While the boys were busy touring our Church's history sites in New York, Howard, Mikaela and I decided to take a long bike ride along the coast of Rhode Island. We went to Providence and took the Eastbay bike path. It was such a beautiful ride. The weather was wonderful. There were wildflowers all along the path. Halfway through the ride, there was a free water and Cliff-bar stand. There were a lot of bike enthusiasts, but they were all considerate and it didn't make us feel bad for being there on a busy Saturday. We took our time, because Mikaela was on a smaller bike than ours, but we loved the opportunity to see the ocean, the swans at sea (I didn't know that swans like to swim in the ocean!), the heron on their nests, the black birds mocking us from the rocks, and the beautiful wild flowers on all the borders. What a beautiful ride!

We then went into the Italian section of Providence. Federal Hill is predominately Italian, with a lot of people who speak the language. We love to go and buy cheese, fresh pasta, gelato, San Pelligrino, etc. I always feel like a gain 50 pounds just walking into Costantino's. The meaning of "deli" to them is so overwhelming as compared to a typical American deli. You could spend hours perusing the items in the deli and still not see everything.

The boys arrived home last night. They were tired and ready for baths and bed. They had a lot of fun on their trip. Braden and Ben have been to the Hill Cumorah area several times since we moved here ten years ago. They have seen many changes in that short period of time, but they are always glad to take the opportunity to go there. They still like the Pageant itself, even though it never changes, and they can't believe that people would not want to see it.

The t-shirts they received were awesome. I think Scott Whitmore must have designed them. The shirts had a profile of Joseph Smith on the front, with a lantern on the back, with the words, "I could not deny it, neither dared I do it...." on the back. Their only complaint about the whole trip was that they were very tired, because silly girls on the bus talk too loud and keep people awake by their obnoxious laughs. Hmmm...I didn't know my boys liked to sleep. I can never get them into bed at night.