I mentioned to Sister Vorwaller awhile back that they probably have a White Christmas here in Vermont most years and we are certainly going to this year. We're grateful we have consistently been hiking up to the Memorial from our apartment because we definitely needed to today. We've been getting lots of snow since the ice storm and woke up to nearly a foot this morning. It is just the way I always pictured Vermont at this time of year.

The one shot is of Sis. Vorwaller going down the lane from our place this morning. The others taken as we hikeed up.

Trying again to post a few of the pictures of the winter wonderland created by the icestorm.

On Thur. the 11th of Dec. the predicted snowstorm arrived with lots of snow that created a perfect Christmas scene for all of our senior missionaries to enjoy as we gathered at Bro. and Sis. Feeney's home for their traditional Christmas dinner for the missionary couples. Their beautiful family provided a delightful setting for all us grandparents to be in. The joy they receive in celebrating Jesus's birth was clearly manifest. Their love for the Lord as well as us made our whole evening just as sweet and memorable as was the delicious dinner and dessert. Our drive to and from their home was slow because of all the snow but we were in no hurry because the peaceful feeling was so complete and full. However, by morning our snow'storm turned into a dangerous and destructive ice'storm that left thousands of people without power but also left an amazing winter wonderland. As I hiked Patriarch Hill I learned why we always decorated our Christmas tree with ice cycles. Sister Vorwaller and I have never seen anything more gloriously beautiful. The scene should last since it is supposed to be cold for awhile. Even though pictures never do justice I will post some to give you an idea.

I mentioned the lighting ceremony in my last blog and want to share a few pictures that lets you see for yourself just how beautiful the grounds of the Memorial are with over 100,000 lights. Lots and lots of people drive through each evening to enjoy them. The Christmas lights along with the live nativity is a gift to the community.

This certainly can be a most wonderful time of the year and I'm thoroughly convinced that is the case because of the reason for the season. The deapth and breadth of meaning and enjoyment is derived from our remembering and celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ at this time of year. We were very happy to participate in the Lighting Ceremony this year but I was more interested in the live Nativity Pagent put on here at the JSBM each of the past seventeen years. I always loved our traditional pagents of the nativity done by our family and looked forward to this years production at the Memorial. It went amazingly well and especially so the second night because the sound system worked much better. I am glad I was asked to take some pictures of the Nativity which allowed me to be in an isolated spot that really enhanced my experience the second night. Another factor that definitely enhanced the experience for everyone the second night was having the regular cast not show up and having the show go on because of the willingness of all those volunteers who pitched in. We were so blessed to have a young family here early to tour the Memorial and see the movie who accepted the invitation to be the Holy family. Their little baby was perfect and her crying just added to the whole experience. Anyway the best thing about it was having individuals comment that they had never had such an experience before. Everyone agreed it was a total success.

The renovation on the South Royalton building finally began and we started meeting in the Sharon Academy in November. Our Bishop and many others were concerned about the change of location and the effects the interruption would have on the ward. Yet, we have come to find out most of our worries were unfounded. Last Sunday's Fast and Testimony meeting was one of the finest we have ever attended. No matter what the setting we learned the truth that where two or more are gathered in the Lord's name He will be there also. The ward is drawing closer to one another and the Lord because of the inconvenience. Like my mother always said, there is never so much bad that there is the good."

We have been asked about how much we liked fall here in Vermont and the changing of the leaves. So I am sharing a few of the many pictures we have taken trying to capture the amazing beauty we basked in each day. Our walk to and from the memorial beneath a canopy of color came and went too quickly. The splendor of the breathtaking fall foliage seemed to pass by much more quickly than desired. None the less it was spectacular while it lasted.

Along with the wonderful visits from family during October we were so thrilled to have Elder and Sister Cluff bring our dear friends Ray and Kathy Johnson to visit the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial. John and Carol just completed their mission in Kirtland, Ohio where they were privileged to serve for a time at the John Johnson farm who was a direct ancestor of Ray and Carol. Their visit meant so very much to us because we haden't seen Ray and Kathy for such a long time. It was for us another mission blessing.

We are so pleased Kylei our oldest grandchild wanted to join her mother Autumn our eldest daughter to pay us a visit while here in Vermont on our mission. They landed in Burlington just as the skies were clearing off. We actually had snowflakes falling for most of the day rather than leaves. However, we awoke to a beautiful clear blue sky so typical of October. We were able to enjoy delightful fall weather to tour the local spots we took most of our family to visit as well as a trip to Maine. We have come to love Maine's villages, harbors and lighthouses and we were glad we could take them to the coast since most of the color around our place was gone. We ended up seeing four neat lighthouses including the Portland Headlight which is the oldest lighthouse in Maine.

Josh our middle son and Emily his wife who live in our home and take care of our place while we are on our mission came out to see us during U.E.A. They stayed with us but also spent a night in Montreal, Canada. We were very happy the fall colors were so bright when they arrived. We think the colors peaked about the time they came. We had fun taking them to Ben and Jerrys Ice Cream plant as well as Cold Hollow where they press fresh cider. We knew Josh really likes apple juice and thought they would enjoy the cider and cider donuts they continuiously make there.

During the first week of October our youngest daughter Rebecca & her husband Dave came from Star Valley, Wyo. and Nate our eldest son & Kelly his wife came from Salt Lake City. We were able to reserve the upstairs of the Baxter Mt. Bed and Breakfast for them. It is located in an attractive valley just a mile or so out of Sharon, Vt. and is situated right along a lovely brook that would entice any fisherman. It was fortuitous that the owner was a cyclist which provided some common ground among the guys. We were also pleased the bed and breakfast was close by and the owner let us join the kids for breakfast the first morning.

Due to computer problems here at the Memorial office and a very busy month of October we have not done any blogging for some time. October has always been our favorite month and this one was extra special with lots of our family coming out to visit us. It started off with Caroliene our middle daughter and her husband Travis coming at the end of September when the fall colors were making their first big change.

We had a great morning for a hike up to the top of Patriarch Hill which is the highest point on the church's property. They really appreciated the awesome view of the Rumpled Hills of Vermont just putting on their autumn dress and the attractive farmstead just beyond the top of the hill. There were still a few Blackberries for them to pick and taste. Our hike was an absolutely perfect way to begin their stay.

Sister Vorwaller and I are glad Sister Jensen motivated us to put an entry into the Tunbridge Worlds Fair. Then we had such a fun evening with the Jensens visiting all the exhibits and especially enjoying all the greasy food.

Sis. Vorwaller entered her beautiful baby afghan and I entered three of my photos.

Finally had a chance to add a couple more photos of beautiful Acadia N.P.

Wanted to add a few more pictures that shows the beauty of the Acadia National Park and our lovely Bed and Breakfast we stayed at. Sis. Vorwaller and I are standing on Cadillac Mountain in the one photo and I took one of Sis. Vorwaller reading in the cozy living room of our B&B.

Our trip to Acadia National Park, Maine

September is traditionally a slow time here at the Joseph Smith Memorial so Elder McKinnon arranged for us to have two preparation days together so we could make a trip to Maine to see Acadia National Park. The distance from our home in Vermont to the park in Maine is about 350 miles which is about the same distance that we travel from our home in Erda to Rebecca's home in Star Valley, Wyoming. We generally get to Rebecca's home in about four or four and a half hours. It took us eight hours to get to Acadia!! Traveling in New England is nothing like traveling in the west. Vermont has two freeways, New Hampshire and Maine each have one, they all go north and south no large roads go east and west. Sister Sanford who is from Maine told me that the people who built the roads just let a cow go and then they built the roads behind her. We had a great time on the trip over. The scenery is gorgeous and will continue to get better and better as the foliage changes more.

When we finally arrived at Mount Desert Island we stayed in a darling Bed & Breakfast in Salsbury Cove called the Coach Stop Inn. Since we had been riding for a long time the first thing we did after getting settled into our room was to hike to the shoreline about a mile and a half away. The tide was out and the shore was covered with mussels, clam shells, barnacles, and snails it was a small but pretty cove.

We ate that evening at the Chart House restaurant which sits by the water, we had a table facing the bay. I had a lobster and Elder Vorwaller had a pasta dish with a variety of seafood on it, lobster, crab, scallops, etc.. We watched the sun set and the moon rise over the bay.

Next morning we enjoyed a three course breakfast in the dining room of our B&B. The first course was Maine blueberry fritters served with Maine maple syrup this was followed by a Pineapple Orange smoothee served in champagne glasses. Our final course was eggs Napoleon which was a fresh baked croissant topped with an omelet style egg folded in quarters with fresh mozzarella and ham in the folds and topped with more fresh mozzarella and freshly made salsa. It was wonderful. After breakfast we checked out and spent the day touring and exploring one of the most breathtakingly beautiful National Parks we have ever visited, and we have visited quite a few. The waves pounding against solid granite boulders is an over-powering sight. The island is covered with conifers.The trees on Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the eastern sea coast, are stunted and we guessed that the reason for that is two fold, first the storms that blow across this point must be severe and secondly Cadillac Mountain is a huge pile of pink granite sprinkled with a very thin layer of soil which has blown off on the highest peaks. The drive around the shoreline was so amazing and the whole experience was very enlivening. We were so glad we got to visit a lighthouse during our brief stay.

We had a wonderful, wonderful experience.

Sis. Vorwaller enjoyed our visit to the Billings Farm and Museum as much as I. The farm house and farm are well kept and as you can see in the photo it is still a working farm of 1,000 of the original 3,000 acres. They had resources to built the house way ahead of its time. We thought about how neat it would be to live in it now. The museum was full of so many antique pieces of equipment that were in such good condition like the horse drawn corn planter in the one photo. They also had an amazing display of beautiful quilts which pleased Sis. Vorwaller.

Sis. Shirley Pease who is a member of the South Royalton ward where we attend took Sis. Vorwaller and I on a field trip to learn the location of a few of the sites around the scenic village of Tunbridge where most of the history of the Smith family happened. I happened to catch a small flock of turkeys in the foreground of this shot of Tunbridge that evening. The picture below is of the Tunbridge Gore where Asael and Mary Duty had moved their family to help their sons start farms of their own. It appeared to be a fairly fertile valley situated in the rolling hills about three miles from Tunbridge.

At the suggestion of Elder McKinnon we joined with Elder and Sister Slade for a trip to the Montreal, Quebec, Canada Temple on Tuesday, August 26. We picked the Slade's up a little after 5:00 a.m. and the trip took about three hours. We had made an appointment to be on the 9:00 a.m. session. The people at the temple were so kind to us. There were only the four of us on the session who were English speaking only, but they did the entire session in English and asked the other participants in the group if they needed a headset for the French translation. I thought that was really going the extra-mile to make us feel welcome and comfortable. There were about 20 people on the session including the four of us. After the session we traveled into the heart of Montreal to the area known as "Old Montreal" to have some lunch before driving back to Vermont. It really is a foreign country even though it is so close. We got lost trying to find this part of town but most of the people we asked for directions spoke some English.

Montreal is a beautiful city on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. We were glad to have the chance to view the city and very grateful to go to the temple since we haden't been since we left the M.T.C. Our next temple trip will be to Boston in a few months which we are really looking forward to.

On bright crisp mornings when Sis. Vorwaller and I hike to the top of Patriarch Hill we are rewarded with the sweet taste of Blackberries which are now ripening faster than we can pick. I guess most people don't like getting scratched by their thorny stems but the harvest is worth it for us. Fresh Blackberries on oatmeal cereal is great with Vermont maple syrup. And I'm really excited about having Blackberry pie.

I have met the most interesting people here at the memorial. A few weeks ago I met a single woman and her young daughter at the monument. They didn't want a tour of the visitor's center but I told them about the monument and they told me that they were here to find a letterbox. This really piqued my couriosity so I asked her to tell me all about letterboxes and this is what I found out: Letterboxing is an intriguing pastime combining artistic ability with "treasure-hunts in parks, forests, and cities around the world. Participants seek out hidden letterboxes by cracking codes and following clues. The prize: a miniature piece of art known as a rubber stamp--usually a unique, hand-carved creation.
Letterboxers stamp their discoveries in a personal journal, then use their own rubber stamp, called a signature stamp, by stamping it into the logbook found with the letterbox, perhaps writing a note about the weather or their adventures in finding the letterbox.
Clues and directions on where to find letterboxes can be found on the internet at www.atlasquest.com .
This is a picture of me finding my first letterbox and a picture using the stamp that Elder Vorwaller carved for me from a pink eraser to stamp in the logbook. The letterbox I found is on the memorial site, down by the Solomon Mack foundations.

August 8, we met some members of our South Royalton Ward, Randy and Amy Ferris and their daughters and Brother and Sister Oparowski in Pomfret, Vermont, at the Moorse Farm blueberry fields. It was a rainy day but we were able to arrive between showers. In less than an hour Craig and I had picked 13 pounds of delicious blueberries. This is the first time we have ever tasted fresh wild blueberries and it was such a treat not only to eat them, but to see how they grow and to pick them ourselves.

We are just catching up on some of the nice experiences that transpired during our busy summer. A most memorable event took place when our dear friends Steve and Deb paid us a visit and we were so glad they could stay with us for a couple nights. They were here with us last October when we talked with Elder McKinnon about the possibility of serving a mission here. We were so pleased to spend some time with them. We went to the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream factory and they were introduced to a new favorite. We also visited my favorite fish hatchery in Roxbury to see beautiful Vermont Brook Trout.

Sister and Elder Sanford kindly invited us over for a Lobster dinner to celebrate her birthday. They showed us how to cook Lobster and how to eat them after cooking your own. It was a first for us and we found out that Sister Vorwaller loves Lobster as much or more than I. At least when it is home cooked. I doubt if she has ever had more enjoyment eating a meal. Now we're so looking forward to having Lobster in the Sanford's home state of Maine next month.

Among the bus tours that come we have wonderful groups of young people most of whom are Seminary graduates from western states. These groups usually visit Washington, D.C. and other national historic sites as well as Church history sites. Teaching the young people who come to the visitor's center is a special treat for Brother Vorwaller who taught youth for so many years in Church Education.

The tour directors for almost all of the buses that have been here are men who work for the Church Education System and do tours in the summer. Many of the directors provide wonderful learning experiences for the people in their groups.

During the month of July we have hosted eleven bus tours with fifty or more visitors on each of the buses. We divide them into three groups of fifteen to twenty to take on a tour of the visitor center. In this picture we see Sis. Vorwaller doing what we each love to do, explaining to her group about the Prophet Joseph Smith being born here at this sacred spot. It requires about an hour for us to complete tours with larger numbers but they are all very gracious and appreciative.

This is a picture of the home the Smiths rented right after the successful surgery on Joseph's leg. Even though the back portion of the house was an addition since the Smiths lived in it I'm sure the whole family was excited to have such a lovely new residence in which to start over. During the three years they lived here Joseph was on crutches. Even though the whole family would have looked to the future with optomisim the next three years were not kind to them or their neighbors. They experienced crop failure each of the next three years and the last was what they called 'the year without a summer' here in New England. There was a killing frost every month of the year. We now know that that climate change was caused by the eruption of a volcano in Indonesia named Tambora. As a result of those bad crop years many people along with the Smiths leave Vermont. Vermont historians say it took over a century for the state to recover from that loss of population. Most of the people will move westward and relocate somewhere in the Western Preserve. The Vermonters had been hearing about the fertile soil and longer growing season in western New York and Ohio. And lots of families are settling in or near Palmyra, N.Y. because of its favorable location in relation to the Erie Canal and the major roads through the area at that time. In a sense Palmyra becomes the cross roads of the western frontier during the early part of the nineteenth century. For these reasons and other more significant ones Joseph Smith Sr. will settle his family near Palmyra.

These are two of the quilts Sis. Vorwaller really loved. We refered to them in our last post.

We also visited the Shelburne Museum and enjoyed the wide variey of displays. We think the Shelburne Museum is to Vermont what the Huntington Library is to So. Calif. Among the many exhibits we enjoyed, seeing the beautiful hand made quilts was definitely a favorite of Sis. Vorwaller's. The colors achieved by applique on the Poppy quilt and also on a quilt with day-lilies was vibrant and bold. Most of the quilts on display were hand-quilted.