Chelsea Gets a STRIKE!

So we had a pretty fun evening with some of our friends and ended up at the bowling alley. Since the girls didn't want to get competitive like us guys they decided to play a game where they drew a skittle from a bag and the color determined how you would "bowl" the ball. Yellow (I think) was my favorite color since it involved spins and dizzyness and then who knows what. Chelsea is just so cute I can hardly stand it sometimes! Check out the sweet videos. The guy at the end of the first video must have snuck a red skittle.

Western NY Trip!

So we went to Palmyra and had a ton of fun. Very cute little town with old red brick buildings and victorian (?) new england style homes. Here we are at the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center...


They were repainting the mural behind the Christus (faded from sunlight) while we were there and so we chatted with the artist for awhile since Kathy's speaks that lingo.

Mom and Dad came here on their honeymoon and snapped a photo or two at the Monument...

Looking down from the top of the Hill...

Then we went to E.B. Grandin's Print Shop, which was very fun and they had several original works of art hanging (like Moroni praying while burying the plates, Mormon compiling the book of mormon, etc).

I Wonder how you get this gig as your mission - lucky Sister...

I loved the period furniture - it was very comfortable too...

There were all these cool buidlings in Palmyra!

Here's the Smith Farm house... Not the original one, but built like the original, on the original foundation. Very very basic inside and out...

Later they were able to build the "frame house", but ended up losing this part of the farm and having to move back into the farm house... Much of this house is still original.

The hearth underdeath where Joseph hid the plates once. Some of the bricks are original (the darker ones, i think).

Joseph Sr.'s cooper shop (a cooper makes barrels).

Outside of the Frame House.

The temple is next to the Smith property and we could see it as we walked around...

about 35 miles away is where the Church was organized, at the Peter Whitmer farm... There's a cool visitors center there and an old restored chapel.

There were serveral original works of art commissioned for the dedication of the visitor's center. The artist is William Whitaker, a BYU professor. We really liked them - here are a few:

Inside Peter Whitmer's home. Again, not the original one, but constructed on what is believed to be the foundation.

This is a "half-kiddie cone"...

The Sacred Grove was awesome.

Then of course you have to go see Niagara Falls if you're in Palmyra, 'cause it's only like 1.5 hours away!

We met some neighbors of ours there and had a good time with them for a day or two.

She's not the neighbor... just forgot to crop this other tourist out of the photo...

walking through the tunnels down to the area behind the falls - it was FREEZING cold and windy as heck in there. the kids were dying.

Man, that is one awesome looking stud! check out that guy!