our last day in NY... cousins and a parade!

On Saturday, we gathered at Grandma's with cousins, aunts, uncles and some unborn babies (yes, babies... our niece is expecting twin baby girls!!!!!) to visit and to hand down a bunch of baby gear and toys.  I didn't show these pictures to them ahead of time because I was afraid they would say "Don't bring all that!" and oh, I was bringing it!

I packed all of this myself....
before:

 Actually, I added more stuff after this, but didn't get it in the "before"picture.  And, I did not want to restage that!   We also added our own luggage for the vacation and still were able to see out the back window.  My minivan rocks.  Oh, and I have mad packing skillz.  Let's not overlook those.

So, pictures from our visit.
Josh & Steph, Uncle Joe, Erica, Evelyn, Aunt Barb, Ryan, Aunt Kay, Lew and Uncle Bruce.  (you know Gretchen & Carl, right?  They are down in front.)

 Grandma and (almost all of) her grandchildren

So, why do Carl & Gretchen have flag shirts on on June 29th?  Because it was Memorial Day, of course.  See, the real Memorial Day parade got rained out and the rescheduled parade was for the 29th of June.  So, after lunch, we headed over to watch the parade.

 This was the most patriotic candy that was thrown to the kids.  They really enjoyed catching lots of candy and trinkets being right up front.

 And then - we ran into Joe!

 Gretchen was soooo happy because he was the only one who had not signed her cast yet!

 Grandma and Grammie with the twins!

We headed home the next day.  We made the drive in only 13 hours.  Do not do the math.

The whole family had a great visit in NY - even with a broken elbow!

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.