Happy Fourth of July

For the Fourth of July we decided to go letterboxing. We found a great place that had lots of stamps--the Great Baehre Conservation Area. The stamps were a series of Winnie-the-Pooh characters. We didn't have very much luck finding very many of the stamps--three out of seven--but we found some beautiful scenery and some great wildlife.


Valen and Justin looking at the marsh critters.


An example of marsh critters--bullfrogs-they make a great sound, almost like a dying bike horn.


Again, looking at the marsh critters.


Riley getting some energy out after sitting in the stroller for so long.


Valen--what more needs to be said?


That evening for fireworks we joined with some friends--the Webber family-Ben, Erin, Zack, Zaden and Annie--at the UB North Campus near the lake.

Justin at his most patriotic moment.


Valen and Zack.


I think this is Zaden and his glow stick and Justin's artistic vision.


FIREWORKS!!!!


Riley absolutely loved the fireworks. From the moment that they started, until they ended she was clapping and cheering and happy. At one point, halfway through the show, she shook Justin and said, "Dad!!" and pointed up to the fireworks as if he was missing them.


Every time there was a lull in the display she would look at me, sign and say "more!" I would tell her to tell the people shooting off the fireworks and she would shout "more!" and the fireworks would start up again. At the end she clapped very loud and screamed and shouted. She loved every minute.

Family Pictures

A few weeks ago, we had a friend, Alexis Davies, take some family pictures for us. They turned out relatively well considering it was early afternoon and our kids were worn out and tired. It was our ward temple trip and we got the pictures taken AFTER we went to the temple.


This is one of the only ones where Riley is "smiling."
An historical note--these pictures were taken on the Palmyra Temple grounds on the rock wall that was the original fence for the Smith family farm.


This is our beautiful Valen, who loves posing for pictures.


These are our beautiful girls--I think the grass is tickling Riley's nose.


Aren't we so cute?



This picture was taken at the Smith Family Farm. Riley was almost happy during this one.


This was the last picture we took. Riley was beyond done, but the rest of us look good.

A Week or Two in Review--continued

I am still learning how to run this website and so to help lessen the stress in my life I am doing this post in two parts.

To continue our fun weeks . . .



GLEN PARK

We were told that we have to visit Glen Park. It had a beautiful waterfall that we had to see. So we finally decided to go. We got to the park and could hear the river so, with Valen leading the way, we headed down to it. We came upon this beautiful river, just shallow enough to wade in, but deep enough for small fish. Slow enough to be safe, but swift enough to take ones flip flops down stream.


Riley rather enjoyed being able to get in the water, she is used to being told no. After wading a while in the river we decided that it was time to find the waterfall. We searched for a while with no luck, and decided to head back to the sign at the front entrance of the park. On our way to the sign Valen yells out, "There it is! I found it!" Sure enough, across the street from where we parked is the waterfall. How we missed it when we parked is beyond me. But we crossed the street and began exploring around that side of the park.


This picture, believe it or not, is one of our better ones.

We had several other events, which are not documented, take place this week.
Friday the 27th--Valen and I went to Nim's Island at the dollar theatre--although the dollar theatres here cost $3.50!!!!!!!!
Saturday 28th--We went to a farmer's market on South Campus. We were expecting a big market, being downtown. I think there were six booths. Oh well, it was fun anyway--we got some really great blueberries.
Monday 30--Valen started swimming lessons. Last year it was quite a problem getting her to go. She is afraid of being in the deep water because she can't swim well enough to save herself and she's afraid she might drown. So we explained to her that by going to swimming lessons she would learn to swim in deep water so that she wouldn't drown. "But I'm too scared of being in the deep water." It took some convincing--bribery and telling her that Zack--the boy she has a crush on--will be in her class. She was brave, went into the water and has loved every minute of it. She even puts her face in the water for the bobbing part.
After swimming we went to the Buffalo Science Museum. So much fun. My favorite part is either the stuffed Alaskan Brown Bear or the giant Sequoia tree ring--it shows things that happened during the trees life like World War I, the American Civil War, the Revolutionary War, the discovery of America, the Birth of Christ.
Wednesday 2--After swimming lessons, Valen and I stayed at the North Forest Park and participated in the Red Box time--the city has crafts at the park every day for whoever signs up. Pretty cool. After that we went to play group--we went on the Ellicott Creek Trailway to the 9/11 memorial.
Today was our errand day. We are trying to get things together for our trip out to Utah and so we bought some things like batteries for our air mattress, treats for the drive, a Nintendo DS for Valen--she decided that that is what she wanted to spend her birthday money on. So we decided that instead of waiting until her birthday, we would let her get it now and then pay us back when her birthday comes. I'm not sure how this will go, we'll have to wait and see.


Our children after a day of running errands. Riley is still in the position of having her diaper changed.


Riley gave herself some tribal tattoos in the car today with a dry erase marker.

That's our past two weeks. I don't know if I will give a week in review every week, but it seemed like a good idea for today.

A Week or Two In Review

We have had a very busy, but fun week. Valen is finally out of school, and with Justin not working and out of school that gives us a lot of time together as a family. Although, with Justin not working that also gives us a lack of funds, so we have been exploring the beauty of New York around us.

June 23rd was Valen's second to last day at school, Friendship day. I got to go and spend the ENTIRE day with her. Why they subject the kids to the last two weeks of school, I will never know, but at least they get to do fun stuff. They had so many activities that we were running from one station to the next. They had to pump the kids so full of sugar they would be able to make it through the day.

They had a giant bouncy castle. I'm surprised that all of the kids went on it. It looked a little too big, but they seemed to have fun on it. Most of them complained when it was time to get off and move to the next event.



This is Valen's amazing hang upside down trick.



The kids got to do several outdoor games. Valen's team won tug-of-war both times.



This is Valen helping her team win the sack race. Most of the sacks had the bottoms blown out. Some of the kids had this figured out and just started running. But most of them kept hopping anyway.

My favorite part of the day, besides spending so much time with Valen, was the comments from one little girl. She complained about EVERY activity. She was too scared to go in the bounce house--but she tried it and had fun; she was too scared to go on the slide--but she tried it and had fun and was even a little upset when her turn was over; she didn't like the flavors of the cotton candy and snow cones--even though she got one of each and ate most of them; she was upset that she didn't get her popcorn right then; she didn't like any of the outdoor games--she wasn't having any fun; she didn't like the birthday snack--she ate most of that too; she didn't like the concert--I'll give her credit on that one, it was rather boring; but finally at the end of the day on the very last activity she finally started having fun doing the crafts. It must be so hard being forced to play outside all day long, eating sugary foods and running around like crazy.



STRAWBERRY PICKING

We finally got to take Valen strawberry picking. It wasn't quite as much fun as the first time. Riley got bored a lot quicker and most of the good strawberries were gone. And Valen wasn't so happy that we had to wait to eat them.