Down By The Bay!

Yesterday was spent all day in Toronto at the temple.  The kids stayed home with Grandma and Bumpa which they were plenty excited about.  We met up with Papa at the temple and he had his awesome camera with him...so I let him take all the pictures.  But I didn't get a chance to download the photos before he left, so that'll have to wait until we see him again.  Darn.

Tyler and I had a nice time and we enjoyed getting out of the house.  It was a LONG day, but it was still good.  We got home and the kids were SO excited to see Papa.

Fortunately, Papa rented a car for the weekend too, which meant that we were able to get all these people to church today too.

After church it was a bit rainy, and everyone played a game of Settlers while I made dinner.  Our plan was to walk around Queens and on the waterfront (because my mama loves it), but we were worried that the rain was going to stop our plans.  It let up just after dinner, so we still ventured out.

Seriously, Logan is in heaven with two Grandpas here.  That boy was meant to play with Grandpas.

It was CRAZY windy, which we learned later was a blessing, because it kept all the bugs away.  But it shortened or trip because you could only take just SO much wind.

Of course at one point the boys had to tease Alison and pretend to throw her in the lake.  She screamed out, "I'm old!  And I'm getting married!"  Sorry Jeff.  I guess the fun ends once she's married.  (She claims that she meant she didn't want to be hurt for the wedding.  Yeah right.  Likely story.

Our kids were tough guys down by the water with Papa...and Lucy loved trying to casually pose for pictures.

Inukshuk building.

And lots of fun.

We raced back to the van when we were done.  Literally.  We would say things like, "First one to the fire hydrant."  And everyone would run.  "First one to the mailbox!"

It was great.

Meet and Greet

One of the blessings and curses of living in Kingston is the overturn of people.  It's a military/college town which means often the people that live here aren't here forever.

A great family in our branch is moving.  It's hard.  They're amazing and have been so welcoming and supportive to our family.  They are moving to DC for a military position.  Only a few more weeks with them left.

So we did what we in Kingston do best...threw a party.  A potluck-BBQ party.  It was great.

My whole family joined us, which was awesome, so they got a chance to meet some of the people who have made Kingston so wonderful for us.

We ate.  Played Mafia.  Got a little silly.

And my niece and nephew made some friends.  Umm...awesome.

At this BBQ, we were invited the next day to many different events.  Swimming at the hotel pool with the family that is moving out.  Going to the Splash Pad with another family.  And the beach.  We put it to a vote, and the beach won.  So the next day we headed to 'Susie's beach' and had a great time!

Plus, we had the missionaries and the Lalonde's come back to our place for dinner...where we played the name game.

My family gets it.  We're taken care of here.  We love our people.  And now they do too.  Tomorrow morning Tyler and I are off to the Toronto temple with a couple in our branch that is getting sealed as a family.  I'm responsible for watching their 5 month old son until it's time for him to join in the sealing.

And we're meeting Papa in Toronto for him to spend the weekend with us before some business meetings he has in Toronto next week.  Full house.  I love it.

Palmyra

For the last two days we have spent a glorious time in Palmyra New York...visiting church history sites.  Tyler and I came here a while back with our kids and friends from Kingston and decided it would be a 'must-see' destination on this trip my sister and parents have made.

We took the afternoon to drive down, hoping Logan would have a nap on the way, which he refused quite forcefully.  So when we arrived, we went straight to the EB Grandin print shop for a tour.  Tyler worked in the van while Logan nap (upon my even MORE forceful insistence) and we all went into the book store and and the shop.  Tyler and Logan joined us part-way through the tour.

Our plan was to head to the Hill Cumorah next, but a major downpour changed our plans quite quickly.  We headed to get a bite to eat and hoped the rain would let up.  It didn't, so we visited the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center instead and decided the hill would have to wait until the next day.

The Hill Cumorah Pageant was just a few weeks ago and they still had the costumes on display in the visitor's center, so that was really neat to see.

Then we headed to our cottage that we were staying at for the night.  It was on the same street as the Joseph Smith Farm so it was cool to feel like neighbours for a night.  We settled in and watched some olympics for a bit.

Logan loves watching the swimming.  Every time it came on, he would say, "I do that!" and would lay down on the carpet and pretend to swim.  Then he took his shirt off too, because the swimmers don't have shirts on, and did it again, pushing himself across the carpet on his knees...and leaning on his head.  I was certain he'd get a rug-burn!  It was so funny.

The next morning, we got ready and headed to the Smith Farm for the tours.  Last time we went we had a 'brief' tour so it was cool to hear some of the interesting facts we had missed the last time.

Lucy Williamson in front of Lucy Mack's bed.

My kids enjoyed pulling up bricks and feeling the dirt where Joseph had buried the plates in the fireplace at one point to hide them from mobs.

When we were finished with the tour, we all headed out into the Sacred Grove.  It's always a fantastic experience.  I loved that it was the first time for my parents.

We took a longer path this time then the last and enjoyed seeing some deer eating casually.  We watched them for a long time, and they were perfectly content to let us watch.

Lucy tried to hide behind a tree and hold her arm out with a leaf, in the hopes that the deer would come and eat from her hand.  He was not that comfortable.

After the Grove we headed back to Cumorah.  It was crazy hot out and climbing the hill was again, crazy hard.

(I love these flowers.  They were at the visitor's center.  If anyone knows what they are, please tell me). 

We lost Grandpa part of the way down because he stopped at a bench and fell asleep.

We stopped at Brad and Dad's for lunch and icecream cones again and headed on the road home.  Since my sister is getting married in two weeks she wanted to stop at a mall in the states to see if she could find a suitable dress to wear.  She did.

And my kids enjoyed riding on mall rides.  Which they love.

It was late when we got home.  But we had a great trip.