Lily came to visit!

One of our friends from Utah has a daughter who wanted to come out to NYC, so for Christmas they surprised her with tickets to come see/stay with us and tour the city! It was so fun to have Lily for a week and show her around the city. We did a lot of walking and also went up to Palmyra for a few days to see some Church sites. We had been wanting to go up there for a while, so this was a perfect excuse to go! Thanks for coming to visit Lily! These pictures are probably out of order, so here is the list of things we did and places and we saw. Wednesday we went to the Flat Iron District, Union Square, Grand Central Station and the Rockefeller Center. That night Spencer took her to Times Square to Ellen's Stardust Diner and to Carlos Bakery. 

Thursday we had the best avocado toast at a place I can't even remember. She had found it somewhere online and wanted to try it. It was a lot better than I expected! Then we walked the Brooklyn Bridge and had Pizza at Grimaldi's that night. We also started driving up to Palmyra after pizza and made it to Syracuse. 

The next morning we woke up, had some continental breakfast and made the rest of the drive to Palmyra. We first stopped at the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center and walked up the hill. Each of the sites we went to and saw were really special and had a sense of serenity and peace to them. It's hard to describe, but I loved reading different facts and things about each site and trying to picture what really happened on each specific day long ago. 

The hill is actually really steep.. It was cool getting to the top and overlooking the country though. 

There is a little statue at the top of the Hill Cumorah that you can go read different plaques around it. 

Then we went to the Sacred Grove and Joseph Smith's house. Joseph's Smith's house was very small! My favorite part of the tour was being in his bedroom where the angel Moroni appeared to him! It was really neat to be in that same room and see his bed and to imagine that night. The Sacred Grove was really peaceful and neat too! We walked around there for a while. 

Then we went to the Printing Press site where the Book of Morning was published. It was fun to take this tour and see how they printed the Book of Mormon. It took months and months to print with how to printed back then! They hand stamped every single letter!! what?!

This is one of the few original Books of Mormon that was printed at this press. 

Original paint splatters on the wall. 

This picture has a whole new meaning for me! 

During the tour, Charley was getting really wiggly and so I just let her look at my phone on the floor while we walked around :) SO much easier! 

They hung each sheet to dry before binding (sewing) it together. 

After that we found some lunch and ice cream! Spencer had one request when going to Palmyra and it was to get this ice cream at the Chill and Grill. He remembers getting it when he was a kid! It did not disappoint. They are HUGE portions and it's one of the best ice creams I have had! I ordered the kiddie cone (which was 3 scoops) and Spencer and Lily ordered the small cone (which was 4 scoops!) 

The next day, we made our way up to Niagara Falls! It was pretty cold that day, but it was still something on our bucket list that we wanted to see. The Niagara falls are 3 separate falls. I loved seeing them on the US side and seeing just how massive they are! 

After seeing the falls, we made a spontaneous trip 2 hours south to Amish Country. I have always wanted to go to Amish Country and we realized we were really close, so we took a trip down. It is pretty easy to know when you are there since you see horse and buggies everywhere and Amish people in their traditional dress. At each house there is also a sign outside saying what they sell. We stopped at different houses and bought lots of different things. We bought some different cheeses, goats milk fudge, canned peaches, strawberry rhubarb jam, blackberry pie, coconut clusters and we went into this toy shop and Spencer bought something for his dad. I loved this trip so much!! So fun to talk to and learn from these people! 

Inside the toyshop. 

Our last day there we went to Church at the Peter Whitmer Farm. There is a church right next to his house, so we were able to do both really easy! This is where the Church was organized on April 6, 1830. 

We got back from our trip Sunday evening and started right back up on Monday morning. We went to Chinatown so Lily could buy some souvenirs for her family and friends and ate at Prosperity Dumplings. Then we walked the High-line and went to Chelsea Market. After that, we went to Central Park and had a picnic and watched some baseball games that were going on around Columbus Circle. 

Charley patiently waiting for the train:) 

Highline is my favorite! 

Central Park

The last day Lily was here, we took the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and then her and Spencer flew back to Utah that afternoon. It was a fun busy week! Thanks again for coming to visit Lily! We had so much fun.