

Joseph Smith's small cabin where Moroni appeared.

The missionaries are so nice to take our family photos.

We liked that you could look into the Sacred Grove from the back door of the cabin.

Inside the Smith's larger home.

The plates were hidden right here under these bricks!

The boys were starting to get a little tired of history tours, but we wanted to see the Grandin Press where the Book of Mormon was printed over a period of two years. At first, the tour seemed pretty boring, and we were wondering why we'd come to this building, but when we got upstairs, they showed us how the Book of Mormon was made. The kids folded their own proof page into sixteen parts. By the end of the tour, we were surprised that it only took two years to print and bind 5,000 copies of the book!

This was one of the few Church History spots that Mom hadn't been to before.

We ended up loving this tour more than most.

Here are some really old scriptures.

It was fun folding our own Book or Mormon pages.

We learned so much about how the first books were printed.

This is one of the few first edition Book or Mormons that is still around.

Our final stop in Palmyra was at the temple. We stopped for a few pictures for our temple books. This was the sixth temple we'd visited on this trip.

It had been another long, busy day, so we picked and ice cream place called Papa Jacks in Victor near our hotel. It was the most amazing ice cream! We were tired and sore, but it had been a very wonderful, memorable day!

We were a little sad that we weren't able to schedule a baptism appointment, but the temple was lovely.

The view from the temple overlooks the Sacred Grove.

The ice cream cones were HUGE!

It was the perfect end to a great day!