Road Trip to Upstate New York

Last weekend, we hit the road for a trip to the Finger Lakes in New York for a few days of relaxation and adventure.

We camped at Cayuga Lake State Park and I highly recommend it, if you are ever up in that area. Our campsite was right across from the playground and the bathrooms. Close enough to observe, but far enough to be out of the din. I loved that some of the kids were old enough to head over by themselves. A tiny bit of freedom and they loved it. While hanging out at the camp site, Amelia wanted to pretend superheroes. She said no one wanted to play with her and asked me to come up with a super hero identity. I said I would be "Rainbow" (always my secret spy name when I was a kid) and my power would be to shoot rainbow hoops at people and when they were hit they would suddenly feel calm and cooperative. She said "that's kind of boring, can I change it?" Gee, I wonder why no one wanted to play that game. Actually, Jonny did want to play. His super hero identity was "the Electric Cheese" and he shot cheese lightning at people.
On our way to the camp ground, we stopped by Palmyra, New York where the Hill Cummorah and Sacred Grove are. It was special at times.
Like the time when Simon happened upon a large Christus in the Visitor's Center and was so surprised and excited that he ran to James, pulling him and yelling "come and see! You got to see!"

When Jonny decided that the path to the Hill Cummorah memorial was too wimpy and he wanted to climb straight up. It was steep, but he, James and Gary (and Rachel) did it.

When Simon became very impressed with the flowers in the Sacred Grove and wanted his picture taken with them.

Talking the Jonny about how the largest trees in the grove were probably there when Joseph Smith was.

Listening to Amelia try and impress the missionaries with her knowledge of the gospel.

 

Here are a few examples frm the other times:

Each of the historic houses had floor fans in it and this attracted Jonny and Simon like moths to flame. "Yoou must build a jacuzzi!" (from Muppets in Space, spoofing Field of Dreams)

Someone talking awfully loud about using the potty in the Sacred Grove. That sounds worse than it is. They didn't want to use the potty in the Sacred Grove they just talked about it while we walked and I felt bad for people trying to have a spiritual time there.

We also saw the Peter Whitmer farm- this was where the first meeting of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was held. I loved seeing it in person and thinking about all that went into the planning of the first meeting. The visitor's center here had art work depicting the many stages of planning that went into that first meeting. I LOVED the art. It was unique to this location I have not seen it at any other church site.

The missionaries there encouraged the kids to run races to the trees and back while we waited to go into the farm house. If you look close enough, you should see all of our runners.

We enjoyed swimming and canoeing in Cayuga Lake on a couple of days. Jonny loved swimming (with coast guard approved life jacket) out to the buoys that marked the swimming area. James enjoyed swimming too. Amelia pouted because floaties were not allowed (only life jackets) and finally agreed to go in the water as I was bringing the boys out. I got a good laugh when just as I exited the Lake, she marched up to me and yelled "there- I swam to Mom. Are you happy?!" but then she and I swam aound a little bit and the boys, who were done swimming played the the playground. 
I really enjoyed canoeing in the lake. It reminded me of the many summers we camped at Rucker Lake when I was growing up. My dad would take all the kids for a long weekend of canoeing and kayaking and swimming in the Sierras. I have very fond memories of those camp outs. So I thoroughly enjoyed paddling around with the kids, two at a time.  Cayuga Lake is very large compared to Rucker Lake so we stuck very close to shore. James was a natural with the paddle. Amelia needed a little coaching and turned out to be quite good too. Jonny and Simon sat in the middle on a cushion, looking cute. I enjoyed watching Gary take the kids out too. It was fun hearing Gary and Jonny and Amelia cheering when things went well. He and James practiced manuvers together for a few minutes before we left. One Star Wars trilogy later (the old set) we were home, very grateful for the break from the norm.

PS- For those of you who are curious, Rachel handled camping like a pro. She slept beautifully at night and was pretty cheerful (given her age) during the day.

Here's a few snapshots of James and Amelia adoring Rachel.

And since I complained about not being able to do Amelia's hair, I must document that she DID let me do it for church today- "braids up" is what my mom used to call this hairdo