kEEpiNg CooL!

We've finally had some warm weather and it has quit raining! So, today we went outside to play (and work) and enjoy the nice weather. This was Corgin's favorite thing today. We found this little blow up pool at Smith's for $10 with the tube and ball included. I thought it was pretty cool and so did Corgin.

He loved the tube. He would ask to get out and then as soon as we got him out he would climb back in. He had so much fun.

He also liked playing with his little watering can. That kept him entertained for quite a while.

Here he is talking to me while I was taking his picture. He's either saying, "water", "fishy", or "bubble". He just kept saying that over and over.

And about the work we did, (and when I say we I mean mostly Clint - he's such a good man) we planted three trees and filled in all the places where we had canyons in our yard from all the rain washing out and then planted more grass. All and all it was a good day.

FiNaLLy!!!

We've been keeping busy since we got home from Palmyra. Here's some things we've been up to.

We sent Luke off to Orlando, Florida on a mission (okay, so he's not going to be in Orlando until Monday, he's at the MTC now).

This is at the Temple when Luke got his endowment. My parents were able to have all of their children there and we were all so happy for Luke!

This is the day we took Luke to the MTC. The last picture with Luke for a couple of years. It was also Clint's birthday. Clint told Luke that he was giving him the best present by leaving, but really we will all miss him.

Bye Luke!


Traveling to the MTC seemed to wear out Corgin because the next day he was super tired. He never lays down unless he has to, but here he is just lying on a box on the table.

There is even a slobber mark left where he had his head laid down.

We also took some time to plant our grass. It has almost been two weeks and this is what is popping up. We were happy to see it, with all the rain we've had lately we thought a lot of it may have washed away.

This is our front yard.

This is our side front yard, and yes, those are tire tracks - someone dared to drive on our property just a few days after we planted. We were a little upset.

i had some videos, but I've tried three times and they won't upload. I guess that means I'll have to do another post soon.

What do you think, Corgin?

So, this morning I am getting ready and Corgin was just hanging out in the bathroom with me. I was almost done and Corgin was getting bored. I told him that I had to finish putting on my make-up so that I could be pretty. Then I asked "Corgin, do you think mom is pretty?" Usually he will say "pretty" after I say it, but today he just shrugged his shoulders. Gee, thanks a lot, Corgin!

Anyway, I'll post later when I can put up some pics. Until then TTFN (ta ta for now).

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.