Time to Blog Again...

Hello Friends and Family,

We have been so busy up here in New York as we became a home for Hurricane Ike Refugees this past week.

My brother Brian and Lauren called last Thurs night with the question "How busy are you this next week???"

That turned into them barely escaping Houston before the airport closed and coming up to NY.

We have had a very fun and very busy week taking advantage of a beautiful time of year here. See below a list of our weeks of adventure.

1. Niagara Falls...what is a visit to us without another trip to Niagara Falls. We even went to see the Niagara Falls movie in the visitor's center - the kids loved it.

2. Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester..This is one of our favorite places to go - the children love to play...can you tell? Yep - the adults love it too. Check out Brian giving us the weather update on Hurricane Ike. He also helped make some pretty cool pirate hats with the boys.

3. Trip to Youngstown..Brian and Lauren took Emily and Lizzy to see the sail boats in a little town just down the river from us...

4. Backyard Play Time...Joshua and Matthew entertained Lizzy for the afternoon while Bri and Lauren took Emily to Canada for some fun.

5. Maid of the Mist...yes another favorite thing to do here. Good thing the weather was nice because you sure get wet!

6. Butterfly Museum...this is a great place to watch many varieties of butterflies fly around...look at how close you can get to them.

7. Back to the Market...Yes, this is the same market I have posted about before. Can you tell I love it. The kids had fun playing with the kittens and picking out produce for our dinner.

8. Apple/Peach Picking....This was a great outing..there were so many apples and peaches on these beautiful trees. Josh thought they were just the perfect climbing size and everyone enjoyed chomping down a few as we picked. We then came home and made homemade applesauce and apple crisp. My house smelled wonderful!!

9. Carmel Apple Making...the evening of picking day we lined up the kids and melted down the carmel and went to town...it was a sticky gooey mess...funny thing is that the kids didn't like to eat the "fancy" apples that they made with all the candy on them...all they wanted was the plain carmel ones!

10. Fishing....Brett and Brian took all 4 children out to our Uncle's Pond..the kids caught frogs and fish..how cute is Emily with her fish.

11. Fort Niagara...yes another scenic view of the Niagara River and Lake Ontario. We love the history of the fort and the kids loved the cannons I think!!

12. Corn Maze...Brian and Lauren met up with Brian's friend from high school and conquered the giant corn maze.

13. Yes, Fishing Again...this time Brett and Brian got up really early and ventured out to one of Brett's favorite fishing streams. The fishing was slow but they sure look like they know what they were doing.

So that was our week...what I never got a picture of was me making dinners and emptying the dishwasher and garbage can over and over again!!!! They are leaving tomorrow to go home (with power now, YEAH!) but they do have to get a tree off of their roof. We will miss all the fun -- Joshua and Matthew will miss their cousins to play with but great memories were made.