stupid deer

What a crappy day! On the way to work this morning, about 8:30 a.m., Mark was on the freeway in the middle lane when he hit a deer and consequently the impact pushed him into another car. No one was hurt -- except the deer -- thank goodness. The "new" car is smashed up with a ton of body damage, so we're out a car for awhile. To top it off, the police gave Mark a citation for an improper lane change. He's VERY upset and will fight the courts on that one.

PS -- Update (11/9/11) Mark has spent the last two weeks worrying and being upset about the ticket. He spent half a day at the courthouse waiting to see the judge to plead his case today. The courts were very backed up and when he finally got his turn, the judge took one puny glance at the citation and immediately threw it out all the while muttering about why in the world the police would even try to take up his time with a silly deer accident... We are all very relieved and happy about the outcome. We should have the car back before Thanksgiving.

new york and ohio

Guess where this is? Niagara Falls, NY! Mark & I spent a few days with my parents, siblings & their spouses on a vacation to New York and Ohio to visit the church sites in Palmyra and Kirtland. We flew into Buffalo, so our first stop was Niagara Falls. The falls are amazing. Here's our group:
Here we are in our rain gear riding on the Maid of the Mist.
This is my mom & dad with a nice view of the "American Falls" in the background.


Yours truly.
The squirrels were very busy collecting their winter stash of nuts. I'm always impressed with their big bushy tails. Squirrels in the west don't have tails that glamorous.
After Niagara Falls, we headed to Palmyra. First stop was the Hill Cumorah. This is looking out over the valley from the top of the hill.
At the top of the Hill Cumorah is this monument with Moroni standing atop.
Our next stop was the Palmyra LDS temple. My sister, Kathleen, had made arrangements for us to do a sealing session there. She was able to find a few ancestors from my mothers side of the family that needed to be sealed. It was really awesome to be a proxy for people that I'm related to -- much more meaningful. And many thanks to Kathleen's good friend who provided a bunch more of her family names for us to seal while we were there. One thing I love about the grounds of this temple is that there are no fences around it. The grass just gives way to the forest and trees that are so abundant. It is so peaceful there.
This was our first visit to the inside of the temple. This temple is unique in the fact that it has a huge picture window just past the recommend desk that looks out over the sacred grove. What a beautiful site. All the other windows in the temple are stained glass that also feature the trees of the sacred grove.
Our group: In the back row is David, Karen, John, Kathleen, Michael, & Mark. In the front is GayLynn, Mom, Dad, & me.
The next day we visited the Book of Mormon printing shop. I didn't take many photos this time, but I did like this one of the book being stitched together.
Our next stop was the Joseph Smith farm. From the farm you can look across the road and up into the trees to find this beautiful view of the Palmyra temple.
I just love how it is nestled into the trees.
It's probably hard to tell from my pictures, but the scenery around the farm was just gorgeous!
Love this picture of my parents!
This is GayLynn and David standing near the "Alvin" tree. This is the tree that was planted by the Smith family following Alvin's (Joseph's oldest brother) death. It is huge and thick!
This is a view of the inside of the cooper's shed. At one time Joseph hid the gold plates up in the loft here to keep them safe from the mob.
John & Karen on the path that leads into the sacred grove. Love those autumn leaf colors!
Mark, me, Kathleen & Michael.
Inside the sacred grove.
The path in the grove was so covered by leaves that sometimes it was hard to tell where it lead. We loved hearing the crunch of the leaves under our feet.
Here we are at the Peter Whitmer home. This is where the church was officially organized on April 6, 1830. This was our last site in New York.
Our first stop in Ohio was at the John Johnson home in Hiram.
This is the room where Joseph received many revelations. One of particular importance is D&C section 76.
Elsa Johnson must have loved color. The Johnson home is very colorful -- here's an example of the orange painted woodwork. There was also green woodwork, feather painted woodwork & doors, and a red and black tile floor.
Our group again, at the Johnson home.
Our tour of the main Kirtland area was absolutely fabulous! Here we are at the Whitney store. The Whitney's were amazing people who gave literally everything for the forwarding of the gospel.
This table in one of the rooms above the store is a table original to Joseph Smith.
This is kind of an odd picture, but as I was listening to the sisters talk while we visited the Whitney home, I couldn't help noticing how beautiful the tree was just outside the window.
Here's me taking my own picture at the Ashery -- looking into one of the ovens.
We had a WONDERFUL tour of the Kirtland temple! We were able to see all three floors this time! No pictures are allowed to be taken inside the temple.
I love this picture of the temple surrounded by the trees and bushes.
Our last stop was the Isaac Morley farm. Here's my parents:
I like this shot of our backsides, because it shows us leaving. It's our parting picture of the wonderful vacation we had together.
I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to spend some time with my parents and siblings. It was a rare and memorable treat. I'm also grateful for G&G Vawdrey who took care of our boys while we were away. They had such a good time with their grandparents and cousins that they didn't even miss us!

fall field trip

I went with Matthew's preschool class on a fieldtrip to a nearby pumpkin patch. First thing we did was pose for pictures on the haybales with some pumpkins. Matthew had barely sat down when a pumpkin rolled down on him (he wasn't hurt), so as you can see he was holding very still and giving me the forced smile pose. He is an expert at the forced smile -- it's rather a half frown. Oh, it totally makes me laugh! Here's a close up:
Next we hopped on the trailer, pulled by a tractor, and headed out into the fields. We saw ginormous purple and green cabbages, huge carrots that were a rainbow of colors. And of course...
lots and lots of pumpkins!
Matthew got to choose one to take home. He chose this yellow pumpkin. It was unique and different!
Then we hopped back on the trailer and headed for the courtyard.
Oh yes, we had to get a picture of the tractor!
First stop at the courtyard was the ginormous slide built on a haystack.

Whoosh! Matthew LOVED this slide! Who wouldn't? It's really fun! He used 99% of his playtime sliding.
A quick stop before heading home to try out the tire steer and the swing (not pictured, somehow deleted it by mistake).
It was a perfect day to play outside and have some fall fun!

a walk in the rain and other tidbits

The weather lately has been cool and somewhat rainy. This morning I took a nice little walk in the dark and rain, without an umbrella. Loved it!

In other news, I survived my birthday. There was no glitz or party -- rather dull really. Jared did the dinner dishes and cleanup without being asked -- a gift indeed. We watched General Conference and Mark & I took a nice bike ride (except for the excessive amount of gnats on the way back) out by Farmington Bay.

Jacob's fall soccer season is over. We're moving on to basketball. Mark is the coach for Jacob's basketball team and they have their first game this week. Ryan's team started practice a couple weeks ago and played their first game last week in which they won one of the best teams in the league!! They have another game this week and Mark will be coaching that since the head coach will be out of town.

Ryan will not allow me to take a picture of him working his new job, so I will just have to record here that he actually has a job! (He started in July!) He delivers a local newspaper once a week. It only takes about an hour, except for the week that he has to deliver the freebie papers in addition to his regular subscribing customers, and then it takes about 2 hours! He got a $10 tip this past week on his paycheck, and was very excited!!