Max's family visit

Thought we would post a few pictures from last weeks time with Max, Sally, AnLi, and Drew.

  Here we are at the monument of the Angel Moroni on top   of the Hill Cumorah.  Max, Drew, AnLi, and Sally.  It was a beautiful day and like Grandpa Craner says "All this and the Gospel too.

 Grandpa in a teaching moment talking about the importance of the area.  Sharing his Testimony.

                                         AnLi, Drew, Sally and Max by the Palmyra Temple.

                      Grandpa, AnLi, Sally, Max and Drew walking towards the Sacred Grove.

 Drew with Mater.  He was excited.  We found Mater sitting by the side of the road outside of a small town between Fayette and Syracuse.

           This is inside of Bolt Castle.  This staircase is awesome.  The whole Castle is amazing.

       On the Bishops boat and ready to take off.  The dog belongs to Heidi who is the  Bishop's .  Heidi                                           is also the one driving the boat.

/Sally, Dad and Max we are going for a boat ride on the St. Lawrence River.  Sooooo fun. 

 AnLi and Drew with a helicopter that is in front of the Military Museum on Fort Drum. Drew is "saluting" like the soldier guys do and AnLi is standing at "attention".

 This anchor is one that was used and then found at the bottom of the Saint Lawrence River.  Even one length of the chain is extremely heavy  Max, Drew, AnLi and Sally

Here we are having a picnic lunch at Alexandria Bay.  It has a nice park dedicated to the soldiers; especially fallen soldiers.  There is a small play yard and beach attached.

Here is the family at the Sacred Grove.  It was a special day followed by a picnic.  How blessed we all are to have the Gospel in our lives.

This one never got posted from June

Thought I would add a couple of pictures.

Home in Carthage NY.  One set of Elders and one Sisters live in the Carthage area.  This home is more ornate than most however it is typical of  so many because of the 3 stories.  Many with 3 stories also have basements most homes have porches and people really do sit out on them and visit.

Creek in backyard of the Chaplin Brizzee's home.  He is currently deployed to Afganistan

Handbag Mom made to teach in sewing class.

Mansion on Ft Drum.  LeRay owned 600,000 acres of land.  LeRay lost most of his money supporting the Revolutionary war and later married wealthy.

Originally built in 1807.  Burnt down in 1816 and was rebuilt in 1825.  His wife lived in Paris and would only come for a visit once in a while.  Later part of the land was sold to Joseph Bonaparte, brother to Napoleon. Lots of other details available on Goggle.  We don't have name-tags on because we are not supposed to wear them on post.  We are learning so much and the more we learn - we realize the less we know.

Quilt top Mom made to teach this fall.  It looked like a challenge to make but turned out to be simple.  Just like the pattern said it would be.  This will be fun to teach.

Transfer day in July

We got a new mission president Pres and Sister Rodgers from St George. Had a wonderful meeting with them.  Really great people. We also got 23 new missionaries this month and only 8 left.  Aug brings another 22 with only 10 leaving.  The mission will have about 190 total.

Transfer day lunch.  New York Pizza  Elder Miskin (front left) from Rigby

Parking lot chaos

Sister Johnson (center) leaving our district and Sister Williams (Right) coming in.  Both really good missionaries.

Elder Morgan our District Leader

More parking lot stuff

Elder Flood leaving to open a new area.  Great missionary.

Senior Outing for July

Once a month we get together with other senior couples in the North Country area.  There are 5 couples in Branches to our North.  They are in a different zone than us but are kind enough to invite us since we are the only couple in our Zone.  The Church is crying out for more couples as the numbers of couples have really dropped and the need has really  grown.  Four of them go home this Fall and one in March.  This month we went to Ausable Chasm and the Underground Railroad Museum.  Some pictures are show here.  It took us about three and half hours to get there.  Next month we will be hosting and taking them to Bolt Castle.

The entry way to the chasm.

The chasm--pretty cool and way deep.

It is a long way down.  

Elephants Head

Good looking couple.

Us with Sister Miskin from Rigby

Mom on the mile long hiking trail

Entrance point for rafts.

Rafters heading downstream

Lowering rafts to the canyon bottom.

This is one of the "Underground Railroad" museums.  It was quite interesting how much of that went on in our area.  Slaves were trying to get to Canada as quickly as possible and there were many awesome people who risked their lives to help them.  

Cami and boys visit to Palmyra

We have had a great time with  Cami, Zach and Brayden who came for a visit and we had a wonderful time with them in Palmyra, at the Sacred Grove, at the Temple and at the Pageant.  

Cami, Zach, and Brayden at Hill Cumorah  This is the monument on top of the Hill.  What a wonderful place to be with family.

Grandpa being a grandpa and talking about what happened at the Hill Cumorah.  The Hill is a lot bigger than I had  imagined that it would be.  What a special place to visit.  Every thing is kept so beautiful.  It is fun to see the flowers and foliage  instead of snow.

 It was such a neat thing to have Cami and the boys with us at the Sacred Grove.  We missed Josh being with us but Cami said they will be back!   yeah

Family walking away from Sacred Grove and to the Smith Home that Alvin built.

Zack and Brayden in back of the Smith Cabin.

This is the garden right out back of the Smith log cabin.

This is Cami and Zack in front of the group and Brayden and Dad walking behind in the Sacred Grove.

This is the view of the seating and performance stage from on top of the Hill.  This over looking the set up for the pageant around  9,000 chairs are set up.

Hill Cumorah Pageant way before it started.  People come from all over to see it.   It actually starts at dark about 9:15.  There is a particular part that is so telling when a little child runs to the Savior.  It is a real tender moment in the performance. 

There are about 850 people involved in the pageant.  They put this wonderful pageant on with only one week of rehearsal.  It is amazing and we wish you all could see it.  Families came from all over to be in it and to see it.

Barbecue on the street in Palmyra just a block away from the building where they published the Book of Mormon.

AWESOME picture by the Palmyra Temple.

New week.

It has been another good week.  Been able to visit several families.  Went to Utica and met the new Mission President and his wife.  Really good people.  Went to several ward functions.  We were invited to watch the fireworks from the Bishop boat dock.

Sunset in upstate NY.  People here always refer to this area as the "North Country"

Deer in church parking lot Wednesday night.

Ward activity at Bishop Beuttenmuller's  

Picnic with some friends. Lady next to Mom is 94 years old and as she says "I still have all my marbles"

This is a beautiful little 3 acres that their family has had for years and years.  They go up to have a picnic once or twice a year.  It is about 45 minutes from town.  Donna is in the yellow and her mom is the older lady.  Allen is a great friend.

Night view from Bishops house  The lights are from the Bolt Castle. and some boats.

The reflection in the water was just as awesome as the fireworks themselves.

A couple of views of fireworks.  The fireworks are set off from a barge located behind the castle from where we were.  Before the fireworks display they hose down the castle and the island.

Here is a sunset picture we caught.