Where has the summer gone

Ethan wanted a suit so badly (I got Adam one as well).  Thank goodness for eBay.  He wants to wear it everywhere and show everyone.  He struts around so proudly in it.   He even asks if he can sleep in it.  He tells me, "I am going to preach the gospel."  Once he even went outside and ran the doorbell.  He was so happy when I opened the door and acted surprised to find him there tracking.  He also really wanted his own missionary badge.  He was thrilled when I came home with a 'Future Missionary' badge that I had gotten from Seagull Book.  Looks like Alex's example of serving a mission is already paying off. 

 

 

We found this little snake in our backyard.  The boys had so much fun playing with it.  Adam was crazy and even put it in his shirt and let it crawl around on him.  Gross.  The poor thing was probably scared to death and I bet was so happy when I finally made them let it go.

 

 

Mike and I were in need of a trip after months of preparing to get Alex ready for his mission-  shopping, packing, yard work in anticipation of guests for the farewell, paperwork....

 

We headed back east and did a multi-state tour.  We traveled through Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Vermont.  We had a wonderful time.  It was so beautiful to see the light houses in Maine and we took the back roads through most places to see the local scenery.  There are trees everywhere.  I loved it.  There were also beautiful white churches everywhere.  It became a joke of Mike and mine if we hadn't seen at least one church in every town.   

 

Here are a few pictures from our trip in no particular order.

 

The famous Cheers pub in downtown Boston.  We weren't able to go in due to the fact that Mike forgot his wallet and they didn't think he looked old enough (JK).  The lunch menu actually looked great but we had already eaten.

 

 

Seafood was abundant everywhere.  We were brave and tried these little guys.  Even with the heads attached they were actually quite good.  I am glad we went out of our comfort zone and tried something new.  Ha Ha

 

 

 

 

 

 

One day we took a ferry from Massachusetts to a small island called Nantucket.  We enjoyed the day there as we rode around on rented bikes.  We walked along the beach.  One of our favorite tv shows Wings was based from this island.  It was fun to go places that were mentioned in the show- The Club Car restaurant and the airport.

   Wearing orange for Ry

July 12, 2014

One of the light houses in Maine.  We saw about seven.  There are actually probably close to twenty of them.  Most of them that we saw don't function anymore but it was still fun to see them.

We went to Sharon, Vermont to see where the prophet Joseph Smith was born.  These stones mark the perimeter of the house and the stone Mike is sitting on is original and was the doorstep.  The church owns 300 acres and it is so beautifully kept.

The USS Constitution.  It is a war ship that was built in the 1790's.  It was neat to go on it and look around and see how people lived on it.  I can't believe that 500 men manned it at one time.  It didn't seem that big.

 

 one of the many white churches

Mike thinks I am nuts but I like to hold my breath when I cross a state line.  If I miss it we turn around and go back and try again (jk on that part).

 

 

 

 We had hoped to attend a session at the Boston Temple but found out before we left that it would be closed for cleaning.  We were disappointed but still enjoyed walking around the beautiful grounds.  It surprised us that it is a full sized temple.  It was huge.  You can't see how big it is from this angle.

 

 

 

 

 a light house

 

 

 

 

  We took a tour of the Ben and Jerry ice cream factory in Stowe, Vermont.  We got to sample some yummy ice cream.

 

 

 

 

 

On a side note, if you carefully pack a bottle of Vermont maple syrup (wrapped up in many bags to catch leakage- just in case the pressure causes it to explode) in your luggage it will look suspicious and your bag will be searched.