Upper New York

Ok so some how we had it in our mind that it would take about 3- 3 1/2 hrs to get there. But once we plugged things into the GPS we realized it would take about 6-7hrs. It was a really long drive.. So that kinda took time away from what we thought we had to go see things. By the time we got to the KOA and checked in and unloaded the car it was around 5:30 6:00. We decided to hurry and run to the Palmyra visitors center to find out more information on when things opened and closed. Thankfully the visitors center stays open until 9:00 but the rest of the areas close at 7:00. So we decided to tour the visitors center and hike up the huge hill Cumorah where Joseph Smith recieved the plates. It was quite the hike. They have a big pageant they do in July that I wish we could have had a chance to see. Im sure it would be awesome. It was quite a view from the top of the hill. It was fun to imagine and see what it must have looked like back in those days. We then headed back to the KOA where we had a little cabin we were staying in. It was really cute and nice. It sat right up against the big pond they have there for fishing or renting paddle boats or canoes. The kids wanted to fish so we rigged up there poles and they had a blast!! They caught so many fish.. They would barely put their lines in the water and then they would have one.. we couldnt keep up with them. It's a catch and release program which they call CPR catch, picture, release. so we had to throw them back. So one of us would bait their hooks and the other would take their fish off the hook and throw them back. I think the fishing was the best part of the whole trip for the kids.. Thats all they wanted to do.. Plus we found out the fish really liked bratwurst and string cheese. They were going crazy on it.

The next day we headed over to Niagra Falls and spent the day over there walking around the waterfalls. It was really pretty. We got to walk down close by the bottom and they give you rain coats to where but we still got soaked. So we spent the day sludging around in wet shoes and socks. They had a space needle over on the canada side that was really neat to see and they have these elevator cars that go up the face of it.. It would have been cool to go in them but they now require you to have a passport to go over to the canada side..But it was fun anyhow.. We then left to go see a battlefield Fort at Niagra State Park, But they wanted money to go tour it which we didnt feel like paying so we just tried to take pictures of what we could see from the outside.. They also had this really cool lighthouse here that we had to take a picture of. I had to include it in my slide just for my friend Jodi.. She loves lighthouses... We were able to go down to the beach there at Lake Ontario and let the kids play in the sand and look for sea shells and pretty rocks. It's a huge Lake. You cant see across it. We then went back to the cabins and ordered pizza and let the kids fish the rest of the night.

The last morning on the way home we stopped off at the Joseph Smith Farm and went in and walked around the Sacred Grove area. It was a very spiritual place. It was very beautiful and peaceful there. I was so mad that steve did not have the camera with him at this time to take some pictures. We then were able to walk past the Smiths home and farm area and read some history about the area. It was really neat.. We then ran down the road to see the Palmyra temple. It was beautiful. My parents said they could handle serving a mission out there. It really was a beautiful area. We then headed back home which took us what seemed like forever.. I think we finally made it home around 8:00 pm. Me and steve were leaving bright and early the following morning for Cayman Island so we were in a rush to get unpacked, do laundry and repack and get things ready. Needless to say we didnt get much sleep that night. I will blog more tomorrow on the trip to Cayman Island. It was paradise.. Anyways that was our trip to upper state New York and the Church sites. I am glad we got to go do this being so close. We will probably never get another chance to do it. So while we are living here for the next year we decided to try and take advantage to go see what is out here. Ok So My last vacation blog will include Steve and I's trip to Cayman Island, the trip to Princeton Battlefield and our trip out to the ocean along the Jersey shore so stay tuned.

I just realized the pictures from the Princeton Battlefield were on here so Ill explain some of the pictures. Some of the pictures of the kids by the trees were some of the original trees that were there during the War. Some of them measured at least 5 feet across they were huge.. The green and white house was an old farmers house that they used as a hospital to fix the injured regardless of what side they were fighting on. The tree that is fenced in is said to be a tree started from the acorn that fell from the original tree that was there where Captain Mercer who served under Gorge Washington was wounded and leaned up against the tree and later died up in the hospital. I couldnt really get the view in the camera of the whole area considered the battle area because it was so large. Its strange to think we were walking on the very ground where many men died and alot of blood was shed. I think my dad really enjoyed seeing this area. He can relate to some of the storys having served in the vietnam war. The War was alot diffrent back then in those days as to how it is now or even during the time of vietnam. The weapons and the way of fighting. Its amazing what technology has done.

Fridays Feast And Fill In

Appetizer
When was the last time you had your hair cut/trimmed?

Oh it was probably 7-8 weeks ago

Soup
Name one thing you miss about being a child.

The carefree aspects of it. Playing all day and the only worries you had was who you were gonna play with.
Salad
Pick one: butter, margarine, olive oil.

Oh I love the tase of real butter... Of course if I am trying to stick with my diet I would choose none or use little olive oil.

Main Course
If you could learn another language, which one would you pick, and why?

There is so many i would like to speak but if I had to choose just one it would probably be spanish. I have had 5 years of it in school but I still cant speak it. It seems to be the next dominant launguage next to english in the U.S However there are ones that i think are more pretty like french or italian. portugese or maybe swahili.

Dessert
Finish this sentence: In 5 years I expect to be…

Hopefully back in utah.. Doing pretty much the same running around with kids as I am now. Hoping I'm a little more wiser. Alot more patient and understanding with my kids.. I will need it with the teenage years, more clever, funny,and thinner. LOL

1. Oh, I can't wait until I have a day of running with no pain.

2. milk is the first thing I see when I open my refrigerator.

3. I never leave home without My cell phone.

4. If I were a condiment, I would be Salsa because its hot and spicy.

5. Sourcastic attitudes is really high up on my list of pet peeves.

6. The last thing I thought of before I went to bed was I am so sick of my husbands job.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to spending some time with my kids and husband, tomorrow my plans include possibly going to the beach and Sunday, I want to relax and watch movies with my family.

Trip To The Big City

Ok so our first stop was to New York City to go see the Statue of Liberty and to ground zero. We had heard that you should never go to new york without an unbrella so we packed a few and headed out. We had also bought a new camera for our vacations so throughout these next couple of days of slides you will see we were still trying to get used to the focusing on the camera hence all the blurry pictures. It took us about 45 mins to drive there from our house. As we were getting on the ferry to take us over to Statin Island it started to rain. We were glad we had the umbrellas.. It was really foggy as you can see in some of the shots we were trying to get of NY. The first stop was at the emmigration museum which was pretty cool. They had a flag that was pretty neat at one view of it you could see the flag and as you walk past it changes to photos of all the emmigrants who have come to the united states. It was pretty neat. They had alot of rooms with old photos and an acutal book they had to sign when they came into the states. I wish we would of had a little more time to walk through it to see everything but everyone was in a hurry to get over to the statue.

The statue of liberty was cool. We were able to go inside the statue. They dont let you go all the way up any more but you are allowed to to to the base that she stands on. They have a little museum inside that shows how she was made and the materials and tools it took. Pretty interesting. Then we hopped the ferry over to battery park but what we didnt know was if you take the ferry over your on your own the ride back is not a part of the ferry trips. So needless to say when it came time to come back and we found out we couldnt get a ferry we were panicking a little.. We eventually found out we had to get a water taxi to take us back over so after walking another mile and a half we finally made it, but while we were there we were ble to go see ground zero. They have alot of it blocked off now so you dont get to really see much of it, but we were told that if we went to the top of the burger king building across the street you could get some decent pictures so thats what we did. The pictures turned out pretty good i guess from taking it inside through a window.

I think we about did mom in that day. We did alot of walking and her knees are not good she is acutally having both of them replaced next week. She was pretty swollen up by the end of the day.. We were hoping to find her a wheelchair but we never did find one.. By the time we ended up coming back the weather had cleared a little giving us a chance to get some pictures of new york from the water taki as we headed back. It was a fun long day... There was so much more we wanted to go do and see while over there but just didnt have the time.. We would have liked to go see time square and central park maybe go see a broadway play. Owell maybe another day.. You really need a couple days to just do New York City.

I will post more tomorrow on our trip up to Upper State New York and Palmyra and over to Niagra Falls.

Sorry about the multiple shots of the statue and of NY. You know men when they get a new toy (camera). I think i must have deleted at least 30 shots and still have at least 20..

I'm Finally Back!!!

I'm back.... What a month...I have so much to catch up on.. My parents left early this morning. we took them to the train station at 5:00 this morning. It was so hard to see them go.. Last night was the worst because they had to say goodbye to the kids because they would still be asleep this morning when they left. Just hearing the kids broke my heart. Austin did pretty good as well as Logan. Jessie was a mess. She was crying so hard and saying it's just so hard to say goodbye. I felt so bad.. She has been trying to convince me for 3 weeks now to buy her a ticket so she could go back with them. She kept asking mom to hide her in her suitcase. Oh it was so hard to see her so sad. Allie was a bawling wreck to. It was extremely difficult to keep it together last night as well as this morning. We will miss them so very much..

I have so many pictures to post of the vacations so i will do it a day at a time so i dont have an hour long blog to get through!!! LOL

The first slideshow will be pictures from the first week that my parents were here. The kids were in school still so we just kinda hung out at home that week. The last day of school we took the kids to the adventure aquarium. That was fun and we got to see the N.J Battleship. We didnt go tour it but we got some pictures of the outside.

It was just so great to have them here. Every morning that I was here I went bike riding with my dad. Man he biked my butt off. He has been biking for a couple of years now so he is pretty conditioned. With my not running for the last month i have plummeted with my shape and stamina. For the most part i kept up with him but there were a couple times i thought i was gonna kill over and was silently praying he would slow down and get tired to give me a sec to catch my breath. But it was so great. It helped keep my physical exercise going since I cant run yet from my dang leg injury that doesnt seem to be healing. I had some good burn outs for my legs.. I'm really going to miss his company riding in the mornings. He took the kids out for bike rides every single day. Sometimes several times a day. Allie really got into it. They would go 5-6 miles every time. I think the hardest part will be that the kids dont have them here to entertain them anymore. With just me it is hard to devide my time with all the things i have to do in a day and with all the activity i have to shuffle kids to and from that it is just hard to find the time to spend just playing with them.. I will have to try and make an effort every day.. They really thrive on that and without having many friends here to play with and with school being out they get bored very quickly.

Me and my mom got a ladys afternoon out yesterday. We went and walked around the Princeton downtown shops where we found the Lindor Chocolate company. Oh that was a big mistake going in there. if any of you have not tried a Lindor Chocolate i highly reccomend you do.. They are to die for.. We ended up getting these bars that were chocolate with blueberry vanilla yogurt cream in the center but it wasnt a cream it was thicker with little crunches in it.. We also got one that was peach and apircot, a strawberry rhubarb, a lemon cream, and a toffee crunch. Needless to say after sampling them we had to go back and buy more.. Oh and they had this one that was a chocolate drop with a wild berry jelly substance on top of a vanilla thick cream inside. Oh man....... It tasted just like a cheesecake bite. It was so heavenly... Now I'm in big trouble.. I'm really going to have to do alot of biking to work all the chocolate off..
Then after shopping we went to P.F Changs Bistro for lunch. Another highly reccomended place if you have never been before.. Their Chinese food put all else to shame. It was so good. That is by far my favorite restraunt to eat at.. Then we went home to relieve grandpa from the kids.. Me and Mom played our last game of Settlers of Catan.. A great game.. Very addicting. Then we all went on a walk to the bridge that goes over a part of the river where we ride our bikes to some great riding trails. There are alot of turtles that live there in this part of the river so we went and watched them for a while until we got rained on then we headed back home.
A great end to the 3 weeks.. But very sad and depressing as well. It was great to have the help exspecially when steve is traveling so much lately. Starting the end of this month he will travel 5 weeks out of six. 3 of them being right back to back he will fly from one state to the next without coming home in between. That will be extremely difficult. With no family around it gets tough being alone with the kids for that long with no help. Exspecially at their ages. Owell I guess thats life.. We will grit our teeth and bear it.

I will post more tomorrow on the trip to New York and post the pictures from those few days. We got some great shots of Niagra Falls.

Stay tuned.