BOSTON
Part 1

James and I headed to Boston to help celebrate the sealing and wedding of Neal and Rachael. While we were there we got to spend some time with the family and see the sites of Massachusetts.

Day 1 Thursday: After taking an all night red eye flight we arrived in Boston early Thursday morning. Right off the bat we got our first experience of Boston. We had to take the train/subway to met Mark, Lois, Neal and Rachael by ourselves. Luckily we figured it out, met everyone and headed back to the city of Boston to met up with the rest of the family. (Rachael's parents, grandparents, and brother from England). All eleven of us spent the day touring the historical sites of Boston. We rode a swan boat in the Commons, saw Paul Revere's house, a few old cemeteries, The Old North Church famous for the "One if by land, Two if by sea," and toured the USS Constitution (oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world). The best part of the whole day was just getting to know Rachael and her family. It was also interesting because we were touring American Revolutionary War Historical sites with a British family. All day we joked back and forth about Americans being traitors and "The British are coming!" Rachael's family are great people and very humorous.

Day 2 Friday: More History and more family time. Today we started out going to Plimoth Plantation. Here we got to see how the plantation and a nearby Wampanoag homesite were run in the year 1627. There were people there role playing what every day life was like during that time. You could even ask questions and they expressed 17th century viewpoints. After Plimoth we took a glance at the Plymoth pebble (Plymoth rock). For some reason I thought it was much bigger more like an unmovable rock formation but I was very wrong. The people of the town call it the Plymoth pebble instead of Plymoth Rock. Of course it did not help that people used to take chunks of it and it is now only half its size. Even then it was a lot smaller than I pictured. Right next the the Plymoth Pebble was the Mayflower II. The Mayflower II is a re-creation of the original. I was amazed to see how small of a space that so many people lived in for so long. My favorite part of the day was when I got to put my feet in the Atlantic ocean for the first time.

Day 3, 4, 5 coming soon!

CONGRATULATIONS NEAL AND RACHAEL!

My First Talk in Primary!
I Mean JOSHUA'S First Talk in Primary!

Because I know we are all children of God I will share the gospel with others. Everyone on earth is a child of God and he wants all of his children to return to live with him again. In order for them to live with Heavenly Father they must first hear the gospel. I need to help by sharing the gospel with others. The first thing i can do is to be an example by following the Lord's commandments. Then i can invite my friends to church and pass out copies of the Book of Mormon. It is important for me and you to share the gospel so that others have the chance to live with our Heavenly Father again.

(When he got his talk last week he was so excited! As soon as he saw me he had to show me and then wanted to go find Daddy. I was not expecting him to be so excited. During the day of his talk I could not get him to speak but once I told him he could go sit down, if he wanted to, he decided he really wanted to give his talk. He did great! I was a proud Mommy!)

Birthday Celebration at the Relief Society Camp Out!

Thanks to my Mom and my sister, Amber I was able to attend the Stake Relief Society Camp Out. It was so much fun! It gave me a chance to get to know a few more of the ladies in the Panama ward and spend some time with some of the ladies from the Silver Creek ward. Apparently we were the wild bunch because we were the last to go to bed. For most of the night we played a game call Sum. I think I hold the record for being the sum the most amount of turns. I guess I'm not very good at the game. Just before we headed to our cabin we stopped by the campfire to see if anyone was there. There was a camp fire but nobody around. We stood around it long enough to prove to everyone at home that we actually went camping, put out the fire, and then headed to bed. When I walked into the mesh hall the next morning I was greeted by a beautiful birthday bouquet of balloons and twigs on our table. Definitely camper style! I was also given a card from everyone in our little group. Somehow the night before they had passed this card around. I had no idea when or how they were able to pull that off. During breakfast I was given a cake which was consisted of two ding dongs. One had 2 candles and the other had six. 26! Other camper style touch. After breakfast we continued our game of scum up until we had to separate for mini classes. We spent the rest of the morning learning how to organize our lives so that we can have more time to relax, spend time with our families, and serve others. It was a great camp out. I loved the chance to get to know some of the ladies of the ward. We need to have another scum night! Lots of fun!

NEW POOL!

A couple of weeks ago the temp here got up to 107 degrees so my parents bought the kids a kiddy pool and spent the day playing in the pool. My kids are water bugs and they would be in that pool every day all day if I let them. They love it and its a nice way to keep cool on these hot summer days.