Rasperry Pickin'

This was a great year for raspberries! I have never seen so many. We usually pack a lunch, go up in the morning, and are back by dinner time with half as many raspberries than we picked this year. We usually always have to wait out the rain in the truck a few times and we come home soaked! This year we had all of these raspberries by lunch time and it didn't rain on us once! It was the perfect day!

Back to School...

I told Justin over the summer that I wished I could freeze time. I am in denial about Shae going into High School. I love everything the way it is right now and I don't want it to change! I was thinking the morning that school started how sad I would have been if our little Kelton hadn't blessed our family 3 year ago. I am not ready to be home alone yet!

Shae 14..I think she is a lil excited to start HS. I asked her what her favorite part was and she said, "I like all of it but Seminary is my favorite." Wow Shae! Good answer!

Madison 11...a little nervous but excited to see her friends again. She loves her homeroom teacher and loves that she changes classes. But her favorite part is that she has a locker! She spent more time picking things out to decorate her locker than she did school clothes!

Easton 7...wished he didn't have to go to school. He would rather skip school and start working with his Dad everyday. All summer long he would randomly ask me, "how much longer is summer vacation?" He cried the week before school every night. He would tell me, "when do I get to spend time with the family if I go to school all day?" He didn't get excited until we went to his open house and he was able to meet his teacher...which he loves!

What I can't get off my mind...

I stumbled unto a girls blog from Utah when I was looking for ideas for a RS activity.
I have been following her blog because I love her ideas but most of all I try all of her recipes. Anyway, I have been helping with a baby shower and I had seen on her blog a few weeks ago that she had given her sister the cutest baby shower and I needed an idea for a "diaper raffle". So when I got on her blog last Friday I couldn't believe what she had posted! It said, "Grieving". She put in the post that she was having a hard time with the tragic accident that happened while her family was vacationing at Bear Lake where she lost her 2 year old daughter. My body instantly froze and I felt like I quit breathing, maybe because I was crying so hard. I feel like she is one of my good friends even though we have never met.

She started a new blog, "Move Forward in Faith". Her oldest daughter, who is 4, is named Faith. I found myself waking up in the middle of the night to check on my kids. She has been in all of my prayers. I constantly think about the things she writes about in everything I do during the day. It has changed the way I see things. I never stop thinking about it. I don't understand why some people get certain trials that they do but I find myself almost pleading with Heavenly Father, "Please not that trail."

She really is an amazing person. If you want to read it the link is on here but be prepared to never be the same and grab you some tissue...cuz you are gonna need it!

Summer Recap

Well guys summer vacation is over! It's time for school and sports to start again! It sure went by fast but we made some really awesome memories! Here are some of summers highlights:

• The Trek
• Shae & Madi's "Fire in the Sky" camp
• The Show Low pool with Storie & Jarius
  
• Madi's "mannies & peddies" was born
  
• Our Temple Sealing
• Family Home Evening on the mountain & homemade ice cream
• Family clean up day at the car wash
  
• Sleeping in the play house
• The RV alumni football game
  
• Girls Camp
• Maryland
• Sacred Grove
• Gettysburg
  
• Washington DC
  
• Six Flags
• Camping
• Fishing with the Soderquists
• Valley Trip..new bikes, swimming, & shopping
• The 3rd Walker family raspberry picking trip
  

Easton bought his first trailer..for $1

When the girls and I were in Maryland, Justin sent me these pictures.

Easton has an obsession with lots of things and one of them is hitches and trailers. When Easton came to girls camp he found a little trailer that they used to haul wood. He told me that night, "Mom I know what I want for my birthday...a small trailer like the one that was at girls camp."
And sure enough when we got home he had me help him look on the Internet and had his Dad looking through tool magazines.

He found this trailer in a pile at Laveryl Crosby's house and asked him if he could buy it from him. Easton told Laveryl he only had $6. So Laveryl sold him this little trailer for $1! After Justin bought a new $26 hitch, welded it on, put some metal racks on it, and spray painted it, it looked new!

Easton pulls his trailer around everyday. I could ask him do anything if it involved putting something on this trailer. He takes hay to the horses and brings Kelton's bike up the driveway.
One day he says,
Easton: "Mom I wish the hitch didn't look brand new."
Me: "Why Easton?"
Easton: "Cuz I want it to look like I have used it a lot."
Me: Giggle
Easton: "How long do you think it will take until it looks old?"
Me: Giggle (I can't help it)

I love Easton's cute little personality! He likes what he likes and is who he is! He is one of a kind!

Crabin'

In Maryland, crabbing is seriously considered a delicacy! You call and order your crab and then go down and pick it up at a truck on the side of the road...and it's not cheap! There is a certain way that you are to get the meat out and it involves digging past lungs then you dip it in melted butter or squeeze lemon juice on the meat. It was really good if you knew what you were doing. They are all pros at it! Shae rocked at it..I think she ate 5 or 6. I ate 2 and was good! Madison didn't want to have any part of it!

Downtown D.C.

The White House

We bought hot dogs from a little stand on the road. The Washington Memorial is in the background but you can barely see it.

The Washington Memorial from the Lincoln Memorial

The World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial was my favorite part!

The girls walking up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial

The Washington D.C. Temple

Ashely and I did a session at the Washington D.C. Temple which is only about 25 minutes from her house. We got to drive by it on the beltway the night she picked us up from the airport. Beautiful Temple! One more Temple on my list of Temples to see!

I love going to the Temple with Ash. She always says something of meaning that gets me thinking. I wish we lived closer so we could go together all the time!

Gettysburg

Gettysburg is such a cute little old town full of history! It could take a whole week to see everything. A lot of the house there are original civil war homes that they have been restored. From the top of this memorial you can see just rolling hills that were all battlefields. I think the battlefield itself was around 10 miles all together.

This memorial is in the National Cemetary where Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address, "Four score and seven years ago...". There are rows of unnamed soldiers graves numbered by the state that they were from. It amazed me how long it took for them to bury all of the casualties, something like 7 months.

Down town Gettysburg. Men fought downtown on this main street. There was a story of a women that owned a general store downtown where she lived on the second floor. She lived right across the street from a Lutheran church that they were using as a hospital. She braved the fighting and gun fire to cross the street to help as a nurse. When she returned home later she reached her shop to find blood on the front door step. She immediately thought her children that had been home on the second floor had been killed. She ran upstairs to find her family caring for wounded soldiers. Outside of the same building there is a picture of her standing in front of her shop. Come to find out that there was actually only one casualty in town and it was a women that had been cooking for the soldiers that had been standing by her kitchen window when she was shot by a stray bullet.

The cutest little shops downtown. This is where we stopped and had the best ice cream! I could not get enough of how cute the houses were back there. The old "salt box" style homes were everywhere. The most beautiful drive! There were a lot of homemade Amish quilts and farmer's markets along the highway. The girls looked for Amish people and farms.

Hill Cumorah

This monument sticks out of the patch of trees on top of the Hill Cumorah when you first drive into Palmyra.

The site of the Hill Cumorah Pageant. It looks over to the Smith farm.

Inside the Hill Cumorah Visiters Center.

The Sacred Grove

The Sacred Grove is exactly what it is called...sacred. There is a feeling there that can not be described with words. I am grateful for the 14 year old boy who prayed to his Father in Heaven and had Heavenly Father and His Son appear to him and who had the courage and faith to do everything he did because of that event.

The Smith Farm

Joesph Smith's childhood home. You can see the Palmyra Temple from his front door.

The upstairs bedrooms where Moroni appeared to Joesph Smith. The boys slept in the front and the girls slept in the back bedroom.

There is to much history that I learned to write about it all but I am going to say what stuck out the most to me. To the right of the fireplace is where after praying in the Sacred Grove Joesph came in and leaned against the wall. His mother asked him if he was ok and his response was, "all is well."

The Bible is laid open to James 1:5, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."

I also learned how resourceful Lucy Mack Smith was. She would make pies and oil rugs that were sold in town. She paid for everything their household needed except the bank note on the farm. She also had the most envied cooking set up in her fireplace since the #1 cause of death in women back then was having their dresses catch fire from the fireplace while cooking.

The Village of Palmyra

The Palmyra, New York Temple. The only temple with a clear window so you can see the sacred grove.

This is the Grandin Print Shop where the Book of Mormon was first published in 1830. This was one of my favorite parts of Palmyra.

This is the room where the pages were printed. The ink on the walls is the original ink. The first level of this 3 story building had the original wood floors that Joesph Smith walked on. They showed us how they made up each book and bound it. There was a shop two doors down that reproduce the original Book of Mormon and then you can buy them at the Desseret Book Store next door. They are printed just like the original Book of Mormon was without verses so it reads like a novel.

The Book of Mormon manuscripts in Oliver Cowdery's handwriting. What was really neat about these is that there is no verses or chapters. Its how he wrote them as Joesph Smith translated.

One of the very first copies of the Book of Mormon.

The Martin Harris Farm that was mortgaged for $3,000 to fund the publication of the Book of Mormon. To the far right of the picture there is a little water fountain now that was a well that Joesph Smith and his brother Hyrum dug for Martin Harris.