New York Vacation-Niagara Falls & the Erie Canal

On Thursday we got all packed up for the day and headed to Niagara Falls. This was top on my list of places to take the kids while were were in New York.

I really wanted to go on Maid of the Mist again. N8 and I went a little over 10 years ago while were were in NY for our wedding reception. I really thought the kids would enjoy it, and they did!
Here's what the boats look like from the top:

We all got on our pretty blue ponchos and the boat headed for the Falls!!


You get a little wet while out there!


After Maid of the Mist we headed over to Goat Island and had a picnic. Then we explored the Falls a little more:



After Niagara Falls we drove over to the town of Lockport, NY. We were on a quest to see some of the locks on the Erie Canal in use!

We had been through Lockport years ago, but at the time the canal was empty for the winter. Even N8, who grew up in the area had never seen a boat go through the locks.

Here is one of the locks opening to let the boat through. This was after the water had been made level:

Look closely at the next 2 pictures at the water level. The water had to be raised and equal with the water on the other side of the lock so the boat could go through:


It was very interesting and I'm glad we took the time to check it out. N8's grandma has recently been reading about the history of the Erie Canal so N8 took a video of the entire process (which takes about 2o minutes) so she could see how it all works.
After watching the locks we headed over to a restaurant for dinner and dessert. Friendly's: Where Ice Cream Makes the Meal!! My kind of restaurant!!
Check out Uncle Brent and Emma's Ice Cream! Yum!!

New York Vacation-Stony Brook

DISCLAIMER: I am in a bathing suit in some of these pictures. Shield your eyes if you must :)!

Wednesday we headed out to Stony Brook State Park. We had never been there before but we had seen pictures and thought it looked fun. It was! We had a great time and the weather was perfect. The entire time we were there it was overcast making it nice to play in the waterfalls and brook-creek-stream or whatever you deem the correct name for it!!

It was a little bit of a hike but we wanted to start the farthest back on the trail and make our way down the water. I'm glad we did. It made it more of an adventure and we got to see more of the beautiful landscape around us. When we made it this is what we found:

We all got right in and enjoyed! The water was a little chilly, but once you were in it wasn't too bad.
Brent enjoying the water:

Bud enjoyed being in the water, but not going under the falls:

Emma & Grandma Karen however did enjoy getting under!

Henry took in the scenery:








When we were all done N8 decided to tell us he had seen leaches in the water!! He said they were little and wouldn't have hurt anyone. He knew to wait until we were done because there is no way I would have let our kids play in the water knowing that!! But we did have a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the day!

New York Vacation-Palmyra

Day to of our vacation we headed to Palmyra. N8's dad, N8 and I went to the Palmyra, NY LDS Temple and did a session while Karen & Brent watched the kids. It was such a nice experience. N8 and I attend the temple regularly, but rarely get to go in together.


After the temple we wandered some of the sites. The Smith's Log Cabin

The view of the temple:

The Sacred Grove:

That evening the kids and Grandpa went for a ride, Henry loved it!


N8's dad and Karen live on over 8 acres land, most of which is an old apple orchard. Throughout all of the apple trees, as far as you could see were wild raspberries! Most were totally un-accessible due to the wildness!

N8 loved wandering through and eating them ride off the bushes!

Then we got a fire going for some smores and catching fireflies. The kids and I had never seen them before. Pretty cool bugs!


There are 3 little lights in the picture. Those are fireflies. There were tons, but they are very hard to get a picture of!

It was a very full, but fun day!

New York Vacation: 4th of July

We arrived in the wee hours of the morning July 4th. That afternoon Karen invited Great Grandma as well as Karen's brother, sister, nephews + family over for a BBQ picnic. The weather was perfect, the food was yummy and everyone had a great time.

I had purchased the kids matching flag shirts before the trip and we took the opportunity to talk down the road to get some pictures taken in front of an old red barn. It was the perfect setting and I plan to get some of the pictures printed and replace the kids and family picture we currently have up.


We also took the opportunity to get a picture with Great Grandma:


That night we went to another town (Chili-pronounced Ch-eye-lie!) for fireworks. While we were wandering around the vendors there Emma found $42 (she has this strange ability to find money everywhere!!). We asked people in the line, waited around for a while, but no one seemed to be missing it. Later we found a policeman and turned the money. They will wait 30 days and if no one claims the money they will mail it to N8's dad.

The kids each got ice cream and we watched some great fireworks.

New York Vacation-Things I learned...

We're home and slowly getting put back together from a week long trip to Upstate New York to visit N8's family. What a wonderful trip it was. We kept very busy and saw and did lots of things. Posts will be coming soon with all of that, but first I wanted to post a few things I learned from this trip:

• Traveling with a family of 6 (2 adults, 4 children (ages 8,6, 3 & under 1) is tough! Maneuvering through the airport, keeping everyone feed, occupied & happy is not easy!
• Never underestimate how nice a stranger can be (Bud sat next to a very nice man from Brazil that helped him basically the entire 5 hour flight with his Star Wars sticker book!).
• We will NEVER own a Tahoe. This is what we rented for the week. They have NO storage at all. We could barely fit our stroller and we couldn't fit any of our suitcases.
• New York is GREEN and I love it!
• I also LOVE old barns and farmhouses!
• I do not have "Lake Sense", I can not sense where Lake Ontario is, thus I had no idea what direction we were going the entire time! N8 (and his family) can "sense" where the lake is giving them a landmark for directions!
• I hate mosquitoes and they love me.
  
• Flying 1st class is pretty sweet! (2 of our tickets were upgraded to 1st class since N8 is a frequent traveler. Bud, Henry and I were the lucky ones that got to sit in 1st class).
  
• I like to people watch :)
• We take a LOT of pictures. During our 1 week vacation we took about 850 pictures! The upcoming posts will be very pictures heavy!
  

I am happy to be home, but not ready to be out of vacation mode!

Some Summer Happenings...

Here are a few things I haven't blogged yet for the summer:

Bud attended a Cub Scout Twilight Camp. He LOVED it and I hope they do it again next summer.


We've had friends over multiple times. On one occasion friends, Katie and Daniel, brought Just Dance Kids.

This week Bud and Emma had swimming lessons. They're still not swimming, but I would say that Emma has improved quite a bit. But today Bud even went down the slide and off the diving board.




We're through almost a month of summer vacation, but the best is yet to come. New York, Karen & Bridget visit & Idaho are still yet to come!