Summer catch up

Most of the summer we spent our time at the swim and tennis club. This was a common place to find Luke. They have rules where you can't eat on the pool deck so he would end up going out side the gate and sitting in this tree eating a candy or a snack.

Callie chose to do summer swim team with just the JCC this year and had so much fun.
Callie getting ready to race. She is such a great swimmer.

On a Saturday we took a day trip up to Vermont to a fun little place that has a petting zoo. We had a lot of fun feeding different kids of animals.

We were also delighted to find a place right next door that makes cheese and of coarse had to partake in the free samples. We as a family LOVE cheese.

Walk to Heublein Tower

As a Family we took a hike to Heublein Tower.

Callie getting ready to start the climb.
Luke with his walking stick. We searched and searched on our way up for just the right one.
Callie snapped this photo of us. We were almost to the top.


The walk is just over three miles there and back but it is all up hill the way there. There were nice little benches along the way and the kids were sure glad to use each and every one.

Our Little SUPERMAN

Luke is full of life and loves to play pretend with Callie. All caught up in the moment with PJ's on he added his cape and was ready to fly for the night.

Oh if only they could stay "Little"

Lukes Graduation Day

This Is Luke with his good friend "Little" Callie.(That is what we call her at home) Her mom made The Quaker Lane 60 year art piece behind them. All the kids had a great time getting to help with their hand prints.

This is Luke with his teacher Mrs. Cantwell. He really enjoyed her this year.

Each child had a painting displayed for graduation day. This is Luke's. It is called "Bottom of the Ocean"

Luke sitting so patiently while waiting to start the program. There were groups that took turns getting up to sing their songs. His favorite song was RED.

So here is video of Luke singing R E D!

Luke

Luke went to buy his lunch today at Morley school for the first time so he would know what to do when kindergarten starts in the fall. He was very excited to sit with his sister and feel like a big kid.

I can't believe how quickly time has passed. Luke is growing up and is moving on to kindergarten. Waiting all summer will be very difficult for him.

Memorial Day in Western New York

For Memorial Day we took a family trip to Western New York. We visited Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Rochester. We had a really fun time. Jason showed us some of the places he lived and worked during his mission. We went to the Buffalo Zoo and had pizza and wings at La Nova. We then drove up to Niagara Falls and rode the Maid of the Mist. We ended the trip in Rochester with dinner at our favorite restaurant, the Brookhouse and trips to the Public Market and the Strong Museum of Play.

The Strong Museum is one of our favorite places to visit. We especially enjoyed shopping at Wegman's grocery store for kids.

This is Callie's shadow. She was sure that she looked like Vivian every time she would notice the shadow.
Swimming at the hotel.


The Maid of the Mist.





The Buffalo Zoo.
LDS Church in Buffalo.
Jason took us for a tour of his mission area in Buffalo. We were all a little surprised at how bad the neighborhood was. Callie was very shocked that there were large piles of garbage and furniture on many of the streets. The picture below is where Jason lived while serving in Buffalo.

From Summer to the New Year

This is the first of what should be a couple of updates this week. The updates will cover most of the second half of 2009.



Callie's Christmas Concert.

One of our Christmas Eve traditions is to go ice skating. Luke has only been a couple of times, but is getting to be a good skater. Callie and Ruth are both very good skaters. Jason just can't figure it out. It is fortunate that both he and Luke stayed upright long enough to get their photo taken together.

We went Christmas tree shopping at our favorite store, Stew Leonard's. Jason grew a mustache for the occasion. Fortunately he got rid of it later in the day.

Thanksgiving

We decided to spend this Thanksgiving in New York City. We have always wanted to go down and see the Macy's Parade. It was a great (albeit once in a lifetime) event. We rode the train into the city Wednesday night and checked into our hotel in Times Square. We then decided to go to the balloon inflation party near the Museum of Natural History. The crowds were tremendous. We were able to get through to see a few of the balloons being inflated which was a lot of fun.

Our plan was to get up at 6:30am to get a spot for the parade (which started at 10am). Luckily, everyone was a awake and ready to go by 5:00am so we decided to head down and be the first crazy family out. Surprisingly we were not the first family on the streets. We were, however, able to get a spot right against the barriers. By our planned starting time of 6:30 the streets were already lined at least 10 people deep and there were not spots available anywhere near us. It was crazy. We sat on the sidewalk for 5 hours waiting for the parade. It was worth every minute. The parade was fantastic and being in the front row was incredible.

After the parade we had turkey dinner at a nice restaurant and then went ice skating in Central Park.

It was a great day!

(Callie waiting for the parade at 5:00am)

MILEY CYRUS

Callie, Ruth, and Callie's best friend got to go to the Miley Cyrus concert. They had a blast.

This is Luke in his natural habitat...the Boston Children's Museum.

These are pictures of the Pet Parade at Morley Elementary school. Last year Vivian won "Cutest Pet" she was significantly downgraded this year to "Shortest Tail". It was a significant fall in the standings, but she was just happy to get a treat.

Papa and Susan came and spent a whole week with us. We had a great time. Thanks for coming. We can't wait for your next visit.

Luke bought a goldfish with his birthday money. Her name is GOFIE. As of this update Gofie is still alive and well.

During the summer the family made a trip to Rhode Island. The kids played on the beach all day. It was a foggy day, but it was still hot. We had a great time.

One of our many train trips to NYC this summer.