Day 7 August 16, 2011

Waking up at 7:00 (really 5:00am our time) wasn’t as enjoyable knowing that we would be getting on a plane. The flight home went much smoother though, because we only had one stop in Chicago and then it was on to Salt Lake City. The only thing I would change is sitting with the drunk fat guys in the back of the plan. Our longest flight back, and I wasn’t able to be with Jason. It wasn’t as fun as I’d hoped. I’m glad I had Siehara’s Kindle to keep me company J

Once we got into Salt Lake, Jason could hardly wait to pick up our baby. Little Bandit probably had the time of his life roaming around in a yard with his new found friend Toby. He went crazy once he saw Jason though, and was already racing us to the car. It was nice to have our family back together again, and after grocery shopping in Roy we finally made it to our cozy condo. What an adventure!!!

Since we’ve been back….

We haven’t really been up to much. Job searching has become a hobby of mine and Jason has been getting ready for school with his assignments. After being home for one day we planted a garden on our patio consisting of a tomato plant and chili plant and have had our neighbors over for dinner. We’ve really enjoyed being here in Logan and can hardly wait to share more adventures with you!! Until then… happy reading!

Day 6 August 15, 2011

This day was really sad. It was the last day we would be staying in Rochester. Our plan was to get back to Buffalo by 9:00pm so that we could get rest and catch our early flight in the morning. Spending time with the Snedeker kids was probably the reason I was most sad to say goodbye. Rosie, Sophie, Nick, and Eleanor are the cutest and sweetest New York kids we’ve ever met! Sophie was pretty much attached to my hip the whole morning, and we just really enjoyed ourselves. By lunch time we said our goodbyes and headed off to finish our adventures in Rochester New York….

Hill Camorah was our first stop. We were planning on visiting the hill after the Smith Farm, but somehow got lost on our way. The Visitors Center is beautiful, and the hill steep to climb, but we were able to see the monument and take some pictures too. While in the visitors center we got to see the new Joseph Smith movie, which was pretty incredible too. After that we made our way back into Palmyra.

In downtown Palmyra is the Grandon Building. The original printing shop that printed the first 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon still stands there to this day. It is so neat to see how much the church puts into preserving all of the history sights so that we are able to enjoy them. They have really added a lot on to the building and it was neat to see several original copies of The Book of Mormon as well as beautiful artwork depicting all the incredible history that happened in Palmyra New York. Our tour had to be cut a little short so that we could make sure to be at Brother King’s by 6:00pm.

Dinner was pretty delicious, and that is saying a ton from a girl who hates chicken and things wings are disgusting. Brother King did make some pretty good wings. I was glad for the Dibella’s philly cheese steak I ate beforehand so that I was full :P lol. We weren’t expecting him to make us so much food.

After dinner was my favorite part, when we were able to be missionaries and share a message with Brother King. It was an very powerful experience that I will always remember. He has so many questions for us, and it was neat to be able to go through the scriptures and help him to understand. Having this experience honestly made me want to serve a mission and go out and teach more people. We won’t be doing that for a long time though, so I had to settle with leaving Brother King with a hug and a prayer.

While driving to Buffalo, Jason and I finished our second Hunger Games book. That tells you how much driving we were doing lol J We got back a little later than expected, visited with brother Kay, and hit the sack after a long enjoyable week behind us….

Day 5 August 14, 2011

Sunday was a great adventure in Rochester New York. Church wasn’t until 1:00pm, so we made some early visits to members. Our first visit was Brother King, the most interesting guy and family I was able to meet in Rochester New York. The Kings live in the rough part of town where you never want to get caught being there in the dark. While visiting with him and his girls we heard stories of fist fights and cussing out bishops… It was very interesting. We made Bro. King promise to make us some of his famous wings, and left with a dinner appointment for Monday night.

Church was wonderful, and Jason had so much fun catching up with all of the members. During Sunday school I experienced a typical New York rain storm. It was funny that even when the power went out the lesson continued. I loved hearing all of the thunder, seeing the lightning out of the window, and watching the rain just pour down in buckets. I guess you could say I was a little distracted during that lesson.

The ending of church brought us back to the Snedekers to change and then on the road again. We drove to Albion to visit Roger Gared. Roger was a convert Jason was able to teach and eventually set a babtism date with. After Roger had asked Jason to babtize him, Jason was emergency transferred back to Buffalo. Roger was pretty excited to see Jason again, and although we found he has gone inactive we were happy to visit with him and learn of his new adventures with the job that he loves.

Out into the country we drove after that, to the Warrens. The Warrens are also a family that Jason helped out a lot on his mission. They also fed him a ton, and one thing he told me about this family is that Bro. Warren cooks the best food. I was pleasantly surprised when I tasted his delicious turkey kabobs, rice, and salad. Talk about a gourmet meal!

After stuffing our faces, they took us out to their barn to see the pet chickens J We also got to see all the creatures that they take care of on their “farm.” We found a barn cat, goldfish in buckets, a turtle that bites, and some rather unusually friendly chickens. They boys were really excited to show us all of their wonderful friends, and disappeared quickly once the games were brought out. Battle of the Sexes was played, silly arguments told, and then we were back to Rochester.

Day 4 August 13, 2011

This day was packed full of all kinds of adventures! Our first stop before going the church history sights, was the Palmyra New York temple. It was beautiful, and so neat that you are able to see through the windows that face the Sacred Grove. Once we were able to walk around the temple grounds and take some pictures we were on our way again.

We first drove to Palmyra and visited the Sacred Grove. What an experience! When we first got there we had a couple of sister missionaries take us on a tour around the Smith farm. We were able to tour two replicas of houses that they lived in, the log home and the frame home. It was incredible just to see how such a big family fit in such a small place.

At the end of the tour we were able to go on our own and walk through the Sacred Grove. That was really neat, especially because Jason showed me some places where his mission had zone conferences. We also were able to identify three tree called, “The Witness Trees.” As we sat on a bench, re-read the account of Joseph Smith, and sat in that quite place, the spirit was overwhelming. As I sat there pondering what it must have been like, I wished that the trees could somehow testify of that beautiful spring morning. The spirit testified to me during those quiet moments of the truth of the restoration and how miraculous this beautiful day must have been.

Around lunch time we weren’t really hungry, but I was told that the thing to do after tour the cites and going to pageant, was eating at Chill and Grill. It’s a little shack sort of restaurant that is famous for their enormous ice cream cones. It was there that I experienced my first Red Hot with homemade hot sauce, and I huge cone that was supposed to be ½ a kiddy cone. It was more like a large cone!

Doing all of the church sights in one day is almost impossible. I am sure people have done it, but I think that the greatest thing to do when you see sights is not to rush, and just enjoy them. That’s what Jason and I did. With only a few more hours of time we decided to visit the Peter Whitmer Farm. This was an incredible experience for me. Sister Vaterlaus from our ward in Boise gave us the tour and made it so powerful. She bared her testimony multiple times about The Book or Mormon, and got us involved too. As we were standing up in the room where much of The Book of Mormon was translated, the spirit was incredible strong and Jason spoke of his testimony about The Book of Mormon and shared his powerful conversion story with us. It was really neat.

The fun didn’t stop after that J When we got back to Rochester, the Snedekers took us out for a wonderful dinner. We eat at the best place that has the best Beef on Weck ever tasted (so I’m told). We also tried some delicious German Pancakes with apple sauce and sour cream. It was very tasty. We then journeyed over to Target and tried on some goofy attire. We had a lot of laughs and fun that night…

Day 3 August 12, 2011

This beginning of this trip was actually very sad. Out of all the people we had met thus far, the Campbells were the hardest to say goodbye to. I’ll never forget what she yelled to us as we drove away, “remember your kids will always have an Indian grandma.” That’s exactly how she treated us, like family.

The reason we left Cattaraugus, was to make our way to another area where Elder Osborn served. He served in Rochester, and it was there that we met Loyd Robinson at Perry’s Pizza Shop. Loyd Robinson was an amazing person. He took us to the best pizza place too, where their pizzas were unbelievable huge and their slices were as big as a whole pizza. It was delicious, that and the company made it that much more enjoyable. We didn’t get to visit long before it was already time for Loyd to get to work, and for us to head out to our next stop.

Ever since I was little family trips has always had some kind of education hidden in them. It is interesting to see that even though I wasn’t too thrilled about light houses and museums when I was little, now I just have to go to at least one while on vacation. The fun museum that we decided to go to was the well known George Eastman House. For those of you who don’t know who George Eastman was, he was the man who started Kodak. He lived in a huge mansion by himself, never being married or having children. He made film history and so we went to learn about it. We even ended up making some art of our own with photo paper. It was really neat.

The Snedekers were the next family I was able meet. Talk about a golden family J Both Bob and Carrie are converts to the church and have been able to share the gospel with so many people. We met them while they were doing a garage sale. Carrie was so loud and fun to talk to, and Bob was quite and very nice. We visited with them and their little girl Eleanor for a bit (their other kids Nick, Rosie and Sophie weren’t home) just before we headed off to our dinner appointment.

Brother Kie is the sweetest old man you will ever meet! Every Friday night he makes dinner for the missionaries and an investigator or family that they are teaching. This week we got to be the guests of honor and had dinner with the assistants and sister missionaries. It was neat too, because one of the sister missionaries was actually from our home ward back in Boise. It was crazy to think that we’d traveled that far and ended up running into her. She has become such a great missionary and it was really neat to see her in immersing herself in the work.

When we got back to the Snedekers Bob went on an ice cream run for us, and we visited for hours. I think that visiting with all the wonderful people that we got to meet was my favorite. Especially the Snedekers, because they loved Jason too and love reminiscing in memories of the past and memories they had created together. I hope someday we get to see them again.

Day 2 August 11, 2011

Jason and I woke up the most scrumptious smells. The Campbells had made us an enormous gourmet breakfast with delicious home grown tomatoes, biscuits, gravy, sausage, eggs, bacon, and all the fixins. It was delicious, and I honestly think that just from that one meal I gained about 10lbs. It was the perfect breakfast to help us get started on our grand adventure through Cattaraugus.

Our first stop was visiting a man names Norman. Norman is a Native American that Jason taught while on his mission. He is an amazing stone sculptor who has done many beautiful pieces of art work. He was diagnosed with colon cancer and has been receiving treatment for it through a medicine man. It was neat to visit with him, learn of stories, and see how much he has had a change of heart. He knows that the Lord is watching out for him, an

d has been trying his best to remain healthy and live a good life. I know that there are many people who are so thankful that he is still on the earth to share his talents and stories with others. As a parting gift, he gave us a feather to remember him by.

Denise White-pigeon is Norman’s sister who also has a talent for art. She has the talent of making beautiful corn husk dolls and beautiful beaded jewelry and paintings. Jason taught Denise’s family while serving in this area, and he said it was interesting going back to see them. They told us of their hardships and blessings, and it seems that what they always did with missionaries too. They trust us with their greatest experiences and problems in life. Sadly Denise’s husband Phil was at work, so after learning some Native American stories we made dinner plans and headed on our way.

It has been really nice to spend so much time together as a family. Each day we were able to take a couple of minutes to just enjoy us… Jason took me to Lake Erie where we walked, reflected on the journey thus far, and dipped our feet in the water. It was very relaxing and neat to learn more about his mission and the thoughts and feelings that he had now.

We met up with Phil and Denise met us at “The Hawk” where we had a rather interesting dinner. We really enjoyed continuing our visit with them, and I learned that Phil was quite the kidder. They are such a good family, and Jason and I only hope that someday they will be open to the gospel and partake of the happiness that it brings.

Eating food had become quite a habit on this trip. Our next endeavor was SMORES with the Reynolds. The Reynolds are famous for their missionary pound. With each missionary that came to teach in their home, they would have them create a stepping stone for their missionary pound. Jana Reynolds took us to their house to see it, and then we headed back to their camp to have delicious SMORES. There we say a beautiful sunset across the lake, and were able to enjoy each other and sit by a warm fire. By the time we got back to the Campbell’s it was really late.

Day 1 August 10, 2011

Our first day in New York was wonderful. Jason first took me to a place he volunteered as a missionary. In Down Town Buffalo, there is a place called the Ronald McDonald House where families are able to stay while their loved ones are in the hospital. It is here that they are able to spend time with sick family members at an affordable price, and where Jason helped clean and do things for the people who stayed.

Our next stop was Elwood… It’s a pretty well know strip that people like to walk down. We randomly spotted some dancing statutes and decided to join in. Then we went on the great adventure of walking through shops and trying desperately to find a public bathroom. In New York, public bathrooms aren’t very common because of the homeless people who have taken advantage of them. Luckily a coffee shop and one, and we were on our way again. 

Buffalo has a really neat history, and so we decided to visit the city hall. The city hall is the tallest building in the city and has an amazing view for an observation deck. Although the heights scared me a bit, it was really neat to see all the buildings, streets, and little ant people from so high. It was neat to see Lake Erie and how crazy it is to know that it’s not the ocean, it’s just a lake…

May favorite part of the day was when we made our way to the great Niagara Falls. After entering the gift and information center, a very convincing sales man tried to sale us an exciting adventure on a tour all around the park. With very little pennies in our pocket, we decided to decline and head over to Maid of the Mist. Riding a boat straight into an enormous waterfall is pretty exciting. We were given awesome ponchos to keep us somewhat dry. They really came in handy after the ride when we were able to hike up the side of the falls :)

Driving in our brand new 2011 Chevy Aveo was amazing!! Who knew I’d actually be able to even sit in a 2011 car! Our drive to Cattaraugus was very enjoyable, and it is there that I met the Campbells. Brother and Sister Campbell are two people who have left an impression on me that I will always remember. They loved Jason and it was neat to be able to listen to all of their stories back when he was a missionary. It was really neat for Jason to hear about their adventures since then, and what had become of all 12 of their children. I really enjoyed visiting with them and being swept back in time to a place that helped Jason become a part of the extraordinary man that he is today.