Kelsey Family: August 2018

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Church History Tour Days 4-6 (New York)

Day 4- July 16:

Palmyra New York

The Smith log home where the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith.

The Smith family eventually moved from the log home into the farmhouse. Joseph Smith hid the gold plates under the hearth of the fireplace.

Cooper shop where the plates were hidden in the rafters.

Walking towards the Sacred Grove where the first vision took place.

Finally fell asleep

These two were sooooo tired they could hardly move! Good thing they had each other!

We also went to where the Book of Mormon was first published

All set up for the Hill Cumorah Pageant.

We hiked up the Hill Cumorah where the plates were buried.

Stage for the Hill Cumorah pageant

Day 5- July 17th:

Fayette and Palmyra, New York

Standing in front of the Whitmer home in Fayette, NY

This is where they finished translating the Book of Mormon and where the church was first organized.

The kids had fun playing games on the computers. Surprise, surprise!

McKinley was running a fever all day so she wasn't feeling very well. I think she was just teething though. She took a nap on me while Nathan and the kids went swimming.

Later that night we went to the Hill Cumorah pageant. Getting our picture taken with some members of the pageant.

I really enjoyed the pageant.

Day 6-July 18th:

Niagara Falls

We meant to bring our passports so we could go over to Cananda but forgot them at home.

We took the boat ride Maid of the Mist.

McKinley was not a fan of the ponchos they gave us. I ended up taking it off her but then she was not a fan of the mist either. It was a lose/lose situation!

You can hear McKinley whining in the background.

Dyer

Such a pretty view!

On our way to Kirkland, OH

Sleeping on our way to Kirkland, OH

We stopped at a KOA campground. The kids enjoyed swimming.

Blakely always cracks me up with the way her hair looks while swimming!

Easton

Blair

The sun started going down and the pool was getting too cold for McKinley.

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Church History Tour- Days 1-3

We decided to take the family on a two week church history tour. We rented an RV which I think overall was a great idea! The kids were able to spread out more so there was definitely a lot less fighting. The first couple of days in the RV were a little rough but once we got everything figured out it was pretty much smooth sailing. We also checked out the last three Harry Potter audio books from the library and the kids loved listening to them. We almost completed all three of the books by the time we got home! I think each book was about 20 hours long! Yes, we did a lot of driving!

Day 1-July 13th:

Traveled from Florida to Alabama

We stayed at a nice campground where the kids got to swim, play on a playground, and throw rocks in the pond.

We ran into some issues: It took us a while to figure out how to work the generator and AC. Nathan and I had a miscommunication where I thought he said we were all set with bedding but he said the master bed was the only bedding set we had. Neither one of us packed bedding for the kids so we had to be very creative the first night. We bought some extra bedding the following day.

Day 2- July 14th:

Traveled from Alabama to Virginia (went through Tennessee).

This campsite had a stream running through it. The kids had fun wading in it but they said it was cold.

We ran into some more issues this day as well...while the kids were playing in the water I decided to start making dinner. I started to defrost some meat in the microwave and the breaker turned off. Apparently you can't run the microwave while the AC is on. We thought it was the outside breaker but when Nathan tried flipping the breaker nothing inside the RV was working. Nathan went and found the owner of the campground and he couldn't figure out what was wrong either. He told us to just move to another campsite. We moved to another site and it still wasn't working so we moved to yet another campsite. Still wasn't working. Nathan called the owners of the RV and they weren't helpful at all! "That's weird! That's never happened to us before!" REALLY!?! Eventually one of our neighbors came over and was trying to help us. Apparently the RV itself has a breaker and that was the one that turned off. Nathan flipped the breaker but it still wasn't working?!? Luckily our neighbor had a long enough extension cord that we were able to plug in and test the 2nd campsite to see if that would work for us. Thankfully it did! I guess the third site we went to the outside breaker wasn't working and that was why it still wasn't working for us. We moved for the 4th time back to the 2nd campsite.

Day 3-July 15th:

Traveled from Virginia to Pennsylvania and then New York (went through West Virginia where we attended church and Maryland)

Boys sleeping

Blakely pretending to sleep

Blair

I'm pretty sure this was inside Joseph and Emma Smith's house in Harmony, Pennsylvania.

Outside Joseph and Emma's house

Harmony is where the Priesthood was restored and where Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were baptized. Most of the Book of Mormon was translated here.

Dyer wanted to go see the grave of Joseph and Emma's first born son.

Emma's parent's house.

The kids got to feel how heavy the plates probably were.

Blakely riding a bike!

Nathan started teaching Blakely how to ride her bike without trainning wheels on the 4th of July. Blakely got the hang of it real quick. I think she was by far the quickest and easiest kid for Nathan to teach.

1st day:

She kept freaking out every time she realized Nathan wasn't holding on to her.

2nd day:

"I can ride my bicycle!"

4th of July

On the 4th of July we went to Niceville's firework show with the Frandsens (Beckham's family). I was pleasantly surprised with the show. I wasn't expecting a lot since we are so used to the Idaho Falls show but it didn't disappoint at all.