The Jolley's in Upstate New York

 Our week started off with a hike with some of our very favorite people.  It was our District P-Day and we started off with a picnic lunch (some of us) at the top of Pixley Falls. Once everyone arrived we started down to the falls.  We took some pictures along the way. Front L_R Sister Jacie Erickson, Sister Sarah Baker, Sister Elizabeth Carey Back L_R Elder Colin Goddard, Elder Joshua Martindale, Elder Austin Alvi, Elder Bruce Mortensen, Sister Neah DePoe, Us, Sister Monica Park, Elder John Park We all loved being down by the water on a hot day.  Like the "kids" that they are, they had rock skipping contests and threw big rocks into the water.  They took selfies and just enjoyed being together.  We were loving every minute because we knew that there would be, at least, a couple leaving us at the end of the week. After we had our fill of the river, falls, and hiking, what else would we do but head to Stewart's for ice cream?  In fact, Have I told you t...

 We loved the little town of Skaneateles when we happened upon it at Christmastime.  It's the town that hosts a Dickens Christmas every weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas and we loved it. We thought we would go back, maybe find a Christmas tree ornament to remember it by.  It was a cold, rainy day, but hey, we went for it anyway.  We love our P-Days, and are trying to see most of what we haven't yet before our time here comes to and end. (Which is happening way too fast if you were wondering) But we love this countryside and the wonders that come with it.  We had the chance to visit the Harriet Tubman home.  We were there on a Monday and everything in New York closes on Monday so we didn't get to go into the visitor's center or the home.  But that's okay!  Harriet Tubman was amazing. And a hero to so many! We also had our last District Council before transfers and so the Elders and Sisters wanted to have a potluck waffle bar after.  W...

The Senior Couples in our mission have been dubbed "Super Couples" by our mission leaders.  Last Monday, we had the chance to visit the Thousand Islands, in the St Lawrence Seaway, with four other of our senior missionary couples.  We have had the best time getting to know them better.  We are spread out with such distance that we don't get to meet up in person very often.  Last month, when we had our Mission Tour with Elder and Sister McConkie, we had the chance to meet up with these awesome people and that is when we planned to have a P-Day all together. We met in Alexandria Bay and I had told them to bring jackets and then guess who forgot theirs?  Well, it was pretty chilly so Mike and I ran across the parking lot to a place and bought jackets to keep us warm.   We got on the boat for what is called "The Two Nation Tour".  It's a couple of hours on the river seeing all the beautiful Islands and homes that make up the Thousand Islands.  We even...

 Well, we totally let a week of posting get away from us.  Things have been busy here-lots of busy work trying to get some things done for our Stake YW Camp.  I'm also in charge of putting together a Father's Day treat/gift-so I've been wracking my brain for that as well. Monday, May 22nd was a fun P-day for us.  We decided to drive to Vermont!  There is a little slice of Vermont in our mission so we took the day and headed out.  We drove to Bennington and then to Manchester.  Vermont had a completely different feel than New York.  It was a little drier (more mountainous and less lakes maybe?) and the towns were pristine.  Just before we crossed the border, we came around a curve and saw a place with hundreds of colorful Adirondack chairs.  I had to have a picture, of course! We drove into Bennington, knowing there were a couple of places we wanted to visit.  There is a beautiful old church with a graveyard.  It is actually the...

 We had the most wonderful week filled with adventure and the Spirit.  We feel so blessed to be in this beautiful part of the country and more blessed to rub shoulders with some of the most amazing people. We started out our week with a drive to Lake Placid.  We had an entire day and thought, why not!  Driving through the Adirondacks is a treat, to say the least. It is full of lakes and little villages.  Of course we stopped at a few.  My favorite shot of the day was from a hillside, overlooking a church on Lake Placid. It feels a little European to me-must be why I fell in love! While the other churches might not be as picturesque as the others, we still grabbed pictures. As we were driving home, an appointment that we were trying to get back for, cancelled.  So what did we do? We drove a little further to see if we could find Stockbridge Falls-a place about 25 minutes the other direction from our home.  We found a teeny tiny little falls with no...

 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....