Palmyra

We took a little trip to Palmyra last weekend. I love the Sacred Grove and the overwhelming feeling of peace that is there. Here is our whole family in the Sacred Grove:

On the way back, we stopped at a couple cemeteries in New York state where Ron has direct ancestors buried. He recently discovered a lot of geneaology on his Dad's side of the family so it was really meaningful for him to visit these places:


All of these pictures were taken with our new camera and some of them turned out looking really cool, like this one of the Grandin Building:

Also the Grandin Building. The floor is original so it was fun to tell the kids that they were walking on the same floor that Joseph Smith walked on:

The Smith farm:

The kids' favorite activity was rolling down the Hill Cumorah:

Gracie on the Hill Cumorah:

Joseph on the Hill Cumorah:

Christian on the Hill Cumorah:

The front windows of the Joseph Smith farmhouse:

Moi and Gracie in the Sacred Grove:

Gracie in the Sacred Grove:

Christian and Claire in the Sacred Grove:

Claire in the Sacred Grove:

Joseph in the Sacred Grove:

Here's Joseph's log house:

And here's Claire on the Hill Cumorah:

This weekend

We had a great Halloween!

Gracie received a pair of purple fangs at our ward's playgroup Halloween party. She loved them. She wore them almost that whole day. When we picked up the big kids from school that day, she walked up to a complete stranger (someone else's Dad), looked up at him, and said, "Look at my teeth!" She is usually pretty shy around people she doesn't know but she was just so excited to have those teeth...

This is a pre-Halloween picture. The kids don't have their complete costumes on, but you get the idea.

We carved pumpkins.

Claire didn't love sticking her hand into the pumpkin...

We set our jack-o-lanterns out the day before Halloween. The squirrels proceeded to devour them. On Halloween, one of the pumpkin faces had been completely chewed out. The day after Halloween, Gracie's small pumpkin was completely gone. I can't believe how quickly they ate these pumpkins. Maybe some deer were involved too. We came home from church today and our front porch was covered with squirrels. It was kind of like a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Although initially Ron felt pretty good about providing nourishment for the squirrels, he became totally grossed out by today's pumpkin carnage and threw the remains away, muttering things like "rabies" and "squirrel germs."

By the way, my other favorite thing about Halloween this year were that Ron came trick or treating with us! It was fun to have him with us and it was very nice to have a helper.

Also this weekend we finished up our fall sports seasons. Joseph loved flag football. I hope you can get an idea of the INTENSITY with which he played:

He is very proud of his flag football medal:

Claire loved playing soccer with her buddies. Her trophy party is next week.

As Christian's coach awarded the trophies, he described Christian as "the wrecking crew" because Christian is good at charging and stealing the ball. He had 3-4 goals this season. He did great! Christian showing off his soccer trophy:

The following pictures were taken by Ron today with our new camera.

On the top is Claire looking cute with a piece of Halloween candy in her mouth. On the bottom is proof that Claire is losing teeth like crazy!

I absolutely love this picture of Gracie.

I took this one...