Trip to Palmyra - Hill Cumorah Pageant...Posted by the Mrs

Bobby's busy studying for finals so I'll be your tour guide for this featured post :)

Our friends, the Sandbergs (Duncan's twin brother from another mother) came along with us on this road trip and we had such a fun time. We camped for two nights and switched off babysitting while the other couple went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant and then during the day we did it again so that we could attend the Palmyra Temple. It worked out fabulously and the boys had a great time playing outside all day.

This is the trek there, Duncan did pretty well.

Within the first forty minutes of the 5 hour drive we realized that we had forgotten our pillows (I love my pillow!) and our jackets. We thought it would be super hot like it was here in the Burgh so we decided not to bother with the sleeping bags either. We regretted that one too!

He loves being surrounded by his stuffed animals and other favorite things.

We took the boys the first night while Chelsea and Swen attended the pageant. Can you tell that they LOVED playing in the car? So many buttons and gadgets to play with and with those pajamas I'd say it looks like Christmas in July!

Bobby and I, along with the boys, all hung out in these chairs and sang primary songs until they were out.

Palmyra Temple

I really had to use the restroom as we pulled in and of course we guessed wrong on the entrance door so we had to walk all the way around the temple to enter.

I was very grateful it was a small temple.

I always LOVE getting to the Celestial room in the temple (especially one I haven't seen before) and experiencing the beauty and peace there.

We visited the Sacred Grove while we were there as well. It looks just the way it's portrayed in movies and pictures but for me, I loved experiencing it first hand. So peaceful, I would go there to pray too!

I used to get Church history events and places mixed up (still do!) but visiting Nauvoo and Palmyra has helped me sort and understand.

OK, humor me while I share my sunflower pictures taken at the Smith Farm

I was having so much fun playing around with the pictures, they were really bad in their original state. So, this was an effort to save them from being deleted forever...

Alright, moving on...

Here is a picture from the Smith Farm looking towards the Temple. The Sacred Grove is directly behind us.

Family Picture Time!

Here is our sweet little camping set up.

Bobby and I at the Hill Cumorah Pageant...it's just about to start!

That is a 10 level stage! There were approximately 800 volunteers in the pageant!

A family that was camped near us was a part of the pageant and we were able to visit for a little bit and learn more about the behind the scenes. I found it quite impressive and awesome that they arrive two weeks before the first showing and for those two weeks they assign roles, learn the dances and have spiritual firesides from sun up all the way past sun down! Completely voluntarily!

I loved seeing the pageant. The stories from the scriptures were easier to grasp probably in part because the dialogue covers more than just what the scriptures state. It sort of filled in the events and emotions, set the scene (literally), and became more real. My favorite part was when Christ came and called all the children to come to him. Probably 100 little children came running up to him from all over the stage and sat with him. Life seems so simple in these moments. The Spirit is there and truth is being spoken.

Duncan had the tent all to himself the 2nd night while we slept in the car.

We ALL slept better.

Duncan had his pack n' play and most of the blankets in the tent. We slept warm and didn't wake him up with our bodies (he just CAN'T sleep with us next to him which is totally fine but sometimes it would be nice!).

He was a "Happy Camper"...the 2nd night.

This is the original printing press location for the Book of Mormon. We were able to see all the labor involved (and there was a lot!) and learn where the phrase "Cut to the Chase" comes from.

This was what the book publishing store would have looked like back then. I was loving the packaging and twine look.

"Kiddie Kone" at the local Chill n' Grill.

The Large had 8 scoops on it!

Moroni Statue at the top of the Hill Cumorah

The view of "Home" after a long drive. It always feels good to come home.

We had a great time visiting the sights, camping, and spending time with friends. I'm so glad we were able to go!

July 4th weekend continued - posted by the Mrs.

We finally ate at the famous Pamela's Restaurant! Not to bring politics into this or anything but Pres. Obama has eaten here with the whole 747 squadron. Ok, so I don't know the details about whether it was the 747 squadron or not but I DO know that Obama has had his breakfast at Pamela's. And now we have tasted of the legend ourselves. I would dare say is was quite delicious and I think Bobby and Duncan would agree.

I ordered the standard pancakes, bacon, and eggs while Bobby, the adventurous foody that he is, got blueberry pancakes with cream cheese and brown sugar. The pancakes are what the hype is about...they are more like crepes with crispy tasty edges. I would totally eat there again and again...and again.

Notice the cute chubby hand off to the left reaching for the recently brought goodness and not wanting to wait another second for breakfast to reach his belly.

Family picture in the reflective window (yes! who needs a professional photographer when you can have this!) walking back to our car.

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Some friends of ours hosted a BBQ in lieu of the country's birth. While there, Duncan enjoyed his first kiddie pool experience. He loved it! We had to watch him the rest of the evening because he was ready to jump in clothes and all for just one more splash. He's going to LOVE Bear Lake!

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The evolution of Duncan...discovering a bubble bath...

Cathedral of Learning - Posted by the Mrs.

Bobby and I (and Duncan of course) have been trying to really take advantage of our time here and see/do something new at least every other week. This was during the 4th of July weekend that we ventured to the Cathedral of Learning.

The Cathedral of Learning is the 4th tallest education building in the world (tallest in the western hemisphere). The cool thing about this building is that there are 27 "themed" rooms which represent the cultures that have influenced Pittsburgh's growth. Each of these rooms cost between $300,000 -500,000 USD and took 3 - 10 years to complete. The committees who were made up of the different nationalities were in charge of doing the designing, fundraising, labor, and materials (although foreign governments aided some of the efforts).

It's amazing to see these rooms and think that people actually have class in them. I think I would have a hard time sitting a whole class period in most of the chairs. I would know because I tried most of them out :)

This is the outside of the building. Pretty cool structure...reminds me of...a Cathedral!

Bob took this picture of Duncan and I in the Hungarian room.

Bob snuck this picture of Duncan and I in the Hungarian room.

This is the view from the top of the Cathedral...well as high as we were allowed to go. I think there were about ten more floors above us. Our apartment is somewhere out there over to the left.

I believe this is the Polish room.

Irish room

Lithuanian room

This picture reminded me of the picture in Tangled where Rapunzal sees the mosiac of the King, Queen, and their baby daughter. Anyone, anyone?

Chinese room.

This is the view of the ceiling, two lights were working two lights were not.

This is the main hall of the building. There are lots of study tables and chairs to hang out in. Not my idea of the best studying atmosphere...pretty echo-y but nonetheless cool.

The Austrian room, seen here, was probably one of my favorites. It was so elegant and fancy. Maybe it was just the chandeliers, I do have a thing for those.

This was the Israeli-an room and those inscriptions on the door are the Ten Commandments in Hebrew.

This was also another interesting room, it is the Indian room. It was cool but at the same time it felt like a room that a cult would meet in. I don't really know what kind of rooms cults meet in but if I could guess which kind, this would be it. It's not dark feeling but the way the chairs were situated, etc was kind of weird. The End, I won't keep going.

This is the African room, pretty cool looking but again, those chairs are severely uncomfortable.

There were lots of other rooms: French, Welsh, Armenian, Norweigian (shout out to Anna), Scottish, Russian, Romanian, etc. but this post would be too long if I featured everything we saw. It was super neat to see the rooms and learn that every detail and part of the room was used intentionally and had meaning.

We pretty much traveled the world in an hour and a half, sort of.

June hath cometh and goneth - posted by the Mrs.

Duncan is such a busy body these days. He is learning to climb, reach for non-child friendly items off the counter top and table, as well as investigate all areas of the house. I feel like child proofing should be equated to storing everything that's in range from our waists down and then some!! How does one live when that must be done?! I can't figure that one out but we're hoping to soon before our computer area blows one to many surges and refuses to turn on ever again. Yes, this probably sounds a little dramatic but that's kind of what life is like these days!

We went to Dinosaur Park recently where Duncan discovered he could handle this slide all by himself. He's not our little baby anymore, he's growing fast and we are trying to keep up!

I wanted to get Duncan interacting with other kids and so "Art Group" was invented to get him out, get exposed to new things, and play with other kids. This is Gavin, Duncan's twin brother from another mother. They are pretty fun together.

This is Swisshelm Park. Here we have the featured water fountain of fun! Gavin is in the background frozen in the middle of it all. We weren't sure if he was loving it or hating it but he seemed to insist on being there.

Exhibit A: Duncan having just discovered the beauty of the refrigerator and all it's beholdings. While I worked out, he unwrapped this ball of tin foil and found Pizza to snack on.

Father-Son chillin'

Our friends from our last ward up at U of U married housing (the Sonken-ators) were driving through Pittsburgh on their way to D.C. for an internship and stopped to eat dinner with us. These guys are so fun. Hopefully we can do some hanging out while they currently reside as East Coasters.

This is Bobby's Father's Day tie that I managed to secretly make without him knowing about it. I LOVE surprising him!

I have plans to make Duncan a matching one...at some point.

This is also a "tie" I made for Bobby though this one is edible. The Young Women's made these chocolate chip cookie ties as a fundraiser for girls camp this year. We made SIX batches of cookie dough to make all of them. Decorating them and tasting the scraps had to be my favorite parts of that day long activity. Mmm.

Bobby, Duncan, and I went to REI for a Friday night date night and rock climbed on this! If you'll notice, this is a replica of a rock formation in Utah! Whoot Whoot! Shout out to the home peeps of Utah from Pittsburgh!

Duncan has loved this chair we got him. I'm pretty sure he loves that there's finally some furniture around made just for his cute little size.

p.s. he is finally OFF the bottle! He wasn't too excited about it at first but that bottle was so gross that it needed to be put out of it's misery. We encouraged the transition with a little chocolate Nesquik touch to each bottle. Probably not the best remedy but it worked. Sometimes us parents gotta' get creative!

p.p.s. his shirt says "Super Bad Guys: cooties, broccoli, and timeouts.

I love little boys.