What I Did on Summer Vacation - Part 3

Vacations are a lot of work, especially when you have five kids and are staying in different hotels every night.  Our last leg of our journey was the one I was looking forward to the most, camping on the lake!

My aunt and uncle have been camping at the Great Sacandaga Lake in the Adirondack Mountains for almost 40 years.  Many friends from their small town in upstate NY come up as well and it just seems like one big party.  My cousins grew up spending part of their summer at the lake, enjoying it with their friends and family, and now my cousin and her husband bring their daughters to continue the tradition.

When my grandmother was alive, she and I would make the trip up for the day, bringing along my children who would have an absolute ball there.  After my grandmother passed away, my aunt and uncle graciously offered space for us to set up camp.  The last time we had been there I was pregnant with the twins, the views of the lake and visiting with my family far outweighed the tossing and turning of sleeping in a tent while pregnant with two!  It is a lot of fun!

This year Steve and I felt like we were finally ready to attempt camping again.  It helped that we were constantly persuaded by the kids to go, after a winter visit from my aunt and uncle promised them of jet skiing, swimming, boat rides, and water skiing.  Everyone was excited to get there again!

And we were not disappointed.

Jet skiing:

Lance with my cousin's daughter Marissa.

Luke with my cousin Wendy.

Kate with Wendy.

My cousin's other daughter Danyelle and Kyle.

and with Trent.

Swimming:

Lance, Kyle and Trent enjoying the lake.

Luke and Kyle humoring Chevy with a splash.  She loves it!

Luke.

Boating:

Kyle trying to catch something.  He only thing he did manage to snag was the tree the boat was tied to!

The kids thought the boating Aunt Audrey and Uncle Bob had promised was only limited to Uncle Bob's awesome boat.  Little did they know that some of their friends had kayaks and were nice enough to let the boys take them out.

 Trent on the lake.

 Steve with Luke.

 and with Kate.

Kyle had the best time on the kayak.  The kayaks seemed to call his name whenever they were close by.  This may be a new-found passion for him!  He REALLY wants one now and has decided to switch his saving of an X-Box to a kayak.  

 Kyle with Luke

Water skiing was part exciting and part frustrating for the boys.  Thankfully they had some great instructors with lots and lots (and lots) of patience.  Lance was the one with the most determination and was able to get up for a bit.  I tried to get a picture of him on the skis, but the effort proved to be futile.

Luke on the man-powered water skis.

 Danyelle, Steve and our friend Diane (also the owner of the kayak) trying to help Trent.

Off he goes!

 Trying to help Lance get up!

 Go buddy!

SPLASH!

Our vacation wasn't all work, we did a lot of relaxing too...

A HUGE thank you to my Aunt Audrey and Uncle and Cousin Wendy and her family for your awesome hospitality.  We loved every minute of it!

What I Did on Summer Vacation - Part 2

I've never been to Niagara Falls, much less to Canada, and I was very excited/apprehensive about our adventure.  The apprehension had much more to do with trying to get everyone across the border because I had heard conflicting reports about what children need to get in Canada.  Thankfully it turns out they only need birth certificates, but I wasn't 100% confident about that until we made it into Canada.

If you have never been to Niagara before, let me tell you...it is like nothing else I have ever seen.  As we were nearing the border, but still not sure of how close we were, I saw what looked like smoke from a factory or something.  That smoke turned out to be the mist from the Canadian Falls.  Imagine the force it takes to create a mist that flies into the air like that...  Amazing!

I was also expecting much more of a cheesy, amusement park-type of atmosphere than we found.  granted, once you get into Canada you are barraged with casinos and restaurants and lights and billboards... But once we got down to the Falls and Niagara river, I was impressed by the classiness of the place.

It also helped our hotel room was 27 stories high with an unbelievable view of both Falls.  Although the room was expensive (as everything is in that part of the world), it saved us quite a bit of money from all the tourist traps of getting you elevated to see the Falls.  I can't tell you how many times we said to the kids, "That's the same view we have from our hotel room."  In addition to the room, we had a two bedroom suite with two bathrooms.  No stepping over stuff in that room!!!

View of the Canadian Falls from our hotel room

The American Falls are impressive as you can see in the pictures below.  They hit a lot more rock as they fall so they don't seem as tall and majestic as the Canadian Falls, but they certainly would be more deadly if you went over them.  Story about that later...

The Canadian Falls are wider, taller and create the aforementioned mist that sprays you if you get too close.  Beautiful!

We did do some of the touristy things while we were there, including the Maid of the Mist and Journey Behind the Falls.  While waiting for the Maid of the Mist, a boat ride on the river where you go through the mists of both Falls, there was a medical emergency on the boat before ours and we had to wait a bit.  Once the boats were back on track, our boat was unloading the previous group and a lady came off soaked.  She took off her shirt and bra and continued on through Niagara.  Kyle giggled for 20 minutes after and still giggles when we bring it up.  Those Canadians!

The Journey Behind the Falls was a little less exciting, tunnels dug behind the Canadian Falls and a platform beside them to really feel the force and deafen the people around you.  We still ended up getting soaked.  It is here we read about a 7 year-old survivor of the a boating accident and his sub-sequential falling over the Canadian Falls.  It's hard not to think about how lucky that little boy was to first, fall over the Canadian Falls rather than the American Falls, but then to actually survive the magnitude of the force of water.  Amazing!  You can read more about his story here if you're interested.  It's quite a story!

That night we went to dinner at a TGIFridays.  While I have to tell you Molson tastes better in Canada, the price of the dinner was sobering.  We walked back to the hotel, threw the kids in the whirlpool bathtub for a quick scrub, and watched fireworks over the Falls before bed.  Falling asleep to the view of the Falls lit up, it was quite a night to remember!

The next day started out being a quick escape from Niagara after a visit to the Butterfly Conservatory, but turned into a bigger adventure.  On our way to the Butterfly Conservatory, we stopped at a view over the rapids of the Niagara River.  At this point, the river makes a bend toward Lake Ontario and the force of water from the Falls makes the currents spectacular.  Once there, Steve and the boys noticed a jet boat ride taking you through those rapids and they decided to do it.  I voluntarily took the little ones for our own little adventure, attempting to hike down to the river to watch the boat go by.  The hike starts our with a hundred-step flight of stairs over the cliff.  That just got you over the cliff.  As we continued on the trail and we got about half-way down to the river, I realized 1) we were going to have to come all the way back up here and 2) I was taking two 3 year-olds down to the class 5 rapids were people are known to drown, so I got my wits about me.  Kate and Luke were troopers about the whole thing and I didn't have to carry either one of them.

Kate and Luke in front of the map of the trail we took.

Waiting for the jet boat to come by.

The boys' jet boat.

Steve and the boys will tell you the jet boat was the best part of Niagara.  They went in Class 5 rapids and got absolutely drenched.  Steve said they hit a wave once that took his breath away it hit him so hard.  They talked about the Class 6 rapids which are so dangerous you will be fined $10,000 if you go in them and the number of people jet boat captains have saved.  I think they are just happy to have made it out alive!

Our last adventure in Canada was the Butterfly Conservatory.  I was a little hesitant to go there because the person who recommended it for me has mostly younger kids, I thought the twins would love it and the bigger boys would be bored.  That's one of the problem with having such a large age range in my family, it's hard to please everyone.  But since the twins had waited around three hours for the jet boat ride, I figured the boys could be a little bored for them.

Boy!  I was wrong!  Kudos to my friend Larissa because she was spot on!  Thank you, my dear!

The butterflies were everywhere, landing on everyone.  Steve happened to be their favorite landing pad, much to Kate's dismay, but everyone got a chance to have a buddy.  It was really spectacular!

Like I said, some spectacular butterflies!  I know lots of towns have these, so if you have one around you ...check it out!!!

Lastly, my favorite picture from the bunch.  Steve looks relaxed as Kate looks adoringly at her Daddy.  Love it!

Next - Part 3

What I Did on Summer Vacation

Whew!  Vacations can be exhausting!  From my neurotic cleaning frenzy I go into before I leave to packing for six people (Steve's on his own), I am more than happy to get in the car to escape the madness.  Our trip this year was a little different than our normal trips to the beach because we were doing a couple of different things.  This created a preparedness I'd never had experienced before.  Three hotels which I wasn't sure of the accommodations and camping for four nights!  Surprisingly, it all fit in our tiny little Honda Odyssey and we were able to scoot away right on time.

That is, after we caught our ever-running puppy.  Rotten dog!

Anyway, our first trek was to Penn State.  My husband has a hobby of collection pint glasses from colleges.  It seemed absolutely imperative to get one from the place he went to Grad School, so off we went.  Coincidentally, it was at the half-way mark to our second stop and only about a 3 1/2 hour drive.  The boys were excited about going to see the stadium and having some legendary ice cream at the Creamery.

The kids on top of the Nittany Lion.  It was fun to show them around some of our old stomping grounds when Steve was at Penn State.

Some pics of the kids eating the delicious ice cream.  You can see the sizes of the ice cream made for some serious tummy aches later.

At Penn State we went on a tour of Beaver Stadium, went to a great athletic museum at the stadium, ate at the Corner Room and walked around Beaver Ave. for a while.  Coveted pint glass - check!

Later in the day, we went to Penns Caves.  We were looking forward to hanging out in the cooler caves after fighting the heat all day.  The kids really loved the boat ride through the caverns and learning about stalactites and stalagmites.  It was a great activity for all the kids.

After a yummy pizza dinner at Faccia Luna, we finally made it to the hotel.

Let me just tell you about the trouble of finding a hotel when you have five children...  Forget about trying to function in the small space with so many people, crawling all over them to avoid stepping on their heads or their accoutrements.  Ugh!  The highlight was Luke trying to procrastinate falling asleep and looking for any excuse to stay awake.  He's pestering his sister, singing songs, going through drawers and finds the Bible.  He says, "Look it's my favorite book!"  The boy's delirious...or a priest in the making.

I'll just say the hotel at Penn State left us all a little cranky the next day for our drive to...

CANADA!

Thankfully adrenaline pushed us through our grumpy snits and we made it across the border.

Part 2 - Stay Tuned!

Fireflies

You know it's summer in the south when the fireflies start to come out.  The twinkling of those little bugs are like fairy dust sprinkled in the air.  Magical!

As most child love to catch fireflies, so do my littlest ones.  With some guidance from the girls on our street, they have discovered the magic of fireflies.  They giggle with delight trying to catch them and jump as high as they can (about 3 inches off the ground) with not much luck.

Their joy in fireflies has prompted a bedtime routine centered around these fairy tale creatures.  On a whimsical night, instead of reading a story to Kate and Luke, I started telling a story about fireflies.  Every day we tell a different story but they all start out like this:

"Once upon a time there was a little boy named (Luke jumps in with a name he likes to add, usually "Luke") and a little girl named (Kate's addition to the story usually involves a girl named "Momo" her favorite name for herself).  

And they lived in a castle *way up on the hill*.  (said together)"

Then they story always involves the boy and girl's love for fireflies and usually involves a firefly named "Buzz" after a certain little boy's favorite movie.  Sometimes the story is plotless and requires lots of quick thinking on Mom's part just to get through it and other times it just rolls off the tongue.  The kids don't seem to notice, they just hang onto every word.  Sometimes even the bigger kids join in listening to the crazy adventures of Buzz the Firefly.

It's a family tradition turned into a deep love for story-telling for me.  I was over the moon, however, when my babies decided to tell a firefly story on their own last night.  The plot was a bit thin and it required a couple of questions. but the story line was Buzz was sad because he was missing his friends.  Eventually he found his friends and...

*They lived happily every after!* (said together)

Blueberries

We live in a fabulous area for finding local food.  I am blessed with friends who have provided me several paths to fresh, local beef and chicken and a local dairy and egg co-op.  In addition to my beloved garden, our town has three farmer's markets a week and TONS of local pick-your-own places.

Last weekend we went with our cousins back to the CSA we belonged to a couple of years ago and picked some wonderful blueberries.

They were plentiful and wonderful and I fell in love with the bugs and the heat from our old CSA once again.  Despite these things they could complain about, the kids obviuosly had a great time.

Lance insisting on carrying the large box to fill, and he did a pretty good job!

Kate loving every minute!  In spite of her strawberry stealing at home, she was quite reserved with the blueberries...until we got home!

Kyle with his bounty!

Luke so happy to have filled up his pint container, with a little help from Trent and Dad.

Coming home with our harvest, we dutifully pulled out the big, juicy berries and popped them in our mouths while saving some for some future blueberry pancakes.  The rest of the blueberries went into making this...

TOTALLY worth the bugs and heat!  I'd share some with you but it was devoured in three seconds flat! But if you come visit, I'll make one for you!

My Garden

One of my passions is gardening.  It gives me absolute pleasure to work in the dirt and I'm over the moon if I find a big juicy worm or toad who find my garden to be a suitable home.

When we first moved to the country, we joined a Community Supported Agriculture group.  It was fabulous!  Every week we brought home a variety of seasonal fruit, vegetables and herbs from the local farm.  Belonging to a CSA really made us try new veggies and forced us to eat them more.  I found, however, that as our family grew it was hard for me to do something with the three beets in our box or even the four ears of corn.  After two years of belonging to the CSA, I decided to take that money and put it into a garden of our own.

Ever since I was a kid, I have dreamt of owning a garden.  Most little girls dream of becoming a princess, living in a castle and living happily ever after.  If I could live in my garden, I would be happy!  Our neighbors had a fabulous garden when I was little.  I remember the dad out there tilling and planting and watched as they harvested later in the summer.  Of course, there was always too much zucchini and far too many tomatoes and I felt so blessed when they shared with us.

Three summers ago I got to work...er, rather I got Steve to work.  We borrowed a tiller from our friends and he spent an eternity out there trying to dig up our rocks and clay into a palatable garden for our veggies and fruit.  The kids and I tried the best we could to get the grass and rocks out as he tilled.  It was a huge undertaking and I know he already dreaded doing it again the next year.

Our first year of gardening was a success.  We planted the requisite number of tomatoes and squash, along with some other veggies and fruit.  To be honest, our first summer wasn't a stellar success.  There were lots of weeds and grass, rocks and clay.  I loved getting out there but the twins were small and I couldn't pay much attention to the garden.

The next year was met with high enthusiasm.  I planted seeds in March and Steve tilled in May.  Tilling was easier than the previous year, due in part to added compost from our compost pile and hay laid the previous fall.  The kids were more enthusiastic about helping and it was a successful season.

However, this year has been the best by far!  Tilling took about ten minutes and we barely found any rocks at all.  It's only July and I only harvested my first tomato yesterday, but it's just a fabulous season due in part to Mother Nature's blessing us with a lot of rain in the spring and periodic rain throughout the summer.  I found an interesting article early this spring about ways to get your kids involved in the garden.  It laid out a plan which looked similar to my garden already so I decided to try it.  Basically it uses plants which catch kids eyes like pole beans on teepee trellises and plants named "PacMan Broccoli".  Interesting plants that catch their eye like kohlrabi (I know, what's that?), ferny asparagus and big sunflowers.

My tomatoes are falling over from the weight, my corn is far taller than me as opposed to the saying "knee high by the 4th of July", my strawberries are producing some gorgeous red berries I would love to make into a pie if only a certain little girl would stop going in there to eat them all!

In my beloved garden are blueberries, raspberries, three varieties of tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, jalapeno peppers, a cabbage (from a contest Trent is involved in), corn, watermelon, romaine lettuce, strawberries,

cantaloupe (look at those awesome orbs forming - yummy!),

potatoes which are so much fun to harvest (we've already harvested the new potatoes and look forward to the fall for the final big harvest), see that one poking from the ground?

pole beans given to me by fellow twin mom and gardening extraordinaire Jenn (who I love to get ideas from and talk "garden"),

aforementioned PacMan Broccoli, which, by the way, the name does not get the kids to want to eat it any more than before

the ferny asparagus which was an impulse buy from the gardening store, we have to wait three years for harvest but it's such an interesting little plant I look forward to watching it mature over the years,

and kohlrabi.

 So what is kohlrabi?  Apparently it is a turnip-like vegetable that grows above ground.  It was listed as something the kids would like to watch because of it's cool purple and green colors.  It has intrigued both kids and adults!  Harvesting was another issue...

PULL!!!

I said PULL!!!

Come on!  PULL!!!

After some help from Mom, we were finally able to get it out!

Lance's enthusiasm about the kohlrabi was quickly dissipated as soon as it was put on his plate.  We cooked the leaves that night and are saving the turnip-like veggie for another night.  The leaves were spiny and thick, and very hard to eat.  It's understandable why it's not a more popular vegetable!  

4th of July in our Small Town

I've done the big July 4th celebrations.  When I was a kid, my family would go down to DC to listen to The Beach Boys and stay for the fireworks at the Washington Monument.  I don't remember much about it, other than the nasty bathrooms, awful heat and humidity, and my father getting pissed when a stranger tried to stand on our cooler to get a better view of the concert.  Let's just attribute that grumpiness to the heat and humidity.

As I got older and lived near the city, Steve and I made our annual trek out to the Mall to watch the fireworks.  In fact, my favorite memory of the 4th of July is one year we got tickets to a radio-sponsored event that filled a parking lot with sand and misters, drinks and activities, and some of our favorite local bands.  As the evening drew near, a little tipsy and very sweaty, we went closer to the Mall and watched the fireworks.  Good times.

I guess the turning point came when Steve and I rode the Metro into DC and got off the train.  As we exited the station and saw the crowds, we both kinds looked at each other and turned around to come home.  Let's just attribute it to the heat and humidity.

Now that we have children and live further from the city, this is what our 4th of July looks like:

Steve with the kids waiting for the parade.

The beginning of the parade, photo courtesy of Kyle's magnificent photography.

Our town's parade is typical of any small town.  Lots of fire trucks and local scouts, teams, and businesses sponsoring floats.  And this year TONS of politicians.  It was a very long parade.  I think the highlight for the kids is the goodies thrown out by the people on the floats.  This year the kids brought home water, necklaces, frisbees, boatloads of candy, and even water balloons!

We are fortunate to have friends who live on Main Street and are always wonderful about inviting us to watch the parade from their yard.  Thank you to the Backmans for your wonderful hospitality and the fabulous barbecue following the parade.  This was a 4th of July not to be forgotten!

Our family on the stairs of the Backman's home.  Lovely!

The evening ended with another barbecue at our neighbors and a fantastic fireworks display a short walk away.  I think we saw five or six firework displays from neighboring towns just from our vantage point.  It was awesome!

One day we will take the kids to the Mall for the fireworks, but until then we will enjoy this small town's  4th of July festivities and enjoy every minute!

Hope your 4th of July was as much fun as ours!