Birthday

I had a birthday on Tuesday, and I had a pretty good day. Anything would be better than last year. I don't want to be 29, but there's not much I can do about that.

Plan A didn't work out (Stereoscope museum was closed) and Plan B didn't work out (It was raining, so zoo and butterfly gardens were out) so I went with Plan C, hanging out at the mall with my mom and sis. That was fine except Mom made us late (by an hour!). After I wandered around, we met my dad at a Chinese restaurant in Erie that we like (it's hard to find good Asian food around here!) and then went home for cake and presents. Grant the puppy stayed home, I didn't want to deal with him in public! He's quite the monster.

If it were really up to me I'd have gone to art museums in Pittsburgh or Cleveland, but oh well.

Earlier I had bought myself this kiddie record (I collect them) to play on my birthday...but it's a 78 and our player does 33's and 45's...sigh.

I love lemon cake!
I got a good haul- butterfly stamps, birch beer (like root beer) and some other fun stuff....

I got vintage Disney kid blocks and a book about Pennsylvania.

My grandmother's joke for as long as I can remember is that every time she has a birthday she's turning 29...I was joking with her that now we're the same age!

28 was a good year, hope 29 is!

Palmyra Conference

July 10-12 was a YSA conference in Palmyra, NY sponsored by the Pittsburgh singles ward. I drove up by myself, I was proud of me for not chickening out- all my galpals here have ditched me for the summer. Anyhow I figured since I was up in that area, that I might as well go see the George Eastman house in Rochester, NY on my way to the conference. For those that don't know, George Eastman is the founder of Kodak and he revolutionized photography in the early 1900's with the invention of film. Before George Eastman, you had to carry tons of chemicals and equipment with you just to take a photo. Eastman made the process simple and available to the masses. Since I am a photographer, I am quite thankful for George Eastman and it was a treat to visit his home- it has been restored and is also a photography museum.

So, yes I took pictures (and noted the irony) with my digital Kodak!

George Eastman:

This image is made of tiny photos:

The front of his mansion:

In the conservatory (which is in the middle of the house... he later had the mansion split in half and part of it moved so that his conservatory could be 10 feet wider! Can you say money??)

Pretty staircase:

The gardens were lovely:

Here is a camera obscura (an artist's tool for drawing), what the camera was based off of:

And a stereoscope and it's modern counterpart, the viewmaster!

This camera took photos on the moon:

And there were other cool cameras to see:

like a 1950's drive in projector:

I went from there to the campgrounds for the conference...and stumbled upon this HUGE antique mall on the way...it would take all day to look through it! There were aisles and aisles of cases. They even provided little slips of paper to write down exactly where you saw something you liked!

Gottta love vintage Strawberry Shortcake:

SUCH an awesome place!

I then stopped at Mc D's...got a kick out of the carousel decor!

So I got there, found my campsite, set up my tent and hung out with friends Friday night. We had fun being big kids:

Then on Saturday they turned us loose to see what we wanted in Palmyra. I went and saw stuff I hadn't yet, like the Hill Cumorah visitor's center:

Hundreds of Books of Mormon, in all the different languages:

And the flowers outside were lovely:

Then I toured the Grandin Press, where the Book of Mormon was first published. It was interesting to learn about the printing process...it's SO laborious!

There were many of the original paintings of well known church pictures inside the Grandin Press, those were neat to see:

I then found Alvin Smith's grave (Joseph Smith's oldest brother who died at the age of 25)

It looks like the newer stone engulfs the original headstone:

I then sat in my car for an hour waiting out the pouring rain, and man did it storm! It was raining pretty good when I entered the temple:


But by the time I came out it was sunny and gorgeous! I think that's a good metaphor for how the temple improves us.

The sacred grove:

We had speakers talk to us at the church building near the temple, then it was off to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. I was looking forward to seeing it again, it was amazing last year. We got to the part with Samuel the Lamanite before it opened up and POURED, since there was thunder and lightning as well the rest of pageant was canceled. That was a big bummer. Apparently that's the 2nd time that pagent was canceled due to weather in 40 years...and I was there for it.

I made it back to camp and my tent stayed somewhat dry (which was amazing since it was a $30 Wal-mart tent and it had monsooned that day) but I'd had enough. I just couldn't bring myself to sleep in a damp tent that night. I took down my tent and packed up and drove the three hours home, I got home at about 4am. I was proud of myself for being able to make the trek home okay by myself. I had a really good time that weekend...til pageant was canceled.

The weekend was a trial run for Girl's Camp, I have to say I packed pretty well. Hopefully I'll pack as well for Girl's Camp!

Verify Me

Sometimes I find the words in the verification box to be funny, does anyone else pay attention to them? I'm probably the only one. This recent one cracked me up:

It has my name in it! Does it have a double meaning? Do I defile things? Ha ha.

Probably someone could come up with a good Balderdash sort of game where you have to make up a definition for the verification word.

I think I get good random points for this post, Angela would be proud...

Hugs and Marshmallows

My dear friend Nancy drove out from Connecticut to see me for 4th of July weekend, which was such a treat. I haven't seen her since 2006. Nancy and I became close when I was a missionary out there and regularly keep in touch. It was fun for her to see where we live and to meet my family. Everyone had a great time together. She arrived on Thursday and left early on Sunday to get back home.

At Clear Lake by our fave restaurant, The Dutch Treat:

Saw some deer in our field:
On Friday I showed her my campus and took her to Presque Isle; we ate at a cute diner:

At the lighthouse:

At Perry Point; Captain Perry was instrumental out here in the War of 1812:

We got rained on, but fireworks were great:

Gotta love a small, redneck town:

We watched a parade in Corry on Saturday- pure Americana:

My sis Laura was in the parade:

pretty horses:

How cute is this?

Cute clowns:

The Corry marching band:

Afterwards we walked around booths on the green:

Mom with Nancy- digging mint and forget me nots for Nancy to take home:

And us on the bridge at my house:

I'm really thankful that everything went so well and that I am blessed to know such wonderful people.

A