New York

For a few years now, Ann and I have been wanting to go on a trip to Palmyra New York.  With the help and encouragement from our kids,this year we finally made it.  Last Christmas, as a group they gave us a one night stay in a bed and breakfast and a gift card for Flaherty's (a local restaurant in Palmyra)

We left home on on May 31st and flew to Buffalo NY arriving around 11:30 pm. and traveled to Niagara Falls.  We spent most of Monday visiting many of the attractions at Niagara Falls.  On Tuesday we traveled to LockPort.  There is a two hour cruise of part of the Erie Canal there. We traveled back to Niagara Falls and visit some more of the sites there.  I am always in awe at the beauties and wonders the Lord has created on this earth.

On Wednesday we traveled to Palmyra.  We visited the Hill Cumorah visitors center for most of the afternoon.  On Thursday we visited the Peter Whitmer Farm in the morning, and the Grandin Book Store and Sacred Grove in the afternoon.

The first picture is a view of the Erie Canal from our boat.

The next a view of the Canadian Falls from the Maid of the Mist Boat.  

The next is a view of the Palmyra Temple from the Smith Farm Visitors Center.

The next is from the top of the Hill Cumorah.  (They are starting to get ready for the pageant)

The next is the monument at the top of the Hill Cumorah.

The next is Ann and me at the Peter Whitmer Farm.

The next two are in the Sacred Grove.

The next is the Bed and Breakfast place we stayed at in Palmyra

The last is at Flaherty's restaurant.

We had a great time.  We felt the spirit of our Heavenly Father as we contemplated the great events of the restoration of the Gospel that occurred there in Palmyra.  All the missionaries were very helpful. 

Our Son in Law Andrew's parents are serving a mission in Palmyra.  We were able to visit and have lunch with them on Friday before we left to go back to Buffalo.  We enjoyed our visit with them.
 
We flew back home on Saturday June 5.

We had a great time.  We really appreciate the gifts our children gave us to help make this trip enjoyable.

 

First camping trip with new trailer

Friday and Saturday May May 14 and 15 was our annual Fathers and Sons outing.  Our stake puts this on as the commemoration of the Restoration of the Priesthood.  My Dad, my son Cory and his two boys Hudson and Hafen and I went.  Our traditional place to go is about 7 miles up the Caliente Summit on highway 93.  The stake provides a dinner and then a short program about the restoration of the Priesthood. 

This year, I decided to try out our new Jumping Jack tent trailer.  If you have not seen these before they are neat setup.  http://www.jumpingjacktrailers.com/. We also took our Yamaha Rhino and did some exploring around the area.   We had a great time.

We arrived about 5:30 pm and found a spot to set up.  We unloaded the Rhino and got the tent trailer set up, and put our sleeping bags etc in.  Dad and I took the Rhino out for a little while.  After the dinner and program, we went back to our camp.  We built a fire and had a good time visiting.  Cory put the boys to bed and then he, Dad and I just sat around the fire visiting.  We haven't had a chance to do this for a long time. 

Saturday morning we got up, and the ward provided breakfast.  We cleaned up our camp and then Dad, Cory and the boys and I went for a ride on the Rhino for awhile.  I was a lot of fun.  I enjoyed being out with them.  We got home about 11:00 Saturday morning.

You can't see it the picture very well, but Hafen is sitting in the Rhino and holding up some flowers we picked for the boys to take home to Melissa.

Neal

As Vera mentioned on her blog, on February 10, 2010 Neal entered the Provo MTC (Missionary Taining Center) to begin his service as missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  It is always an emotional time.  Neal has planned for this for most of his life.  Neal was to report to the Brazil MTC, however he did not receive his Visa so he was reassigned to the Provo MTC.  It is anticipated that as soon has his Visa comes through he will travel to the Brazil MTC.

Ann, Neal and I traveled to Salt Lake on Tuesday, had dinner and visited with our Son Alma and daughter Jeanette and their families that evening.  On Wednesday we finished some last minute things, and drove to Provo.  We were to drop him off at the MTC at 1:30 pm.  We arrived a little early so we walked around the Provo Temple grounds for a few minutes. 

We are pleased with Neals desire to serve.  We miss him, but know his is doing the work of our Heavenly Father.  We wish him success in his sevice.

Mormon Mountain

My Dad has been going through a lot of the pictures he has taken over the years.  He found some he had taken of a cave in the Mormon Mountains he had been to years ago.    http://www.sangres.com/nevada/blm/mormon-mountain.htm. The Mormon mountains are about 40 miles south of Caliente down the Rainbow Canyon. When he showed me one of the pictures, I mendtioned that we should go back there sometime. A few days later Dad asked me when we were going. So, on Tuesday (Dec 8) we loaded my Rhino on the trailer and hooked it onto Dad's truck and off we went.  The easiest way to get there is to take state and county roads down Rainbow Canyon to Carp (Carp is where Ann was first hired to teach school in 1973) then follow the Railroad south a few miles and cross over the tracks and go up into the mountain. (The county does not maintain a road south of Carp in Rainbow Canyon) Being the surveyors Dad and Cory are, they found another route to go and then climb over a mountain and down into the are where the cave is.   It was noon by the time we got to the top of the mountain so we did not have time to get to the cave.  We ate lunch and headed back down.



It was a great trip.  I enjoyed spending the day with Dad and Cory. I wish Neal could have come also.  He has a broken coller bone and could not go with us.


We unloaded the Rhino at Carp and took the truck and Rhino as far as the truck could go and then took the Rhino as far as it would go. The mountain in the back round is where we were headed.

On top of the mountain.

Looking down to where we parked the Rhino

Above is looking down the other side of the mountain we climbed. The cave is supposed to be down in there.

Below is on the way back down to the Rhino

Looking Back up to where we climbed.

Looking back to where we climbed.

A close up of where we climbed to.

A crazy Friday

This morning Neal and I went to Cory's house to strip.....paint off the walls in the kitchen. We started with toxic stripper (Melissa and the boys went to Monroe ). We had the house well ventilated, and started scraping paint. Grandpa Smith was there and after an hour of scraping he decided that that was too hard. He had heard that heating the paint would take it off. So he got a blow torch and proceded to heat the walls and low and behold the paint was much easier to get off.

At 11:00 Neal left us and went riding with some friends. Cory, Grandpa and I continued to work unitl about 3:00 when Cory's phone rang and Neal told him that he wrecked on his 4 wheeler and might have broken his collar bone. Cory came with me and dad had already gotten here. Neal was very dirty and shoulder's uneven. We took him to the hospital and he did break the collar bone mid shaft. He is now in a sling and will wear that for a month.

The Dr. said that he will be okay for his mission. The friends he was with were very helpful and came to the hospital to see if he was okay.

I have had a great, busy summer. The first week of June we had a Smith family reunion with our children at Heber, UT. Two weeks later Kevin and I went with Neal to Kansas City, MO for the national skills competition. The third week in July I drove to Salt Lake City to visit with Alma's family and Jeanette's family. I also got to see some of my brothers and sisters and families along with Mom. In the middle of the week I flew to Reno, NV to work on state reading curriculum. Then on July 28 I got up early to attend a workshop in Ely, NV for the Desert Research Institute. Before I left home Jeanette called to tell me that she was going to have the babies. I drove to Ely to give my excuse for not attending and on to Salt Lake City, UT. It was a rush trip but I missed the delivery of the twins by 30 minutes. I stayed with Jeanette for a day and then came home.

A couple of weeks after that Kevin went to a church farm committee meeting near Ely and then went on to SLC to meet the twins. At the end of August I then went to SLC again to help Jeanette and Jeff when the twins came home from the hospital.

In between trips; I had jury duty, watched grandchildren, went to the dentist and cleaned house some.

On Labor day after seeing the parade in Pioche, Kevin, Neal, I and a friend of Neal's took the Rhino and 4 wheeler to Ella Mt. lookout tower. It was a fun ride and we sure enjoyed the day.

National Skills usa,

This week (June 22ND-27Th) I (Neal) and My mom and dad had the opportunity to go to Kansas city to participate in National Skills USA. I went for cabinetmaking, The competition goes like this, at 7:30 AM they took all the contestants up to the competition area and showed us all what was at our work stations and showed us how to run some of the newer machines there, and they also had a finished cabinet of what we were suppose to build. They let us look at that for maybe 5-10 minutes and then gave us some plans and we went to our work stations and from the plans we had to fill out a "cut list" (which is a list of every single part and we had to fill in how long and wide and thick and how much of every part there is on this cabinet) Then once we got that all filled out we turned it in and we went to work. All together this contest was about 8 hours long, with a 30 minute lunch break, and it took about 30 minutes to fill out the cut list. So really every competitor had 7 hours to build and extremely difficult cabinet. But once it was all over I felt really good on how I did and I figured that I would place fairly high. Well there was 43 competitors and I placed 18TH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dang good for being at Nationals. It was an amazing experience to be there and be around some of the best skilled people in high school and talk to them and to meet alot of newe people. I am very grateful for mom and dad for the money they spent for us to be able to go there. And for them going too. It was really fun to be with them and I have wanted them to see me work ever since my first year of skills usa, so finally they were able to. So here are some pictures of the whole thing.