Arriving in D.C.

After driving for several hours we made it to D.C. We then decided to hop on a boat that took us to old Alexandria where we spent several hours on King street. At the top we went to the Mason memorial to George Washington. Didn't do the tour...I think we are toured out!
Then we went to dinner with Al and Margurite! Had a great visit. The next day Amy and I went to the temple and she stayed with the sisters and went teaching. I got the kids and we went to the Air and Space museum by Dulles airport. Came back got Curt and then it was off the the game in Baltimore. After driving D.C. all day...well I was a bit crazed! Traffic was unreal and I had to rely completely on my gps. It was tense. The game was fun however!
Us in our free hats! You can see why they were free. Lovely aren't they? The best part of this game came when the vendor opened a bottle of beer for a guy down the isle from David and asked him to pass it down. Well beer was foaming down the bottle and you could tell by the way he held the bottle and his hesitation in holding it that this was just something he didn't want to do. Plus check out the shirt he was wearing. I wished I was thinking fast enough to get that shot!

Hersey Park

Meeting mr. reeses!
who can resist the funny hat pictures?

The ride that drenched the whole group! We have had a blast with the Winkels! Now on to D.C.

Hersey Park tuesday night!

Checking to see how tall we are for the rides. I think the one below shows that David is too tall for the rides.

Braden and Parker enjoying the ride.
I am not sure who had more fun Julie or Parker!

Kirtland to Hersey

In front of the Kirtland temple. We were really surprised to feel so empty in this building. No spirit here at all. It was neat to think of what happened here but the tour spoke more of the building than the activities and events that happened here.

We went to an amish resturant that was really good! Then to a store. David liked their hats.
We saw several pass us on the street in their carriages and horses. So cool.
This is our serious Amish face. Very difficult to get this group to be serious!
This is the Johnson farm. We are standing on the same steps that Joseph Smith stood on to preach the Sunday after he was tarred and feathered.

Pretzel Art by Amy

Guess what Amy is thinking about?

Kirtland

Upstairs on the NK Whitney store where the school of the prophets were held. Also the first MTC We thought this was way cool. I loved Kirtland! The spirit was so strong when we went into the store that I started to cry. I know the prophet was called of God and following his instructions to lead and guide the church.

Niagara Falls

You can see part of the falls behind us. Amy and I went running along here the next morning. what a great place to run!
Curt and I by the falls. My hair really grew here....fuller! Talk about humid.
You cant go to the falls with out going out on Maid of the Mist. We got so close to the falls I got a little nervous. We also got drenched! So fun!

Day 3 Niagara Falls

We had a great day today. I can't get the pictures to upload...something about a really slow internet here in Canada. We started with Church in Rochester NY and then left for Niagara Falls Canada side. Breann was really glad to finally use her passport! The falls are way more than I ever imagined. We went out on the Maid of the Mist (of course) We got very wet! Then we walked along the water seeing the falls from every angle. We have a hotel room that looks over the falls and so we saw fireworks tonight from our room. Cool huh. Well now we are beat but I will try to put up the pics tomorrow when we are back in the states. Hope all is well we are having the time of our lives!

2nd day in NY

We had a great morning in the Sacred Grove. We split up and had some time to ponder alone and then we met back here in a quiet corner and sang Joseph Smiths first Prayer together and then had a kneeling family prayer. It was awesome. The Spirit was so strong in the grove! A highlight for sure for us!
This was taken in front of the Whitmer farm. Wow! Amazing all that happened here!
We also saw the printing press today!
This is waiting to see the pagent. So great. All the smiles are because we had a nap before we went.

We had great seats! We bought beach towels and saved our seats this morning. We loved it! The protesters made us laugh. Lets just say not to educated.

Leaving for NY

Chace gave us a ride to the Airport. I caught the goodbye hug....sooo cute! Thanks for the Ride Chace!

Day one in New York

We have had a great trip so far. We landed finally after a long flight and checked into our hotel. One of the rooms was ready but the other one wasn't so we all crashed in one room but we were soooo tired no one cared. After a 2 hour nap we headed for Palmyra for a little sight seeing. We took the tour of the farm and really enjoyed it. We are planning on going to the grove early tomorrow after a family night tonight focusing on JS vision. We are really excited to experience this but we wanted to do it when we had a good nights sleep. We found a place that had the best ICE CREAM. We ordered half a kiddi cone and it was huge! We are really missing Chris and Kristy and Chace but we are having a blast. I will post more tomorrow! Have a great day

Our first day of seeing Palmyra

Standing where Moroni visisted Joseph Smith. Amazing!
We thought this was a cool view of the Palmyra temple. We are on the JS Farm.
We did a little shopping after seeing the sights. Breann and Amy found some great shirts. I know Chace she is really a 20 cow woman!

At the Lake with Longs and Chace and the Willardsons

Amy and David Surfing double! What a blast! They actually stayed up longer than the time the video was taken! David and Alyssa and cali.
Gayle Breann, Amy, and Alyssa soaking up the rays
Cali going surfing
The injured Bryce long is the official flag boy as he cant get his stitches wet. You will have to ask him about that mishap. Katie was not going to miss the fun!

Amy & Chace on our way to the lake

Surfing two together