Stop three: New York

Friday morning we drove off to visit my brother Jim and his family in Rochester, New York.  We needed to burn a little energy after sitting in the car again so we headed off to the park down the street.

Which happens to have this cute, shallow stream running through it where Miles crossed at a shallow part with the group of boys and then decided to cross back at a little deeper spot and lost a shoe.  Luckily we found it after just 10 minutes of everyone poking around and digging with sticks and our own feet.

Then we followed the river down to Lake Ontario.  How awesome is that?  They're just a 10 minute walk from the lake... and a long swim from Canada.

The boys ran and played and climbed and explored.

Necia and I took pictures until this last one, after which Ethan came and told me he needed to pee.  Lovely.  Of course.  The jetty was pretty empty so I told him to climb down a few more rocks, closer to the water and I'd keep everyone else on the other side so they couldn't see.  So off I headed to herd the kids away and when I turned around a very angry and slightly wet Ethan was right behind me.  Apparently the rock I told him to climb down was slippery and he fell partway into the water.  He was so mad (and felt like he needed to express it) so he tried to kick a rock at me... which unfortunately resulted in his loose shoe (which he never ties- like ever!) flying off and landing a few feet off the other side of the jetty.  I tried to quickly scramble to get it and even found a stick to fish it out of the water but to no avail, it started to drift away.  Ethan was still screaming and raging at this point so I decided that the best punishment was the natural consequence of kicking your shoe into the lake- you get to go swim and get it.  Of course I didn't want him sopping wet walking back the whole way so I told him to strip down to his underwear and jump in and swim to get it.  Again much screaming and ranting.  But eventually he got in and swam the 10 feet to get it.  And then he fumed most of the way home but I think it was a good life lesson.

Back at home, the kids jumped on the trampoline while we got dinner ready.

Jim made a little firepit in their backyard and we grilled hotdogs and smores.

Saturday we joined their ward primary in visiting several of the Palmyra church sites.  First up, the sacred grove.

The kids weren't very reverent but who can blame them- lots of kids and lots of trails to run along.

Then we headed to the Hill Cumorah.  Of course Isla couldn't resist picking not-wild flowers.  She never can.

The kids were patient and listened and it was nice to be with this group and their leaders telling stories and teaching history so I didn't have to.

Once they were done, the kids took off- literally!  Off down the hill, some running, some rolling, and some just falling.

Then we stopped at the Palmyra Temple.  This is the only temple that has a clear window in it.  The others are all stained glass but this one has one set of plain glass specifically requested by President Hinckley.  This temple has stained glass windows that make it look like a forest (the Sacred Grove) and so President Hinckley wanted clear windows so you could look from inside the temple into the Sacred Grove.

After that we went back to the Sacred Grove to have a picnic lunch.  It was lovely to lay in the grass under the trees.

We visited to Smith farmhouse with Jim and his family.

Their family has our exact same makeup and ages except they have an extra girl older than Ethan and an extra boy younger than Isla.  Other than that, they all line up with another child their same age and sex.  It was great for everyone to have a cousin of their own to play with.

On our way out of town we had to stop back by the temple to do our walk around and pictures and "touching".

We stopped in the Visitor Center just to see the Christus which has a Sacred Grove background.

And then we were of course sweaty and hot enough again that we needed ice cream.  Isla may have enjoyed it a little too much.

And if ice cream didn't cool us off enough, swimming did the trick.

Sunday we went to church with them (after a brief stop in the ER for Necia to get a few stitches) and then Sunday afternoon we played around the house and Madeleine gave us a concert on her marimba.

Which of course everyone needed to try out afterwards.