His/Her Weekend

Joseph took Kimball on a camp out this past weekend. That meant Rebecah and I were left home alone. I think that is the first time she and I have been home together just the two of us for more than just a few hours. Joseph has taken Kimball on errands with him or they'll be hard working men outside, but not for hours like it was over the weekend.

Rebecah and I didn't do anything earth shattering. We went on a few walks, she took a bath, we read stories, but we had fun together. I could tell she missed Kimball though. She would go look for him in his room at times.

Here is a cute picture of her from last week.



Kimball and Joseph had a great time on the Boy Scout camp out. Kimball was all energy and had no problem keeping up with the Scouts. He over heard the Scout Master give the date of the next camp out and is already talking about going. He did come home very tired and very covered in tiny, tiny ticks. I didn't think ticks could get so small. He was a good sport while we picked him over...I probably took 30 ticks out of his scalp alone and that was after Joseph had bathed him and gotten a lot off already.



Sleeping Kimball



Talking to me on the phone.





On a hike.



I started a new project last week. I'm converting the journals for Kimball and Rebecah into blogs. They will be private blogs that only Joseph, the kids and I will have access to, but this will enable me to print them into books every few years. Their journals are full of pictures too so hopefully they will have a fairly complete personal history of their growing up years. I got the idea from my sister, Heather, who prints her blog each year.

I finished a few quilts this week as well. One was a Christmas quilt that I started last year that I finally got around to finishing.

Highlights

I must admit I got a little burnt out after blogging about our trip. Too much of a good thing. Here are a few highlights from our last two weeks.

I have been given new church assignments and no longer work with the Young Women. I am now the Visiting Teaching coordinator. I'm excited to be in Relief Society again.

Our dishwasher stopped working last week so Joseph installed a new one this week. It's nice to have a dishwasher again. I could survive without one, but it IS nice to have one. While we were dishwasherless, Kimball did tell me that he would do the dishes everyday until Jesus comes again. I thought it was sweet.

The weather has been nice so one day we had a picnic outside and the kids played on our swing set.









We bought a dining table. We bought it from someone we know so it isn't new, but it is nice to have a formal dining table. It came with 6 chairs and two table leaves.



The kids love eating lunch at the counter together.



Making silly faces.

Wrap Up

We really had a great time on our trip. I've never been to New York before and there are some things that we noticed about our trip:

There are caution signs warning about snowmobiles. I thought that was interesting.

The small towns are all called villages. So we would see signs that said: Entering the Village of Palmyra, or the Village of Pittsford or the Village of Macedon. I thought it was quaint that all of the small towns were villages. All of the villages were very nice and kept in good condition...it didn't matter if it were a tourist town like Palmyra or a small town that wouldn't attract many "out of towners". The people there must really love their history and their towns to take such good care of them. That is a definite difference from Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas or other small towns that I have driven through in the past.

I loved the old style of houses. There were some newer housing developments, but most people lived in nice older homes that had been restored or modernized but still look older.

Corn fields! I wasn't expecting so many cornfields. It must be a very fertile area for the corn to grow so well. On our drive back to Arkansas the corn fields we passed were scrawny when compared, probably do to the heat and lack of rain this summer.

The dirt up there is so dark, almost black! I must be so familiar with the red clay of the Midwest, but I don't remember ever seeing such dark rich soil that wasn't store bought.

Our dear little rental car. We rented an economy car since we knew we would be doing a lot of driving. We ended up with a Fiat 500. It was small, someone almost mistook it for a SmartCar. Joseph loved parking because he could fit into the smallest of spaces. The only disadvantage is that it was gutless. The cars couldn't wait to get around us when we started from a dead stop. It was an amusing part of our trip every day and provide us a lot of laughs.

We took this picture to show Kimball that we had a sun roof in our car. He learned about them recently and was very excited about it.

We had a great time on our trip. It was good for Joseph and me to have a trip away from the kids although we missed them a lot. We saw things all the time that reminded us of the kids. Fire trucks, huge dumpers that go on dump trucks, dogs, etc.

I really miss Palmyra. We loved being there. I don't know if I'm ready to move there, but it's tempting.

The kids had fun while we were away. Grandma took them to the Zoo, the park, McDonald's, and when it got too hot for those activities, they had fun things to do around the house. Kimball loved watching Tangled, Finding Nemo and Ratatouille.

We were all very happy to see each other at the end of the trip. Rebecah screamed and screamed at the airport when we left and it broke my heart. She was so happy to see me, and Joseph too. I sat in the back seat with the two kids on the way home from the airport and Rebecah would hug my arm, or give me kisses or just smile at me to make sure I was still there. It was sweet. She also wouldn't let me out of her sight and if I left the room without her she would scream. She is getting better now that we have been home a few days.

At the Zoo

At the Park
Is this a great picture! I think it is my favorite picture that Grandma sent to us while we were gone.

Cita loves slides.

Playing with the Foam Maker

Kimball with a beard!

Palmyra Day 3 & 4

The third day of our trip took us to Niagara Falls. I told Joseph I wanted to really go to Niagara Falls so we did. I wasn't too sure about riding the Maid of the Mist which is a boat that takes you up close to the Falls. Joseph did a lot of research on the ride before we went and we decided to skip the ride and just pay $1 a person to go to the observation tower. Well, over the course of the trip we kept hearing how Maid of the Mist was wonderful and we would be disappointed if we didn't ride it, etc. We gave in and paid $13.50 a person to ride the boat. Joseph and I both agreed that it wasn't worth the money but we can at least we won't say we wished we had ridden it. I didn't like it because I don't like being windblown and it was quite windy...I had forgotten to bring something to put my hair up ...I also don't like getting wet. We did enjoy our time there though. We enjoyed the observation tower and being close to the falls without getting wet. We were on the American side and I was glad because we were able to walk along the water and I don't think the Canadian side would have had that, I could be wrong though since we weren't there. I really liked walking with Joseph along the path. The water was very fast with a lot of rapids. We didn't get any pictures of this part...just movie. At one point we just sat on a bench and watched the water roar by. I'm glad we went, but if we ever go again we'll skip the boat ride.

After our return to Niagara Falls we attended the temple in the evening. On Friday we had a relaxing morning. We packed up and then found a park near the airport where we walked along the Erie Canal. At this park there were some cool trees that were down. I made Joseph take pictures of them.

Palmyra Day 2

Our second day took us to the Joseph Smith, Sr. farm, the Sacred Grove, Harmony (now Oakland), PA, and the Peter Whitmer Farm.

The Smith farm was neat. It was interesting to walk the grounds that Joseph walked and to see where he had some of his visits from Moroni. The Log Cabin is a replica of the original home. Here is the Smith Home:



Upstairs where the children would have slept and where Joseph would have been visited by the Angel Moroni.


Down Stairs



View of the temple from the Smith Farm



The Frame House. Alvin started this house for his parents but died before he could finish it. It was finished by the other children for the Smith parents.



Inside the Frame House



The cooper shop (left) and the barn (right)


The Sacred Grove was beautiful. We would have loved to have sat on a bench and pondered the miraculous event of the Father and the Son appearing to Joseph Smith, but the mosquitoes were pretty thick. We were able to walk around for awhile and as long as we walked we were bothered too much by mosquitoes. Anytime we would stop to take pictures it was my job to protect Joseph's head while he took the pictures. Maybe he is sweeter than I am, but they hovered around him more than me. Luckily he escaped with only 2 bites and I didn't get any.

I can't decide which pictures are my favorites, but here are some of the ones I like. Do to the mosquitoes, Joseph couldn't get a clear picture of me, but I managed to get one of him.

Some of the trees are over 225 years old and are known as "Witness" trees because they would have been standing when the First Vision happened. It was incredible to visit all of the Sacred places and know that so many Heavenly visitors came to the places we were visiting.








After we finished with the Sacred Grove we took a 3 hour drive down to Oakland, PA to see where the Aaronic Priesthood was restored at the Susquehanna River. We also saw the headstones for Emma Smith's parents, Issac and Elizabeth, in addition to the stone for Alvin Smith, Joseph and Emma's first baby that lived only a few hours.


We weren't sure if we would make it to Susquehanna because Hurricane Irene had created a lot of flooding, but we did. We were even able to walk down to the bank for the river where John the Baptist bestowed the priesthood on Joseph and Oliver Cowdery. The trail to the river wasn't too muddy until we got within 10 feet of the bank and then we could see where the water had receded. The river was still fairly high and it was flowing swiftly. Once again there were quite a few mosquitoes, but we escaped bites.















Even though the Priesthood Restoration site isn't heavily visited the grounds are beautifully kept and the church plans on adding more to this spot soon. Joseph was very glad I was willing to make the long drive with him down to Pennsylvania for a short stop.

On our way back to Rochester we stopped at the Peter Whitmer Farm where the church was organized. The visitors' center and farm house are surrounded by cornfields.






We ended the night at Seneca Lake where we ate dinner by the water. Of all the things we did, Joseph said eating dinner at the lake was one of his favorite things we did.