A Chronicle of our Adventure...

Day 1-Friday, May 29, 2009

We said we'd head to Palmyra first thing Friday morning. Knowing us, we didn't make it out the door until 11 a.m....by the time we packed our car with everything it was noon. About 3 hours into our trip, somewhere in Pennsylvania, we got caught in traffic. Next thing I know, Scott looks at his rear view mirror and starts saying, "stop, stop, stop..." and suddenly we got rear ended!!! The car behind us was going too fast and couldn't stop in time and hit us! Greeeatttt...our goal was to get there before dark to have some daylight to set up our tent at our campsite in Palmyra. We were NOT looking forward to having to call the cops and all the stuff that goes into reporting an accident. Thank goodness everyone was fine, Brielle actually thought it was hilarious and was laughing her head off!!! Funny girl! When Scott and I got out of our car, to our surprise, we didn't see a single scratch on the bumper. The guy's car got some damage, but he didn't seem too concerned about his car as much as ours. We figured since everyone and everything looked okay we would just keep going, I was a little hesitant about not calling the cops but was more anxious to get to Palmyra. To me, this was one of those tender mercies (basically a miracle!) because the guy hit us pretty hard! I attribute this miracle to the prayer we said before heading on this trip!

But the tender mercies don't end there. When we were a couple hours from Palmyra, Scott and I were enjoying the AMAZING New York scenery...which is incredibly breath-taking! I think it is one of the MOST beautiful states I have EVER driven through...anyway, Scott noticed a cute deer standing by the side of the road. When suddenly it decided to jump in front of our car!!! Scott started swerving not to hit the darn deer, good thing it was a country road and we were the only ones on it. We missed it by a hair!!! Angels were protecting us!

We got to Palmyra around 8pm, barely had some daylight to set up our camp but we made it! We had a wonderful older couple next to our camp who were kind enough to share their fire with us to roast some hot dogs. We were all starving! The kids kept calling them grandma and grandpa! We had some enjoyable conversation with the couple and then headed to our tent! Brielle and Braden were so excited it took them a while to fall asleep but they finally did! We were all exhausted! But grateful to arrive there alive!

Day 2-Saturday, May 30th

Daij, we saw you everywhere we went! It was awesome!:)

That morning, we headed to see the sites without any idea how it was going to go with the kids. Children just have a way of keeping it real! That's the most positive way of putting it! We started our tour of the Smith Family lodge home and the kids weren't having it! Braden started to scream at the top of his lungs and poor Scott ran outside as fast as he could! Of course, Miss Brielle, who has been so clingy with his daddy since he finished school, did NOT want to stay with me at the lodge house and started crying because her daddy left her!!! The whole thing was quite dramatic! I was quite mortified about it, thinking how the heck is this going to work? and I DEFINITELY had the spirit of contention with me! I could see that Scott was frustrated too. We sat down by a bench and Scott suggested that we say a prayer. We did. Then we started to walk into the Sacred Grove. Everything changed. That moment at the Sacred Grove, set the tone for our whole trip. Every feeling of selfishness vanished. At that moment, I realized that our kids are first and we would do everything to accommodate THEM (as it always should be, but sometimes that is the hardest thing about being a parent!).

These kids are so worth it! Look at that little face! They were so EXCITED to have found a snail!

There are no appropriate words to describe the feelings that you get when you are in the Sacred Grove. As our little family was walking into the grove of trees, I was overwhelmed by an undeniable feeling of reverence. It was amazing! We started to feel the need to whisper. We explained to the kids what had happened there and it was so amazing to see their little faces when we were telling them about it! I consider myself blessed to have been able to be there as a family!

About lunch time our friends the Strassburger's (Max and Jeanna) met up with us. They live in Rochester, NY and were so kind to drive an hour to come see us! It was so nice to see them and spend a few hours visiting with them and meet their cute little Gracie! They treated us to lunch at this awesome burger joint in Palmyra. It was delicious! We had such a fun time catching up with them! We only wish, we would have had more time to spend with them!!!:) They are such a fun little family!

I stole this one from Jeanna's blog! (I didn't take any pictures of us in my camera!) I was so sad!

Then they took us to the place where the Book of Mormon was first published. This time, Scott and I took turns taking the tour. Scott went in with Max and Jeanna and got a one-on-one tour with this AMAZING senior sister, who was kind enough to do the "quick" version of the tour with both of us. She was so wonderful and it was neat to see all that they had to go through to print those first copies of the Book of Mormon.

(This picture is courtesy of Jeanna's blog!) :)

We were sad to say good-bye to the Strassburger's! Thanks for everything!:) We headed to our campsite and had roasted hot dogs and smores for dinner. We enjoyed the rest of the evening camping! The kids were in heaven and Scott and I were too! until it started raining...

Day 3-Sunday, May 31st

It rained pretty much all night and it kept us up for a while. Our plans to go to Church the next morning didn't quite work out, since we woke up at 8:45am and Church probably started at 9am. We got up and got ready, then headed to Hill Cumorah. We met an AMAZING senior couple at the Visitor's Center and talked to the brother for a while. Then, we went up to the hill. It was another amazing place!

Our next stop was the Peter Whitmer Farm. The farm is about a 20-minute drive from Hill Cumorah. By the time we got there, the kids were sleeping and Scott and I were so sleepy from being up half the night because of that rain, we parked our car and decided to take a 15 minute nap, or so we thought. We woke up almost an hour later! We must have been exhausted! But we felt so much better and were ready to go and do our little tour of the farm. There we met another INCREDIBLE senior couple. We were the only ones in the tour and it worked out perfectly! I LOVE one-on-one tours (especially with the kiddos!) I learned so much about the Whitmer Family! The tour was so enlightening! I LOVED it! I learned things I had never thought about before and I am grateful for the Whitmer Family and the role they played in the restoration of the Church!

Since that was our last day in Palmyra, we headed to the Smith Family Farm again to take some more pictures!:)

Day 4-Monday June 1st

We got up bright and early Monday morning, packed up our camp and started our 2-hour drive to Niagara Falls. We stopped there for a couple of hours. We didn't bring our passports so we only saw the American side and saw the Canadian side from afar. The falls are so impressive!

We had plans of heading to Ann Arbor, Michigan to stay with our friends Shad and Taneev for the night and visit with them before heading to Nauvoo. I plugged in their address into the GPS and Scott was just following the directions. Next thing we know, we are crossing the Canadian border...bad news because we didn't have our passports...they had to turn us around and we had to explain to the intimidating custom's guy what had happened...but after that little detour we were on our way to Michigan...the long way...

We got there after 7. The kids did amazingly well considering we were in the car 8 hours! Taneev and Shad took us to this amazing Cuban Restaurant in Ann Arbor. Growing up in Miami, I'm all about Cuban food! It was amazing! It was so fun to see Shad and Taneev and catch up with them! Shad is going to dental school at the University of Michigan. They showed us around campus. Ann Arbor is a charming town! We really enjoyed seeing around and visiting with the Mackert's. They were both so amazing with our children! They played with them and both Brielle and Braden loved all the attention! We are so grateful they let us stay at their place for the night! We loved catching up with them!!!:)

Brielle's face is priceless!

Braden LOVED playing with Shad! He was so good with Braden!

Day 5-Tuesday, June 2nd

The next day, as it is usual for this Jensen Family, we attempted to get up bright and early to continue our drive to Nauvoo...but of course it didn't happen...we left the Mackert's around 11am. It is about an 8-hour drive from Ann Arbor to Nauvoo. We stopped for lunch and dinner so it turned out to be more like a 10-hour drive. When we finally arrived in Nauvoo, we were welcomed by a BEAUTIFUL sunset! We drove by the temple and were amazed by its beauty!

We got to our cabin, which we rented for $16 a night at the Nauvoo Campground (Church of Christ owned). It was ghetto but we were there together and there's no place I would have rather been! It was awesome! We had these rusty bunkbeds and Brielle thought this was our "new home". She repeated several times that she didn't like our new home with the bunkbeds!!!:) Scott and I were laughing so hard and Braden said several times that he wanted to go home!!! Poor kids, I think they were traumatized!!! ha ha!!!:) But their clean bathroom facilities made up for the ghetto cabin!

Day 6-Wednesday, June 3rd

We headed to visit the sites. We started at the visitor's center where a sister missionary helped us decide what we wanted to see. There is sooooo much to see in Nauvoo!!! We could seriously have spent a good 4 to 5 days to be able to see everything there! The only down side of Nauvoo are all of the tours that you have to be able to see all of the houses there. But we tried to do as much for the kids our first day there. We took a carriage and wagon ride. The kids LOVED it!

There is this cute little area called Pioneer Pastimes. They have games and different things that the pioneer children used to do to spend their free time! Brielle and Braden had such a great time there!

We saw a few other things, then headed to the cabin to take a nap. After our nap, we headed to the cemetery where many of the Smith Family members, including Joseph Smith, are buried. After that we walked around the temple and we were done. I think both Scott and I felt a little overwhelmed at how much there is to see there. We couldn't decide what to pick.

I LOVE this statue of Joseph and Hyrum Smith! It depicts the moment when they were headed to Carthage and Joseph said:"This is the loveliest place and the best people under the heavens; little do they know the trials that await them." That is POWERFUL!

Day 7-Thursday, June 4th

Scott and I talked about the places that we really wanted to see and took turns taking the tours. He would tell me about the place he just saw and then I would tell them about what I saw. It worked out pretty well. Nauvoo is such a cute little town. It amazes me at what good of a job the Church does at maintaining the Old Nauvoo part and how friendly everyone is there! I think we got waved at a hundred times! By the end of the trip we were waving at everyone too! We felt a neat spirit there. I wish we could have stayed there another full day!

Finally, that day we headed to Carthage Jail, which is about a 20-minute drive from Nauvoo. Besides the BEAUTIFUL Nauvoo Temple, I think Carthage Jail was the highlight of our Nauvoo trip! There is definitely a special spirit there! The sad part is that we had to take turns to do the tour. I wish I could have shared it with Scott! But nonetheless, it was awesome! The sister missionary who gave me the tour was Brazilian. It was neat to talk to her and meet another South American among all the gringuitos!!!:) She was a third generation member of the Church and we had that in common, we had an instant connection!

Around 6pm we started our 15-hour drive back to Virginia. I needed to be back by Friday evening because I had committed myself to run a 5K on Saturday morning! My AMAZING husband drove until 4 in the morning the next day. I was pretty much unconcious the whole time! Thank goodness the kids were out for pretty much the whole trip. We stopped at a rest stop somewhere in Ohio, Scott was exhausted, we slept there until 9 and then I finished the rest of the trip! We were home around 3pm. on Friday. It gave me enough time to rest for the 5K, which I hadn't even trained for at all!!! and had to get up at 5:30 in the morning on Saturday!

We saw so many wild animals on this trip! Brielle and Braden thought it was so cool everytime they saw one!

We had an amazing trip!!! I loved spending time together as a family! We had such a fun time and I'm grateful that we were able to do this! I know this will sound cliché but while we were seeing all of these wonderful sites the Spirit was so powerful and it bore witness of the truthfulness of the gospel! We LOVED them all!