What boys do: The Apple-throwing Game

Collecting the apples.

Jack has no mercy. He throws like he's a pro baseball player. He throws.....

... Corey runs. Can you see the apple Jack threw flying by at the bottom of the screen?

Cheap shot....

Free shot! Ahhh, boys.

What girls do

Play pioneers...

...help mom in the kitchen...

...and bake cookies. Aren't girls so nice? The third girl in these pictures is a girl named Rachel. She is our first friend.

CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS!!

No explanation necessary. It all speaks for itself.

Family Road Trip

We took our first sight seeing trip last week. We went to Sharon, Vermont and then crossed New York to Palmyra and Niagara Falls. Palmyra felt alot like Utah. There is a big new church, the temple, the sacred grove, and the only inn in town is owned by the church and everyone in it was mormon--I'm sure of it. I think the only people who visit Palmyra are mormons. It's funny. Anyway, here are some pictures. Incidentally, we did go to the hill Cumorah, but I didn't put those pictures in. It was a very steep hill and it was very hot and humid that day. I was not happy. If I could see the actuall stone box that the plates were in that would be cool. But I couldn't. There is a nice monument at the top, but it was the end of the day and like I said, I was hot and tired.
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Sharon, Vermont

This is where Joseph Smith was born. I didn't know that. The pictures show the original hearth stone from the house he was born in, the original front door stepping stone, a chair Joseph Smith made, and the rock foundation to Solomon Macks home on the same farm. Solomon Mack was Joseph Smiths mothers brother.

Vermont scenery

This is a hike we took at a ski resort in Vermont. It was very pretty. The trees were so dense that they made lots of little tunnels and cool places to hide. It would be an awesome backyard. I thought of Grandpa Ravsten, he'd have loved this hike!

Smith frame home

This is the home the Smith family moved into some time after the first vision, I don't really know when. It is just down the road from the cabin. It's the house Alvin started building before he died. 85% of this house is the original house not including the furnishings. The room with the spinning wheel is almost entirely original including the floors. The one thing I didn't get a picture of is the front room fireplace where Joseph hid the gold plates from the mob under the hearth. I don't know why, I guess I forgot I was holding the camera.

Smith Farm

This log home is a replica of Joseph Smiths home at the time he had the first vision and also spoke with the angel Moroni. It was built on the original foundation and is filled with antiques from the period but nothing in it actually belonged to his family.

Sad. It was very small and simple. It makes us regret how much clutter we have. 11 people lived in this cabin. Can you believe it?

The Sacred Grove

We could have taken a thousand pictures inside the sacred grove. It is very large. We figure since they don't know for sure where Joseph Smith knelt, they just made it really big. It is a maze of pathways covered by trees. There are occasionally benches on the side that you can sit on. It was very quiet and everyone in it was very reverent.

Palmyra Temple

This is the Palmyra temple. The stain glass windows depict the sacred grove but it's hard to see in our pictures. The picture at the top is the temple from the Smith family farm just outside the sacred grove. The temple is hard to see in the picture, but it was really pretty in person.

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls. It's alot of water, falling. We took the boat ride at the bottom and got very wet despite our ponchos. The boat took us really close to the crashing of the falls at the horseshoe end but I couldn't get a picture because there was so much spray and wind.

Sea Shells

We made our first trip to the Atlantic Ocean yesterday. The water felt like Lake Powell water in July. It was awesome. As you can see the kids collected a million sea shells. Here they are washing off the sand. Unfortunately, they still smell like fish. Jackson is actually holding a spider crab shell. We only know that because we saw a spider crab at the aquarium.