Wickham Park

I love Wickham Park! It's beautiful. I always forget about it though and only manage to get there about once a year. This year there was a new sensory garden there. It was so beautiful, but I forgot to get my camera out until we were at this other beautiful Asian pond. Keira, Alaina and Katelyn jump across a stone bridge
This is in what we call the frog pond part of the park. The water they are jumping over is pretty nasty :) but the frogs love it!
Garrett is watching his friend try to catch frogs and wishing that I was as nice/cool as Sister Elwood. She let Cardon get in to catch them.
He's after a really big one that just keeps jumping away.

Pretty

I love this lily flower

Going to see the birds in the aviary

Becca learns about swinging on the bars - her friend Keira is an expert. Garrett is in the background pushing Jacob on the swings.

Becca's new haircut

Isn't she adorable?

She wanted it just like Laina's . . . but with bangs.

Mystic Seaport with Grandma and Grandpa McD

My parents came to visit this July. We had lots of fun with them. One day we went to Mystic Seaport Village. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time. It's expensive though. We found a great coupon that gave half price tickets if you recite the Nautical Alphabet (Alpha-Bravo-Charlie). We all worked really hard at it. My mom and Garrett were a little nervous about it and Alaina didn't even want to try - but we were all fairly ready to pass our test when we got there. Kathryn ended up being our hero - the man at the desk only wanted one of us to recite it so she did. He let us all in for half price :) Our hero! Yea Kathryn!
Garrett and Alaina on the playground of ships

This is how Becca spent most of the day, looking in the water at jelly fish. Here Garrett is holding her shirt to make sure she doesn't fall in.


Becca made friends with the horse . . .

They all tried stilts - Grandpa told the kids all about his adventures as a kid on his own homemade stilts. He then helped them figure it out.

Grandpa gets Garrett started.

Kat and Becca with hoops

Unbelieveable! Shoes and socks off, sandy feet - just what I wanted :)
Catching jelly fish and hermit crabs

Looking over the edge at jelly fish again

Group photo with sun in the eyes and wind in the hair. It was a beautiful, fun day. I hope we can go back and see more one day.

More Sunny Skies

The Monument at the Joseph Smith Memorial - 38.5 ft tall, all one piece of granite - no flaws, erected in Sharon, VT in 1905, brought up the hill by oxen after horses got it from the train to the bottom of the hill . . .Happy smiling kids! We were still camping - and the best part of camping here was the lake. The kids loved it. They swam as much as they could, rain or shine ;) Here the big kids jump off the concrete dock. Beautiful! Wish you were here!

The next day camping - Mostly Sunny Skies!

When I was a kid in Oregon, we used to joke about the weatherman's "Mostly Sunny Skies" phrase. We were sure that was a made up phrase for Oregon since we had so many clouds - we thought the rest of the country heard "mostly cloudy" but for us, a postive spin - Mostly Sunny :). I've heard the phrase since then in other states so I now know it wasn't just for us, but I still like it. And after the rainy start, we had Mostly Sunny Skies for the rest of the trip. Laina and the flowers at the Joseph Smith Memorial

Mostly Sunny? Mostly Cloudy? It's all relative I guess.

The story the visitor center people told us about the monument was really touching to me this time. In short, I'm forever amazed at Heavenly Father's love for each of us individually - He is the God of the Universe and yet he knows us and helps us with insignificant every day things. How Great He Is!

The kids got flags from the missionaries.

Swimming/Camping in the Rain

We went camping at Silver Lake Campground in VT back in July. It was beautiful as usual, but the first day we decided to go swimming and it poured!!! The kids stayed in the water and had tons of fun, but Becca got cold and came out to sit with me. Our blanket, sweatshirts, and towels were soaked! See Becca's puppy towel? She's getting too big for it - they grow up so fast!She's cute though!
Watching the big kids swim in the rain.

The pink suit is Kat - Garrett and Laina are out there somewhere too.

Laina's big changes

Alaina lost her third tooth - right in front and she loves the gap. She's always smiling anyway, now she smiles even more so everyone can see! But she wasn't done - she wanted even more change . . .

Before . . . and After

Sooo cute!

Rainy visit to Palmyra with the Cousins

Every July there is a pagent in Palmyra, NY. This is the place where Joseph Smith found the gold plates from which he translated the Book of Mormon with divine help. The pagent tells the stories found in the Book of Mormon. My kids love it and beg us to go every summer. We've only missed a couple. It always seems to rain - but never pours during the actual play - This year was a little more wet than most. We had time to visit the farm where the Smith family lived and toured their homes while it poured outside.
This is a bed in the restored log cabin.

This is our friend Kent Reid as the Angel that tells Nephi about the Plan of Salvation. Thier family all participated -it was so fun to see them! We would love to be in it too someday!

This is Gregg's brother Gary, his wife Carollee, and their kids - Chelsey, Tommy, and Elise. We had so much fun with them - can't wait to see them again!

Becca's first year of swimming lessons

We spent the first two weeks of summer at swim lessons - this was Becca's first year. She loved it! This is her class on the surfboard practicing kicks. She's third from the right end. It was really cute when they were all on their tummies on this board kicking around the lake - I missed that photo op though . . .

Turkey crossing

This is a regular scene on a road near my house. We often have to stop for the turkeys. Usually though, it's a group of adult turkeys - this is the first time I had to stop for a family with babies. Anyone know the name for baby turkeys?