The rest of the summer

I think the vacation posts wore me out.  Here is a quick run down of a few of the other things we did in the summer.

The kids always have fun taking pictures with the i-pad.  They also made several videos this summer.  I thought this pic of Anna was cool.


Our little ham, Lizzy, had fun gathering all of the medical paraphernalia and having a little fun.

Jacob wasn't about to get left out of a photo op.  Yeah he doesn't have a back brace or a neck brace, but he has a mohawk!

We try to go on regular dates with the kids.  Thanks to a talk in sacrament meeting a few years ago we discovered a great system.  Each kid gets two months of the year for date months.  In those months they get one date with Greg and one date with me, one on one.  They are awesome and something the kids always look forward to.  Since I won't/don't eat most of the junk food kids love, Greg always gets to go somewhere to eat.  Here is Anna with her giant cheesecake at Cheescake Factory.

 

 Greg has been super busy lately.  He started that certificate program at MIT (can continue for a Master's if he chooses) so he has been to Boston a few times.  He also got to go to San Diego for a Conference.  This was great for him because he served his mission there.  Here a few pics from the trip.  The temple, the view from his hotel and a cool guy stacking rocks at the beach. 

 

 

Here is crazy Lizzy again.  She is so fun and random!

My first trifle.  I made it for a Relief Society activity but then didn't eat any.  I hope it turned out OK.

 I bought some art books for Anna and some nice pencils.  Anna really enjoyed having more time to create and draw this summer.  One Sunday she had an "Art Show" for us all.  She even charged to buy her paintings.  She graciously gave us the correct (fake) currency to pay her.  Here is the artist and some of her work.  It is so fun to see your kids develop their talents. 

 

 

Here is Anna and I after our date together.  We went to get haircuts and go school shopping.  She is really growing up.
 

The week Adam was at scout camp we had a Hawaiian week.  We checked out books about Hawaii and each child had to report on a certain topic concerning Hawaii.  We had a lot of fun.  Anna really enjoyed teaching us all some Hawaiian words.  We also tried some Hawaiian food.  My kids have never had guava or papaya.  They also wanted to try a real coconut.  Mixed reviews.

I love Anna's face and Lizzy's tentative licking.

 

These are Anna's very creative homemade paper decorations.  She also made a few "surfboards".  She is so creative!
 

I really had a hard time getting the coconut open.  One of the kids almost threw up when they tried the coconut milk (it was gross, almost like drinking coconut oil straight or something) and we didn't really like the flesh plain either.  

 

We also went to the library a lot.  We attended a few presentations there.  These pictures are from the bat presentation.  I am not sure why, but my girls really like bats. The bat lady let every child get a picture with the bat if you wanted to.  It was really cool.  You will notice Adam is not in many of the pictures.  He did spend some time with us this summer, but he spent as much time as possible with his friends.  They would often spend hours at the YMCA playing basketball or handball.  He had two really great church friends each about a block or two away.  We were all sad when one of them moved at the end of the summer.  Sadly, Adam is growing out of some of the kids activities we do.  He kindly humors me and tags along sometimes, though.  I hope you all had a great summer.  Now, enjoy your fall!

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!!!!

Vacation: The beach and Fourth of July

We live in the Midwest so we don't have many opportunities to visit the beach, so we were sure to spend some time on the beach in Plymouth.  The beaches in New England aren't as nice as the beaches in Florida but it was still fun even with a more rocky beach and cooler water.  The ocean is just amazing.  Greg once again was not really able to do much since he couldn't get wet at all.

Adam posing with his sand creation

Our Sea Turtle.  I was the main architect and the kids gathered rocks.

Anna and Jake loved the water the most.  As Jacob would say, "Me and Anna rare water buddies."

Adam convinced the kids to bury him in the sand.

 If you have multiple children you know that if one of them does something the others are going to want to do it too.  This is Jacob.  

Ben mummified

Lizzy

Anna

We planned to go to a parade on the morning of Fourth of July but it was raining pretty hard so we decided not to go.  We spent a lot of the day playing games. The rain let up and we had a BBQ and went swimming at our pond. Then that evening we braved the crowds and went to Plymouth Harbor to see the fireworks.  Adam found us and amazing spot down on some rocks right by the water.  It was awesome to be right by the water because you could see the reflection of the fireworks on the water.  It was a great place to be for Fourth of July.  It was our last night there so was a fun way to go.

 

 

Vacation: The sights of Plymouth

A few of the days we were in Plymouth we spent our time exploring the historical sights there.  I am a descendant of William Bradford, one of the Mayflower passengers and governor of Plymouth.  In addition several of my ancestors came a short time after the Mayflower and helped to settle New England.  I have always been interested in this heritage and feel a connection to this place even though it is not where we call home.  I felt thankful for William Bradford and the man that he was.  I felt grateful for the sacrifices that were made.  I felt some shame and embarrassment too as I understood more about what happened to the Native Americans there.  For me it is fun to learn while on vacation.  I don't think it was the kids favorite vacation ever, but I think they enjoyed it too.

Plymouth Rock.  It is only one-third of its original size.  Tourists used to come and ship off a piece as a souvenir.

Four of the kids at the now enclosed Plymouth Rock

This is what Jacob wanted to do instead of look at the rock :)

The kids and I at the William Bradford statue commemorating our ancestor

One side of William Bradford's gravestone

The other side of his gravestone.  It took us a while to find it!  I think we went to no less than three graveyards on our vacation.  Is that weird?

In the Wampanoag Winter home at Plimouth Plantation.  I loved Plimouth Plantation because of all the wonderful workers.  It was great to talk to both modern day Wampanoag people, as well as actors posing as colonists from the 1630s village.  They brought a lot of understanding and insight.  

The kids in a Wampanoag canoe.  They made it by scraping and burning out a tree.  They had one they were burning that day.  Amazing!

Posers in front of a giant woodpile at Plimouth Plantation.

The English Village.  See the Harbor in the distance.

In the fort in the English Village

Bedding down on the Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower.  Again the worker/actors were so knowledgeable and insightful.  Did you know everyone was basically squeezed together on the floor where there was several inches of water.  Everyone's skin got sore and damaged because it was always wet.  Not fun.

Monkeying around on the Mayflower

Jacob stood and watched the woodcarver for a VERY long time.  He was fascinated.

Liz and I on the deck of the Mayflower.