A Place to Write

"But what if I don't make any friends?!" you shouted suddenly as angry tears reached your eyes. Going to school is not what you wanted to talk about during Family Home Evening, my sweet Eisley girl, but it had to be done. I told a story about a girl who was brand new to school and when she got there on the first day she realized everyone else was brand new too and they were all scared too. So she talked to someone and she made a friend and she found out everyone else was scared about making friends too. On Monday you girls start school. Kaybree will be in second grade. Eisley will be in kindergarten. J will be a senior. (Senior, part 1 of 2...) J is resigned. He knows he has to go back to school and he's not excited about it but he has accepted it is necessary. Kaybree is excited to see friends again every day. Eisley is terrified. Eisley is not a shy girl. She speaks up when she needs to and she can jump right into crazy when it presents itself. But she has had...

Our last day was full of travel. We stopped at Niagra on the US side very briefly and took pictures of three sisters at Three Sisters Park. Then we drove for four hours to the airport. Our flight was delayed so we had to wait at the airport for about four hours as well. Luckily the Pittsburgh airport has an awesome kids center where the kids could play and we could charge everything up for the plane ride. By the time we got on the plane Aspen was out for the night. I think everyone fell asleep on the plane at some point. It was 1 a.m. by the time we got home and J was up and waiting for us. He even gave me a hug!

Our final day was spent at the Great Wolf Lodge in Canada. The girls loved the water park and even Eisley was adventurous and tried all the slides. She didn't want to leave at the end of the day! Later that night we went to Niagra falls and saw the falls lit up. There were fireworks too!

Tuesday we started the day with a quick game of football in the grass before heading to the Whitmer farm where the translation of the Book of Mormon was completed and the first meetings of the church were held. We saw a snake there in the grass. It started to rain as we were leaving and it rained as we drove back to our home. We made a stop at Chase Farms and got to feed some goats and order some delicious ice cream sundaes. Barb and Richard bought some fresh cherries and even though the girls said they don’t like cherries they ate them all. Aspen did NOT like that we sat next to her but didn't hold her in the car. She cried a LOT!   We saw the pageant That evening I sat with Kaybree outside and we found slugs, snails and rolly polly bugs. I love that Kaybree is such a girly girl but she also loves chasing bugs and wildlife and she has no fear of pic...

The next morning the sun was shining and we got to see the full beauty of the place we were staying. There was beautiful grass, two red barns and so many flowers. Behind the house was a trail through a forest. Mailyn and I ventured on it for a moment but the bugs scared us away! The kids were really excited about the pay phone! Joseph Smith's boyhood home The sacred grove    It was beautiful but we were not prepared. We ate some pizza for lunch and then went to the sacred grove. The grove was beautiful. The trees were majestic. The church does a great job of maintaining these cites and planning benches and trails that allow you to take a moment for yourself to be somewhere quiet. After the sacred grove and Smith farm we went and saw the Hill Cumorah and the printing offic...