Palmyra (and Addie's 7th Birthday!!)

We got into Palmyra Saturday night. We had dinner and got everyone situated and put to bed. The next day was Addie's birthday, but with 9:00 church and sights to see, we had cake and presents later that evening. After church we put the babies down for naps, had lunch, played some games, then headed out to tour the Smith Family home and the Sacred Grove.

Have you ever seen anything cuter than these two? Oh my, they melt my heart!

They tried to be good listeners, they really did. But, when you get this many kids together, it can be kind of wild!

Luckily, when they were outside, we let them be wild!

The clan! While we were taking this picture we heard someone saying that they knew Steven, and sure enough, Steven ran into a friend from High School.

It's a small world when you're a member of the church.

I took a lot of pictures of the Sacred Grove, but this one was my favorite.

And I wanted to get a picture with each of my kids in the Sacred Grove. It was amazing how this wild bunch of kids were so reverent and respectful while in the Grove.

And this cute 8 year old said that being in the Grove made him feel so happy, and he also said that when he feels the Holy Ghost he feels very happy. It was such a sweet experience.

For some reason, I really REALLY loved these fences. So cute and quaint!

The kids loved the field behind the house we were renting out. We had a great game of freeze tag, Mother-May-I, and Duck-Duck-Goose.

Then we played a game that Brad and Jessica planned. They taped a ton of prizes into a huge tape ball. Then they took turns trying to rip into the tape ball before the person on their left could roll doubles on some dice. Once doubles were rolled they had to pass the ball and someone else got a chance to try to get a prize out.

Grant got band aids, which he was excited about!

We also played quite a bit of Four-Square, during which we discovered that the Harward's (mainly myself and Addie) are not very good, and we also found out that Porter (age 10) is a lot better at smack talk than I am!

Later that evening Casey, Steven and I went to the printing shop where the first Book of Mormon was printed. Besides the fact that the sweet missionary, who was from Italy, was so hard to understand it was was still pretty interesting.

Once we were done with the tour we headed back house for some birthday celebrations. Poor Addie had a store bought cake with a sparkler as a candle! Luckily, she didn't seem to mind!

And even tried to blow the sparkler out!

And they all enjoyed the store bought cake, which is all that mattered.

And Ender was just as excited about the gifts as Addie was!

But Grant was more interested in tackling Tim!

Once we were done with the presents and cake we had a special visitor. Professor Pilpott came by to share some of his scientific findings with us. Ella was the only kid who didn't realize it was just a skit done by Grampy and was terrified of 'Professor Pilpott'!

Then we finished off the night with some sparkler fun!

The next morning before we headed out we stopped by the Hill Cumorah.

Then drove about 4 or 5 hours to Kirtland where Steven and I took the older kids through the Temple tour. While everyone else tried to keep the kids happy while waiting.

We didn't make it through all the sites before the kids got a bit antsy, but we made it through most of it.

Grampy stayed out with the two little ones, and Ella spent the whole time (like almost an hour) pushing Ender around in the stroller and talking Grampy's ear off!

(and obviously making super cute fish faces!)
Once we were done there, we finished off back at the Elmer's. It was a fast, busy, quick trip but a great way to kick off the summer and we all had a blast!!