Time to bundle up, fall is here!!

It's fall!!! We are spending our afternoons running through huge piles of leaves at the park. The fall season out here is simply gorgeous! Orange, Crimson, Yellow, Green, it's like waking up to a postcard every morning. I took the boys to Letchworth State Park to check out the waterfalls and trees. They were mildly interested until they spotted.......

A Water Fountain!!

I think every mom on the planet hates water fountains. Why has no one invented a plastic flip top cover for them yet? My boys instantly run over and try to put their little hands in the fountain basin to splash in the water that has been SPIT out of someones mouth!! Disgusting!! I try to them them it's not working but they are too smart for that now. I could have a nice cold bottled water for them but the water fountain always wins. I'm hoping it will become less interesting as they near 3. Ha ha, I know I'm dreaming!! Oh well, they are only little once.

Punkin Patch

Two weekends ago we ventured out in the cold to hand pick our pumpkins for Halloween. The little boys had been sooo excited and asking us for days if we could go to the "punkin patch". It was a nice 45 degree day but that didn't stop us. We went to a farm complete with pumpkins, chickens, apple picking, hay ride, mini train, and bounce pillow. The boys had a blast. After chasing chickens for a while we took a hay ride. I think they are slightly over rated (mud, endless rows of dead corn) but the boys had to ride on the trailer. Ralph was bossing around the other passengers telling them to sit down. After the hay ride it was off to jump on the giant bounce pillow. They love to jump on the inflatable bounce houses so this was right up their ally. Next they rode a mini train. They are finally getting old enough to go by themselves. Good thing because Josh and I get motion sick whipping around a little track 10 times! After that it was off to pick out our pumpkins. Josh and I scoured the rows picking out our perfectly round pumpkins. The boys could care a less about the pumpkins and instead fought over who's turn it was to pull the wagon.

We finally took control of the wagon and forced them to pick out a pumpkin. And yep, they grabbed the first lopsided, ugly, deformed pumpkin in front of them just to satisfy our request. Then back to yelling "my turn" with the wagon. Overall we had a blast! I will show you how the carving turned out soon.

Tapa, Big Water, and Canada

Tapa and Grandma with the boys

Well the boys dream came true in the beginning of September.....Tapa came back to visit!! He brought Gawma (Josh's mom Cathy) and Aunt Waragh (Aunt Laura). The arrived on Friday and stayed until Tuesday. They came bearing lots of gifts the little boys loved!! It's sort of like a vacation (for Josh and I) when Tapa comes to visit. He immediately becomes the "go to person" and Josh and I get a break. Of course grandma is right up there too. She always sends little care packages full of treasures for the boys. They love opening their "own" mail. Plus, she seems to have an endless supply of breath mint which are equivalent to candy in our house. This was Aunt Laura's first trip to visit us in on the east coast. She is a delight to have and we wish she lived closer. She took over our living room and got woken up every morning by two boys jumping on her bed. So thanks Laura for being a trooper!!

Aunt Laura and us



Saturday we just hung out at home. We left early Sunday for Niagara falls. It was truly magnificent. We drove over to the Canadian side and were not disappointed. The amount of water going over the falls per second is mind boggling. They have the whole perimeter fenced and I was still nervous standing near the top of the falls. The boys kept saying "WOW, look at that big water".


The falls with a "Maid of the Mist" boat



After Niagara is was off to Toronto. Art had lived there for awhile so we had our own tour guide. We stayed downtown for the night and then headed to the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) the next day. We walked the grounds and checked out all the amazing exhibits and animals. By mid afternoon we were getting pretty tired and decided to head home. They had blocked off some on ramps to control traffic so getting on the freeway was a bit of a challenge. The Toronto traffic was the only downside of our weekend adventure. The city it self was really hip and vibrant. Looks like a really cool place to live. Monday we just recovered from our busy weekend and then it was goodbyes on Tuesday. Long weekend but we had sooooo much fun. Hopefully we didn't exhaust our guests on their vacation :)

Zoo and NY State Fair

We decided to venture out to Buffalo to check out the zoo. There is a great zoo here but were lured by the expectation of bigger, more ferocious animals. It didn't disappoint! They had at least 3 varieties of bears, lions, apes (as big as me), a cool children's petting zoo, vampire bats, and the list goes on and on. It took us a couple hours to walk the whole thing. Blake has recently decided he's afraid of elephants (his favorite animal). He cried if we got too close to the exhibit but that was the worst of the day. I think Blake liked the baby giraffe the best. Ralph was too busy dancing around that day so I'm not sure what his favorites were.

The next weekend it was off the the NY state fair. It was in Syracuse which is about a one hour drive from Rochester. It was HUGE comapre to our local fair. We hit up the food court first. Once we loaded up on chicken strips and fries it was off to the train exhibit. We walked through an old train with passenger cars from different eras. We let the boys ride a mini train after that and then headed to check out the animals. Upstate NY is known for it's dairy farms so there was a huge barn just full of dairy cows. They were the biggest cows I had ever seen!! We watched a milking demonstration and then off to check out the bunnies and chickens in a separate barn. The boys loved the bunnies!! They walked slowly past every bunny cage and couldn't stop smiling. I have a feeling they will be asking for rabbits when they get older. The chickens and ducks were a hit too. After that we checked out some horses and then headed home. There is so much to do for young families here. We are really enjoying our stay.