Minute to Win it

This game is called Cookies on the Face. It was hilarious to watch people try to move this cookie all over their face to get in their mouth. It looked impossible but Jared, Micah and Matt completed the task. Pretty impressive.

This game involved stacking three golf balls on top of one another and they have to stay there for 3 minutes. Very hard to do because we were all shaking pretty bad. There were a few teams that accomplished this.

Pictures kind of fell by the way side but we had a little fun with balloons, cherries and pantyhose. Micah and Jared got a little crazy and tried to relive their past. We had a great night laughing and hanging out with great friends. Thank you Tonya and Sadie for a fun night.

Barnyard Boo

Grandma Jo and I took the kids to Barnyard Boo at Thanksgiving Point. As you can see the day kind of started rocky. Bentley fell asleep and Bronx wasn't to keen on getting his picture taken. Once we started feeding the animals the kids had a spark of energy. I don't know how many times Nana had to go get more food to feed these animals. All I know is that they are well fed thanks to my kids. At first Bronx didn't want to do any games he just wanted to go on the horse carriage ride. We did that twice, then we waited in line for an hour for the pony ride. All in all I think the kids had a good time. They had a lot of fun little activities for the kids. Next year I think we will try Cornbelly's.

Manhatten

The last time Jared and I came to New York and saw Ground Zero was actually on 9/11. There were lots of flowers and little memorials. The ceremony was going on inside with the families of the victims. It was really heavy. Since then they have started builing the one tower and you can't see through the gates at what used to be just a big hole. We stopped in a store dedicated to 9/11. We will never forget.

Here are some of the sites of Manhatten that we visited. Times Square was awesome with all the lights. It was crazy trying to walk down the street. Very fun to people watch.

Central Park

Jared and I have been to New York but we never got a chance to go to Central Park. We had to make the stop this time around. This place is huge. We didn't get to see it all but could not believe how big the rocks are that people hang out on. They even have kickball fields in central park. On our way out we even met up with some Yo Gabba Gabba characters. Bronx was really excited when we showed him the picture. For the life of me I can't remember what their names are.

Niagra Falls

After we toured all the church history sites we made our way to Niagra Falls. It was gorgeous. Our pictures don't compare. We were on the US side. We didn't have passports to go over to the Canadian side. I hear that view is even better. All I kept thinking about was that little kid off of Superman and how that mother would let a child play on the railing like that.

Palmyra Part 2

This is the Palmyra Temple. You can see it through the trees by Joseph's house. It is very small but beautiful.

This is Martin Harris' Farm House. It is made of small river rocks that they got from a lake and the trip took 3 days for a truck load. Can't imagine how long that took. Martin Harris put up his mortgage to financially support the publication of the Book of Mormon.

This is where the Book of Mormon publication site. It was amazing how small all the blocks were where they had to put the individual letters to print each page.

The last stop for us was at Hill Cumorah. There is tons of foilage up on this hill and I was out of breath climbing it. Back in Joseph's time the hill had no foilage at all. This trip was very cool. I have always seen pictures of all these places and wished I could see them and now I have and am grateful for this opportunity. Thank you Jared for planning this trip.

Sacred Grove

Jared and I are walking up to the entrance of the Sacred Grove. They said that Joseph went out the back of his house into the sacred grove. It is huge. There are many different paths that you could take. There are 5 witness trees that they say were there when the vision happened. I think we may have seen one or two of them. Nothing is marked. The amazing thing is is that before you enter the grove the birds are chirpping and there are noises all around you and when you enter the grove it is dead silent. It was kind of creepy. It was a very neat experience to be able to go and be there in the same space where the first vision happened.

Palmyra- Joseph Smith's House

This was our first stop on the Palmyra tour. This is a replica of Joseph Smith's families house when he was 14. This is the house where the Angel Moroni came and visited him. There were 11 people that fit in this house. Could not believe how that many people could live in such tiny quarters.

This is the frame house that was built by Joseph's older brother but he couldn't afford it. Joseph ended up living in this house.


This is a house that they made barrels. Jospeh hid the plates up in the rafters of this house. While Jared and I were there it was a clear day. The missonaries there said that it is rarely clear it usually is cloudy and gray. Talk about perfect timing.

Cooperstown

Our New York trip starts in Manhatten and we drive several hours through the beautiful Catskill Mountains (more like rolling hills compared to Utah mountains) and into this cute little town of Cooperstown. We arrived during their annual Tractor Festival. It was a very cool place. The Baseball Hall of Fame is a pretty big building. There are 3 floors of you name it. We took over 90 pictures but didn't want to post them all. I kept getting goosebumps because of all the history that we were looking at.
After Cooperstown we drove to Rochester and were going out to dinner. Jared stopped at a gas station and our friend Ryan got out to put gas in the car and said that there were two guys beating up each other in the station. We told him to get in the car and we left. It makes you appreciate Utah a little more and you forgot for just a second that we were in New York.

Bronx's First Fieldtrip

Bronx's first field trip was to Hamblin Dairy Farm. Not hard to find where Bronx is in the class picture. He only has a huge Yankee logo on his chest. The owner showed the kids how cows are milked and what they are fed. They even got to see all the baby calfs. Bronx got to feed the cows corn and also a carrot. He was a little nervous to get up close to the cows. Later I asked Bronx what cows produce for us to drink and he said milk. Then I asked where the cows milk comes out of anhis cousin McKay said "It's butt!" I was asking for that one the moment I said it. Too funny. What a fun day and who knew the farm is right across the street from our neighborhood. It's amazing what you'll find if you leave your home.

Marshmellows

We went up to Mountain Green with Jared's parents to roast marshmellows with Nana and Papa Wink. The kids were sporting their new matching pajamas that Papa Frustaci had bought them. Bentley just ate the marshmellows plain she is too busy to sit there and actually roast a marshmellow. Bronx loves to catch the marshmellow on fire and have dad blow it out and take the outer layer off and eat it and then back in the fire it goes. We had a good time. Thank you Nana and Papa Wink for inviting us up.