Day 3

On Monday morning we headed to the airport and flew to New York City...

We arrived at our hotel about 1:00 in the afternoon. We checked into our lovely new home away from home...I loved these flowers in the lobby...
We left our luggage and went looking for lunch on our way to Rockefeller Center. After lunch, (which can I say, eating in NYC with 4 children must be a spectacle because we did get looks...I think just daring to have 4 children in NYC gets you looks!) we took the NBC Studios Tour...

The most interesting thing I learned on the tour was that to get tickets for a taping of "Saturday Night Live" you have to get in a drawing in August for the next year of shows and even then, there are so many requests that the odds are slim to none that you can get one!
After the tour, we went to the "Top of the Rock" (Rockefeller Center) and had a view of the whole city!

Next, we jumped on the subway for the first of many trips around town. We were headed down to Chelsea Pier for a dinner cruise around the Hudson and East Rivers and into the New York Harbor...

We enjoyed a nice buffet dinner and a smooth ride. It was fun to see the city from a different view.

We cruised out to the Statue of Liberty, seeing it as the sun was setting....

After Tim's picture, Caleb wanted me to take his also...

We were out long enough (about 3 hours) to see the sunset and the lights of the city come on...

Here is a picture of our ship after we docked that night.
Finally, we headed back to the subway to return to our hotel. Somewhere along the way, Caleb saw this mosaic in the wall...
Come back tomorrow to see Day 4 in the City!

Day 2 - Palmyra

On Sunday morning, we went to church in Buffalo. After church, we drove about 1 1/2 hours to Palmyra, New York. We started with a visit to the Joseph Smith Family Farm. We toured their home and visited the Sacred Grove. From there we drove to the Peter Whitmer farm, about 45 miles away. This is where much of the Book of Mormon was translated and where the organization of the church took place. It was a beautiful place. We drove back to Palmyra and made stops at the temple and at the Hill Cumorah. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon and we loved all the places we visited. It is still a very quiet community and fun place to drive around and sightsee.

Here we are between the Sacred Grove and the temple. If you look above our heads, you can see the temple.

A view out the window of the Smith farmhouse...

Here is the tree that the Smith family planted when their son/brother, Alvin died. That's why it is called Alvin's Tree!

The Sacred Grove...my favorite place, by far!

There are paths and benches all through the grove. In fact, we all wandered off alone or in pairs and it took awhile to get back together. A calm and peaceful place to be lost!

This is the inside of the Peter Whitmer home where the Church was first organized.

The temple grounds...

The temple windows have etched trees on them representing the Sacred Grove. In the set of windows that looks out over the Sacred Grove, the middle window is clear, so that from inside you have a view of the Grove.

We also visited the monument at the top of the Hill Cumorah...

We have only had 2 days of vacation and the kids are already making faces when I ask them to pose for a picture...

Tomorrow, we head to New York City!

Our Vacation in Review...

Several people have asked to see our vacation pictures. Whether that was out of politeness or real interest remains to be seen! So, I will post the pictures and it is up to you if you look at them! I plan to post a day of activities over the next several days so none of us feels overloaded! For those of you who are accustomed to viewing vacation pictures from Jessica, don't expect that kind of quality...I am more of a documentary photographer...the who, what and where, I haven't learned the artistic "make you want to be here" skills! It was a great trip and I hope you enjoy the pictures!

We left Salt Lake and flew to Buffalo, New York arriving Friday night...

That night, we drove to Canada and stayed in Niagra Falls in a room overlooking the falls, which were still lit up when we arrived. Saturday morning, we headed to the falls to ride the Maid of the Mist, the boat that takes you right up to the falls. I think we were on the second or third boat of the day.

It is loud and wet and takes you up close for a good look from the bottom of the falls...


Then we went "Behind the Falls" and walked through tunnels to a couple of viewing windows behind the falls...this picture is the back of the falls...

Then we went out on a landing beside the falls...

And finally, we had a good view from the top of the falls!

Then we learned a little about the history of the falls and later watched on IMAX movie about the falls and people who have dared to go over the falls! Then we drove about 20 minutes to Niagra on the Lake and went on the Whirlpool Jet Boat Tour...which is a great wet ride down the river to the whirlpool created by the falls, but you never get a view of the falls from this trip (which Clark and I learned the last time we went a couple of years ago!) We just thought it would be fun to give the kids the experience! Here is a video you can watch to get an idea of how the ride works...
Here we are before the ride...

And after...

Fortunately, we had all of our luggage and could change into dry clothes! We headed back to Niagra Falls and ate dinner and then drove back to Buffalo for the night.

to be continued....

June is for My Dad

Father's Day is in June, so June is for Dads...but Dad's birthday is also in June, so June is for MY Dad! I wanted to post something on Dad's birthday, but it didn't happen. Then today I remembered something I had planned to post but hadn't. I realized that this being Father's Day, it was the perfect day to post it, so here it is! There are just some things in your life that are attached to only one person, and this is one of those things. Before Dad died, I inherited my inheritance. It was first in Romney's room and then in other rooms and eventually relegated to a corner of the Christmas storage closet. This year we found it again, and being in need of something like it, we pulled it out! After a trip to a specialist to clean it up and some handyman work by Clark and Maddy, the inheritance has returned to a place of honor (if the corner of a basement can ever be a place of honor, but at least it is out of the box!) Drum roll, please!!!

The bullet lamp has returned!

My Grandpa Ussery made this from shells used during World War I. For those of you who may not know, it is actually an art form called Trench Art and a quick search of Wikipedia gives this definition: "Trench art is commonly defined as any decorative item made by soldiers, prisoners of war or civilians, where the manufacture is directly linked to armed conflict or its consequences. Common articles that this includes are decorated shell and bullet casings and items carved from wood and bone.

To the uninitiated, all trench art, by definition, was made by a soldier sitting in a trench in France during the First World War, in the midst of a bombardment. To the cynics, it was all made in the 1920s by enterprising French and Belgian citizens. The reality is, naturally, a mix of these extremes, and everything in between, and spans conflicts from the Napoleonic Wars to the present day. Although the practise flourished - and possibly originated - during World War I, the term 'trench art' is also used to describe souvenirs manaufactured by service personnel during World War II." An extended Google image search will yield an amazing number of art pieces, and should any of you have "Trench Art Envy", E-Bay appears to be a fine source to provide yourself one of these for your home.

Anyway, this lamp just reminds me of my Dad. I can't tell you where this lamp was in our home over the years, but it just says "Dad". I didn't know the Grandpa that made it, but I am glad that somehow it ended up with me. If it holds any memories for anyone else, well please come by and visit!