Peaches, pesto, and . . . new furniture

Well, it's late at night and I couldn't manage to come up with a 3rd "p" word to describe the new furniture. So much for being clever!

I went with a friend to the orchard to pick peaches, wanting to bottle some, but the peaches were not that great, so I only picked a few and made jam. But the farmer had a bumper crop of basil and convinced my friend and I that we needed some! I came home and made pesto, and it was SO yummy! Jack was eating it by the spoonful!

I ended up with almost 4 cups of pesto in my freezer.
We're so excited, we finally, after 11 1/2 years of marriage, bought some real furniture, using the remnants of our relocation budget from Jake's work. We bought a fun dining table and chairs.

We loved the top of the table, the stone makes it a little unique.

We also bought a leather couch. We're really happy with our purchases, but they make all our other stuff look cheap! Oh well, we plan on replacing the rest a little at a time.

So fun to be "real people" at last . . . !

Buttermilk Falls

We went to Buttermilk Falls today. It was a blast. We tried swimming but it was a little too cold.

This is James at one of the waterfalls on the hike.
This is the swimming hole at the bottom of the actual Buttermilk Falls.
There is a diving board and everything.
Somebody had changed the water temperature from 63 degrees to 32 degrees.
We thought that was funny.

There was a cool canyon behind the fam but it was too dark to see.

Another falls.

The gorge we hiked up.

Another falls.

More Palmyra and the Lake

Last night we had dinner at some friend's lake cottage. James tried kayaking for the first time and did great. I guess we'll have to get him one.
Jackson loved jumping onthe bed at the hotel.
I love this face he makes.

This is at the printing press in Palmyra where the book of Mormon was first printed.

This is the Whitmer Farm.

We were able to go to the temple also, taking turns of course. It was a good time.

Hill Cumorah, The Sacred Grove, and a Baby Shrew?

So we went to Palmyra, NY to see the LDS History sites. We went to the Hill Cumorah and the Sacred Grove before the kids were spent. We are spending the night so we can do more tomorrow.

At Hill Cumorah.
At the Sacred Grove. While in the grove we saw the cutest litle baby shrew. The shrew was quite tame (pardon the Shakespear reference) so here are some pics.
Two shoes and a shrew.

Isn't it the cutest little guy. When it sniffed James' hand I thought it would skedaddle but it hopped on.

Salamanders and house pics

This is a baby salamander still in the living in water phase. I couldn't get pictures of the bigs ones cause they are fast and way camo.

A few house pictures.

We love this big window facing front.
Another window facing to the backyard.

Another angle of the living room window.

Our kitchen.