Whirlwind Trip to New York-Part II

Liberty Turns 1
We celebrated Libby’s birthday at Aunt Susie and Uncle Mark’s house in Syracuse, New York. 
Pink is Perfect!
What’s more appropriate than a PINK cake for our girl?  My sisters tried to dissuade me, but I was determined. 
(BTW, I think I have 3 other ridiculous pictures of myself blowing out a candle for a 1 year old)

Disdain
Unfortunately she is now the 2nd of our children who was not impressed with cake.  Sigh. 


At one, Liberty is a sweet tempered happy baby girl.  She loves her brothers, especially Levi and loves her parents, especially Dad.  She is stubborn in her own way and refuses to lay down while you change her diaper and refuses to let anyone feed her. She has to do it herself.  She is endlessly patient it seems, for which I’m very grateful.  She’s not talking or walking yet, for which I’m also grateful!  But she has mastered the small set of stairs in our house and is pulling herself up on the furniture now.  I love her little red curls and her blue blue eyes.   
We love you sweet baby girl.  You are such a joy in our lives. 

Grandma Wesel
We also got to spend some time with my Grandma Wesel while we were in Palmyra.  She was very interested in who looked the most like her.  We decided that Sarin wins.


Hymas Girls


Wesel Girls


Kindred Spirits 


Free Ride

Picture if you will for a moment,  a small nursing home room with two very old people in it.  Walkers, wheelchairs and stacks of books line the walls.  Not much room to move around, right?  Then picture 6 more people trying to cram themselves into the room, three of which are little boys who have just spent several hours in the car.  Yes, I know it was a recipe for disaster, but we did it anyway.  This picture of Cade was taken just before he launched himself onto the bed, bumping Grandpa George’s recently replaced knees.  George was reading at the time and hollered out so loud it gave us all a heart attack and I thought for sure he’d had a real one.  On closer inspection we found that he had been mostly startled and only slightly hurt.  At times like that I would like to know what is running through a child’s head just before they do something like that.   They were told in no uncertain terms to behave themselves,  to be very quiet, still, etc.  But just like you never think to tell them “Don’t eat the Dandelions, I never thought to say, “And remember, don’t try to fly and launch yourself into the air over a very old man.”   I think I have Calvin and Hobbes to thank for such moments.  But I suppose that’s backwards.  We have Calvin and Hobbes BECAUSE all little boys think like that.  
At any rate, I was mortified, and Cade was banished from the room. Rock was in the car trying to sleep in preparation for our long drive home that night and the girls and I needed to visit with Grandma so no one could take the kids out of the tiny room even though they were past ready to leave.  I figured the nurses didn’t get paid for childcare, so  that’s when I decided to pull out the iphone games.  Angry Birds is very handy in moments of desperation.
My dad later asked George how the visit went and George told him that our kids were very “rugged”.  When leaving the nursing home that day, “rugged” was not on the list of adjectives I would have used to the describe them.

Our Whirlwind Trip to New York (State!) Part I

Tired yet?  I sure was.  We didn’t stop to catch our breath once while the girls were here!  Next we took Alli and Sarin up to Syracuse and Palmyra to visit family and see the church sights. 

The Sacred Grove


Every time I look at this picture I think, “Wow, that’s a lot of legs.” 
 




There is a wonderful story in the Friend magazine about two little girls who couldn’t be reverent in primary.  So their primary leader took them to a butterfly farm to teach them the concept of being still and quiet so the butterflies could land on them.  She taught them that to feel the spirit we must be reverent in the same way.  My kids and I just heard this story in primary a few weeks ago.  So imagine our surprise when Alli and Sarin came out of the grove and told us about their special visitors….




Rock and I wanted to spend some quiet time with each of the older boys in the grove to let them feel the spirit of the place without their brothers distracting them. (smile)  So we told them about the girl’s butterfly visitors and then we each took a boy through the grove to share our testimonies with them.  Thanks to the butterflies, they were very reverent and still.  Cade kept his little arms folded the whole time I was with him.  We then met in the middle and switched boys.  It was a very special experience that I hope they remember. 

The Hill Cumorah Pageant
I LOVE the Hill Cumorah Pageant and have been counting the days till I could take my kids to see it. 

The Stage with the Hill Cumorah in the background

We got pictures of the boys with their favorite Book of Mormon Heroes

Reagan and Nephi

Cade Moroni and Moroni

Levi with Nephite Warrriors

Jesus comes to the Nephites

The boys know their Book of Mormon stories so well that they noticed the Ammon story wasn’t in pageant and were bummed about that.  I think they were really looking forward to seeing him cut off some arms.  And during the Waters of Mormon scene when Alma baptizes his first convert, Cade leaned over to me and said, “That’s Helam!”  I was duly impressed!  
It was wonderful to see Pageant again!  I’m going to start prepping the boys now to be on the Work Crew someday!!!

Shakespeare in the Park

Every summer Central Park does free, high quality Shakespeare plays with big name actors in it that Rock has been dying to go to.  So Alli and Sarin helped me surprise him with one.  It was tough to work the logistics and even tougher to keep it a secret, but we did it!

Throughout the day he received the following Shakespeare quotes: (with a few cheesy lines of my own)

She's beautiful, and therefore to be wooed; She is woman, and therefore to be won.

They are in the very wrath of love, and they will go together. Clubs cannot part them

For where thou art, there is the world itself, And where thou art not, desolation

Come what sorrow can, It cannot countervail the exchange of joy , That one short minute gives me in her sight

I would not wish any companion in the world but you…

If thou wilt but show thy love, meet your lady at the top of the Belvedere Castle this night when the clock striketh 6:45.

Did my heart love till now? Forswear, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.

Lovers ever run before the clock.

Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast. 
         Noteth thou that my lady in waiting twill be present.

Then Sarin stayed home with the kids and Alli, who was dying to see Shakespeare too, went with me into the city to meet Rock. 

My lady in waiting and I on the train to NYC.

While Alli stood in line for our tickets…..

(So happy she got a ticket.)

I went up to the Belvedere castle to meet Romeo.
Juliet finds her Romeo

We enjoyed a very well done version of All’s Well That Ends Well.  There were several recognizable actors, but the one I recognized the most was from one of my favorite movies, Runaway Bride. 
Fun night!

Levi Turns 3.5

Levi reached that momentous milestone of 3 1/2 this month and so we took him to…. the Hibachi Steakhouse!!!

Catching food in your mouth! 
Rock’s face is my personal favorite of this picture.  You don’t see that look very often on my husband’s face.

Dad’s turn.

Just little bit nervous.

Levi opted for the cat.

He also chose to skewer his food with the chopsticks and stick it in his mouth that way.

Happy Half Birthday, Levi!

Fourth of July and More George Washington

Time for some more catch up.

We started our Fourth of July by having a patriotic breakfast and dressing up in our most patriotic duds.

Pop Tarts with stars! Yummy!

Daughters of Liberty.
I could not pass this shirt up when I saw it in Philadelphia. On the back it says Philadelphia 1776. It’s perfect not only because my daughter’s name is Liberty but because I think Liberty is so important I named my daughter Liberty!
Her shirt says Red, White and Cute! And it’s not just talking about her hair!

Then we went to a flag raising ceremony and listened to a reading of the Declaration of Independence.

This is the Continental flag because this was one of the places it was first flown-by Washington’s troops.

The kids were a little more interested in other things…..

but we took them for the patriotic exposure and we plan on doing it again every year!

Next we drove to Washington’s Crossing where…you guessed it, George Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas night 1776. There we heard the Declaration AGAIN! This time it was a little more fun to listen to our reader…


After the reading, this Patriot did a musket demonstration for us. The boys were in awe.






No, Rock is not becoming a polygamist. This is just the really cute picture Alli took at the end of the day that Rock messed up by looking back at the wrong moment and by swinging his hand just right so that it looks like he’s holding Sarin’s hand too. lol.

You would think we finished off our all American Fourth of July with a barbecue and a good fireworks show. But no. We were all plum out of patriotic steam by the end of the day so we opted for a quick and easy dinner at IHOP, put the kids to bed early and watched a great British film instead.


Nothin like Swedish Pancakes and some P & P on the Fourth! God Bless the USA!

Last Day in the Turks and Caicos

Sunday we attended the tiny branch here on the island for church.  It was one of the neatest experiences of my life.  People who’ve been on a mission in other countries, especially developing countries know what it’s like to attend a meeting like this, but for me it was a first and I loved every second.
First, a picture of what the building looked like. 

We walked in and were greeted by a wonderful local man who barely spoke English, but had a welcoming gentle smile as he shook our hands.  Then we sat down in the little chapel that was no bigger than a typical stake center multi-purpose room.  The prelude music came from a keyboard playing hymns on auto play.  The hymn numbers were listed on a standard issue board, but they had two hymn numbers per song.  One for the English hymnal and one for the French.  Sunlight streamed in through arched windows with bars on them and ceiling fans spun above our heads to keep out the oppressive heat.  The opening hymn was sung in many languages, haltingly played by a woman doing her very best and a congregation trying to do theirs.  It was the slowest I’ve ever heard or sung the hymns, but it was Wonderful.  It was wonderful to see these people on a little island in the ocean faithfully doing their best to sing hymns to our Heavenly Father.  It was priceless.  I looked around the room at such different people than I’m used to seeing in a church meeting.  Such varying colors of skin and tongue.  And I was overwhelmed by the truthfulness of the gospel.  I’m so grateful to be a member of this church.  To be able to go anywhere in the world and gather with fellow saints and to hear their testimonies of the savior and his power to change and heal and to know it is the same as mine.  And I’m so grateful for faithful missionaries who willingly come to the ends of the earth to find these people and teach them the truth.  Another great experience I’ll never forget!

When we came home, we found this little guy above our door!

He scurried down the wall, between my feet and out the door, but not before we caught a picture of him. He was no bigger than 2 inches!

Sunday night we went to Anacaona, another romantic restaurant on the beach.  This time we got to watch the sunset and it was beautiful!  I’ve never seen the sun set into the ocean before.  It was a bright orange fiery ball all the way down!


Studly Rock

There was live saxophone music and the food was the best we’ve had yet. It was a perfect ending to our perfect trip!


One last picture before we left the island.

And when we got home tonight, these four cute kids were waiting for us! 

They are holding the gifts we brought them.  Hanging Howler monkeys that… howl. 

After we got home, Levi, Rock and I were sitting at the table and I gave Levi a hug and kiss again and told him how much I missed him.  I asked if he missed me.  He said, “Yes.” and then waved his hand nonchalantly over towards Rock and said, “I missed him too.”