Vacation Part 3

Finally. And it's a long one. Sorry.

Saturday we went to Watkin's Glen. It's a state park. It was really cool and we had lots of fun there. This picture is of the canyon that we walked through.

There were tons of stairs we had to climb. They were made of rock with a little rock wall all along the way. It was so pretty.

We are standing up at the top by the waterfall. The trail went behind the water. Corgin loved that.


This picture is not near as cool as the real thing. Watkin's Glen was beautiful.


Corgin loved getting down and walking and playing with rocks and plants.

This pic shows how much plant life grows on the rocks. I thought it was neat.

Our little family with Grandpa and Grandma Hamblin.

Before going to Watkin's Glen, we attended a session at the Palmyra Temple. The temple has three windows that were originally all stained glass. President Hinckley decided that the middle one needed to be clear, so they changed it. Now the middle window is clear and it looks over to the Sacred Grove.

We took these pictures Sunday. Luckily there was a meeting and the gates were open so we could come get pics while in our Sunday best.

After church we went to the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center. The Christus is visible though windows and can be seen from the road.

I love this picture of Corgin. He's feeling the hole is Christ's foot while looking up at him. It is one of Clint and I's favorites pics from our vacation.

Before we took off for home on Monday, we went to the Grandin Building. This is where the Book of Mormon was printed for the first time. These pictures depict what it would have looked like when first entering the building in the time of Joseph Smith.

This picture is on the second floor where the printing took place.

This is the machine that E. B. Grandin had purchased and made it possible for 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon to be printed back then. Even with this machine it was a big task to print that many books. In the big cities it would take about 17 months to do this job. Grandin accomplished it in 7 months, with the first book off the press 11 days before the church was officially organized.

The book in the case next to us is a first edition Book of Mormon.

These next pictures are all of Corgin. He kept us laughing a lot of the time. He's a funny little guy.

This is where he slept at night. The couch was a hide a bed where Clint and I slept. I thought he might be spoiled by sleeping so close to us here that when we came back home he might not sleep in his own bedroom. Luckily, he was very happy to see his bed. As soon as he saw it he said "night, night" and he's good as before.

This is Corgin in Grandma's chair. Whenever she left the room he thought it was his job to steal her chair. He'd climb up in it and rock. One night he was all wound up, so he was climbing up in the chair then climbing down the side, running around and then climbing up into the chair again.

When we were at Watkin's Glen Corgin found some leaves. He used them to tickle his face. He had so much fun doing this.

Finally a picture where he would look at the camera. He used to always give us the cheesiest grin when we had the camera out. Now he tries to avoid looking or smiling at all costs. The little stinker!

While we were at the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center we watched the Joseph Smith movie. Since we had our connections there, we had the theater room to ourselves so we just let Corgin run around and have fun. Well, he somehow managed to get himself into a pickle. We laughed pretty hard, took some pictures, then decided we should rescue him. He's a silly boy.

Corgin loved playing out in Grandpa and Grandma's yard. The grass was so green there and the weather was pretty nice during our whole stay. All around, it made for a great vacation!

Thanks Grandpa and Grandma.

Vacation Part 2

Today we took a tour of the Smith farm. This is the Smith log house.

Clint and Corgin are enjoying the parlor of the Smith log house.

This is the bedroom where Joseph and his five brothers slept, and the same room where the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph three times in one night. We hadn't thought about the other boys being in the room when this happened, but they probably were there.

From the Smith Farm, the Palmyra temple is just across the street. President Hinckley had them leave one of the windows in the temple clear so that the Sacred Grove could be seen from inside it. We are going there tomorrow.

This is the framed home on the Smith Farm. Alvin, Joseph's older brother, started building it for the family, but died before it was finished. The house is 85% of the original. It is quite nice inside.

This is the kitchen in the framed home. It even had a pantry.

This is the fireplace in the parlor of the framed house. Joseph Smith had to hide the gold plates under the bricks here. There were a few other places where he had to keep them hidden from the mobs that came looking for them.

This is the Cooper Shop. A cooper is one who makes barrels, and this is where the Smiths were able to do that.

Here is a barrel in the Cooper shop. When the Smith's left Joseph and Emma hid the plates in the bottom of a barrel of beans.One time Joseph had to hide the gold plates in the floorboards of the Cooper shop.

Joseph had hidden the plates in the floorboards and then was warned that he needed to move them. He moved them to the rafters of the Cooper shop. The mob came with a diviner who claimed to know where the plates were. The mob went to the Cooper shop and started tearing up the floorboards. They tore the whole place apart, but never looked up where the plates were hiding.

We also saw the threshing barn. I didn't want to bore you all with too many pictures so I didn't post any.

Here is another picture of Corgin in the Sacred Grove. We spent some time walking in it after the tour of the Smith Farm.

This is the Hill Cumorah. The monument is up on the left with the gold angel Moroni. Tess told us that we needed to hike up it to appreciate it, so we hiked down. It's steeper than it looks!

Here we are at the top by the monument. Corgin was being a little pill, so he sat down and played in the rocks for the picture. He loved being outside though.

This is by the big monument. Each side had a different picture of something that happened that pertained to the gold plates. The one you can see is of the angel Moroni showing the plates to the three witnesses.

This is the giant Book of Mormon by the entry to the Hill Cumorah visitor center. We thought it was pretty cool.

Vacation Part 1

We are here in Palmyra enjoying our vacation. We have already seen quite a bit, so I wanted to share some pictures. We started with the flight. With Corgin, that was in and of itself an adventure.

Here is Corgin's first airplane ride.


This is how we got around the airports with our little guy. Sorry the pic is a little blurry.


The travel took us almost all day Tuesday. So yesterday was when the fun started. The first place that we visited was the sacred grove, we just took a little walk and we will get the tour later.



Then Grandpa and Grandma took us to Seneca Lake to the girls camp there. It was pretty nice! The church even owns lake front property and part of a creek. We got around by golf cart and Corgin had lots of fun helping his dad drive. I didn't get any pictures of the cabins or the nice shelter with a kitchen (spoiled New York girls!). It was prettycool. Here are the pics of that.





This is where the fourth year girls get to camp. They actually camp in tents and not in the cabins like the others. Though, they have people that bring them their food from the kitchen. Like I said, SPOILED!


Once we were done there, Grandpa and Grandma took us over to Sauders. It's a mennonite store with all sorts of things. We enjoyed looking around and we even bought us some peach butter and banana strawberry jam. We can't wait to try them once we get home. By then, it was time for Grandpa and Grandma to go to work. They had to go to the Whitmer Farm, so off we went. Grandpa gave us our own private tour and told us some really good stories. Here are some pictures of us outside the farmhouse where the first meeting of the church was held.


Inside the house.


The room where Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdry worked on the translation of some of the Book of Mormon. This is inside the Whitmer farmhouse.


We did all that yesterday. Today we took a little trip up to Niagra Falls. Here's a pic, that does no justice, of the falls. The far ones are the horseshoe falls where we went on the Maid of the Mist.


The Maid of the Mist was quite an experience. Grandpa and Grandma had done it with Jake and Tess when they came to visit. They told us that they didn't get very wet that time. Well that wasn't the case today. The mist was more like rain drops and when we got done our shoes and bottom of our pants were soaked. Corgin loved it.




After we saw Niagra Falls, Grandpa and Grandma took us out to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. Thanks! It was super good and lots of fun. We'll keep you posted on more of our trip later.

"Bonk, Bonk"

The Culprit

The "Bonk Bonk"

The Remedy

The Happy Boy

Note: Don't stand in wagons!

Corgin's Fun!

This is what Corgin has been up to lately. He's been a busy boy.

Here he is playing the drums with his dad. He has so much fun doing that. In fact, the drums are in our basement and Corgin sneaks down there any chance he gets. He is better now than he was a few weeks ago when I took this vid.

Here are some pics of Corgin when he is ready to go. We found him a little back pack that is so dang cute on him. Best part is that he loves wearing it too.

We were going on a little trip to Salt Lake and before we even left the garage, Corgin had taken off his socks and shoes. He does this all the time. Cute, when we are going on a long drive, not so cute when we are going to church.

Corgin found a scooter at his grandma's house. He loved playing on it. It wasn't too long before he was actually standing up on it. He is a brave little boy.

Corgin's cousin Addi is here for a visit. They have lots of fun playing together. Addi keeps telling me how cute Corgin is and Corgin gives Addi lots of hugs and kisses. They're pretty cute kids!

Addi was showing us how she could do a sommersault, so Corgin decided to join in the fun. I think he does pretty good.

We took a little walk the other day. Corgin and Addi had lots of fun holding hands and running around outside.

High School Tag

I saw this on a friend's blog and thought it was fun to read and I decided I'd do it. If you don't want to read this it's okay. It may be a bit boring to some.

1. Did you date someone in high school? Yes, my first official boyfriend in high school was Tyce Williams. He took me to my first dance when I turned 16 - he was a couple other firsts too (first to hold my hand and kiss my cheek, what were you thinking 'cause I'm not that kind of girl). That didn't last too long because I convienently got sick when we were alone (I thought he wanted to make-out with me and my mom had given me that talk). So, after him I just dated a lot of guys and didn't get another serious boyfriend for a while. It was more fun that way and I made a lot of good friends. My jr. year I dated Ryan Williams, kind of off and on until he left on his mission. Then I didn't have another boyfriend until after high school.

2. What kind of car did you drive? When I got my license, I drove a 1986 (I think) GMC deisel truck. It was called "Old Silver" and it was a stick shift. I couldn't really drive it very well, so on the way too and from school I had my younger brother shift while I drove. Then my sr. year I got the "Exploder". It was a red 1992 Ford Explorer with a lot of miles on it and we all thought would explode at any time. It survived until after I was married. I guess we were wrong..

3. Did you pass your driver's license test the first time? Hecks yes, I did!

4. Were you a party animal? Not so much, no. I do better in small groups.

5. Were you considered a flirt? I may have even bordered on the edge of being a tease.

6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? I did participate in choir. I was in the acapella group. I did it mostly because of the choir trips. Oh man, they were fun. I have lots of memories from trips. Like one trip my cousin, Marilyn, and I stayed up the whole time - 41 hours straight. We were pretty crazy with no sleep and I'm suprised we didn't get caught running around the hotel all night. There was another trip when Mares and I liked these boys that were friends, so one day we traded boyfriends (they weren't really our boyfriends, just on the trip because what happened on choir trip stayed on choir trip). Then there was the one where the boys went skinny dipping in the hotel swimming pool. If we would have known that they didn't have anything on under their towels, we probably would have freaked out and definitely wouldn't have talked to them as long as we did. Crazy choir trips!

7. Were you a nerd? Yep.

8. Were you on any varsity teams? I was a varsity cheerleader.

9. Did you ever get suspended or expelled? No, I never got caught. Okay, so I never really did anything that would have been punishable by suspension or expulsion. I was a good kid. Although, there was that time in Boise during state basketball my sr. year, which involved the hotel window, boys, and some tinfoil glistening in the moonlight. That sounds worse than it was, but I still think we would have got in trouble. Do you remember that Megan? So glad the hotel guy didn't catch us. Crazy boys!

10. Is there anything you wish you would have done or participated in? No, I had a lot of fun in high school. Maybe I would be a little more outgoing, because I think that sometimes my shyness was mistaken for being a snot.

11. Who were your favorite teachers? Coach Wright - that class was so easy and for some reason he nicknamed Tyce, Spencer, Juli, and me the telletubbies. I think he had young kids at home, but he liked us so it was easy to pass his class. Mr. Coles was another good teacher. Although, I'm not so sure he liked me. Nicole, Spencer, and I talked way too much. I also liked Mrs. Asmus. She made me realize that I liked biology, and she was easy to get off the subject. She told us a lot of crazy stories when we were supposed to be talking about science.

12. Where did you sit at lunch? Every day was somewhere different. We had an open campus at lunch, so we'd take turns going to each others houses for lunch, or into town (sorry mom, I did break the rule a few times).

13. School mascot: Panther

14. School colors: Purple, white, black, and silver - try putting all those in a cheer. We had too many colors if you ask me.

15. Did you go to homecoming and who with? My jr. year I went with Brian Turpin. I was on the bus an the way to cheer at a football game when a truck drives up right next to us and there is Brian hanging out the window asking me to go to the dance with him. I think I just yelled yes. I had a lot of fun times with Brian. He turned out to be a really good friend. Then my sr. year I went with Matt Murdock. He filled my room with balloons and I had to pop them all to find his name. That was my first date with Matt, who I eventually ended up dating for almost two years.

16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Probably not. I had fun, but I love where I am now and I've realized that a lot of things that I thought were so important then, aren't so important now.

17. What do you remember most about graduation? I don't remember an awful lot about the actual graduation ceremony except that it was long, but I do remember a lot about the sr. banquet and the sr. trip. The sr. banquet was fun, and after it was done a few of my friends and I went and jumped in the canal. I ended up with an ear infection from the water and I remember that on the sr. trip I had to take ear drops and I felt stupid putting them in my ears on the bus because I was sitting with Matt Murdock and I liked him (we weren't officially together then). I felt dumb and I think I even had to ask him to help.

18. Where did you go on Senior Skip Day? I don't remember, but I'm sure that Alanna and I did something fun.

19. Were you in any clubs? Nope.

20. Have you gained weight since then? I gained weight when I was pregnant, but now I think I weigh about the same as I did then. I don't really ever weigh myself, but it seems that my weight doesn't change much when I do.

21. Who was your prom date? My soph. year I went with Caleb Burke. My jr. year I went with Brian Turpin and my sr. year I went to prom with Michael Evans. All of them were fun dates.

22. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Hecks yes! I hear those are the funnest ones because not everyone has grown up yet. Besides that, I would like to see some of my classmates that I haven't kept in touch with.

23. Did you have a job while in high school? A few, actually. I moved pipe for my dad every summer. I also worked potato harvest every year too. Harvest has a lot of memories - always fun!

24. Worst class? Math, especially with Mr. Grant. He always got a little too close and smelled way too strong of cigarettes.

25.Favorite class? I did enjoy my art class - Nicole, you know why. Good ol' "Coach Coles". We had a lot of fun. I also liked choir class, especially when Mrs. Secrist subbed. I can't tell you how many times we got out of it when she was there. And Mares, you remember sneaking out the window. He he.

fun with the slinky

Corgin has a slinky that he just loves to play with. Today he got himself into a bit of a pickle. He does little things like this every day. Such a funny kid!

Corgin had his 15 month check-up yesterday. He is 18 lbs 4 oz (3rd percentile) and 30 inches long (14th percentile). The doctor was a little worried about his weight, but once we told him that Corgin is such a good eater, he figured that Corgin just must be a skinny guy. He's healthy and happy.

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Corgin has been a little busy-body like always. Here are a few pics from the last week.



He got to hang out with a new friend, Justus. They had a lot of fun together. Probably too much by the looks of the mess!

Here's an adventure we had.
Yesterday I got a call at work from Clint. He asked me how long it would be before I was coming home. Luckily, I was on my lunch break so I could hurry home. Turns out that Corgin locked Clint out of the house and was in there all alone. Our doors open from the inside even when they are locked, so when Clint went outside for a minute, Corgin just closed the door. That is how it all went down! I came home and opened the door for Clint and all is well.

Oh, and my brother got his mission call to the Florida Orlando mission. Here he is when he opened his call. We are so excited for him. I think he's excited too, judging by the look on his face. He'll be a great missionary. (Don't worry, Tess and Jake are there to keep an eye on him.)