Family comes to Ohio

SM's parents and youngest brother came to visit us in August. The weather the week previous to their arrival had been very hot and very humid but cooled down for the visit. It was nice. We did a couple of days of touring Northern Ohio. One of our first stops was the Smucker's store.

We also stopped at a place called the Wendell August Forge. This was the first time for all of us. We loved looking at the hand-crafted metal and the process that they do to make each piece.

Here's an example of a metal serving platter...or wall decoration.

And we stopped in Berlin to share some Amish things with JC. We actually spent many hours in Amish Country. We had some cheese at Heini's Cheese Chalet and went to the Ashery and had lunch at the Amish Door and saw lots and lots of countryside. We had a great day!

We also took a trip to Kirtland. Once again the weather was nice and we had a great time together, learning about church history.

We were able to walk around the Kirtland temple and take a few pictures.

I really like this picture at the Kirtland temple grounds of SM's mom and JC. They really enjoy each other and their time together.

We took a short trip to the Morley farm. This is an odd picture of the back of SM's mother as she's taking a picture of the woods, but I love how beautiful the woods look against the red of the shirt. This was my first time to the Morley farm and I learned all sorts of things about the Morley's and their belief in living a communal life.

And then we drove to the Johnson Farm. Here we are in the kitchen learning a bit about the Johnson family and their role in early church history. I love this home and it really was a mansion during the 1830's.

I love this photo! It is taken on the front porch steps of the Johnson home where Joseph Smith preached about brotherly love and kindness that Sabbath morning after being torn out of bed and then tarred and feather and almost killed with poison the night before.

On Saturday of the visit, we took everyone into Cleveland to the West Side Market. SM and JC stood in line for one hour to buy us all gyro's from Steve's Gyro's while the rest of us walked around, checking out different booths.

The gyro's were very big. That is what SM's mom is telling me as I snapped her picture. I think JC was the only one able to each his whole gyro. The rest of us had about enough when we got half way through the gyro. They were tasty...a bit salty for a couple of us...but now we have bragging rights and can share this experience with anyone who wants to know.

Here the brother's are eating their gyro's! Yum!

And on their last day visiting us, we went to Dan's Dogs and got a couple hot dogs.

Here JC is trying out the Peanut Butter and Jelly Hot Dog. (Don't knock it until you've tried it). And of course, we had time at home to play many games and just enjoy being together. Thanks for coming and visiting us!! Love ya!