We spent the past 2.5 weeks up in New York - had a great time being up there, but am happy to be getting back into our routine here.
Mom flew down on Tuesday, so we went & picked her up, and then stopped off at Old Town. The boys love looking at all the boats, so we just walked around, and then grabbed a sandwich for lunch. (We did meet up with Krista & gang at the playground before the airport, and the boys had a PB&J there...) Wednesday we went to Mt. Vernon, and took a boat ride there. Mom had mentioned going into Old Town to do that, but I didn't want to drive the truck back in there and worry about parking. And then we hit the road for Buffalo Thursday morning. The boys were great in the car, and it was great having mom there to help out! It'd be too stressful for me to try to do it myself. 7 hours is too long! We ended up walking down to Pautler's after dinner. The boys really enjoyed their ice cream. We had to hurry to finish it because it was starting to get dark, and we did get rained on a bit on our walk home!
Friday morning we hung out. The boys loved playing with the 'new' trucks mom found in the basement! We did lunch at the cafe, and then drove out to Ashley & Kevin's house. Just hung out there, Ashley took everyone on a gator ride, which Jim loved, and Ben actually went on it! Grilled for dinner. It tired Ben out, he was passed out on the drive home! We did have to search the entire house for a silver poker cup that was missing. Ben told us he hid it, but we could not find the thing. Ashley even went digging through the garbage! We searched for like an hour, and finally we had to leave. They said it'll turn up somewhere. We knew it was in the house because they didn't bring it outside. I was bribing the boys with treats and money but neither one could find it, until we went to leave. Put our hand on the front door, and it was hanging on the door knob! Jim was very excited that he found it! Goof balls!
Allison got back from Charleston, so we got to see her on Saturday! Ashley had a birthday party for Kevin's nephew so she hung out with them. We ended up going to Monkey See Monkey Do in the morning. Mom had a gift card for their that she let the boys use. They had fun going through all the books, and making S'Mores for an end of the summer party they were having. Then we met Mom & Dad at the playground at St. Mary's. The boys finally went down for a nap, since they skipped Thursday with the drive and Friday being at Ashley's.
Sunday we drove into Erie! We met Rob, Jenna, and Blake for breakfast - it was great all being together! We stopped by at Papa's house for a visit, and then we made our way to the Erie Zoo!! How weird to be back there - so different from when I was last there, years and years ago. But I think it's safe to say that they boys had a good time there! After the zoo we went over to Aunt Jane & Uncle's Rick's house to visit with everyone. It was such a nice day! Everyone was over there, so it was good catching up with them. And Jim had a blast - playing with the kids...and even got a chance to play baseball - he loved that! Running the bases and all. Ben had fun checking out all the 'new' toys.
Monday was dad's birthday - so we celebrated with him at Becker Farm's. Had a good time there - we did some apple picking! They had a little petting area where the boys got to feed some goats...and play on their little play area - checking out a fire truck; water pumps, etc. Then we had lunch at their brewery. Despite the slow service - it was good! And no one else was in there when we were finishing up so I didn't mind that the boys were running around, entertaining themselves. Everyone came over for Dad's Birthday dinner. Had a good time with that. Ashley & I did the ice bucket challenge. Ashley did not want to do it, and had Jim dump water from one of his toy dump trucks. She was so paranoid I was going to dump my bucket on her. Jim proceeded to do it too - he was so cute with that!
Allison had to go to work on Tuesday - so Ashley took us to Kevin's parents house to do some swimming! Ben was a little cranky in the beginning, think it was because he was hungry. But they both had a lot of fun. Jim went down the slide - or part way down the slide. He didn't want to go from the top but half way down. I think he loved that. We walked down to Pautler's for dinner & ice cream!! It was cruise night, Jim had fun looking at all the old cars with Papa!!!
Wednesday may had been the first day we didn't really have much going on. And after the busy week we had, that was much appreciated! It was nice to let the boys play at home, and not have to worry about going somewhere. In the afternoon the girls all went and got a pedicure. And had a little happy hour back home - we tried a Dr. Pepper with S'Mores Vodka - but that was not drinkable. So I ended up making a summer shandy which everyone enjoyed!
Mark came into town on Thursday. Jim was very excited to see him, he came to the airport to pick him up. Then we just spent the day out back playing, hanging out.
Friday Mark Allison & I went to Syracuse for the football game! We did some tailgating (were made fun of for our tailgate, so we ended up hanging out with some other people for a bit) then went to Faegan's for a couple beers...wanted to do Varsity for dinner, but the line was super long - so we went to Jimmy John's for a sub then went to the game! It was a WIN for us - but double overtime, which meant we didn't get back home until 2:30AM! The boys had a good time with Grandma, Papa & Aunt Ashley - they went to a pottery painting place...to the park to play soccer and baseball...and took a walk to Pautler's for dinner. All in all a great day for everyone.
Saturday we hung out in the morning - I packed up all our stuff, loaded the car, and drove off to Castile at lunch time. We were super busy in Buffalo, but it was a good time!!! It was a lot different back at Mark's - not as much going on, rather relaxing, I got a lot of reading done. I think I read 3 books in 3 days.
Sunday we tried to go to the Dansville balloon festival - but it had been raining pretty much all day...the grounds were all wet so there were no hot air balloons out. We walked around, the boys jumped in a bounce house, and then we went back home.
Monday was Labor Day - we went to Silver Lake to do some canoeing. I was surprised, Ben was way more into it then Jim was...but then later that day Jim started complaining he wasn't feeling good, which I think was part of the problem. No idea what was wrong with him, he didn't say anything hurt him, but he had no energy, laying around, not wanting to do much.
Tuesday Mark went and played golf with his dad...Wednesday hung out at home...Thursday I finally left the house, walking to the park...going to Charcoal Corral for lunch...Friday we packed up again and drove to Albany. Visited with Papa at the nursing home...Stopped by Aunt Sue's house...and did dinner at Brown's - good food, good beer. Jim still isn't back to normal. He was laying on Mark's lap at dinner - it was odd to have him so quiet at random times through the week. And then we were on our way home on Saturday. Had a great drive home, no problems from the boys. Made it home in 6.5 hours with no stops!
(Now that I'm finally finishing this, a month later than when I started it! We were up in NY the last week in August / first week in September!)
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