Taughannock Falls, Ithaca

Paul has been taking most of the Fridays off during August and we've been trying to do something fun each week. This week, we decided to head down to Ithaca and go to Taughannock Falls. We hadn't been there in at least 4 years - since before Joey was born.

We love walking along the creek down to the waterfall. This year, we started with a picnic lunch at the observation point of the falls.

And, here are some goofy pictures we took :)

After hiking to the falls and back, we went to this huge playground across the street. The kids had so much fun - there were a lot of rides and things that we hadn't seen before - like some spinning ones that Emily loved.

On the way back home, we stopped at one of the wineries along the lake - the Thirsty Owl and did a wine tasting. I was shocked when Paul came up with the idea since he's not a big wine drinker. We actually found two different white wines we both liked, so we bought some to take home.

And we ended our day with dinner at Friendlys.

Art Camp for Alli

Alli had so much fun at Art Camp last summer that she wanted to do it again this year. She went every afternoon for a week and her buddy Elizabeth went too. They got to play with all different kinds of art mediums, paints, clay, etc., but I think her favorite part was the face/body painting they got to do everyday. She loved showing them off to us when we picked her up.

101 Dalmations & Our Star Emily

Last year during the holidays, the girls and I went to see a performance of Madeline's Christmas at Stages at the Auditorium Theater. After the performance, the kids answered questions from the audience and Emily learned that a lot of them had started acting at a young age. The director mentioned that they had summer programs and Emily wanted so badly to be a part of it. We looked up the website on the internet and she saved it as a favorite to keep checking back on the summer programs. Finally, we saw that they were going to have a two week summer camp of 101 Dalmations. We got her signed up right away.

The camp was every morning for two weeks. The first day, the kids got a book with the parts and lines and learned a song and some dance steps. Emily practiced all afternoon and her hard work paid off. The next day was auditions and she got the part of Anita. She was so excited.

Every day, she worked hard and loved it. She knew all the songs and even a lot of the lines for other characters. They were going to have two performances - one on Friday night and one on Saturday morning.

The day of the first performance, I think I was more nervous than Emily (but, of course, I didn't want to say anything and cause her any anxiety). I don't know why I was so nervous - she did fabulously!!!! She was a natural on that stage. She remembered all of her lines and spoke nice and loud and clear. Paul and I were SO proud of her!!

Kory's Hunting Camp

Kory, my cousin's Erin's husband, had invited us all down to his hunting camp for our annual family picnic. It's down on the southern tier close to the Pennsylvannia border. It is seriously in the middle of nowhere. I don't think I've ever been in such a remote place before. The kids had fun seeing the Amish people in their horse and buggies on the way down.

It sure was gorgeous though. Wow, not at all what I was expecting from a men's hunting camp. The house was beautiful and huge. The surrounding hills were beautiful and so peaceful.

Kory took all of us for rides on the four wheeler. Emily was even driving it herself (with Kory riding with her) by the end of the day. Even when the four wheelers weren't being driven, they were a huge hit with the kids - they all just loved sitting and climbing on them. Actually, that was as far as Joey went on it - he didn't like how loud they were, so he wouldn't go for an actual ride.

It was a fun weekend. Unfortunately, Paul couldn't make it since he had his boys weekend in the Adirondacks. Hopefully, he'll be able to go next year.

All the cousins: Emily, Alli, Joey, Josh, Mikayla, Sidney, Cam, Aidan, Carissa and Sean.

Vacation Bible School

This week was Vacation Bible School for the girls. This is the third year going and they always love it. Our church does such a nice job for the kids. This years theme was Paul and the Roman Empire. They got to do crafts, play games, sing songs. They were sad to see it end.

On Friday night, they have the parents come and all of the kids sing the songs they learned during the week. Afterwards, we got to enjoy some cookies and lemonade.

Visit with the Petrocellis

Michael and Michele Petrocelli have always been like family to us. Our parents met on their wedding day (they got married at the same church and both honeymooned in Bermuda - there are even more coincidences than that) and they have been good friends ever since. Michele and her husband Joe, and their two boys, just moved upstate from Long Island to near Oneonta. They were coming up to Rochester for the weekend, so my parents had them over for a barbque so we could all get together and visit for a bit. Michael had come up for a visit with them.

It was so great seeing them and catching up. Michael is expecting his first baby in September and Michele's boys, Logan and Ethan, are so cute. Logan took right to Emily and wanted to do everything she did. The kids had fun playing with him.

It always goes too long between are visits, but maybe now that Michele is living closer we'll be able to see them a little more often.

Thousand Islands

We went up to the Thousand Islands for a couple of nights with Paul's parents and sister Katie. That area is so beautiful and we had some beautiful weather while we were there too. After we got checked into our hotel, we walked around Alex Bay. While we were walking out on the dock, guess who we bumped into - Santa and Mrs. Claus. What a treat. They were on their summer vacation from the North Pole.



After chatting with the Claus' for a bit, we headed over to a little park. Here's a picture of the kids with Bolt Castle in the background. And then there are some pictures of them at the playground.





After dinner at the Koffee Kove (it's just not a visit to the Thousand Islands without at least one meal there - we love it), we headed over to the gocarts. We all loved that!



After the gocarts, we got some ice cream and there were these little seats with wheels that the kids could ride around on. They looked like a toy from long ago and the kids had so much fun zooming around on those. To get going, you had to twist the handle bars back and forth, which was a little tough for Joey at first, but he got the hang of it pretty quick.



We ended the night with fireworks over the castle. I was so excited to see that there fireworks were taking place while we were there since we missed them on the 4th here. Plus, the setting was just beautiful. Joey wanted no part of the fireworks, so Paul and his dad stayed back at the hotel with him.

The next day, we rented a boat for the day. It was another beautiful sunny day and we had fun riding up and down the river. The kids, Aunt Katie, daddy and grandpa even did some fishing.

It was a great trip!