Jul 12
Everyone,
In the morning, after a nice breakfast of pancakes (they had an automatic pancake maker in the hotel. It was AMAZING!) and eggs and cinnamon rolls, we headed out for a few last sight seeing things in Palmyra. MusicMan and his family had only a few hours before they had to drive back to New York City, so we went to see the printing press that printed the first Book of Mormon.
MusicMan and Lev trying to decide what books to buy.
Butterfly got to be the helper and show everyone how the process of printing books was like in the 1800s. Here she is, holding up the letter from Joseph Smith asking to print the Book of Mormon with that specific press.
First, you have to set the type. The type is very, very small. Plus, you have to do everything backwards!
Professor is checking the type and has found it all to be okay. As far as he knows.
Once the type is set, the page is ready to be printed. First, you have to put ink on the letters. Butterfly is busy inking the type. Next, the printer presses the paper on the inked type and then the paper is hung to dry.
Once the paper is dry, it is folded several times. The paper is then sewn into a book and the extra edges are cut off like Cappy is showing us.
Then, you have to glue the spine, and wrapped in leather. Pirate (and Blankie) show us how they glued the spine together. They had to let the glue dry in the press or the glue would run down between the pages.
Once it is ready, you have to put a title on it! Butterfly is picking out the letters to stamp the title on the spine.
Once we were done with seeing how the Book of Mormon was printed, we said our goodbyes to MusicMan. It was really great to see my brother and his family again. I wish we lived a little closer and could get together more often!
Since Flower and the kids and I had another hour or so, we decided to go have the tour of the Smith Farm. It was neat to see where Joseph Smith would have grown up and see the area. The kids are looking out the back door of the log house, into the Sacred Grove.
And of course, you can’t go to the farm without doing a little work!
The tour was interesting, and it was great to be there with the kids and Flower!
We grabbed some lunch and headed back home. We were hoping to make it back to see the fireworks in our town with Juice.
Did we make it? You’ll have to see next time!
Safire
Safireroad trips church history, New York
Jul 09
Everyone,
After we left Niagara Falls, we drove 2 hours east to a little town in upstate New York called Palmyra. It is here that my church believes that Joseph Smith saw Jesus Christ and God in a vision. In a place we call the Sacred Grove.
The Sacred Grove has a very special feeling in it. I talked to the kids about being quiet and how this is a special place. They were VERY good, and very quiet. And even though we were looking for my brother and his family (we never did catch up with him here), it was a very peaceful and spiritual time for all of us.
We walked past the Smith Farm and headed to the Palmyra Temple.
And here we met up with MusicMan’s family!
These two were thick as thieves and got everyone running.
Pretty Butterfly.
From the Temple, we went over to the Hill Cumorah, where Joseph Smith met the Angel Moroni and received the gold plates that he translated into the Book of Mormon. We went to the visitor’s center first and then hiked the hill.
The sunset was beautiful that night, and Flower was having a great time. This is not her first time being here (me either) but first for the kids.
The monument on the hill.
It was so much fun to spend time with my brother here. And for the kids to spend time with their cousins!
After a very loud and tiring dinner at McD’s, we came to the hotel room and totally crashed.
And the fun is not over yet!
Safire
SafireMusicMan, my family, road trips New York
Jul 08
Everyone,
After a 5am wake up call and leaving in a big beautiful thunderstorm, we drove for hours north. We stopped about noon-ish in New York State, at the ranger station in the Allegheny Mountains. Why there? I wanted a stamp for my National Park Passport! But the station was closed on Sundays AND holidays. No stamp for me.
The stop was not unwelcome, however. There wasn’t a much eating because there were these 3 big boulders near the picnic table. Just right for climbing on!
After a few more hours in the car (and driving down TINY roads…stupid GPS), we finally made it to our destination!
And we saw the people we wanted to see!
And did what we wanted to do!
Then we piled back in the car and drove another few hundred miles to where we were going to spend the night. More tomorrow!
Safire
PS- Does the waterfall look familiar? It’s my header!
SafireMusicMan, my family, national parks passport, road trips road trips
Jul 05
Everyone,
This weekend we took a short/long road trip to see my brother who was visiting Niagara Falls with his family.
This is the very first time I’ve met my nephew, Lev, who just turned a year old.
It’s also the first time all 5 of my parents grandchildren have been together!
Lev, Butterfly, Cappy, Pirate, Professor
I have a BUNCH of outtakes but I think this one is my favorite:
Lev kept trying to crawl back to his mom and she kept putting him at the end of the line. He was NOT happy about that! I like this picture because my 3 kids are worried about Lev. They are all watching him cry. But Cappy, his brother, couldn’t be bothered. Someone is used to crying!
Once I have sorted through my over 300 pictures, I will post more about our trip.
Safire
Safirecousins, MusicMan, my family, road trips family, road trips
Oct 18
Everyone,
Now that we’re home and most of the bags are unpacked, let’s talk about the Ren Faire. We had so much fun! It started at 11am so we took our time in the morning and enjoyed cable tv. Well, the kids did. They watched Micky Mouse. We had a good breakfast (provided by the hotel) and packed up the car.
Once we got everyone in their costumes and checked out of the hotel, we spent forever getting across the street. (The hotel we stayed out was across the street from the Ren Faire.) Someone had a poopy diaper, and…and…and… I have no idea why it took us 45 minutes to actually get out.
We walked into the Ren Faire and had a fantastic time. We were there during their Spooktacular weekend so Butterfly, and the boys, got to trick or treat through the stores. That was fun!
The boys were very busy picking up rocks and throwing them. That was HARD to control because they are kind of all over the place all the time. We finally shoved them into the stroller and they screamed because of it. But after hours of trying to keep them in line, screaming was better.
We rode the rides (big swings), which the boys absolutely hated. But Princess Butterfly loved it. We met the Queen of the Faire who LOVED Butterfly’s costume. Juice entered the adult costume contest but didn’t even make the top 5. We looked at the elephant and ate Faire food. Butterfly asked to leave around 4:30 pm and we were ready to go!
The best part about the day was a lady in one of the shops that laughed and laughed and laughed over the fact that The Dread Pirate Roberts and Buttercup got married and had kids!
After we left the Faire, we changed out of our costumes and drove 15 miles to Hershey, PA and Chocolate world! They were also trick or treating there, but we were just there to buy some chocolate and head home. A stop at Sonic for dinner and a nice drive home ended the night.
So happy to be home!
Safire
Safireren faire, road trips Pennsylvania sites, ren faire
Oct 16
Everyone,
Back from the Ren Faire and completely bushed! Pictures included!
We decided to do a little road trip and went to Chocolate World. Yummy!
Safire
SafirePennsylvania, ren faire, road trips ren faire, road trips
Oct 15
Everyone,
We’re here in Pennsylvania for the 30th anniversary of the PA Renaissance Faire. Should be fun! Some highlights from today:
- We left about 3 hours later than we wanted to leave. The house desperately needed to be clean. The car too. And then we needed gas. And then I thought we should get the oil changed. And then we kept finding things to remember to bring. But what did we NOT remember to bring? Coats. And it’s about 60 degrees today. Yeah…
- It was only a 2 hour drive from our house. Seriously, we could have done this as a day trip. But then we wouldn’t have had the pleasure of getting all 3 kids to sleep in a hotel!
- Driving through PA, I asked Butterfly if it was different than MD. She said yes. Her reason? “There are less plants.” Okay then. I think she means less trees. There are a lot more fields here, and a lot less houses. Juice and I keep teasing each other than we could move to PA one day. That’s a whole state closer to Utah, right?
- The hotel suggested a restaurant for us “just down the road”. After about 20 minutes of driving aimlessly and finally getting the gps out, we found it. 5 miles away! Never trust directions that say, “go to the T intersection off of the square and turn right”. In our wanderings, we saw a cool street name: Kraken Alley!
- At dinner, the boys had maybe two bites and wanted to play the rest of the time. They ended up tipping over a chair with Pirate on it. They both screamed. We left a 10 dollar tip because we were in such a rush to get out of there. Not one of our most stellar restaurant eating stories.
- The hotel lost power FOREVER tonight. We were planning on watching a movie with the kids to keep them quiet and hopefully get them to go to sleep. Instead, we all laid in the dark trying to be quiet. The kids giggled and moved and popped their heads up, and we (as parents) kept saying “Lay down!” “Be quiet!” “Go to sleep!” They fell asleep, and the power came back on. At about 11pm. And now I’m going to bed to sleep like everyone else!
Safire
SafirePennsylvania, ren faire, road trips ren faire
Jul 16
Everyone,
I didn’t sleep well last night. My sunburn on my back has started to hurt really bad. And it’s from my shoulders to mid back, all the way across. I can’t even lay on my side because I sunburned the back of my arms. Apparently, the backs of your arms are what you sleep on when you sleep on your side. Who knew?
So I tossed and grimaced all night long. Then we packed the car (a hard thing to do) and I came home with one empty bag. Not sure how that worked, but it did. Once we got home, I just went upstairs and crashed on my own bed. But I didn’t sleep long because it’s hard to sleep on your stomach if you’re not used to it.
My book club friends are coming over tonight and I know we’re going to be up late. But I’m glad for it. Although I kind of miss my sleep!
Safire
PS- No pictures today because the camera is D-E-A-D. I’m so sad!
Safireroad trips driving, sleeping, sunburn
Jul 13
Everyone,
Today was spent packing, running, making lists, and crossing things off. Road trips are great…when you’re the kid involved! It’s a ton of work when you’re the one planning it. From 8am this morning till 7pm tonight, I was running around like crazy. Flower and the kids came with me to run about 8 errands (doughnuts included!) and then they napped while Flower and I packed. We packed the car (mostly) and packed everything for the 5 of us to go.
Juice came home and packed himself in about 20 minutes. Oh to do that!
We made it to my friend’s house easily tonight (after a small detour down the wrong road in the dark) and am amazed with the amount of bugs that hit the windshield.
My friend’s house is great! There’s room for the kids to run around in and they are thrilled. They were not as thrilled to be sent off to bed. Professor is sleeping in a toddler bed for the very first time ever! Pirate is in the crib, and Mimi (my friend Lala and her family came along too!) is in the pack and play in there as well.
I can’t believe my baby is big enough to sleep in a real bed!
Beach update tomorrow!
Safire
Safirebeach, road trips beach, Lala, road trips
Nov 04
Everyone,
Alternate title: I have enough Billy Joel on my ipod to last me from Ohio to the Maryland border.
A week ago yesterday I talked to my good friend and cousin in law who lives in Ohio. Her family came to see us in August and we had the best time! Her girls are 5 and 3 and got along smashingly with Butterfly.
Since then, life has changed drastically for them. No details here but my cousin and cousin in law are getting a divorce and she is moving to Colorado. I’m sad for them because it’s a rough time. I’m also sad that I will be loosing my closest family! Ohio is 6 hours away from here.
So, during my talk with L, my cousin in law, she mentioned that she was feeling overwhelmed and not prepared for her move, etc. She didn’t think she had enough time to get everything done before the truck came to pick up her stuff. I heard, “You need to go help her.” clear as a bell in my head. Once I was off the phone with her, I turned to Juice (who was still home from work) and talked it all over. The next afternoon I was headed to Ohio without the kids and Juice. Let me tell you, I was ecstatic about having 6 whole hours in the car by myself. Juice was awesome and stayed home with the kids.
So, off I go in the car through Maryland and into West Virginia. By now it is getting dark and raining. I started climbing the little hills that they call mountains here and it got foggy. And dark. Wow is West Virginia ever dark at night! Around 7pm I got hungry and decided I wanted a salad and a sit down restaurant. I haven’t been to one of those by myself in awhile! The signs on the side of the road lied though. I took the exit headed for some Cracker Barrel thinking of my last road trip to Utah. This exit was the University of West Virginia exit. I drove around for about 20 minutes looking for that stupid restaurant and couldn’t find it at all. I found a lot of pizza joints and the stadium but nothing else. I went back to the freeway and kept an eye out for something to eat.
West Virginia is a lot like Wyoming with nothing much going on in the state. Plus it was super dark and I didn’t feel like stopping in any old tiny town. I entered Pennsylvania. It got lighter for some reason and I kept going. By this time I was tired of the candy I had brought to munch on and I wanted actual food. Anything would do but there was nothing besides McD’s. Yuck.
Then it got darker and I was back in West Virginia. Wow. This time in West Virginia I found a Cracker Barrel and had my salad.
Straight on to Ohio and my cousin’s house from there. They did close the freeway right in front of me. Thank goodness for my GPS and it’s little “recalculating” voice. Otherwise I’d still be driving around Columbus trying to figure out where to go.
I got in around 11pm and went right to bed. Someone stole a car in the middle of the night (car alarm driving off in the distance) and I wondered if it was mine but not enough to get out of bed and check.
In the morning I was able to help get two cute girls ready for school and talk to L about what she wanted to do that day. She had to take her older girl to the dentist for a filling so I spent the morning sorting through her papers on her kitchen table and boxing up the rest of her china. Only a few minutes back from the dentist and the school called. Apparently the Novocain hadn’t worn off and she bit through her tongue big time. Off to the hospital for L and back to boxes for me. I moved furniture around, cleaned under and around things and kind of ran out of things to do.
No stitches needed for the little girl but she did stay home from school the rest of the day and we boxed up the toys and the craft stuff. I guess Columbus does trick or treating a few days before Halloween so we spent the evening doing that. It was so much fun to be with these girls and their mom! They all had a great time and I practiced my french braiding skills on their beautiful hair.
After a fun filled night of candy, we took the girls home and packed a few things up. We told ourselves we would go to be early but ended up talking until midnight or so. Good thing too because her youngest daughter threw up about that time. I helped get the dirty stuff off the bed while she washed her off. I know how stressful it can be to deal with this as the only parent and I wanted to be as helpful as I could.
We didn’t get up as early as we wanted to on Friday but up in time to get her youngest daughter off to preschool. Her oldest one was staying home because of her tongue and she watched tv while we packed up everything else and moved some furniture down from upstairs. I had to leave by 11am that day to make it home for our trunk or treat but I think what L had left to do was manageable.
I’m excited for if and when we end up in Colorado to be close to this family again. I’m sad that they are having such a hard time and I wish only the best for them.
On the way home, I put on my road trip music of Billy Joel and listened to it from Columbus to the Maryland border. Who knew I had so much?! Also, I had fun taking some random pictures in the car while driving (bad driver, I know, but I just turned the camera on and pointed it in the general direction of what I wanted to see) and enjoyed being by myself for another 6 hours.
I missed my family but it was such a great break from them for me. I’m not sure who was happier to see me, the kids or Juice when I walked in. They survived with a lot of screaming and crying and mac and cheese to eat. But they did it!
I hope the move goes well L and love you guys!
Safire
Safireipod music, Ohio, Pennsylvania, road trips, service, West Virginia
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