New England Vacation and Katie's Birthday
New Hampshire
While camping in New Hampshire, we spent a day at Franconia Notch and hiked up a beautiful gorge called The Flume. We crossed a bridge and hiked up a walkway over the top of a beautiful cascading river through a small ravine to the top of the waterfall. It was a gorgeous view.
Our scenic route through the White Mountains led us to Kinsman Notch, home of the Lost River, which winds through intricate caves. We climbed up steep ladder stairs, through narrow cracks and went through body twisting curves around rocks. Ryan loved it and we never had to help him out. Chris was leading Ryan into one of the first caves when he got stuck. Ryan said, “Are you stuck, Daddy?” Then when Chris got free and through the opening Ryan yelled “You did it Daddy, you did it!” Ryan was the lead spelunker from then on. The caves were a highlight of our trip!
New Hampshire is also famous for it’s covered bridges.
Camping
We camped for six nights on our New England vacation. Two nights in New Hampshire and four nights in New York, just outside of Palmyra. We lucked out with the best and most secluded campsites both places. We had so much fun eating our yummy dutch oven meals, exploring, sitting by the stream, relaxing and just spending time together.
Camping was the perfect vacation for Ryan. He loved taking walks, finding sticks, throwing rocks in the stream, finding little hiding places and just watching the fire with Katie. He especially loved snuggling into his sleeping bag with BYU blanket and holding a flashlight until he quickly fell asleep.
Sharon, Vermont
We drove through Vermont and stopped to see the birthplace of Joseph Smith. He was born on December 23, 1805. We toured a building displaying scenes from Joseph’s life, visited the memorial and then had our picture taken on the bench where the Smith’s home stood when Joseph was born. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery and the reverent spirit.
Fayette New York
After driving into New York, we stopped at the Peter Whitmer home in Fayette. We toured the inside of the small home and the Fayette chapel and visitors center with Derek and Mary Seaquist, friends from our Montgomery Village Ward. The Peter Whitmer home is where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was officially organized on April 6, 1830. Many other historic events also took place in this home including translation of the Book of Mormon, revelations and ordinations.
The Sacred Grove
We had a wonderful experience visiting the Sacred Grove near Palmyra New York. We visited the historic home of Joseph Smith’s family including the attic room where the angel Moroni visited young Joseph Smith to tell him about the gold plates.
Celebrating the Fourth of July at Niagara Falls
We met up with the Seaquists to spend the day at Niagara Falls. We took great pictures at all the lookouts. It was so fun to see them in person. The falls were amazing … especially at night when they were all lit up. It was a little windy but we sure had a fun day!
We loved the ‘Maid of the Mist’ boat tour, which took us right by the falls and got us soaked even with our cute blue ponchos on. That night we went to the Canadian side, which was even more spectacular and watched the Niagara Falls IMAX and then the fireworks. What a memorable 4th of July.
Hill Cumorah Pageant
We celebrated Katie’s birthday at the Hill Cumorah Pageant in Palmyra, New York. We arrived three and a half hours early to get good seats and the place was already packed. We kept telling Katie to look around at how many people came to her birthday party. We were about half way back on the huge field filled with chairs. It was neat to be part of such a big crowd.
An hour before the show, the cast members came out dressed in elaborate costumes and walked around individually welcoming people to the pageant. We took pictures with King Noah and Moroni. It was neat. The pageant started just after it got dark at 9:15pm. They acted out selected scenes from the Book of Mormon that tell it’s basic story. They did a fantastic job. The special effects were incredible. The cast was so big. Ryan loved the ‘Jesus parts’ and pointed him out until he fell asleep half way through. It was so fun to be there on opening night!
Katie at 12 months
At 12 months old, Katie is such a sweetheart and has the cutest smile! She’s 19 1/2 pounds (25th percentile) and 29 inches long. She crawls all over the place, climbs up and down stairs, and stands up really well. She takes lots of steps but gets so excited that she ends up lunging for your lap. We know she’ll be walking soon! Katie loves to wave ‘Bye Bye’ and do ‘Patti-Cake’ and ‘SO Big!’ When she knows we are proud of her she’ll smile and pat her chest. It’s so cute. When I’m holding her she finds comfort in putting her hand up my sleeve! Always! She says ‘Mama’, ‘Dada’ and ‘dees’ when she points at everything. She has 8 teeth and loves milk, ritz crackers and anything off Daddy’s plate. She loves to play with Ryan, chase after him and giggle together. She gives lots of hugs and kisses and we love them!
Katie’s 1st Birthday
We had Katie’s birthday party and I made her a cute little pink cake with strawberry hears all around it. Her new thing is gasping. It’s like she is surprised. So when we brought the cake out, she just started gasping. It was so hilarious. She was very dainty but then started sticking her fingers in the cake and smearing it in her hair. I think we got some great pictures.
Letter from Lisa - July 14, 2001
The other day we said something about BYU. Ryan said he wanted to go to BYU TODAY! We told him we couldn’t go today but we’ll be there really soon. It will be so fun. We will see Scott and Dan and Amy. “Ya”, he said grinning, “and John”. He’s so funny. Everyday he says something that makes me laugh. A couple days ago Ryan woke up at 4:30am and came into my room. I took him back to his bed and told him he couldn’t get up until the sun came up. He said OK. The next morning at 7:00 I hear Ryan yelling, “Mommy, Mommy, THE SUNS UP!” He was so excited. Today when I told him it was time to take a nap he said, “No, Mommy, I don’t take a nap. The Sun is up”. Boy, he’s getting smarter. It was hard to explain that naps go by different rules.
We are trying to potty train Ryan … and it’s not working. He understands the concept really well. He just can’t tell when he’s going to pee before it’s too late. He say “oh no Mommy” as he is going in his underwear and it’s too late. Then I grimace and say “Ryan!” and before I can go into my speech he says “Mommy, I don’t go pee pee in my underwear. I go pee pee in the toilet, ok Mommy? And I have a candy and a happy face, ok Mommy?” Ya ya, whatever. It’s quite a pain.
Katie is so proud of herself. She figured out how to go downstairs all by herself in 1 day. Now she goes up and down the stairs whenever she wants.
Katie had her Urology appointment on Thursday. Dr. Kalloo says she is doing very well. She only has reflux on one side now and it’s not very bad BUT she still has to be on medication because she is so susceptible to infection. Maybe until she is 5 or 6 years old. Yikes.
We got Ryan’s new big boy car seat out of the attic last week. Now he sits in that and Katie sits facing forward in Ryan’s old seat. It is nice to have them both facing forward now.
Chris is studying like crazy now. He is at the library all day today too (Saturday). I guess he is making up for having such a nice care free vacation. This is the second HUGE test of Medical School. It is in a week and a half.
I am busy packing stuff up. It’s going well though and it’s been fun to organize and go through things too. For Chris’ break last night, we went on a walk and rented Wedding Planner. We both enjoyed it. I was in the mood for a good romantic comedy.
Love, Lisa Chris and kids
Letter from Lisa - July 25, 2001
It’s 7:00am and I already have the AC running full blast. It’s been a hot and muggy week with temperatures up into the 90s and 100s. The middle of the night low was 75 degrees. Yikes!
We are feeling half organized around here. Boxes and boxes everywhere and then so much more to pack. Where did we get all this stuff? It’s going well though. It has been fun to organize and reminisce as I go.
Chris’ big test is today. The USMLE Step 2. Actually it is a series of 8 different 1 hour tests back to back. I don’t know how he’ll do it. I could handle maybe the first 2 and then I’d lose it. I remember lots of tests in the testing center and the longer I was in there the worse I did.
I did preschool yesterday. We learned about the letter C. We made a cute picture that said ‘C is for Cookie’ and then glued on paper cookies and chocolate chips. Then they practiced making C’s, which seemed easy enough but once they got going they just liked to make it into a circle. It was funny. They also helped make chocolate chip cookies and then we painted, made patterns, sang songs and even jumped off the couch a little. Ryan sure has so much fun playing with his friends.
Ryan was asking about the boxes. I told him all about how we were moving to Texas and that we will be able to see Carter and Wesley. He got SO excited and said “WESLEY!!! Let’s GO TOMORROW!” Wesley moved there a couple months ago, so Ryan hasn’t seen him for a long time. Ryan is starting to really thing about things now and ask some interesting questions. As we were driving home from the combined activity last night Ryan said “Mommy, I see the MOON! The sun went down Mommy?” I said, “ya the sun went down”. But where is it Mommy? It went nigh night? Let’s go find it Mommy!” I said, “Umm … how about we wait until morning and then we’ll find it”. Again at 5:00 in the morning, he comes into my room and whispers into my ear, “Mommy, the suns up”. (You can tell he is very fascinated by this whole sun thing). I said, “Ryan, the sun is NOT up yet. Lie down with me for awhile. Chris was already up and in the shower. Ryan laid down so he was facing the window and just stared. Five minutes later he got off the bed and pulled the blinds apart to peak through. “Mommy”, he whispers … “I see the sun.” I said “Fine. Go see your Dad.” He galloped off to watch Daddy shave and then they went and had breakfast together. I guess he’s just a morning person (unlike me).
Katie is my walking girl. She is very cautious and slow and she still prefers to crawl but she is definitely making progress. The other day she walked from the dishwasher to the couch. She loves to give kisses and even makes the little smack sound. She can blow kisses too, but forgets to take away her hand so ends up kissing her hand and blowing on it too.
Love Lisa