New York Trip - Part 1

Another adventure is behind us - Jackson (and I) have now been to Ithaca, New York! Seriously, this kid gets around! I guess what is more accurate is that we're taking advantage of flying with him while he's under 2 ... and free! Flights 24 & 25 could not have gone better. I'm not going to lie I was really scared about flying alone with Jackson. But he did great. We had a 50 minute layover in Detroit that I was kind of panicking about, but luckily my flight was on time and we made it just fine. And they moved me so there was an empty seat next to me on both flights! Jackson ate dinner and watched Mickey Mouse on the first flight, and slept the 2nd flight.

We got into Ithaca, NY at about 11 pm and Paige and Ben drove the long 5 minutes from their house to come pick us up. I should have taken a picture of the airport it is so tiny but I loved it! Anyways, Jackson woke up but was groggy as we reunited with Paige and Ben that night. We went straight back to their place and straight to bed! We had a busy day ahead of us...

Friday morning we woke up and drove straight up north to see some LDS Church history sites. Our first site was the Martin Harris Farm - where the LDS Church was organized, among other things. It started out as a beautiful day - it was sunny and the leaves were at their peak of autumn colors!




Then we drove up to Palmyra where we met up with my mom and brother, Steven, who had flown into Syracuse the night before. The girls went to the temple while Ben and Steven took Jackson out for a Pizza Lunch. Jackson got along with the boys just great but I was told it might have worked out better if the restaurant had a high chair.




As evidenced from the sky behind us, the weather took a turn for the worse - it got really dark, windy and eventually the rain came pouring down!
We headed to the Joseph Smith Home & Sacred Grove, hoping to get the outdoor tour done before it started raining too hard, but sadly we get soaked!


It didn't start out too wet and we had a great tour of the Smith Family Properties. Jackson did so dang good during all of this!

Steven and my mom had walked around the grove before we met up with them so luckily they were able to spend some dry time together there.


Then we entered it was raining lightly but we were still ok, Jackson was laughing at Steven as usual here...


But then it really started to come down! I had no interest in taking pictures, even though I wanted Jackson to have something to remember his time there. Luckily my mom snapped this one, but we weren't doing too well at this point, ha.


This last picture makes me laugh bc it just captures what was going on at that moment. The floor is so covered with leaves that you can hardly see the path. I am in the lead, holding Jackson (he was scared and wouldn't let anyone else hold him), and walking super fast to get out of the rain. My mom is hunched over trying to get something out of her purse as I rudely took the whole umbrella - sorry mom, I thought I was sharing?? Steven is holding my diaper bag on his stomach (bc Paige pointed out it was getting absolutely drenched on my back) while trying to deal with the sketchy purple umbrella we got for free in Harrods in London 6 years ago. Paige and Ben are walking behind, taking pictures - probably laughing at us "tourists."



I might not have been smiling at the time, but its a fun memory looking back :-)

As soon as we left the grove we put Jackson in the car seat and he fell asleep. So we took turns sitting in the car with him as we went to the remaining (mostly indoor) sites.


The first copies of the Book of Mormon were printed here.


Hill Cumorah & Visitors Center.


Afterward, we drove up to Syracuse for a night there at a hotel. Jackson stayed asleep until we got there - putting his mega nap at over 3 hours! He did so well in the PaiJetta! We got dinner at Dinosaur BBQ and Jackson loved his pulled pork sandwich!


Jackson and Steven had lots of fun playing on the beds at the hotel :)


Then Saturday morning we did some shopping and other "activities" in Syracuse before we headed back to Ithaca! And yes, Jackson fell asleep on the drive - love that baby.