More Visitors

The week after Thanksgiving Joe's parents and grandma drove up from Virginia, where they were visiting Joe's sister and her family for Thanksgiving, to spend a few days with us. It was wonderful to have them here, and we crammed in as much activity in just a few short days as we possibly could.

They arrived late Sunday night, after Madeline was in bed, so we stayed up talking for a bit, but Joe had to work early Monday morning so we had to go to bed soon after they arrived.

On Monday Joe went to PT in the morning, then got permission to spend the rest of the day with the family, so he came home around 10 am or so. In the meantime, Joe's dad hooked up the Wii he brought, which proved to be a standout activity of the visit. Of course as soon as Joe got home, they had to play a few games before we could do anything else. Finally we got to explore Watertown a little, and that night we had a small Christmas celebration.

Tuesday we hopped in the car and made the 3+ hour drive to Niagara Falls. Joe's dad loves the Hard Rock Cafe, so we ate there for lunch before seeing the falls. After lunch we went to go check out the falls, but it was so cold and windy that I think we were on the observation deck for a total of about 10 minutes and that was that. Just long enough to take a few pictures and we were out of there!

We stayed at a hotel that night in lieu of driving the 3 hours home and then 2 hours the next day to go to Palmyra and view the Church History sites. Joe's dad hooked up the Wii in our hotel room and grandma and Madeline stayed in the other room to sleep while the 4 of us had some rousing competitions late into the night. This involved lots of standing on the bed to get the "right position," lots of laughing, and my personal favorite - Joe's dad standing right in front of his mom to play, and her aiming her foot right at his rear to give him a nice little shove and throw him off, and then he stepped forward just in the nick of time, but he hit the bed anyway and we all collapsed into laughter. I don't think I have ever seen Joe's mom laugh so hard in my life, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Probably had to be there.

Anyway, the next day we went to Palmyra and got to visit all the Church History sites: Joseph Smith's farm and the Sacred Grove, the Hill Cumorah, the Martin Harris farm, and the Book of Mormon publishing site. This was their first time visiting, so we took all the tours and spent the whole day learning about the beginnings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It is hard to visit everything in 1 day, but we did the best we could and I think everyone was able to strengthen their testimonies that The Book of Mormon is the word of God and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.

Check out this cool wheelchair they have to drive through the Sacred Grove...
Madeline enjoyed it too!

Thursday morning Joe had to go back to work, and the family headed back down to Virginia for a few more days before flying home to Washington. In all it was a marvelous visit, and we are especially grateful that Joe's grandma made it out here - it's not easy to travel across the country at 88! Thanks to you 3 for making the trek. We love you!