a Friday in NY... diner, doctor and amusement rides

So, on Friday the 28th, we began our day at the diner....

 They have a photo album there... found this shot in it....

 No one can resist creamers for stacking....

 Silly bird!!

Next, we had a follow up appointment with the ortho for another x-ray on Gretchen's elbow.  It looked great and the dr said we should come back the following week.  We explained we were only here on vacation and he said, no problem, find an ortho as soon as you get home.  Which we did.  She has had 2 appointments there (so far, 5 sets of x-rays on this kid for this injury!) and we go back in a couple weeks to get the cast off!  ... and have more x-rays.

Every summer, we take the kids to this little amusement park.  Sometimes, we meet my friend Kris and her kids there, but this year, we were going to miss them by a couple days.  Now, this amusement park is on the market.  They have already sold off the mini golf and ice cream stand - both of which have been demolished.  But, so far, there is no buyer.  You don't even know who may purchase it.  Might be someone who decides to keep it up and running.  But, thinking this might be the last summer of it's existence, we wanted to go there for the afternoon.  We waited until we were leaving the dr's office to tell the kids.  It made a great activity with her cast, too.  Fun, but not overly active.

Here are a few shots from Hoffman's Playland on June 28th with the twins.

 Then, it started to rain... actually, it rained on them while they were on their second ride on the ferris wheel.

 We were almost done with our day and our tickets.  We were going to end with the train after that last ferris wheel ride.  We had to wait for the rain to let up a bit before the train was ready, but we got seats and were ready to ride the rails!!

Good-bye, Hoffman's.  Hope to see you next year!

still on vacation... camp!

Your favorite breakfast tastes even better at camp, but he was already looking forward to leftover Tacos In A Bag for lunch with Daddy.  See, the night before Carl was very worried that Lew didn't get to have dinner with us.  So, we told him the boys could have leftovers for lunch. I am not kidding - he started in asking for lunch at about 10:15 am.

It did rain this day, but Lew didn't care.  Plus, he had Tacos In A Bag for lunch.  Doesn't get much better than that!

 She was doing OK.  Reality was starting to set in, though, as she asked more questions about swimming and the water park.  We have season passes to our water park for the summer.

 Carl decided to "go jump in the lake."

 He was ready to jump in and take off swimming across the lake.

 He had his own spectator section.

 Then, he started thinking about fish poop.  Yes, fish poop.  And it was not deep enough to really jump in safely right off the dock so he was going to have to step in and swim away.  I think he missed having his best friend in there with him.  If she was already in - because you know she would have been first down that ladder - he would have happily jumped in and forgotten about the fish poop.  But, he decided not to get in.  Didn't even get his suit wet.

 The snake we always see in the rocks.  I touched him, but didn't pick him up.

 How about a camp family photo?

Carl loves routine.  Even more, Carl loves cheeseburgers.  and milkshakes.  So, there was no way we were going anywhere but  A&W up in Lake George for dinner.

mmm... my Coney dog and Gretchen's corn puppies!!!  We brought a towel to keep food from falling on her brand new cast.

 Sad!!  The end of the milkshake!!!

Breakfast the next day....   this boy loves his Cinnamon Toast Crunch!

 I liked Gretchen real cinnamon roll choice better!

After we ate and packed up we headed out to meet friends.  We started out at the library because it was supposed to rain again.  We were going to play there for  awhile and then head back to Geri's house for a movie.

 But, it didn't rain!  There were 3 families and 10 kids total.  4 sets of twins and the 2 singletons have the same name!  They were like 2 peas in a pod, so essentially, we have 5 sets of twins.

A meeting of the minds under the trampoline.... with popsicles.

I love these ladies!!!  We have so much fun when we get together.  Wish it could happen more than once a year.

All the kiddos!!!  Oldest twins are 8, youngest set are 4.     In this picture:  5, 6, 8, 4, 4, 8, 7, 7, 7, 7.  They all got along wonderfully!

Do you see the blue cast on S's ankle?  He broke that 1 week before Gretchen broke her elbow.  Same ortho practice....  but, his cast is waterproof!  We learned that it was not possible for us to have that luxury because with a 90* bend in the cast, it wouldn't drain like a straight cast would.  I was heartbroken!  Boy, that cast sure didn't slow S down!  Gretchen was still pretty tentative with hers.  She did really want to try the trampoline, so when there was a lull, I let her jump alone.  Turns out, it was not as much fun as it had appeared.  So, I was glad I let her try so she could see that she really was not missing out on something that looked awesome.

After a few hours together (and a great meal) we headed back to Grammie's.

more vacation ramblings

Uncle Allan had been planning to come over and take Carl for a ride in his Ford Falcon!   Carl was excited, but so were Gretchen & Lew!  Thanks so much!!!  This was a real treat and really meant a lot to us!!

The next day, early in the morning, Gretchen and I headed over to the animals to watch the tree guy out in the woods.  The peacock doesn't like loud noises, so every time the tree guy was successful, the bird squawked so loudly!!!

 Look!  They named one of the baby goats Angus!  Awwww!

 Cousins!!

 with a chicken

OK.  Now things get exciting.  We were heading to camp.  Before lunch or after lunch?  We were split on opinions, but in the end decided to go after lunch.  wrong choice, I guess.  As we were making the last trip to the car with gear and coolers, Gretchen came running in screaming bloody murder.  She was holding her lower left arm.  And screaming.  Not crying like normal.  There was no swelling.  No redness.  No bruising.  But, there was screaming.  I knew something was not right because I never heard her scream like this.  So, Mom & I looked up the urgent care places we normally go to.  Yes, last summer I think we were there 4 times on our trip.  Well, they didn't have an x-ray.  So, I checked online and found one on the way to camp with an x-ray - and they took our insurance.  Cool.  We headed there.  Honestly, we expected them to say, Not broken.  Take it easy."    Instead, they said, "It looks broken to me, but I want you to see an orthopedic doctor.  There is an ortho urgent care I can send you to."    OK.  So, we headed to that office.  You need to know that RUSH was playing at SPAC that night and Lew had a ticket.  The concert was to start at 7:30 and it was now just about 5:00 as we got to the ortho office.  So, Lew, Carl & Mom left Gretchen & I at the office to meet the doctor and they headed back home for a second car so Lew could go to SPAC if we weren't done in time.  (priorities?  ha ha)

Well, that dr said "Her break is bad enough to warrant a visit from me".  He said if it had been at all shifted, she would have needed surgery right then, but it looked like we could put a cast on it and recheck it in a couple days to be sure pins were not needed to heal.  Turns out, it was not the lower arm she had been babying - by this point, her upper arm was swollen and hard.  She broke her arm at the elbow.  The dr said, "It is bad."    But, the cast guy was pleasant and she left happy with a bright pink cast on her arm.  Lew & Mom got back before she was done and we all headed out - Lew to the concert and Mom, the kids and I to camp.

"Hey Mom, didn't we say we did not want to learn how they put casts on in New York?"

 We had a good dinner at camp.   Carl's favorite, Tacos In A Bag that he learned at Cub Scout camp.

Gee, everyone slept well that night.  Oh, no pictures, but they did great in the bunk beds.  Carl is ready for us to put them together here at home.  Guess we need to get that last piece of hardware needed to assemble our set!  WooHoo - more floor space in their room!

OK.  That was 2 more days of vacation pictures and stories.   But wait.... there's more......