Vacation: The End

This is the last vacation post!  Yeah!  Believe me, I am just as glad as you, my three readers.   Here are some good bye pics to our rental home.

One of the only pics we took inside our rental home.  Here is Jacob during Family Home Evening at the Rental Home.

A lousy picture, but again one that shows some of the rental house.  Don't ask me what I am doing.  Paying close attention to Family Home Evening, obviously :)

We made a few stops on our way home.  Our first stop was at what is formerly known as Harmony, PA.  right on the Susquehannah River.  The church has a small monument there commemorating the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood.  Joseph Smith and his friend (and scribe) Oliver Cowdery were translating the Book of Mormon.  They had a question about baptism and the authority to baptize.  They went into the woods to prayer and were blessed with a heavenly visitor, John the Baptist.  John bestowed upon them the Aaronic, or lesser priesthood, which includes the authority to baptize.  Then Joseph and Oliver baptized each other. 

The sight of the monument is on a busy road, but as you go back into the woods and down by the river, it is quite peaceful.  We enjoyed the quiet feeling there and enjoyed a short lesson about the event from Greg.  We are glad to know that the church is going to build a visitor's center there.  We are glad we took the time to drive a little out of our way to go there.  (Just in case you are counting, we visited our second cemetary here.  Joseph and Emma Smith lost their first child here.  We visited his grave in the cemetary next to the monument).

Jacob climbing an amazing tree near the monument

Smiling kids in the tree

Silly kids in the tree

On the path to the river

The Susquehanna River

Shells we found at the Susquehanna River

Now, what kind of parents would we be if we were in Pennsylvania and didn't stop at Hershey?!  We spent a morning at Hershey's Chocolate World.  We made our own Candy Bars and learned how they make theirs.  It was a lot of fun!  It would be fun to go back and do some of the other attractions or go to the amusement park next door.

Jacob watching for his candy bar to come down the line

In our factory gear

We also got to make our own labels.  Here is the final product.

 Our last stop was the middle of nowhere, Indiana.  Greg has some ancestors that lived here and were buried here.  He has wanted to see their graves for a long time.  It was sort of on our way so we took the detour.  Graveyard number 3, check.  It was about this time we realized how nice the weather had been in Massachusetts.  We were now back in the  heat of this terribly hot summer the Midwest has had.

Greg happy to have found the graves of his great, great, great, great grandparents, Thomas Hamilton Finch and Elitha Holloman Finch.

The kids (minus Jacob) at the grave of their great, great, great, great, great grandparents.

I asked the family what their favorite part of vacation was.  Here is what they said:
Lizzy:  Whale Watching because I liked the ocean and it was cool to see real whales in the ocean.
Anna:  Whale Watching because I loved the boat ride and the wind in my hair.  It was so fun!  I loved seeing the whales and it just reminded me how great the creations are on the earth.
Ben:  Hershey's Chocolate World because I really liked the tour and seeing all the chocolates in the machine.  It was cool to make our own and see how cool the machine was, especially the laser that wrote our names on our boxes.
Adam: Swimming at our lake and hanging out at our rental home because I liked having our own private beach.
Jacob:  Swimming at our lake because it was cold water.
Tammy:  Spending time with our family.  It is so great to get away from our normal routine and have fun together. (Of the things we did, I loved Whale Watching!  Amazing!)
Papa:  Whale Watching because I enjoyed the boat ride and the breeze on the ocean.
THE END!!!!