May (25)

 

Evan was so excited to find this large toad in our yard, he was carrying it around so I snapped a picture of him with it before he released it back into the yard.

Above was the kids playing when we returned from our trip. The love making puppet shows and then popping popcorn to go and watch.

These are pictures from our short visit to Uncle Austen's farm. The kids had a great time wondering around and playing with cousins.

Above was us at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The kids enjoyed having Saturday evening there and then going to church the next morning. We had also stopped by Aunt Christine's house for just a minute on our drive down to Grandma and Grandpas. 

Below is a picture of our family at the Kirtland temple. We felt very blessed as we made it just as it was time for the missionaries to close up for the day but they still took us on a nice tour and even let our kids turn out the lights and set the alarms. There was a beautiful spirit there and it was neat to see all of the work you could see that the saints had put into this remarkable building. 

These pictures above and below were pictures of our quick stop at Niagara falls. If we stayed very long we wouldn't have made it to Kirtland, it was the perfect amount of time. We walked around went to the bathroom, went to the spot that you could see the falls the best and then headed on to our next destination.

The sacred grove. It was beautiful as you can see in these pictures. We even saw a baby fawn right off the path. There definitely is a sweet peaceful spirit there. I don't know if the time of year was just the perfect timing or what but everything seemed absolutely perfect. The light streaming in from the trees, the peace that was there, the quiet, the beauty. It definitely is a special place.

I didn't even know that Palmyra had a temple but we snapped a picture as we drove right past where it was. It is just above from the Sacred Grove. It is neat to see temples all over the country.

This is us visiting some historic sights on our way over to the Sacred Grove. As you can see, it was cold. So cold that we really just jumped out, took a picture and then got back in the van. We hadn't planned on the cold that we encountered at a few of the locations on our trip. You can see the kids doubled up on shirts, got the one pair of paints that they brought. Luckily I packed the girls a jacket.

The statue of Liberty. We spent quite a bit of time here, walking around, going to the top and visiting the museums and reading about the history behind the statue.

This is all of us in the crown! Maebryn was just big enough to be able to go up. One of the rules was that if she went up I couldn't hold her, she would have to walk the steps all by herself. She did an amazing job. I would often ask her if she wanted to stop and take a break for a bit but she would say, "no, I can do it Mommy".

This is us at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. We all had to agree that Philadelphia was not our favorite place to be but we did enjoy going to independence hall. There were some important and amazing things that transpired here. (One of the things that bugged me about Philadelphia was many of the signs on the historic sights were negative towards our founding fathers. Yes, I know that they were not perfect and that they had slaves but I think we can still show them respect and honor. If they hadn't done what they had done and formed this nation then for all we know slavery might of an probably would have gone on for a much longer time.)

We loved getting to stay with cousins while we were in D.C. It was such a blessing to get to see family and to have a nice place to go to after we had been out sight seeing all day.

These are pictures from our capital building tour. I took a picture of Brigham Young. I think it is neat that at least one prophet is in the capital building.

The art museum wasn't first on our list to visit, just because there is so much art but we ended up in the area and went in. I am glad that we did, it was so neat to see so many of the artist that the kids have learned about. We really enjoyed seeing their paintings. I think we actually liked this more then the natural history museum with all of the animals.

We did really love going to the Washington D.C. temple and walking around on the grounds. It was a little bit of a drive and I wondered about doing it but I am glad we could go. As soon as we saw it, I was glad we were there. I really do Love to See the Temple.

This was after church with our cousins. Rebecca is amazing and had packed pulled pork and lots of things to go with it for us to eat after church so we didn't have to go back to her place and could go straight to the temple afterwards. It was a wonderful lunch and so thoughtful and well planned out.

The evening of the monuments. We decided to go we all of the monuments on the evening we drove into town. It was a beautiful time to do so. This is us at the Washington monument. You can see that someone had had a long day and spent a lot of the time seeing the monuments taking a nap.

These are pictures from the beginning of our monument tour when you can see that Maebryn is still awake.

This is us doing the tour of Thomas Jeffersons house. I really enjoyed this part of the trip and am glad that Michael had us sign up for the tour and visit. I love walking the grounds and seeing the things he had in his house and just learning more about him and his family. (My favorite part was walking the property. It is beautiful and full of so many flowers and has an amazing garden as well.)

This is a hot spring that we drove through on our way. It was a nice stop to walk around for a little bit. We even went on a short walk through one of the old bath houses.

This was just before we left on our trip, one of our friends brought their bearded dragon over for my kids to see and hold. Everyone loved meeting him.

This was a day that a turtle wondered into our yard. It was perfect, because the kids have been asking for a turtle or a lizard but I have told them that with the heat lamps and everything it is just too much and really they should just be left in the wild where they are happiest. So it was a tender mercy for this turtle to wonder into our yard for a day, our kids got to have their own "pet" turtle for the day. They got to sit and watch him just like they would if we had a pet one.

Maebrybn was in charge of dinner and went the extra mile to set the table nice for dinner.

Matching with my girls

Above was a special day. Alden got his patriarchal blessing. It was a beautiful experience to be in the room with him. Grateful to be there.

Above is Benson and Evan's room before we did our big summer clean and switch around. Really we didn't change much. Mostly we just put those book shelves in their closet and then put a table and chairs in their room.

We had a lesson from the missionaries where they had everyone draw a name and then do something nice for that person. Evan got Maebryn, he drew her this nice card, made her bed really nice and gave her a couple prizes he had earned from practicing. It was really sweet and nice of him.

Another nicely set meal, probably by one of these girls. Even thought the boys do a good job making good food as well...they just don't usually set the table nice.

Above is Alden's end of the semester piano recital. I think it was good for him to have an opportunity to work on piano at the college. Below is picture of the kids singing songs to the ducks. They often will sing songs or read stories to the ducks. (Usually it is Evan doing this, sometimes Roslyn, and this time even Benson joined in.)

This was a fun science class that a lady from our ward did for us at our house. We all loved it and learned so much in just a fun simple way. It was so nice of her to do it for us.