NYS Fair

 Mom, Papa Bear, Jen, Little Dude and I went to the State Fair a few weeks ago.  I hadn't been in a really long time and was beyond excited for the little things that I remembered from being a kid.  The butter sculpture, 25 cent glasses of the most delicious chocolate milk, the bridge with a different painting on it, the sand sculpture and of course all kinds of animals (with the little ducklings in their pool with a slide being my favorite).

 It was a really neat Dr. Seuss sand sculpture with all sorts of characters and those tongue twisters from the books.  But the bridge was gone.  It should be in the area where the building entrance is but now is a bunch of flowers.  Perhaps it just kind of crumbled and they didn't rebuild.  Disappointment from Jen and I but we did enjoy sitting in the shade with a nice breeze while mom went to get Papa Bear a baked potato for $1.  She didn't want to wait in line for over an hour and walked up to a lady near the front and offered to buy her a potato and drink if she would get a potato for my mom as well.  Hmm, who wouldn't go for the free food and a drink if offered?

 I had to laugh at the cows all buttered up and ready to be judged.  I also felt bad for them since they looked like they needed to go and help make our chocolate milk.  While they were walking they were "leaking" milk everywhere.

 Maybe it didn't smell as bad as you would think in the cow barn because they were washed, blow dried, buzz cut and then shellacked with a variety of products as evidenced in the bin below.  Must be nice to be a State Fair cow instead of back at the farm munching in the fields attracting flies.

 I got a kick out of the sign in the bathroom that said NO Tipping.  Obviously it was meant for an employee who might be cleaning up but still, in the cow barn bathroom.  It's ok to laugh.

 The biggest reason we all went was so Michael could see his first concert.  We took turns dancing with him and he was moving/shaking/smiling the entire time.

I had the pleasure of entertaining the Little Dude on the car ride home so he wold go to bed about his normal time.  I am going to toot my own horn here and say I did a good job with the help of some Baby Einstein thing Jen pulled up on the phone (I make a good "tv" holder) and then just making sil

Memorial Day Lobster Fest 2014

My folks hosted a Memorial Day lobster picnic again this year.  The weather was a little bit chilly but not too bad.  Everyone was asked to bring a dish to pass and all the food was delicious.

 We set up all the tables for eating outside and the "buffet line" was inside.  We had pasta salad, fruit salad, salad, corn on the cob, cheese and crackers plus clam chowder and roseamarina salad.

 Of course the kids were entertained by the one and only babysitter called the sandbox.  Providing free hours of entertainment for over 28 years.

 Papa Bear was our chef for the evening steaming the lobsters and grilling chicken at the same time.

 Once we were adequately stuffed we enjoyed some cookie cake for dessert.  Two people said they would bring dessert and both showed up with cookie cake.  A crowd pleaser every time!

 That evening a large group stuck around to watch the Rochester Knighthawks lacrosse team play game one of the championship.  Unfortunately they lost the game.

 The next day Luke and I went for a row boat ride to check out the bay.  A few new stairs to the bay are being built, places are for sale and such but for the most part it was quite quiet.

 Of course a trip to Brooks for ice cream was necessary.  We all ordered a small and of course they were huge compared to a small anywhere else.

That evening, after several naps (cottage is for eating and sleeping and repeating), we headed over to Patty and Danny's for poker.  Luke won the first game of the season.  Aunt Patty thought that giving him a bunch of wine would provide her an edge over him.  It did not work this time.  We had a wonderful and relaxing weekend.  Let summer begin!

Columbus Day Weekend

Over the long Columbus Day weekend I headed up to Vermont with my Momma and Papa Bear.  Of course we stopped in Albany for a little shopping and lunch at Grandma's.  It is this restaurant that goes over the top with their decorations for every holiday/season of the year.

 We arrived at my aunt Cathy's place for the night and left early the next morning to travel up to New Hampshire and check out the Kancamungus Highway (very scenic 33 miles).  The day started out gorgeous then got foggy, rained a little and cleared up again just as we reached the highway.  Once we started up the first "peak" though it got foggy again and that was basically the end of sunny and clear weather.  Still a beautiful trip.

 At the first stop on the highway we really had to go to the bathroom.  Thank you government shut down closing the national forest park bathrooms.  Ugh.  We knew there were bathrooms there and the road leading in was crowded with a craft fair so we didn't stop.  Annoying!

 Halfway through the trip and a few out of the car for scenery stops later it was time to go potty in a cup since I was going to burst.  After that it was wonderful and I was better able to enjoy the beauty of the world around me.  Above is the gorge type area. It is really deep and then drops over a small fall to another deep pool with currents/whirl pools.

 Mom and dad climbed up onto a huge rock.  Of course as we were leaving a bazillion little kids decided to scamper up the rock.  Being observant I like to read signs. Some really crack me up.

After our trip along the Kancamungus we went for a little walk back at my aunt Cathy's.  This is the sugar shack across the street from her (where the neighbor makes some maple syrup).  Believe it or not maple syrup comes from maple trees, not pine trees (despite the fact that pine trees are sticky like syrup).

 Mom, Dad and Debbie taking a walk up the hill to check out the view.

 The next day my folks adventured to the liquor store and ran a few errands while I was left at the track to run some laps (my request) so that I could do my running thing.  We left Monday morning.  If anyone can tell me why there is a barn/house on top of the silohs please let me know.  I am curious.  Thank you Vermont for keeping it interesting.

Cottage Weekend

Jen's last weekend in town she wanted to go to the cottage fishing and just to relax.  I went down to the cottage Saturday afternoon since I knew Bob was going to the Bills game and was going up the night before to chill with friends.  We went fishing with Papa Bear while Momma babysat the little dude.  We all caught a fish and Bob lost 3 lures.  After Bob left the crazy shenanigans of the cottage and vacations past began.

 Most families will play cards for money.  We prefer to play for candy.  Not just any candy but regular, full-size bars.  None of those snack size items here folks.  And our rule is that the winner has to dance on the table.  This was all started by Mr. Lucky (my dad) while camping one year and he jumped on the table and moon walked.

 Mom was the winner but due to a ceiling (not picnic table camping this time) she danced on the chair.  Makes you want to hook an ankle.  She then let each of us pick one piece of candy and the rest was her's to keep.

 We proceeded to socialize and eat candy that was already there... or in mom's case she worked on her tan using some candy disc things to protect her eyes.  As if we hadn't gotten enough sugar for the day we went for ice cream at Brooks.

 Was it chilly out?  You bet but that didn't stop us from getting ice cream or snuggling extra with the little dude.  He told Jen he wanted chocolate with extra sprinkles.

 That evening we fed and burped him.  It was a team effort and last minute snuggles before he was going to be leaving in a few days.

We had a nice relaxing weekend at the cottage and went shopping at an outlet center on the way home. Little Dude did not like that at all.  Every time we went in a store he'd start to cry.  He was pretty much ok as long as he wasn't in a store.  So young and already hates shopping.

Happy Birthday!

Well, Happy Birthday to my nephew Michael who was born on July 4th!  I spent a chunk of my birthday in the car driving out to Colorado with my momma to meet him.  Here is the picture Jen sent us...

his mommy was super nice and made sure that he could have his own birthday and not share with me.  I do have a birthday buddy now though named Fionna.  She tried really hard to have her own birthday but I guess she decided that sharing was much nicer.
More on our cross country driving adventure another time and our mini-day trips that we plan to take.

Happy 4th of July...

Hope that everyone has a Happy and safe 4th of July.

Memorial Day Weekend

So I am a little late on posting about Memorial Day weekend.  Things have been busy around here.  We had a wonderful weekend up at the cottage with a lot of family and some friends.  I popped over to the Section V track meet around the corner from our house and then picked up 18 lobsters at Tops.
That's right, 18 lobsters... it was going to be a feast.  I had them all in our recycle bin so they could "breathe" and not be crawling all over my car.

 Papa Bear was a great chef and Uncle Jimmy was his helper by brining in the cooked lobsters for people to start eating (they could only steam so many at a time).

 The weather was quite chilly, so much so that we had a little fire in the wood stove to keep the chill out of the cottage.  Of course there would be a campfire later.  My Papa Bear pulled out all sorts of tools for eating the lobsters.  My favorite were these:

 We are so classy.  Laugh all you want but they worked great.  Papa Bear enjoyed his lobster with butter so much that he decided to wear it.  He spilled his cup of butter all over his sweatshirt and pants.  He started to take his shirt off shortly after this photo but decided he was already messy so he might as well keep going with it.

 Yup, here are my parents to prove how awesome we are and why we "don't have nice things."  By things we refer to cottage clothes since we are always spilling on them, fish guts, sand box messes  or they are getting washed a bajillion times to get the campfire smell out.

 Later that night some of the girls were on the couch looking at photos from the previous Memorial day lobster fest and were busting a gut laughing.

 In the morning Papa Bear decided to get the meat out of the lobster for Grandpa Zip since he and Grandma Pearl weren't able to make it.  Mom decided to photo bomb.  They are always making me laugh and I love them for it.

Success... it all came together for the shower!

I am excited to say that everything came together for Jen's baby shower and I think that it looked fantastic.  We had some wonderful food thanks to our wonderful Aunties that helped me to make the shower such a success.  The day started with me hauling all of the shower goodies out of my hallway (it looked like my hall belonged on Hoarders) and onto the driveway to load into the truck around 8:15am.

All loaded up and we head to the lodge, that we are not allowed to enter until 9am.  I sit at a picnic table outside with the goods while mom goes back to my house to load up a few more things and grab some stuff from my fridge for the ice chest.

 The first thing we did was turn on the oven and then set up the tables.  I had the layout of everything in my mind and had sketched it out several times so that it would all go smoothly.  Once the tables were set up mom went to work getting chairs set up so that I could start decorating with my "vision."

I had made nautical decorations and brought painter's tape to hang stuff on the wall so I wouldn't damage them.  The hardest part was getting the Ahoy it's a Boy sail to stand up and look decent.  The inspiration photo I saw on pinterest was leaning against a wall.  Here is what we ended up with the guests seeing when they entered the lodge for Jen's baby shower:

And of course the other side of the boat was the water with a net to catch all the loot:

 All of the food had punny names.  We had life savers (donuts), bait (gummy worms), catch of the day (sweedish fish), sinkers (meatballs), eggs-hull-ent casserole (eggs), pier-ogies (perogies), channel markers (cupcakes), mini-subs, marshland dish (French toast casserole), knot-yer-moor-ma's potatoes... so fun and a big thanks to my Papa Bear for helping me with quite a few of those names.

 Everyone enjoyed the yummy food and drinks before Jen's little Michael was given a boatload of gifts.

The first gift was the horse.  The horse was something that my Grandma Pearl's father had made for her as a girl.  My sister and I both used the clothes horse growing up as well as Kendall and Sydney.  I had it covered in a sheet and revealed it to the guests first before Jen got to see it.  The ooh's and ahh's of them seeing it and Jen not having yet was great.  Here is Jen's face when she finally got to check it out:

 Awww.  She really loved it Grandma Pearl.  A thank you to Jen's husband Bob for finding out the color white of the nursery so we could go to the store and attempt to match it.  Jen's college roommate Natalie came in from Buffalo and of course they had to have a silly photo.  Natalie is getting married in August, which works out perfect since Jen plans to visit with little Mikey in August.

 As a thank you to our friends and family that attended the shower and gave so generously to her sonny boy we had salt water taffy for them to take home with them.

Thanks for Sailebrating with Jen!  I am so glad that it all came together and we had the most perfect weather while she was in town so she could do everything that she wanted... Mikey went on his first fishing trip the next day.