Church History and Niagra Falls!!!

My camera cord was broken for quite some time so I haven't been able to post about all the summer time fun stuff we have been having.  So, I will have some catching up to do.  Expect quite a few posts about all that to come soon. However, I couldn't wait to post about this wonderful trip we were able to take over this past weekend!!

We decided we couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit all the church history sights and see the Hill Cumorah pageant before we moved.  So we packed up, left absurdly early (4am to be exact) and started our journey to upstate New York.  It was a LONG drive, but making stops along the way made it less arduous.  I LOVED our first stop, the sight of Joseph and Emma's first home.

 Here we are standing next to a monument representing when Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery received the priesthood and baptized each other.

 This was one of my favorite things to see.  This is the actual headstone of Joseph and Emma's first son who died the same day he was born.  To think that Joseph and Emma Smith had actually touched this headstone was pretty amazing and humbling to me. They endured so many trials together and lost so many children.  I am so thankful for all the sacrifices they made.

 Here we are at the Susquehanna River where Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were baptized!!

 This was the home where the very first branch of the LDS church met!!  It is church members today who bought and preserved this home so people could come and see it!!

 There were so many amazing stops to make along this drive :) This was the sight where the home stood that Josepha and Emma were married in.

We took a potty stop at this beautiful waterfall!!!

 Here we are at the Peter Whitmer home and farm.

 We made another unique stop for lunch at the Belhurst Castle!! It was beautiful inside and we ate in the library :) I was devastated when Beckham dropped his glass cup of chocolate milk causing it to shatter all over the floor.  Boys will be boys, I guess.

 Once we made it to our amazing KOA camping sight, the men got to work...hehe!!

 This KOA was amazing and we found all sorts of surprises all around it!!

 We rented some paddle boats and had a lot of fun riding them around the little lake even though it was ALOT of work to paddle them!!

 The HUGE blow up pillow was a huge hit with the kids...and Ryan!!

 Once finally at the pageant after a VERY long day of traveling, we had several hours to kill before the show started.  We ate dinner there, the kids played and we met many of the cast members. This kids had a blast!!

 And the show was amazing, well worth the trip!!

 We got home late and had no trouble going right to sleep after our crazy, wonderful day!! Here are the kids well rested, with smiles on their faces the next morning.

 We started the next day early by seeing the Hill Cumorah!! It was so Beautiful!!

 Our next stop was my favorite.  We took a nice long walk through the sacred grove!!  It was truly an amazing experience :)

 Then we explored the farm where Joseph Smith grew up.  We first stopped at the house that he and his brothers built later on.  The fabulous thing about this home was it was 85% original!!! This wall was the original wall with the original white wash that the Smith boys would have put on!! WOW!!

 Then we stopped at the sight where Joseph Smith's first home sat. 

Here we are upstairs in the bedroom where the boys slept and also where the Angel Moroni would have visited Joseph, telling him where to find the plates. So cool!!

 Then we stopped at the place where the Book of Mormon was published

 Here is a copy of the very first Book of Mormon!!!  This one was donated to the church.  However, one of these was being sold on Ebay for 200,000 dollars!!!

 Being so near Niagara Falls, we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to see it :) So we made the extra two hour drive!!  This was also well worth the wait!!

 Here we are on the "Cave of the Mist" walk!!!  It was absolutely crazy and so much fun!!!  There was so much water blowing all around us, I couldn't even open my eyes for a good stretch of time there!!  Make-up was a BAD idea that day- hehe!!  I looked like a mess after...but we had a blast!!

 It was beautiful and amazing!!

 Here are Jane and I at the top just looking over Horse shoe falls!!  I was a basket case the whole time envisioning my kids falling into the river and hurtling over the Niagara!!  Luckily, that didn't happen...but my hands are still sore from holding their little hands so tightly!! :)

 We took 10 hours to get home!!! It's because we were taking our time seeing more of New York!!!  We stopped at a truly amazing hike.  It was a mile and a half uphill which got a little tiring with two already tired kids.  But it turned out to be one of the most beautiful hikes I have been on with 18 waterfalls along the way!!

It was an amazing trip that we will all remember for a long time!!!  It made me so grateful for the Church and for our beautiful earth!!! We are so blessed :)

We love our Grammy!!!

 A few weeks ago, we had another wonderful visitor!! My MOM came to hang with us!!  She is a super fun lady so naturally, we had a fabulous visit filled with lots of adventures!!! Luckily, she came over a holiday weekend so Ryan was able to join us on all our adventures!!  We all piled in the car yet again to make the two hour drive to the airport to pick up my mom, however my kids were so excited to see Grammy that they didn't complain at all about the long drive!! On our way home from the airport we stopped at a really neat restaurant called Hemingways that is right next to the Chesapeake Bay and had such a nice first night together!!

 

 We bring every visitor to Rehobeth beach because there are so many fun shops to explore.  It was an awful rainy day so we didn't even get to go to the beach...but we enjoyed the shops a lot!!  We found a neat cupcake bakery where the kids could decorate their own cupcakes :)

 Grammy helped with the decorating...and the snacking :)

 Another "must see" is Valley Forge.  Here we are at the very house that George Washington rented while he stayed at Valley Forge for six months with his troops!.  The house had original flooring and railings on the stairs!!!  It was very cool to think that we were touching the very same railing that George Washington touched!!

 Also while in Pennsylvania we visited Independence Hall and the very first National court house. Here is the courthouse with the original chairs on the poduim!!

 This is the upstairs room where George Washington was sworn in as the first President of the United States of America!! All the chairs in this room were the original ones- so cool!!

 This is my personal favorite- Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were debated on and signed!!!

 There are so many little beaches near us, so on a lazy Sunday afternoon we explored one of them :)

 On one of our last days we decided to have another last minute adventure!!  And I am glad we did because it ended up being really fun and interesting.  We boarded a ferry for Pea Patch Island where the largest and most state of the art (for the time period) Civil War fort was built!!

 They have done a fabulous job preserving the fort. This was the cafeteria.

 Apparently, Fort Delaware is one of the most haunted places in the state...the huge cannons and eerie hallways did not help.  My mind definitely played some tricks on me in there :-/

Here is a view of the inside of the fort from the top floor.

For our last dinner, we went to Olive Garden and had a lovely dinner...albeit CRAZY with the kiddos :)

Jane and Beckham LOVED having Grammy stay with us and cried when she left :( We love having visitors and we have gotten really good at being great tour guides!! I don't think I will ever get tired of it...so if you ever want to visit Delaware, you know who to come visit :) Thanks mom for making the long trip to Delaware, we had a blast!!!

An End to Remember!!!

Things have been busy around these parts.  We have had LOTS and LOTS of visitors, which has been fun but busy.  In what little down time we had between visitors, we managed to get in some fun, family time.  We went to Fifer Farm's strawberry festival!!  Though it was a little cold, we had a lot of fun.  The kids both got to ride horses and thought that was pretty cool.

 All the visitors we have had, have made continuing my little preschool for Beckham quite challenging.  But, somehow I managed to complete a full 9 months of preschool for my six sweet little students!!  The end of this school year for Beckham is very bittersweet for me.  I will miss my sweet boys so much. However, I will have more free time and no more late night setting up crafts and science projects for the next day :)

On Memorial day, we had our end of school year party and program.  I was so proud of all my boys. They sang their songs and recited their poem perfectly!! I gave each of them an award and their preschool certificate.  It was such a wonderful way to start the day.  I loved the huge smiles on each of their faces as I handed each of them their awards :)

 Here are a few darling pictures of my sweet students throughout our school year together!!

Sporting their safari hats...

 Helping make fruit salad for snack...

 Singing in our Thanksgiving program...

 Turning into apple trees...

 Making pudding together for snack...

 Beckham's first day of school...

 Craft time, making fish...

 Fascinated by a science project...

 Feeding our school pet "Goldie" the fish...

 Circle Time...

 Building arches...

I had a fabulous year teaching these boys and will miss my time with them so much :(  Even though it was ALOT of work, I would totally do another preschool.  I loved being able to watch my sweet little Beckham learn and grow every day!!!  I am so proud of him for doing so well in school!!! I will always have such fond memories of this year :)