Vacation Day Three and Four

Day three and four were not days for pictures.  Day three we did laundry. While my parents went with J's parents to the Norman Rockwell Museum.  And day four we went to the temple.  I planned to take pictures of the outside of the building, but we took my parents rental car, and my camera was in my car.  Oops!

We were in the temple when the fire alarm went off!  We had to evacuate the building!  It was not fun.  But you don't realize how white white can be until you see a bunch of people in white standing outside the temple.  On our way home the highway, all three lanes! was closed.  So we had to figure out a way to get home.  Thankfully we are in Massachusetts and they don't bother with silly things like detour signs.  So we kinda just guessed and it worked out well.  It may have been the most out of the way possible route to the highway, but we made it!  And it took us less time than another Sister who left about an hour and a half after we did.  We took just over 2 hours, her ride was 4 hours!

I'll post about Friday tomorrow.  It's almost midnight and I'm tired.  And I just realized that Madison's Baptism was the point of this vacation and I have neglected to mention it!

Vacation Day Two

Gillette Castle- Not the razors but the actor.


William Hooker Gillette, noted actor, director, and playwright, built this one hundred and eighty-four acre estate, the Seventh Sister. The focal point of his effort was a twenty four room mansion reminiscent of a medieval castle.


Gillette Castle Website

Gillette was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1853, the son of former U.S. Senator Francis Gillette and his wife Elizabeth Daggett Hooker Gillette, a descendent of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford.


Go to the website for more interesting facts!  Parking is free and it's $6 for kids and $8 for adults, I think, to tour the castle.  Magnets are $2.  I forgot my $2, so I'm sad.  But we will go back and walk the grounds instead of tour the castle, which is free.  Excepting gas.

Mr Gillette gave Sherlock Holmes his particularities that everyone thinks of when they think of Sherlock Holmes.  Things like, "Elementary, my dear Watson." and the pipe.  


You can't touch anything while inside the castle, but it is still interesting.  The guy was a real jokester too!  He had a special lock on his liquor cabinet.  He'd lock it up, then retire to bed, letting his guests know that they can go ahead and have another drink.  He'd go to his room and watch, from a mirror in the wall, his guests struggle to figure out the invisible lock!  After a time he'd go down stairs and ask why they hadn't made themselves a drink.  Then he'd just open the cabinet as if it were nothing.  
The attendants will show you the secret to the lock and the story.  Then you can go and stand at his bedroom doorway and see the liquor cabinet.  

This really pretty arch leads to a building in the bottom right corner.  That building is the composting building.  There are no animals large enough to leave droppings for fertilizer, other than the humans.  Thankfully, the bathrooms didn't smell but it was still gross.


I washed my hand through two verses of Happy Birthday and then had try to dry my hands with an air dryer!  So I had to touch the door with my bare hands.  Just adding to the Eww factor.  Bring hand sanitizing wipes!

Here is a side view of the castle.  


I have many more pictures, but I don't want to spoil the tour for anyone.  But as a hint to anyone interested.  The light switches, the window latches, the doors and all the locks, even for the liquor cabinet are all wood!


On our way to lunch we decided to take a ferry ride. It was only $3!  But it was plenty of fun!  We got to get out of the car and look over the edge.  It was neat feeling the salty spray and smell of the ocean water that is mixing with the fresh water.

Vacation Part Deux

Glacial Pot Holes and The Bridge of Flowers-

The Bridge of Flowers is located in Shelburne Falls.  There is not much to do there, other than a short strip of shops, similar to what you'd find in any tourist trap.  The Glacial Potholes are a short walk down the street from the bridge giving the town three reasons to be visited.  The third being the candy and ice cream shop at the end of the bridge.  Which, if you go, stop there and get the Burnt Sugar ice cream, it's fantastic.  The kids really enjoyed the chocolate cookie dough ice cream.  I can't remember what every got, but it was all good!

The potholes are not as exciting to look at as I had hoped.  They have an interesting history though.  As the water rolled down the hill the small rocks would tumble around and create a small concave.  Over time that concave became a hole.  They have damed up the water flow.  They also don't allow anyone to get too close because too many have been hurt, and there is almost no way to get an ambulance down there.  In this picture you can see two small glacial potholes and a large one with less regular edges.  As well as a half hole that must have broken as the water direction changed, possibly from the damming of the water.

Taylor

Madison

Bailey

Jordan

Jason

Grandpa

Grandma

Me.  Becky







Here we are all enjoying our most delicious ice cream.  You will probably never see another picture of me on this blog.  So enjoy it.

Vacation!

At the first rest area after entering Vermont

Day one: Joseph Smith Memorial- We got up early to make it there at 9am.  We arrived after 11am.  It's a long drive, 2hrs and 40 minutes.  So we needed to stop for a potty break and to give the drivers a chance to stretch.

After the kids used the facilities, then they also had to play on the playground for a few minutes.  Which it wasn't until after the kids were leaving that we noticed the sign that said "No Pets!"  So my Dad says to the kids, "Uh oh!  We shouldn't have let you guys go on the playground!"  Jordan looks at him quizzically and asks, "Why not?"  And he points out the sign saying, "No pets allowed"

The sign on the left is not that playground sign, but another sign that I thought was humorous enough to take a picture of.

The Memorial was great!  We got the tour by Sister Elder Peterson.  Sister Peterson accidentally grabbed her husbands name tag, so though she introduced herself as Sister, we teased her about being Elder.  She had a good sense of humor about it.  Her husband showed up later and he didn't notice, even after Sister Peterson showed it to him.  We all got a good laugh from that as well.

Not as funny now as it was then.

Dad made a face, mom didn't smile.  If it's not the kids it's the adults!

What I like about this picture is that Madison and Grandpa didn't know that they were going to make the same silly face, yet there they are.  They are so lucky we love them!


When choosing the picture of the spire for the blog is was difficult.  I didn't want the best picture that I plan to reserve for my website.  But I also didn't want a bad picture.  So this is the worst picture with the bluest sky.  So I think that is a good compromise.

Not the best of the many I have, but the sky is the bluest.

The kids were doing several things here. But first, this  is the 2nd most sacred place in the world.  The first being where Christ was born. -According to a Prophet, but I now forget which one.  This spot is where the corner stone of the house where Joseph Smith was born.

So the kids either contemplating spiritual matters or praying.  I'm sure none of them were thinking anything but the most positive spiritual thoughts.  (Yeah, I can be delusional occasionally)  But they did want to pray, so we did as a family.

I want one of these!

This stretched limousine of a golf cart was the most fun part of the day!  We got to ride up and down hills at break neck speeds of up to 15 miles per hour! (I'm really just guessing, I don't know the actual speed) But it was so much fun we all commented on how we all know why they don't have the young Elders doing the tours.  We didn't request the ride, I think Sister Elder Peterson just really enjoys going on the ride.

So what good is a bridge if you can't jump off of it?  None at all if you ask my kids....

Why do the kids enjoy this?  I don't know, but they insisted on pictures.  It was fun watching them enjoy themselves pretending.

My mom caught Jordan praying on her own.  She left the group and went to the opposite side of the monument and knelt down to pray.  Mom went looking for her when she didn't pop up on the other side, then she motioned for me to come over quickly.  And here she is.  Madison and Bailey saw her and they too came over to pray silently.

I love my family!  My kids are amazing.  I don't know what I did to deserve such fantastic people for my own, but I am ever so grateful for them!

For my own ego, I hope it's good parenting.  But I also know that I'm just the second set of parents my kids have had and the previous set were perfect, which I am not.  So I can't take too much credit.

Getting on in years...

I'm 35-ish.  -ish because I will be before the end of the year, but I'm not there yet.

I have been thinking for a few months now about my mind.  And the mind of my husband.  Not that we are insane, but we aren't totally like everyone else.  So possibly not totally sane either?

We don't think the way other's do.  When I'm at the mall, I have two things go through my head.  Either, "Let's get the heck outta here!"  Or "Look, toys!"  I hate clothes shopping, grocery shopping, shoe shopping and all that adult stuff.  It's depressing.

I also find that when I'm at adult meetings I get bored quickly and my mind wanders.  After some meetings I feel that I wasted my time because I couldn't keep my mind on the subject being discussed.  And I've wasted the teachers time by being distracted.  That's part of the reason I'm hesitant to go to Time Out For Women.  I'm going to pay all that money and just be bored or distracted.

I have spoken to other women about my age, give or take, and they don't have these same issues.  And then again, a few do...I'm not naming names, just in case.

I don't relate to adults very well.  I usually put my foot in my mouth because I'm blunt and to the point with little reservations.  Except with kids, I know I have to keep my thoughts to myself.

I noticed this for the first time while at girls camp.  I don't want to give the wrong impression, every person I met was fantastic and wonderful!  The other leaders were so sweet!  I loved spending time with them.  All ten minutes of it!  Because I spent most, no, ALL my free time with the girls.  If not my second years, then it was the third years or the YCL's.  I did try to talk to the other adults, but I just faded in and out and got bored quickly.  I'm not even sure what they talked about.

About a month after girls camp Taylor tells me that I'm not like other mom's.  Jordan pipes in and agree's.  They say I'm a "Cool Mom."  I don't want to be my kids best friend or anything, I don't want them to think they can go out and get drunk and call me and I'll be just peachy with it.  But I kinda like that we can talk openly with out feeling uncomfortable.  I am on the fence of whether the Cool Mom label is a compliment or a doormat label.

So at 35 should I have to think like an adult?  Should I be relating more to those my age?  Or is it okay to enjoy the company of my kids and their friends?  Do I have to start thinking more about how the neighbors think than how much fun I'm having with the kids?
Is that really how adults think? (Bills, keeping up with the Jones', who's got the smartest kid, etc) I hope not.  Cause you can't make me!

6th Grade

Hi, everyone! It's me, Jordan! Well, 6th grade is only six days away and I have HR 103 and Math teacher Mrs. Herring.So does Avery [:)] and Sierra[<:(]. I am worried, that when I don't answer Sierra, the next day she will ask me why, and I will have to think of new excuses evryday. :(.

Please remind me to DO MY HOMEWORK. I didn't do a lot of my homework last year and dropped my grades by a LOT because of it. Oh, well. Mrs. Herring is supposed to be nice and give no homework. Let's hope she doesn't change over summer. Fingers are crossed.

The S.S. teacher's name is a mouthful. Something like Mr. Haghendashunzzah-Stacey, or what ever. Let's hope we get to call him Mr. H. :). G2G. TTUL.

All came crashing down....

J and I went to the Temple yesterday. It was great, as always.  Nothing special or exciting to report, just being there is great.  So we are on our way home and we are starved!  We were going to eat at the temple, but we really needed to get on the road.  The missionaries are coming and the house needs to be cleaned.  But we are STARVING!  So we stop by a Burger King, order and pay with the debit card.  I had just deposited $50 the day before, which means that I should have a little over $50 in that account.  NOPE.  Not my bank.  I write a check and it's deposited into someone else's account and presto! The money is removed from my account the same day.  I deposit money from someone else's account to my own (we both use the same bank!) and the money takes 3 days to be deposited into my account.  So we had to use our cash, which meant we didn't have toll money.  So now we have to take the long way home.  (Instead of 1 hr 15min it takes 2hrs)

So we are about 15-20 minutes from home and we get a phone call.  Jordan is upset because the bathroom cabinet fell off the wall.  Bailey was searching for toilet cleaner in the toothbrush cabinet and suddenly bang it fell on her!  I'm guessing she planned on putting toothpaste in the toilet?  I don't know.  Taylor is on a walk because she got really mad and Madison is crying because he thinks he is going to get spanked.  (We rarely, as in once a year, maybe, spank the kids so I don't know why he's so afraid of getting spanked.)

Bathroom cabinet on floor of hallway and a bag full of medicine and toiletries

The back of the cabinet is still on the wall.  Hey, maybe this means Jason will finally paint the bathroom!

No time to clean up!  We have to get the house cleaned up because on our way home we ran into the missionaries and they are moments from the house!  And our friend Jonas is also coming over.  So I'm able to do nothing before the missionaries arrive.  So we start dinner and talking.  With the bathroom and house a mess.  The sister graciously help me clean up the kids breakfast, because even though they are quite old enough, unless I tell them they won't put their dishes in the sink.  And they'd never even think to put them in the dish washer. (Which was empty, by the way.)

After the sisters have left Ben needs help with his bike pedal.  He needs to transfer it from one bike to another because he is doing another charity ride, but on a new-to-him bike.  After struggling with the pedal for a little bit I suggest they are going to wrong direction with the screw threads.  I'm ignored.  So a little while after that I see that the pedal moved tighter, so I told them what I saw and suggested trying the other way.  J gave it a half hearted effort and went back to trying the first direction.  Finally, after a while longer, J finally decides to give the other direction a shot, and it takes about a minute to get it loose.  After 15 minutes the wrong way.  At least it came off! 

Ben's friend Joe comes over to give a donation to Ben for Tour De Cure, he's still shy by about $600, and the new benefit ride he's doing (I think he needs only $100?, not really sure though).  If you know us you know we are very social people.  Joe and Jonas are also very social.  So we talked to about 1am, Joe left and J and I walked Jonas to his car at about 1:15am, then we proceeded to talk some more.  It was a great talk!  But what's said after mid-night, stays in Vegas....??? You get the point.  Maybe I'll blog about it later.

Jason had to work, and so he was off quickly and I was off to bed.  Then about 2 or 3 hours later I'm woken up by the awful sound!  It's Ben's alarm going off getting him up for his benefit ride.  I HATE alarms.  So now I can't fall back asleep.  Eventually I do.  But then I don't wake up to my own alarm.  At 11am I wake up because Jason came home.  

And I just remembered that Jason invited the guys over tonight to game!  And I have only a few hours to get the house clean and the bathroom cabinet repaired before everyone comes over!

So when we get home we see this.