Keeping at it...

We've had some wonderful experiences here at the sites in the past couple of weeks.  We've been able to share our testimonies, relate a lot of history and enjoy the people who come here.  

More and more visitors are starting to come from all over the world, which is fun.   We're starting to gear up for the Hill Cumorah Pageant, which is in mid-July.  It is the largest outdoor production in the country and a spectacular show  (check it out:  http://www.hillcumorah.org/Pageant/index.php). What Pageant means to us is we will have LOTS of people at the sites.  A busy day now is 100-200 people.  During Pageant we get 3000 or more a day!  Not much free time for us during those weeks!

We have been able to attend the temple every week, when we're not working, which is a wonderful blessing and have done some exploring on our P-days.  

The Nashville Tribute Band came to Rochester and we were able to attend their "Redeemer" concert, which was great.  They are all church members and are accomplished singers and musicians.   The co-founder of the group is Dan Truman, the keyboardist for "Diamond Rio," a Grammy-winning, platinum album-selling country band.  His son, Chad served a mission in Colorado Springs a few years ago and was in our ward for several months.  The band came to the Springs while he was still on his mission and he got permission to perform a couple of numbers with them.  We had dinner with the band and got to know them a little bit then and it was nice to see them all again.  All of the band members have day jobs with other groups and do this on the side to sing their testimony of Jesus Christ.  Chad and his brother, Ben have their own group called "Truman" and three others are in a group called "Due West" (they recently performed at the Grand Ole Opry, which is quite an honor). Jason Deeres, the other co-founder has written music for many of the top country groups in Nashville and performs in his own right.  We were able to take the Truman Family on a tour of the Smith Farm the next day (we were supposed to do the whole band, but they got their wires crossed a little and some went with another missionary). At the end of the tour, the band invited us to come into the Sacred Grove with them, where they sang a song about the First Vision.  It was pretty cool!  

Temple with threatening skies

Smith Frame Home

The Sacred Grove has greened up

On our P-day, we drove up to Lake Ontario again to see the blossoms in the thousands of acres of orchards and vineyards  It was pretty spectacular.  

At the lake we came upon these NY State Fish and Game guys stocking the lake (who knew they stocked the Great Lakes!?).  We watched them dump about 20,000 six inch lake trout in.  

The gulls were VERY interested in the work being done by Fish and Game...

Last week we drove into Rochester (about 30 minutes) to see a garden where they had a lilac festival the previous few days. Unfortunately, there were very few lilacs in bloom (a bad year according to the locals), but the Azaleas were spectacular!  It was hot, though.  85 and humidity in the upper 90's.  I can't wait for summer!

   

We got an impromptu knock on our door from our upstairs neighbors, the Beans a couple of nights ago.  They had a grape pie and wanted to share.  Grape pie is apparently a western New York tradition (there are tons of vineyards around here).  Our neighbors next door came over and we had a party.  It was all a bit tongue-in-cheek, because nobody really likes grape pie who wasn't raised on it...  It's basically an inch of really sweet grape jelly between two pie crusts.  I thought it needed a layer of peanut butter...  There were leftovers.  The Bean's are from Seattle and the Miller's are from Ivins, Utah (near St George).  We really like our neighbors and all the rest of the couples here!

Millers are on the right, Beans are in white

A few random pictures of the Whitmer Farm.  Some day I'll publish a better selection from each of the sites in some sort of order. 

Peter Whitmer Log Home, Fayette, NY

This was taken in the overflow parking lot at the Smith Farm.  These crazy birds, called Killdeers, build their nests out of rocks (how cozy can that be for the junior Killdeers?).   It would appear that this mom is very precise (perhaps she's a German Killdeer), building her nest right on the chalk parking line...

You can see her eggs under her right wing in this shot (she's got her tail feathers ruffled, coming after me).  The nest is almost impossible to see and the eggs look just like rocks.  

Once I backed off a little she went into her fake "Come eat me, I'm hurt" dance to lead me away from the nest:

I clearly bought her act, because I chased after her with my shutter blazing...  We're hoping the chicks hatch and are gone in a couple of weeks before the buses start arriving.

The Erie Canal runs through Palmyra, so we did a little canal exploring the other night.  This is lock #29, located just west of town (there are 35 total locks on the canal).  We're going to take an evening cruise on the canal next week with several other couples, which should be fun.