What does a Hurricane Feel Like?

 I don't know what a real hurricane feels like, but we had the chance to go into the belly of Horseshoe Falls at Niagara last week, I imagine that is kind of what it feels like.  We could hardly stand up and the mist of the falls was pelting us in our faces.  It was so awesome.  I'm so glad we had the chance to do that!

We had Tyler and Alexandra and their little girls come to visit us.  They wanted (and needed I might add) to see Niagara Falls.  You can't come to Upstate New York and not see Niagara, right? Luckily, they were able to walk over to the Canadian side-which they were so excited about- to become International travelers (they already were-but the girls weren't).  We stayed on the American side because we can't leave our mission.  While they were gone, we just walked around and took pictures of the falls, and the rapids above the falls.  How majestic!  The water falls at about 160,000 gallons per second.  So unbelievable.

We had such a great time.  We spent the whole day there-who knew you could spend that much time at the Falls.  After we were done, we headed off toward home.  We were going to stop in Palmyra and do some site seeing but it was cold and we were hungry.  We did go to the Chill and Grill and grab dinner and some ice cream.  You can't not have ice cream.  It was tasty!

The week was filled with fun things.  There is so much to do in New York that we about ran these little legs right off.  I took about a million pictures but don't worry, I won't post that many.  We spent time at The MOST-which is the Museum of Science and Technology.  According to Norissa it was the "BEST DAY EVER!" We visited Fort Stanwix, a Revolutionary War Fort down the street from our home, and a few other local landmarks.  We played on the slides and swings at the "Purple Dinosaur Park" up the street and we ate yummy New York Style Pizza.  We had ice cream more than once, and we had a birthday party because both little girls have birthdays very soon. We even dug for Diamonds at the Herkimer Diamond Mine! (They aren't really diamonds!). One of the favorite things we did was ride the 100+ year old Carousel at Destiny Mall-twice!

On our last day, we went back to Palmyra to see the Church History sites.  This day was warmer.  We love these sites and were excited to share them with this cute little family.  We started at the Peter Whitmer Home and then went to the Smith Family Farm, the two homes and the Sacred Grove.  We ended at the Hill Cumorah.  (We had seen the Grandin on the first night while it was cold, and we also went to Alvin's grave that night) There is such a wonderful spirit at these sacred site.  We feel so blessed to be able to go often.

We said our goodbyes back at the airport- goodbyes are never easy. We loved having them here to visit.  We would love for any of you to visit as well.  We don't have a ton of room but we have enough. And we know where to get some really good New York pizza and some 'out of this world' ice cream.  You should come.  But hurry-our time here is becoming extremely limited.

We said goodbye the next day to our sweet and wonderful Sister Taylor.  She has made her way home.  We were sad to see her go-but she has given her absolute all to the Lord these past 18 months.  She is definitely one who was dedicated and gave all she had.

L-R Sister Jamie Erickson, Sister Emcee Taylor, Us

Book of Mormon class was awesome.  We taught about Lehi's Dream.  We have done that lesson before, but we have some newbies that are learning and we thought that would be a great lesson to give.  Our one friend, who was raised Baptist, keeps us on our toes.  I love when the Spirit teaches.  She is learning great things.

We found out Friday night that our Bishop had spaced off getting someone to talk for Mother's Day! So guess who got to speak on Sunday-Yup! Us!  Needless to say-we were delighted!  We also had made the Mother's Day treat box for the ward to give all the women-18 years old and up.  Look how cute they turned out!  The box is being modeled by our cute Sisters!

Sister Erickson and Sister Baker

The ladies in our ward loved the treat box.  It felt fancy to them. Inside were some Godiva Chocolate Hearts, some Lindor Truffles, and some Werther's Chewy Caramels.  The Bishop had told us that the ladies don't want flowers, they want chocolate so this is what they got.  Don't you just love the tag.  I love when I can find the perfect saying and graphics and when it comes together so perfectly.

We hope you all had a Happy Mother's Day and that your week will be fabulous! We love you!  We love our Heavenly Father!  We love Jesus Christ!  We know that He is our Savior!  And that because of Him-everything will always work out!  Keep Keeping On!-  Until next week!