Our New York and Canada Trip

Our trip to New York started out with visiting the Log Home where Joseph Smith lived in Palmyra.  This is our family looking pretty in front of it.

Here are David and Amanda in the Sacred Grove. (Evan is in the back.)

We  went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant and this is what the "kids" did while we were waiting for it to start. Get a good look at David's and Shanna's cards.






Okay, so I haven't figured out how to do blogs with pictures yet.  Up there is the stage for the Hill Cumorah Pageant.   

Monday, we went to Corning Museum of Glass and made stuff.  Brian's finished flower is up there, then Dad blowing his paperweight, his finished paperweight, and Brian working on his flower.  When Brian gets home from Scout Camp with the camera, we'll have to take a better picture of it.

The next picture is from Tuesday. Brian and I are in our cheapo plastic raincoats waiting to get on the Maid of the Mist boat to take us near Niagara Falls.  We were already wet because it poured while Brian and I were waiting for Milt to take a necessary side trip.  

We went to a bird and reptile place after the Falls and lunch.  They wouldn't let us take any pictures because THEY took pictures and wanted you to buy them at the end.  

Below is a picture of one of the gardens at the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens.  It is free and they have several gardens to see.  The picture next to that is the Flower Clock.  Every year they plant it in a different pattern.  If you go around behind it, there are pictures of it for almost every year since they started doing it.   It has been there for several decades.

This picture on the right is the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens.  It is kind of a cool building, although it is pretty old.  They have 12 "houses" in it.  Some of them are:  Begonia House, Orchid House, Tropical House, Desert House, and Victorian Ivy and Herb House (where Dad and Brian played a giant game of checkers).  

This purple flower is one of the strangest I have ever seen.  It was in the Tropical House.  Maybe Shanna knows.  They also had HUGE hibiscus flowers in there.

Below you can see the HUGE twins that Shanna and Evan are expecting, one each.  A boy for him and a girl for her.  Ha ha.  That was the big news of the weekend.  

The video is the Christmas ornament from my glass blowing debut.  

Another Beach Experience

Milt, Brian and I went to the beach again.  On June 22 (Monday), we drove to The Inn at Otter Crest.  We arrived a little before sunset.  We hauled all our stuff up the hill to our room, went on a short hike to Devil's Punch Bowl, and went back and watched a movie.  Then we enjoyed the sunset.

Tuesday morning, low tide was at 7:30?  So we got up and went out there. The tide pools were awesome.  We went on the beach towards Devil's Punch Bowl so we could see different tide pools than we had seen in June.  Low and behold, you could climb all over the rocks INSIDE Devil's Punchbowl.   There was a whole wall with starfish just hanging all over it.  Anemones too.

When we got back, Milt had a nap while Brian and I went swimming in the pool.  It was a little chilly in our apartment and outside, but the swimming pool was nice and warm.  It felt good to get inside.  Brian forgot his goggles so we didn't stay too long, which turned out to be a good thing because I forgot to put sunscreen on my face.  My nose was red and right around my hairline was very tender and red.  Brian got a LITTLE red too.  We climbed the thousand stairs back to our place.  

Milt was working in the afternoon, so Brian and I hiked over to Devil's Punch Bowl (968 paces according to the sign, however Brian counted 1,111).  On the way back we took a smaller trail, but ended up at The Inn at Otter Crest anyway.  

Wednesday, we went to Yakina Lighthouse area.  They were supposed to have some great tide pools, but they weren't nearly as spectacular as the ones just down from our beach place.  They did have cobblestones though.  They are small lava rocks that are roundish and smooth.  They are all over just above the beach near the lighthouse.  They are a little hard to walk on because they roll when you step on them, and they were on an incline.  Most of them were probably about 6 inches in diameter.  (These ones in the picture are in the water, but you get the idea.)

On Thursday, we headed out to go hike to Drift Creek Falls.  After a 45-minute drive up a narrow winding road, we made it to the trailhead.  It was cloudy and threatening precipitation (I say that because it could have been rain or mist).  We put on our hiking boots and hiked to the falls.  There is a suspension bridge you go over to see the falls.  The hike was only a little more than a mile and there wasn't too much elevation gain (but some).  It didn't rain until we had been by the bridge for a few minutes.  Then it started to sprinkle, but we headed back.  The rain quit and every once in a while there was a mist or slight amount of rain, but not too bad. Back at the car, there were some people just arriving, and they asked us about the trail.  They happened to be from Utah with married children and one on a mission.  (The children weren't with them, of course.)  It's a small world.

THE banana slug

That was the end of our excitement until we go to NEW YORK and get to see most of our kids because we are going to the Hill Cumorah Pageant!!  Cant' wait to see you all again.