Upstate New York

What a weekend!

After Matt finished up Step2 of the Boards on Tuesday, we packed up & left Wednesday to drive to Ithaca, NY where we camped for two nights. Matt is always such a great help, which I really appreciate. Here is our master chef, he cooked us a yummy eggs & pancake breakfast one morning & an egg mcmuffin one the next. Thanks honey!

Here are our fellow campers Meg, Dave & McKelle.

Thursday we just hung out & took it easy at the campsite, there was a lot to do at the park we stayed at, Robert Truman State Park. As you can see it's not the same kind of camping we're used to back home, here it's pretty much like a parking lot in a meadow. We were lucky enough to get two big trees by us.

Luke was always checking up on his little cousin McKelle, he loved looking at her & pointing at her nose, eyes, ears, etc. She was a good little camper too!

Luke was a handful on the trip, but he seemed to have a great time playing in the dirt, running away from us constantly and putting food in his eyes (don't ask). The only thing he wasn't a fan of was driving, but I can't say that I blame him.

During our "veg" day we went swimming in this awesome "pool" they have at the State Park.

This picture is from when Matt & I went two years ago, but it was just a good pic to show the whole pool.

The water was SO COLD!!!! It was 60 degrees. I was happy with just my feet in it.
The guys were loving the diving board.

Above is Dave.
Below is Matt, he was a little bummed that I didn't catch any of his "cool" tricks, but I have plenty of those from the last time we went.

After they jumped off a few times, they convinced Meg to do it. I still had absolutely NO desire to do it, I wasn't even worried they would try & talk me into it. I'm not afraid of the 10 or higher foot board, or getting my hair wet. I was afraid of the freezing cold water!

Shortly after Meg & Dave had jumped, they all convinced me to jump....with the bribe of an ice cream. And I still can't believe I did it. I've never been so cold before. Normally I would never post a picture like this, but I had to prove that I did it. Unfortunately, this was the only picture Dave got of my jump, it definitely is NOT the most flattering picture, but you can tell there is no way I could back out of that.

You can see Matt waiting there to catch me...it was like swimming lessons all over again. It was a good thing he was there, since the water was so cold when your body hits it it's almost like it goes into panic mode. I couldn't breathe because it was so cold. Matt pushed me over to the falls, where the water was a little warmer. Even though I never want to do it again, it was still fun & worth it.

Here we are standing in the falls.

A bit later the guys wanted to swimming around over to the falls again (which worried me just a little since not even an hour before another guy was swimming out in the same area & had to be rescued by one of the life guards).

But they made it.

The next day we broke camp, packed up & headed over to Watkins Glen, where we hiked through this beautiful gorge. This was me & Matts third time hiking it.

This is why I couldn't blame Luke for hating the drive. After about day two we rearranged the car so he was in a window seat, where he seemed much more happy.

After our hike, we drove on a beautiful, scenic drive through Amish country & next to one of the Finger Lakes, which was gorgeous! We stopped at the KOA (=ghetto) to set up our tent & then drove to Palmyra where we got some dinner, yummy ice cream, toured the printing press & then found a place to watch the Hill Cumorah Pageant, or Pageant.

We had been to Pageant two years earlier, but I forgot how awesome it was. They do such an amazing job & have the coolest effects like, rain, water falls, fire, destruction & Christ appearing, floating in the sky & descending down (Christ coming to the Americas). It was really great! I recommend it to everyone!

The next day was quite gloomy, but was a lot better than the hot, humid summer days were used to when we visit the Church sites. We toured the Smith homes & walked through the Sacred Grove. It was sprinkling at first, but started to get a bit harder.

Isn't the background beautiful! I just love the green & that garden behind us. This was taken behind the log cabin.

Here we are in the Sacred Grove, before the massive down pour.

Shortly after we entered the Sacred Grove, it was a HUGE down pour with the loudest thunder & lightening on top of each other. Luke kept saying "Crash, crash, crash!" It was funny. So we hustled through. Our feet were in about 3 inches of water most of the time & me & Meg's legs were coverd in dirt & mud by the end. I had mud up my back too.

It was quite the experience, but it made for a good memory. And at least it was warmer rain & wasn't freezing cold. It was fun.

Next, we drove two hours to Niagara Falls. As many of you know, Matt & I have made this trip four times, but Meg had never been to any of these places & it was so much fun being with them. We didn't spend very much time at Niagara Falls, but it was still just as beautiful & amazing as ever. This is our last time on our Church history/Niagara trip, until our kids are older, we'll bring them back then.

Then we crossed the boarder to Canada (which I REALLY REALLY hate doing). Nothing against Canadians, it's the guards at the boarder that are just complete jerks & to me, it's not even worth all the crap they give you to get through, because nothing on Canadian side is even that great. At least close to the boarder. Western Canada is beautiful, however & can't wait to go back there. I'm sure there are other great places in Eastern Canada, but not in Niagara or Fort Erie, Canada where we stayed in a hotel.

Sunday morning we crossed back over to the U.S. & went to church in Buffalo & then headed home. The Buffalo church was built in the 50's & didn't look anything like an LDS Church from the outside. This is the best group picture we could get.

Here are just some cute pictures of McKelle, who is such a doll.

After we said our good-byes Luke had to give hugs & kisses to McKelle one last time.
These pictures are so sweet.

Thanks for the fun trip Meg & Dave, as always we have a great time with you guys.
Can't wait to see you all again!