Vacation: The End

This is the last vacation post!  Yeah!  Believe me, I am just as glad as you, my three readers.   Here are some good bye pics to our rental home.

One of the only pics we took inside our rental home.  Here is Jacob during Family Home Evening at the Rental Home.

A lousy picture, but again one that shows some of the rental house.  Don't ask me what I am doing.  Paying close attention to Family Home Evening, obviously :)

We made a few stops on our way home.  Our first stop was at what is formerly known as Harmony, PA.  right on the Susquehannah River.  The church has a small monument there commemorating the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood.  Joseph Smith and his friend (and scribe) Oliver Cowdery were translating the Book of Mormon.  They had a question about baptism and the authority to baptize.  They went into the woods to prayer and were blessed with a heavenly visitor, John the Baptist.  John bestowed upon them the Aaronic, or lesser priesthood, which includes the authority to baptize.  Then Joseph and Oliver baptized each other. 

The sight of the monument is on a busy road, but as you go back into the woods and down by the river, it is quite peaceful.  We enjoyed the quiet feeling there and enjoyed a short lesson about the event from Greg.  We are glad to know that the church is going to build a visitor's center there.  We are glad we took the time to drive a little out of our way to go there.  (Just in case you are counting, we visited our second cemetary here.  Joseph and Emma Smith lost their first child here.  We visited his grave in the cemetary next to the monument).

Jacob climbing an amazing tree near the monument

Smiling kids in the tree

Silly kids in the tree

On the path to the river

The Susquehanna River

Shells we found at the Susquehanna River

Now, what kind of parents would we be if we were in Pennsylvania and didn't stop at Hershey?!  We spent a morning at Hershey's Chocolate World.  We made our own Candy Bars and learned how they make theirs.  It was a lot of fun!  It would be fun to go back and do some of the other attractions or go to the amusement park next door.

Jacob watching for his candy bar to come down the line

In our factory gear

We also got to make our own labels.  Here is the final product.

 Our last stop was the middle of nowhere, Indiana.  Greg has some ancestors that lived here and were buried here.  He has wanted to see their graves for a long time.  It was sort of on our way so we took the detour.  Graveyard number 3, check.  It was about this time we realized how nice the weather had been in Massachusetts.  We were now back in the  heat of this terribly hot summer the Midwest has had.

Greg happy to have found the graves of his great, great, great, great grandparents, Thomas Hamilton Finch and Elitha Holloman Finch.

The kids (minus Jacob) at the grave of their great, great, great, great, great grandparents.

I asked the family what their favorite part of vacation was.  Here is what they said:
Lizzy:  Whale Watching because I liked the ocean and it was cool to see real whales in the ocean.
Anna:  Whale Watching because I loved the boat ride and the wind in my hair.  It was so fun!  I loved seeing the whales and it just reminded me how great the creations are on the earth.
Ben:  Hershey's Chocolate World because I really liked the tour and seeing all the chocolates in the machine.  It was cool to make our own and see how cool the machine was, especially the laser that wrote our names on our boxes.
Adam: Swimming at our lake and hanging out at our rental home because I liked having our own private beach.
Jacob:  Swimming at our lake because it was cold water.
Tammy:  Spending time with our family.  It is so great to get away from our normal routine and have fun together. (Of the things we did, I loved Whale Watching!  Amazing!)
Papa:  Whale Watching because I enjoyed the boat ride and the breeze on the ocean.
THE END!!!!

Vacation: The beach and Fourth of July

We live in the Midwest so we don't have many opportunities to visit the beach, so we were sure to spend some time on the beach in Plymouth.  The beaches in New England aren't as nice as the beaches in Florida but it was still fun even with a more rocky beach and cooler water.  The ocean is just amazing.  Greg once again was not really able to do much since he couldn't get wet at all.

Adam posing with his sand creation

Our Sea Turtle.  I was the main architect and the kids gathered rocks.

Anna and Jake loved the water the most.  As Jacob would say, "Me and Anna rare water buddies."

Adam convinced the kids to bury him in the sand.

 If you have multiple children you know that if one of them does something the others are going to want to do it too.  This is Jacob.  

Ben mummified

Lizzy

Anna

We planned to go to a parade on the morning of Fourth of July but it was raining pretty hard so we decided not to go.  We spent a lot of the day playing games. The rain let up and we had a BBQ and went swimming at our pond. Then that evening we braved the crowds and went to Plymouth Harbor to see the fireworks.  Adam found us and amazing spot down on some rocks right by the water.  It was awesome to be right by the water because you could see the reflection of the fireworks on the water.  It was a great place to be for Fourth of July.  It was our last night there so was a fun way to go.

 

 

Vacation: The sights of Plymouth

A few of the days we were in Plymouth we spent our time exploring the historical sights there.  I am a descendant of William Bradford, one of the Mayflower passengers and governor of Plymouth.  In addition several of my ancestors came a short time after the Mayflower and helped to settle New England.  I have always been interested in this heritage and feel a connection to this place even though it is not where we call home.  I felt thankful for William Bradford and the man that he was.  I felt grateful for the sacrifices that were made.  I felt some shame and embarrassment too as I understood more about what happened to the Native Americans there.  For me it is fun to learn while on vacation.  I don't think it was the kids favorite vacation ever, but I think they enjoyed it too.

Plymouth Rock.  It is only one-third of its original size.  Tourists used to come and ship off a piece as a souvenir.

Four of the kids at the now enclosed Plymouth Rock

This is what Jacob wanted to do instead of look at the rock :)

The kids and I at the William Bradford statue commemorating our ancestor

One side of William Bradford's gravestone

The other side of his gravestone.  It took us a while to find it!  I think we went to no less than three graveyards on our vacation.  Is that weird?

In the Wampanoag Winter home at Plimouth Plantation.  I loved Plimouth Plantation because of all the wonderful workers.  It was great to talk to both modern day Wampanoag people, as well as actors posing as colonists from the 1630s village.  They brought a lot of understanding and insight.  

The kids in a Wampanoag canoe.  They made it by scraping and burning out a tree.  They had one they were burning that day.  Amazing!

Posers in front of a giant woodpile at Plimouth Plantation.

The English Village.  See the Harbor in the distance.

In the fort in the English Village

Bedding down on the Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower.  Again the worker/actors were so knowledgeable and insightful.  Did you know everyone was basically squeezed together on the floor where there was several inches of water.  Everyone's skin got sore and damaged because it was always wet.  Not fun.

Monkeying around on the Mayflower

Jacob stood and watched the woodcarver for a VERY long time.  He was fascinated.

Liz and I on the deck of the Mayflower.

Vacation: Sunday and Whale Watching

One of the things I love about our church is that you can go anywhere in the world and find a congregation where you will feel at home.  They have the same meetings and formats and even Sunday School lessons.  It was great to visit the small congregation in Plymouth.  Everyone was friendly and I was even needed to play the piano in Relief Society.  I am so grateful for our church, for its doctrines, its organization, its wonderful members.  Yep, we enjoyed church away from home.  After church we went on a family walk on some of the trails right next to our rental house.  While the rest of the country was roasting, we enjoyed pleasant weather.  The scenery was so different from Iowa, it was so enjoyable.

The kids on our walk

Anna and I

Lizzy on our walk

The view from the trail


On Monday we got up and headed to Plymouth Harbor.  When we decided we were headed to the NorthEast for vacation I knew I wanted to go Whale Watching.  I have always wanted to do this and I was not disappointed by this experience.  It was a beautiful day.  We enjoyed just being out on the ocean (we may have enjoyed it more because I made everyone take some dramamine).  Seeing the whales was awesome.  We had a great location on the boat and were able to see quite well even though there were so many passengers.  I think the boys enjoyed the boat ride more than the whales, but the girls and I loved it all!  I am so glad we were able to do this.

Getting ready to go

  

 

 

 

Notice the mist from his spout.  Pretty cool

 

 

 

Anna stood almost the entire trip, several hours.  She did not want to miss a thing.  We also spotted some seals, but they were much more difficult to see.  Anna is definitely the animal lover in the family.

Another great day on vacation!