This is the post that never ends. It just goes on and on my friends....

Well, this post is going to be extra long. I'm warning you now. We had a VERY eventful weekend and I am too lazy to break it down into separate posts. There are a TON of pics because it is hard to whittle down from the 300 that I took during the vacation. I think I got it down to around 50. So strap on your seat belt and join us on our whirlwind 4-day Columbus Day Vacation! Here we go:

DAY 1

Gettysburg

We started out at Gettysburg, PA on Friday, October 10th. Dave and I LOVED it. The kids were a little bored. After seeing the movie, cyclorama, and museum we headed off on the self-guided auto tour. (Auto meaning automobile--it is over a large area so you drive from spot to spot) We purchased an audio tour w/ booklet that told us stories about the places and guided us along. It made it so much more fun! We saved the CDs so if anyone wants to come out and visit us you can borrow it if you want to head to Gettysburg for a day--we'll even watch your kids so you can enjoy it more! (Can you tell that I am BEGGING you to visit!?!)
I put in this picture below because I think that the look on Joe's face shows how the kids felt most of the time. Especially since we spent hours driving around in the car looking at what they considered to be nothing!

Below is a pic of the kids when we got out at Little Round Top. Zeke and Joe were cheering to be able to roam free.
Devil's Den and my children--no explanation needed!!! :)

Climbing alllllll over the rocks at Devil's Den.

A RARE photograph of our whole family!

DAY 2

Niagara Falls

We arrived at Niagara Falls at around 1:30 in the morning. We found the first decent hotel (we thought) we could see. A Days Inn. GROSS!!! It had to be one of the most disgusting places I have stayed at ever. But in the middle of the night we weren't ready to up and leave--plus all the good hotels are on the Canadian side--for future reference for those that are planning to visit up there. Hotel aside--Niagara Falls was gorgeous!! We all loved it.

I love this pic of Zeke. He is so short that instead of looking down at the falls, it is looking up to the sky!! Too cute.

This pic shows the people on the tour that goes up under the falls. The guide is in the orange. What you can't see if everyone slipping around and the wind from the rush of the falls blowing around them. For obvious reasons we decided not tot take the kids on this. Maybe next time when Dave and I go by ourselves!

Another RARE family photo.


I put this pic in for perspective. That boat you see is HUGE. If you could zoom in you would see that the top of it is filled with around 150 people.

Since Dave is on military orders right now he is not allowed to leave the country (this is why we didn't go to a nice hotel in Canada). So he had to stay behind on the U.S. side of Rainbow Bridge while the kids and I walked over to Canada. I wasn't going to be that close and not set foot on Canadian soil!

We've been to Canada!!!

Church History - Palmyra, NY

After spending the morning at Niagara Falls, we headed to Palmyra to see the Church History sites. First up was the visitors center at Hill Cumorah. I thought this pic was pretty of the hillside as we walked up the trail to the top of the hill where the monument is.

I love this picture of the kids at the monument.
After Hill Cumorah we headed to the Smith Family Farm and the Sacred Grove. This is just as we entered the Sacred Grove. I didn't realize how many trails they have leading everywhere. You could walk around in there for hours. I think we spent close to an hour. And there are benches here and there so you can just sit down and relax. It was beautiful and serene. Even though there were lots of people walking around it was very, very quiet. I am not a very good photographer, so to make sure that I got at least a couple decent shots of the grove I think I took well over 100 shots. It was hard to decide which ones to show, but I think I liked these best.

London and Jonas smelling wild flowers along the trail.

This was the Smith Family's frame home that they lived in for a few years.

This is the Smith Family's Log home.
Just around the corner from the Smith Farm is the Temple (Sorry didn't take a pic) and the Stake Center. This has to be the largest, most gorgeous Stake Center I have ever seen. The picture doesn't do it justice.
We then proceeded to the print shop where the first Book of Mormon was printed. The kids were dead by then (remember we had also been to the Falls all morning long) so Dave stayed with the kids while I just went in to take a couple photos. The tour is supposed to take an hour and none of us were up to that.

When I went in I told the missionary that I just wanted to take a few pics and that Dave was waiting--so he offered to take me on my own 5 minute condensed tour. It was great!! This front room had everything original in it. Even the floor. It was gorgeous.

This was Elder Hamblin that took me on the tour. He is on his 6th mission!
We then hurried to Peter Whitmer's Home before everything closed down for the night.
We were planning on staying the night in Palmyra originally, but since all the tours shut down at 6 we decided to head to our next location since we needed to be there by about 9:30 the next morning. That way we wouldn't have to wake up super early and drive in order to arrive on time. Since we weren't sure which town we were going to spend the night I hadn't made reservations. After all, when have you ever seen hotels at capacity in October! BIGGGGGGGG Mistake! We arrived at our destination after a couple af hours and then found out that ALL of the lodging was full. Not just nice hotels. I am talking about even the creepy, road-side, scared for your life motels!!! So we decided to back track to the next exit and see what we could find. Long story short: 4 hours later and about an hour and 10 minutes from our destination we finally found the LAST room available in about a 2 hour radius!! (keep in mind the whole time we were calling 1-800-HOTELS, and all of the chains seeing where the nearest vacancies were). If I was good at PhotoShop I would put rays of light and a Halo on this sign!! Not only was it nice to just find a place, but after spending the past evening in a YUCKY place--this place was HEAVEN!! (Of course, since it was a Hilton property) Moral of the story: ALWAYS make reservations. You can always cancel them if you have to. F.Y.I. there was some kind of weird car race going on. That is why everyone was booked.

DAY 3

A Day with Friends

The next morning we went to visit our good friends that we made while in Hawaii. They are now stationed in NY. They just had a little baby boy and they were baptizing him into the Catholic Church. We got to visit with them and their extended family and we were able to attend the baptism and their Sunday services. It was a great experience for the kids and I to see what their church was like --Dave has been many times while on his mission. Here is a pic of our 4 kids and their 2 little ones (with daddy holding the baby) By the way, PRETTIEST baby ever. He was soooo cute.

Here is a pic of their family. We are so glad that we were able to become friends with them and that we can still keep in touch. The kids had so much fun running and playing at their home. We stayed ALL day. We kept meaning to leave and give them some time to themselves, but we were enjoying ourselves so much it was hard to go!

DAY 4

Hershey, PA

After spending the night at a nice reasonable place--no Hilton, but no icky Days Inn--we woke up with the plan of just driving home. As we were about half way there we saw a sign that we could not ignore: HERSHEY. That's right. We were only a couple miles from the Chocolate Mecca of the U.S. So how could we pass it up??? The kids, of course, were thrilled! The amusement park was closed, but Chocolate World was open so we spent a couple hours there.

Note: Look at London in the picture below. I just have to laugh at her Top Model pose!
The tour is a ride through a "factory". The kids loved it!!

This photo below was the last of the trip. It isn't as amazing now, but on Monday, this was the FIRST time we have seen gas below $3 a gallon in ages!!! By far the most exciting thing Dave and I saw!!

Miscellaneous

Below are just a couple other misc. shots that aren't really important but that I liked from our trip.

These purple wild flowers were at Gettysburg. The reason I took the shot is because they are all over the place here in the medians of the highways. I don't ever remember seeing so many wildflowers in October before. Again, this is Gettysburg. I just thought it was pretty with all the yellow.
At the Gettysburg Visitor's Center there were fields and fields of yellow wild flowers.

I love this pic of Dave and the kids walking across a bridge at Niagara Falls. Notice, Tank has passed London up height wise.
This pic of Zeke makes me smile. He had HAND FULLS of leaves he had picked up around Niagara Falls. These are only a few that he had left. The sad look on his face was because I wouldn't let him keep him. I know I am a mean mom. But he didn't want to press them or anything. He wanted to play with them in the car. Done it before--and I can tell you that it isn't fun to pick up "leaf crumbs" that have been disinegrated all through out the car.

This is an extremely blurry picture, but I didn't have a better one. The colors as we left NY and entered PA were beautiful. But my camera doesn't take good photos when driving down the freeway and there weren't lots of places to pull off to take pictures. But you can at least get the idea anyway.
This last picture is for all of you that love "The Office". I tried to get a few different pics, but this is the only one that I got. Yes, we drove through Scranton!!
So that was our whirlwind tour. Hope you enjoyed. You might have to go rest now. I know I am exhausted!!!

Time for a change

Yesterday I decided that I was sick of my dirty blonde hair that is the same color as my skin. I usually color it a couple times a year but I have taken a break for almost 2 years after a "bad experience". So today I went and paid someone to give me a whole new look--cut and color. I love it but I am wondering if Dave will even recognize me when he gets home!!:) P.s. London took the photo. She is getting to be a decent photographer!

It's a sad, sad day

Wow, I never thought this day would come but it did. And although I am happy in some ways I must admit that I feel a sense of loss---Today Jonas started preschool!! I can't believe that I will have 7 1/2 hours a week without any kids at home. The house is so quiet I don't know what to do. I am happy for Joe because he has been super lonely since Ezekiel started kindergarten a month and a half ago. So this will give him a chance to play with friends. He was really excited and didn't mind me leaving, but I could tell that the smile he was giving me for the pictures was a little hesitant. I think it is harder to send your "baby" off to school. With the older kids I just had my hands full with the little ones so it was a welcomed relief, but now as I send Jonas off I realize how much I love having the little guy around. I don't know what I will do in 2 years when he goes to kindergarten ALL DAY! Hopefully by then we will have Langli so that she can keep me company.

On a brighter note--I LOVE the preschool here. Zekey went there last year and it was great. It is part of the high school child development courses, so they are really great about having a good curriculum and there are a bunch of high schoolers along with 2 teachers helping the kids so they get a ton of personalized attention. And it is super inexpensive! (especially after coming from Hawaii where preschool could cost as much as rent!)

In front of the school

Waiting in the hall

Sitting on his "spot" on the rug

Joe's Move

Dave went into the kitchen the other day and Jonas was on the floor doing "his move", so Dave hurried to get me and the camera so we could get it on video. This kid is too funny! Just watching him makes me dizzy!

Madam President

I don't know if you can tell by looking at the picture but London is VERY excited because......
She was elected Class President!!!! Congratulations, London!!! She is so happy. She gets to plan activities for her class and the coolest part (according to her) is that she gets to go to meetings with the adults!!:)

Thank you Amy!

My sis-in-law just bought me the greatest present as a graduation gift. I thought you would all like to see it. She knows me too well. Can't wait until November 21st to wear it!!! For those of you that don't get it--see previous posts and you'll probably figure it out!! Thank you Amy!!

A week..or so...in review

I am such a slacker! Sorry! I keep meaning to update the blog but never get around to it. I have 1 semi-good excuse and 1 that is just ridiculous. We'll go for the decent excuse first. My living room is done!!! (Mostly, anyway) I will take pics soon but I still need to find(or make--hopefully find) some curtains to work in the room and I need to repaint my ugly endtables. But as soon as that is done I will put up the pics. I am so happy to have pictures on the walls and couches that I can sit on and bookshelves with BOOKS!!!!! And, most of all, my comfy reading chair and ottoman! It is going to get worn in a lot faster than the sofa and loveseat cause I NEVER let the kids sit on them--they(the kids) have been banished to the basement. So that is excuse #1--I have been putting together furniture and hanging things on walls and unpacking books---FINALLY! Excuse #2: I just finished reading the Twilight Saga (yes, all 4 books) for the second time in 2 weeks. I know I am sooooo silly, but I enjoyed it sooo much that I had to read it again. Actually I read the first 12 chapters of Midnight Sun that are on Stephenie Meyers website. (The link to the chapters is http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/pdf/midnightsun_partialdraft3.pdf ) For those of you that love these books, you will love to read the few chapters she has posted of this book. It is Twilight from Edward's perspective. It makes you understand him better and Bella also. After I read the chapters it left me wanting to finish the story so I picked up where it left off and read Twilight again--and then I couldn't stop and had to read the rest of them again too. I know...I am like a silly addict. If I would've know I would be so consumed I might have waited to read them until all the kids were in school!!! So those are my excuses--not good ones I know--but excuses none the less!!

So here are a bunch of random pics from the last couple weeks for grandparents that are wanting to see more of their grandkids!

This is a pic of London on her first day of Drama Club. She told me she had to look especially cute that day. So we did our best. Her school has a drama club once a week and in the spring they are putting on a musical. Here in the next few weeks she is going to try out for the lead, but she is already excited about just being in the chorus if she doesn't get it.

Jonas and I had a fun errand day last week. We had to go all over the place. His favorite was the grocery store because they had a special cart just his size. He was so proud that he was able to load it up and push it through the store!

Last Friday we were supposed to meet a group for a field trip at an orchard, but due to some confusion and bad weather we ended up being the only ones there. We had a blast though. Jonas picked a bag full of the most delicious apples we have ever had. We are going to take all the kids back there soon because it was so fun. (you can kind of tell in the second pic--it was REALLY foggy!)

Last week Zeke was given the Star of the Day because he was really good in class--at least that is what he told me. He was soooo pleased with himself. Please excuse his messy face. He drank some gatorade right before I took the pic since he had just finished working out! (Dave has been exercising with the kids almost every afternoon when he gets home. They LOVE it and they are already seeing a lot of improvement.)

Jumping...no...LEAPING JOYFULLY onto the Bandwagon!

For those of you that don't know, a couple of years ago I dislocated my left shoulder. Had to go to physical therapy, etc... Not fun. It is still kind of weak. Well, this past Thursday I stepped awkwardly on a toy left out by the children and it made me fall...so of course I landed trying to catch myself with my left arm! Pop! Shoulder out yet again. I popped it back in.(I will spare you the details cause it didn't go smoothly) So of course I was sore and couldn't move my arm too much. So all my plans for the day went out the window since I couldn't do them physical. So instead of sitting around watching TV all day long I decided to do something else on my list of things that I wanted to get around to but never could find the time. 4 days later I finally finished my project and enjoyed it so much that I needed to share.

What did I do you ask???? I obsessively read the funnest books ever...The Twilight Series!

I hadn't even heard of these books until a couple of months ago and now Twilight stuff is EVERYWHERE! Maybe it was before too and I just never noticed it. I was absolutely enveloped in the first one and finished it the same day that I started because I was enjoying it too much to stop. And after that I was hooked. I finished the second one by the next afternoon and was anxious for Dave to get home so that I go buy the last 2 books. I was going crazy wasting a few hours that I could've spent reading!! I always thought that the people that were GAGA for the books were a little weird and what not but after I read the last book I have to admit that I am too!! I have never enjoyed a book more thoroughly than I did the 4th book in the series. She surprised me at every turn and left me absolutely glowing with joy when the saga ended. Now I am anxiously awaiting the movie although I know that it will in no way do the book justice. I need to find someone to go with me that loves the books as much as I do...Any volunteers????

And for all my friends that have sworn off the books, refusing to get caught up in the madness, I say....Just let yourself go. They are so enjoyable!!! And I promise that by the end you will be in love with Edward Cullen just as much as the rest of us silly adults that are acting like teenagers! Seriously the most fun I have ever had reading. So go buy them--there is no way you are going to get them from the library--I tried!!! (the waiting list was insane!)

Duck, Duck, GOOSE!!

Okay, I admit that this is not a game of Duck, Duck, Goose. It is tag. But if I would have titled my post that way then no one would have read it! I have been tagged by two different people with two different tags so I am just going to put them both in this post.

The first tag is from my friend Sarah. She sent this to me back in May and I promised her I would get on it as soon as I finished school—as we all know that took a few extra weeks and so here I am finally getting to it. The second is only from a few days ago (I’m trying to do better about keeping up) and is from my sis-in-law Amy.

Tag #1:
List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself.

3 Joys: This one is easy! 1)My sexy, hunky husband. 2)My cute and rambunctious children. 3)My home—I know that is soooo materialistic of me! But I love painting the walls and putting new furniture in it and hanging pictures on the wall and creating just the mood I want in it!

3 Fears: 1)Dave finding someone better than me—let’s face it, it wouldn’t be hard. 2)My children getting hurt. 3)Eternity! Don’t get me wrong. I love the fact that I am sealed for eternity to my hubby and kids, but when I actually sit down and contemplate how things will go on forever and ever and EVER and that there is no end to anything—It kind of freaks me out. My finite mind can’t quite grasp the concept.

3 Goals: 1)Lose weight 2)Be a better wife and mother. 3)Read my scriptures more often and with more fervor.

3 Current Obsessions: 1)The INTERNET—nasty thing eats up a day in the blink of an eye! 2)My husband—I’m trying to pay him more attention and make his life easier by being a better wife. 3)My Home—yes, there it is again. I am still trying to finish painting and decorating plus we still have to put up the molding in the basement. And don’t even get me started on the things that need to be done in the yard!!

3 Random Facts About Me: 1)I am an obsessive reader. So unless I have time to waste I can’t start a book because it will not be put down until I am finished. This includes missing meals and sleep in order to finish it. 2)I have lost all social skills. Once upon a time I was actually outgoing, but after marriage and children I have a hard time thinking about anyone other than my family. I know—jerky!! I need to work on that. 3)I have short, wide feet that my family all make fun of—they call them hobbit feet. At least they aren’t as hairy as Frodo’s!


Now on to tag #2:

4 random things I like about my husband:

I like his impersonation of a Chinese man that thinks Americans are stupid. It is so funny it will make you cry!!

I love how when we are getting ready for bed and I say “It’s your turn to say prayers” he will ALWAYS answer by saying “Prayers!” and then giggles. You would think that it would get old but it makes me laugh every time and I miss it when he is gone!

I love that he is so tall that when he hugs me tight his chin rests on the top of my head.

I love that his spare time—if he has any—is spent studying WW2 history.


4 movies that I would watch more than once:

Pride and Prejudice (long A&E version)

The Notebook

All of the Harry Potter Movies

Shakespeare in Love (the edited, non-rated R version)


4 tv shows I watch:

American Idol

The Biggest Loser

What I Like About You (Yes, I do know that I am a dork—luckily they have the reruns on ABC Family, so someone other than me must like it too!!)

Dancing with the Stars


4 places that I have been:

Chile

Spain

France

Morocco


4 people who e-mail me regularly: I correspond with most people via blogs and facebook now a days so emails from individuals are lacking. Here are some “groups” that I get emails from frequently.

Charlottesville Second Ward Relief Society

Great Wall Adoption Agency

LDS Living

FaceBook


4 favorite foods:

most things chocolate

Ruth’s Chris Steak (ahhh-too bad it is so expensive I can only have it every decade or so)

fresh bread

avocados (I swear I lived off these on my mission—mmmm, I need to go buy one now!!)


4 places that I would like to visit:

New York

China

Cancun

Europe (again but with Dave this time)


4 things that I am looking forward to in the coming year:

Finishing our house

Reading the Twilight series

Seeing some progress in our adoption of Langli

Getting in shape


As for the people that I tag…. The first tag says to tag 5 people and the second says 4. So I am just going to tag 4 people and they can choose which tag they want to do (or they can do both!!). Leah G., Holly G. , Logan M. and Shelley D. And if you don't get to it--don't worry, I won't be offended!!