Miles and Miles with Smiles and Smiles!

Since living in this lovely, green, wet, humid, cold, icy, covered in salt roads in the winter area. We have had 2 cars completely die (3 counting the one we are trying to get to last until graduation but hasn't quite died yet) with major rust problems, both of which we bought out here so needless to say that answers my question as to why you don't see a lot of "old" cars on the roads here ..... they don't survive! I really don't know how many people who have purchased 4 cars during a 2.5 year grad program, in fact I don't know any. But I am not complaining, we've always had something to drive and the best is the current van a Nissan Quest that I love that made the long and happy drive from UT to PA! This was due a collection of family members that we are Greatly indebted to! One of which is Greg who volunteered to drive this gem from Orem to Erie, and often slept in the back of the van along the way. He claimed to have a great time and I actually believe him! We got to see him for a quick 2 days before he had to fly home, one here in Erie with the all of us and the other in Pittsburgh just me and buddy, it was a fun visit! So great to see Greg and so very amazing to know that we have family that will help us out in so many ways!

Waldameer

We hit waldameer on the last day of the season this year for the first and last time! This seemed like such a busy summer, as they all are! The kids had a blast with our friends on the rides! I think the favorite ride for the kids was the log ride ....... mostly because I screamed like crazy on that drop and tend to freak out a bit on rides and of course they thought that was hilarious! I got a shot of the little ones on the frog hopper and Wes and the kids on a small coaster everything else was a little blurry. I was so very impressed that Reagan rode the ravine flyer, it's a pretty fast and very intense old wooden creaky roller coaster and she was one of the youngest on it! When she got off she was a little shell shocked ...... don't know if she is going to trust her Daddy again when he says "come on Rea it'll be fun!" The kids can't wait until it opens again!

Mystical Powers affecting Lake Erie

We thought we'd go out and maybe do some fishing at this spot Wes new about by the lake. The wind and the massive waves had a different idea that evening.

Instead we got to throw rocks in the water and run from waves ...... these were the HUGE waves and Dylan was convinced that he was controlling them with his "powers." I'm not sure if he was using his Jedi powers or his Magical powers but whatever it was he spent quite a while pushing and pulling these waves up and back from the shore, and making some great sound effects at the same time. Once in a while a good wave would sneak up on the kids and they'd have to run or get some wet feet! We staying until sunset what a fun evening!

UTAH ..... need I say more??

Our trip to Utah this summer was FanTastic .... once we finally got there! Me and the kids flew out about a week before Wes could and we had not 1 not 2 but 3 flight cancelations/changes! Luckily we were flying out of Erie our I would have really lost it as it was I only lost it a moderate amount ;-)

Once we got to the land of milk and honey we had a great time! (warning this post is going to be long with picture overload!) We had a lot on the agenda and our families had a lot going on too, so scheduling was not always perfect and things occasionally went down the drain or kids/Mom or Dad had a meltdown here and there. But how very lucky and blesses we are to have The BEST family to visit and the BEST cousins to play with that made all the travel and tiredness SO Very worth it! Wish we lived closer ...... one day soon I hope :-)

Here are some of the highlights and pictures of our trip! Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Staying at Bridget's House!

Rogers' big 8th birthday! What a kid!

Cousins, Water and Sunshine!

7 Peaks!

New Baby Marcos!

Fun With Friends!

Cousins! .........

Grandma May's House!

The Lion King! Amazing Show and SO much fun!

The Nephi Rodeo!

Watching Grandpa's Awesome Fireworks!!

Getting Spoiled at Trafalga!

BBQ with the Fam!

Fun Fishing!

Goodbye Wonderful Family and Friends, until next time ...... we had a Fantastic Time!

Palmyra Pagent

We decided last minute to jump in the car and go see the Palmyra Pageant, neither Wes nor I had seen it before so we buzzed over to Palmyra. It's about 3 hours from us so and we were excited to take the kids for some culture. We sat in the back on a blanket, sprayed ourselves down with bug spray and spread out the snacks. The kids loved it and Wes and I also though it was pretty cool. During the pageant towards the end Reagan had to go to the bathroom so I took her the short hike up to the flushing potties. I didn't realize that we were so close to the end of the pageant and while we were in the bathroom we heard all the thundering and lightning sounds and the earth quakes from Christ's Death, we started to hustle and then the beginning of His appearance to the people in America and we were scrambling to get out of the bathroom! Reagan started panicking saying "Mom we are missing it! Jesus is coming to American and we are missing it!" She was next to tears and I felt pretty bad, I kept thinking good thing it was only a show otherwise I would have really let her down! We ran out of the restroom in time to see the depiction of the Savior in America and the remnants from the floods and earthquakes. The lesson here was, know how long the show is and make sure you don't miss the important stuff for a potty break.

It was a really nice weekend even missing a bit of the show.

We LOVE Summertime!!!

Schools Out for Summer!!! I don't know who was more excited me or the Kids!

Happy Fathers Day Daddy! You're the BEST!

We had a Really Great 4th of July with Awesome Friends!

We really should have brought our Suits

So every other time Grandma Ewing has been out here it's been frozen, snowy, windy, icy and down right cold! So the kids and I were SUPER excited to take her to our beach, and our walking trails and show her why we love Lake Erie. I thought we were just going to have a picnic and throw rocks the first day out but ....... you can imagine how wrong I was with 3 kids a lake, a sandy beach and a BIG hole to fill up with water. I mean this stuff is important, no sacrifice to great to get that hold filled fast!

The next day Jack and I took her back to Presque Isle again to do some walking, see the bay and enjoy all the green trees. We brought Wally along and were surprised that he didn't scare off the family of geese we could practically reach out and touch! The flagship Niagara was out too so that was fun to see. Glad you could come enjoy a warm season this year Grandma!

Ithaca, we Hardly Know Ye

Grandma, Niagara, Palmyra, The Sacred Grove, Ithaca and Brady's Graduation ...... WOW what a weekend! We were excited to cram a bunch of fun into as many days as possible! Grandma was coming out for Brady's graduation from Cornell and we got to go to Ithaca one last time :-( It's so beautiful there, but mostly we are missing having family close that we get to see once in a while! We took a bazillion pictures, but here is a collage of a few of them and the general idea of fun fun fun!

And one of our best family moments, taken just outside the Sacred Grove.

Family Pictures Spring 2010

In the spring my good friend Suzi Black took some beautiful pictures of our family. I know I have mentioned it a lot but I love the Spring here and I am so glad to have some family photos during my favorite season in Erie. You can see my favorite family photo as our blog header. Here are a few more that I LOVE!

Thanks Suzi, we sure miss you guys!