The Cove

Playing in the water...

Playing in the sand...

Um, is that Nemo in the water next to Matthew?

Yummy!

Muddy buddies.

Don't you love the Tennessee orange clay?

This is still Jessica, by the way.

Magazine Flowers

Four young women + boredom = craft time!

They were super easy to make, and turned out so cool!


Folding, gluing, then displaying. Super simple!

Click here for tutorial.

Upstate New York- Final Part Four

Margaret Elizabeth Gunn Stoner

Saturday morning we were all reminded of why we made the trip to New York.

Great Grandma Stoner had a beautiful funeral service.

The words of her life and the music invited the Spirit into the meeting.

She was a wonderful woman and a great example to us all.
The roses placed on her casket were a small way to express our love for her.

But the best part of all that was said, is that we know she isn't really gone.

We will see her once again beyond the veil.

Ayden, William, and Benjamin liked

reading the names of other ancestors in the cemetery.

All of the Great-Grandchildren were given a yellow rose

to place on the casket before it was lowered.

I will cherish this picture of me, my sister, and my Grandma forever.

I am grateful to know I have been sealed to my family for time and all eternity.

I know that even when my own Grandma leaves this life, I will see her again.

After the funeral, we traveled for about an hour to find the Finger Lakes.

On our way we saw several Amish people with their buggies.
There was even parking for horses at Walgreen's!

When we finally found the Finger Lakes park,

the boy cousins wanted to go swimming.

The rest of us watched, fed the ducks, and collected pretty rocks on the banks.

Benjamin, sucking it in! I don't know how he does it.

All the cousins:

Mary, Jessica, William, Matthew, Benjamin, Lauren, Henry, and Samantha.

I don't know where Hannah, Ayden, and Colton were.

We also missed Michael, Joseph, Andrew, Megan, McCall, Elizabeth, and Claire, but their mommies were too pregnant to make the trip!

Congratulations to Ashley's family who welcomed Estelle this week.

The classic "crazy" picture.

Upstate New York- Part Three

Thursday was spent in Niagara Falls, Canada.

We went way out there in our Maid of the Mist steamboat!


It was an incredible experience to be so close to Horseshoe Falls!

On Friday we traveled to Palmyra to see the Church History Sites.


It was so peaceful and quiet in the Sacred Grove.


Being together with family made it even more special.



Later we went on a boat ride on the Erie Canal.


Ben liked observing the murky water from the deck.




The Strong Museum of Play ended our sight-seeing adventures.
Even the dads enjoyed themselves!


Aren't optical illusions so fun?




I thought I was going to melt from all the cuteness!

There was a miniature grocery store inside the museum.

There were aisles and aisles of fake food to choose from.

To complete the shopping experience,

you checked yourself out at the cash register and picked up a receipt.

Hannah, Samantha, Lauren, and I went through about five times.


Matthew, playing the giant xylophone in the Sesame Street section.


I always wanted my picture to be taken with the Berenstein Bears! :)

Upstate New York -Part Two

We began our second day by looking at some cute gift shops in Corning.

This pic of Mom and Matthew was taken in a cute little toy store.

Lauren and I also have some tacky photos (see top of blog).

I figure, if my mom is allowed to post embarrassing photos of me,

I'm allowed to post some of her wearing a skunk hat, right? :)

Matthew's shark hat is pretty cool too.

This picture was courtesy of me, Jessica. :)

I'm working on the photography skills...

We ate lunch at an adorable New England cafe.

This is Dad with his prize! Yay Dad!

He won a blue glass pitcher after the glass-making show.

This glass museum was SO COOL!

They had everything glass you can possibly imagine.

I liked the historical section.

Some of the things Romans did with glass is just incredible.

But the boys enjoyed the hands-on stuff.

Like the glass-breaking show. It was pretty exciting.

For dinner we picked Chinese!

Dad is teaching Ben how to properly use the chopsticks.

Look at the concentration on that kid's face!

We finished our day with another Waterfall Hike at Watkins' Glen.

Aww, so cute!!!

Around midnight the rest of our family finally arrived at the hotel.
We heard stories about flight delays, potty accidents, and blow-out diapers.

Mom was very glad to not have toddlers on this trip.

Upstate New York -Part One

Hi it's Jessica!

No one has posted about our vacation to upstate New York yet,
so I thought I'd take the initiative!

Our trip began when we boarded our flight out of Knoxville.

Matthew obviously didn't want his picture taken in the airport.

While on the plane Ben told us,

"This is the best day of my life!

I wasn't so enthused. I discovered that me and flying don't agree with each other...

After we got checked in to our hotel we went to Letchworth State Park.

When my dad's family used to visit our Great-Grandparents in New York, they would spend the day there.

Dad wanted to give us the experience too.

Isn't that waterfall beautiful?!

We couldn't capture it in a picture, but there was a gorgeous double rainbow over the falls!

You just have to love Lauren's style. :)

Benjamin's too. :)

4th of July

Happy Birthday America! Isn't it great to live in this country. I am truly grateful for the freedom I enjoy. Our family got together with some friends and had great food and fun.

I had the best grilled chicken sandwich. It was so yummy! You start with a bun, add the grilled chicken (marinated in zesty italian dressing), spread herbed cream cheese on the bun, place acacado on the other half of the bun, then for the real treat: add some sliced peaches. It was divine.

Our evening was not without some drama. Most of the kids were sitting in a group watching the fireworks. They were having such a great time...when suddenly a firework shot sidways. They screamed and ran for their lives. The firework had shot right at Benjamin. These are his shorts. Poor little guy! I was a little frantic for about 15 minutes until we checked him out. He was burned on his arm and the back of his leg. Fortunately, his shorts did not burn for very long. I felt so unprepared for something like this. I was so glad that our friends had a whole stash of first aid supplies. Time to get a first aid kit for my car!

You've got to love the smoke bombs! All the kids had a great time running through the smoke.

Brock shows Matthew how properly light a "punk."