March Happenings

Caitlin let Joseph read part of her novel, "Angel." He can't wait for her to write more chapters so he can find out what happens next.Jacob and his Dad built a pinewood derby car together.
Jacob won two races at the pinewood derby, and he received the "Slickest Car Award."
Roger bought season tickets to the Sounders Soccer games for the boys and himself. They appeared on National TV as part of the cheering crowd during the first home game.
Preston started reading chapter books. He is devouring them at an incredible pace. We checked out all 28 "Magic Tree House" books from the library earlier this week. He has read the first four already. He wants nothing to do with those childish picture books.

Preston recited a poem that he wrote at the "First Grade Poetry Reading" at his school.
"My Dad"
When my dad
Gives me a hug
It feels like a cat's cuddle

On my body.
My dad,
My dad.

I learned that Lucy Mack Smith led a group of Saints to Kirtland, Ohio in the spring of 1831. They traveled from Fayette to Buffalo, New York on the Erie Canal. When they arrived at Buffalo, the bay on Lake Erie was completely blocked with ice as you can see in the above satellite image. (I told my Sunday School class that this image was taken on the very day that Lucy Mack Smith arrived in Buffalo. They believed me for about two seconds.) As you know, after she urged the Saints to pray for safe passage, the ice parted allowing their boat to pass and closing right after them.

Anyway, the cool thing is, if you go to google maps, and type in "Palmyra, New York", you can see the Erie canal which runs through Palmyra just north of and parallel to main street. If you hover with your mouse over the little orange guy that is above the + sign on the zoom in/zoom out bar and drag him onto the map, blue lines will show on the map where you can set him down. If you set the guy down on a road that crosses the canal, you can see a 360 degree photo of the view from the bridge. Ta-da. You can see a portion of Erie canal that the Saints used to travel to Ohio.

This week, I had so much fun visiting some of the church history sites via google maps. I explored the bay in Buffalo, New York where Lucy Mack/God parted the ice. I "stood" on the street in front of the Kirtland Temple and wandered around town. I also found out, you can get directions, say from "Fayette, New York" to "Kirtland, Ohio" and then you can change where it says "By Car" to "Walking" and it will calculate the walking mileage and time. I had fun looking at the routes, mileages and times between the early church history sites in New York and Ohio. Well anyway, it's Sunday School Teacher gone wild again.