Sweetest two littlest

Mason cheering Matthew on while we work on "trunk control".

Ahh...I love these two littlest of mine

School has started!!

Last Wednesday, school started for our kids. Here is our traditional "1st day of school on the porch picture"

Micah, 7th grade

Megan, 4th grade

Mason, 1st grade

Double Digits

This beauty turned 10 years old today! Can't believe my baby girl is 10!

Happy Birthday, Megan!

Niagara Vacation: part 3

After our morning and afternoon at the park on Thursday, we decided we wanted to go take a ride on the Maid of the Mist (a 20 minute boat ride that takes you right up to the falls) with everyone before heading back to the hotel for the evening. On our way to buy tickets we saw a wedding going on. So we decided to "attend" it.

{It slightly creeped me out at the age difference between the two of them. She could not have been more than 25 or 30 and he was well in his 50's}


On to the Maid of the Mist. Here is a picture of the boat fully loaded and heading to the falls..

Below is the best picture I could get while on the boat. I put my camera away shortly after this because we were getting SOAKED! Matthew DID NOT like the wind on the boat and getting wet. He was not a happy camper during this part of the trip.

These are called the American Falls.

After the boat ride, we went and stood up on a observation deck and looked out across the falls..

Then we decided it would be fun to go take the Cave of the Winds tour. This is a series of bridges that take you right down to the bottom of the American Falls and the Bridal Falls. Again, we got soaked! But it was fun! This is the deck that you walk up (I took this picture the day before from the Canadian side)

Close up of the Falls
Steve, Micah, Megan and Mason prior to getting soaked!

Kristen and I

Matthew decided to sleep during this part of the trip, and their was a nice place to park his chair and still be able to look at the falls. Steve and I took turns going up the stairs so as not to wake up Matthew..he wouldn't have liked the water anyway..

After the Cave of the Winds, we headed back to the hotel to change, and then decided it was high time for some supper. We headed off to Bob Evans, a restaurant I had never heard of, but quickly became a fan of. We celebrated Elisabeth's Dad, Donald's, birthday. It was a great ending to our evening.

Niagara Vacation: Part 2

Wednesday we decided we would view the falls from the Canadian side, so we once again crossed the border and took in the views of the Horseshoe falls.

This was an "old scrow" that has been stranded in the upper rapids of the Niagara river since 1918Upper rapids of the Niagara River


Kiddos and Daddy posing at the falls

Horseshoe Falls

Then it was on to lunch. We were so excited to meet up with the Sorensons including Lisa's sister and brother, and the Stamm's for lunch.

Kristen and Lisa, talking

After a late lunch and more walking around we decided to head back to the hotel, and meet up with the rest of the group. We ended up sitting by the pool and visiting till late in the evening.

Thursday, we had planned to meet up with all of the families for a day at the park. What fun to be able to sit and visit with everyone in the same place and get a chance to see all of our children in the same place.Some of the guys, standing around and visiting

Our hydro kids: L to R: Tyler, Elijah, Isaac, Elizabeth, Matthew, Cayman, and Owen

Another picture of Isaac, Elisabeth, Matthew and Owen

The siblings

And the wonderful mommy's: Diane, Amanda, Jennifer, Michelle, me, Lisa and Kristen.

New York Vacation: Part 1

Last Sunday, we headed out late at night to start our first part of our vacation. This year we got the opportunity to go to Niagara Falls, to meet a bunch of families we had come to know via the internet; families who also have a child that is affected by hydrocephalus. Our trip would take 17 hours, so we decided to make a week long family vacation out of it. Sunday we decided we would drive through the night, and see how far we could get Monday before we stopped. I drove through the night and we made it as far as Toledo, OH on Monday. We did, however make a surprise pit stop at our friends, Kristen and Mike's before stopping at the motel. The kids traveled exceptionally well and we stayed in a nice hotel with a pool and let the kids swim for the evening. By 8 pm though everyone was tired and we went to bed early to start our next day.



Tuesday we decided to drive up through Detroit and then through Canada to get to Niagara Falls. Once we got to Canada, we decided to take the scenic route for a bit and drove along the shore of Lake Erie. We stopped for lunch along the Lake and to hike around a bit and explore.

After taking the scenic route for a bit, Steve (aka speed racer) decided the interstate was more his style. So we traveled the rest of the way via the canadian interstate. Their were signed posted everywhere that stated the speed limit was 100 kilometers/hour, but no one seemed to be obeying this law. Steve is never one to dawdle or be passed in traffic and he kept up well with the rest of the people. Good thing I slept during this portion of the trip. I woke up to this :
We crossed the border again into the United States and began looking for a hotel. We had been "winging-it" as far as hotels went, but a hotel was hard to come by that evening. We ended up staying about 15 minutes out of Niagara Falls. We knew Wednesday was going to be a big day for us, as we would be meeting everyone in our group, so we just lets the kids swim and called it a night.