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Wednesday, August 13, 2014

August 2014 Favorites

Brynn Leigh

  • Age: 8 years
  • Future Occupation: Teacher
  • Fav drink: Root Beer
  • Fav sport: Kickball
  • Fav book: Magic Tree House series
  • Fav color: Rainbow
  • Fav thing to do: Swings
  • Fav movie: Frozen
  • Fav food: Jellybeans


Jonas Andrew

  • Age: 7 years
  • Future Occupation: Olympian
  • Fav drink: Root Beer
  • Fav sport: Soccer & Baseball
  • Fav game: War
  • Fav book: Kitty for President
  • Fav colors: Green & Blue
  • Fav thing to play: running
  • Fav movie: Frozen
  • Fav food: Peeps


Bransen Daniel

  • Age: 6 years
  • Future Occupation: Game designer
  • Fav drink: Pop
  • Fav sport: Track
  • Fav game: Donkey Kong
  • Fav book: Magic Tree House series
  • Fav colors: Blue & Red
  • Fav thing to play: running
  • Fav movie: Milo and Otis
  • Fav food: Fruit

Science Museum with Nathan

A couple weeks ago our very good friends Catherine, Erik, and Nathan came up to visit us.  We had a ton of fun catching up with them (it has been a while!) and the kids loved playing with Nathan.  One of the things we did while they were here was go to the Buffalo Museum of Science.  It has lots of things for the kids to experiment with, and it is easily one of Jonas' favorite outings.  So since it was freezing cold and rainy outside, we decided it would be the perfect outing!

Nathan thought it was pretty cool that Jonas and I were riding in the backseat with him :-)


Racing and building cars



This was a wind exhibit where you can press different buttons to experience winds and different speeds, even hurricane speed!  Nathan LOVED this, and we thought it was funny that it blew Jonas' glasses right down his nose!

It was a super fun time with the boys, and I can't wait until the next time we can get them together!

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Chautauqua County Fair

Our first fair of the year!  The kids like this one because the rides are included in the admission price - so they actually get to ride them.  

Of course, it's not a fair without sticking your head through some goofy photo opp thing.

Watching the cows get milked

Poor Brynn was too tall for this ride, but the boys both liked it.

Jonas really loved the giant tortoise, and the tortoise loved watermelon, just like the boys!


Our cute kids :-)  

We also saw a bunch more animals and saw some shows.  We had a good time, and now it's time to focus on the Erie County Fair!

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Honeymoon

Duane and I went on a cruise for our honeymoon in the beginning of July.  We went to Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, and Grand Cayman.  We had an excellent time and enjoyed being able to have lots of freedom on this rare "kid-free" vacation.  It was my first cruise as well, so I was super excited!

We're leaving on a jet plane...

Yeah, we took selfies on this trip, which I thought was hilarious.  I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have done that.  I just think the word "selfie" is pretty funny in itself.  We left port from Miami.

And the first thing we did on the ship was get free ice cream.

The first full day was a day at sea.  We ate a lot, relaxed, and saw some shows.  On Monday, we stopped at Cozumel.  We went on a cave adventure excursion where we waded, swam, and hiked through a cave.  To get there, we had to take a ride through the jungle.  This was one of my favorite excursions, but we don't have any pictures since we were in wet suits in a dark cave!  We do have some pictures of our time wandering around Cozumel, though.



On Tuesday, we went to Belize.  Our excursion this time was a ferry to a tiny private island, and some snorkeling.  I'm not sure how much we really liked the snorkeling experience...too crowded and lots of kicking people, but we still had fun taking in the gorgeous views around us.

Roatan, Honduras was on Wednesday.  We didn't buy an excursion from the cruise line this time.  Instead, we grabbed a taxi and had him give us a small tour of the island, and went to an animal and zip-lining park run by the locals on the island.  It was enlightening to see how a lot of people live on the island...what most of us would consider extreme poverty.  We were both very happy to have the experience to see what the area that wasn't frequented by tourists was really like.





Holding monkeys



and boa constrictors


I was really tired that night...and Duane was still eating.

Our last port was Grand Cayman.  We swam with stingrays and went to a turtle farm.  The stingrays were awesome, and we fed them squid and they swam all around us.  We got to touch them and Duane even held one!  This was another water event...so no pictures.  We did get a few at the turtle farm, though.  Grand Cayman was by far the most commercialized of the islands we stopped at...it felt kind of like being in the USA, only they drive on the wrong side of the road :-)





That night on the ship was formal night for dinner, so we dressed up and pretended that we were fancy for the night.  Of course, that meant we had to take a selfie!

Duane professed his love for me that night in the form of chocolate...my only complaint about the food on the cruise.  Where was all the chocolate?!?

And the last day was another day at sea.  We just relaxed, and then took in the gorgeous sunset.

We had such a great time, and we are so happy we found each other!

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

June Candids

Our June activities!


Finding tadpoles





Hanging out at Burchfield Park and playing in the creek




Cowboy Cousins




Slipping and Sliding!





Mmmm...ice cream cones!