Camping and Watkins Glen State Park

New York just gets more beautiful with each day. We are definitely learning to love the rain. But if you love the green you must love the rain. The past week I've been feeling like I was back in Ecaudor with all the rain and "spring" like weather. Last weekend we went and saw the Hill Cumorah pagaent, which was fun and had great effects. We loved the water and fire effects the most. Since we were driving out to the country already we thought we would make a weekend of it and go camping. We went with Rozannah, Chris, and Lorenzo. The first night we stayed at Sampson State Park on one of the finger lakes (Seneca I think)and played in the lake and got wet. Wet from the lake and wet from the rains, and unfortunately wet from Penelepe having so many accidents! We also stopped at a U- Pick farm and picked some yummy blueberries! The country is so beautiful here. First of all everything is green, green, green, and then there are lakes, and vineyards all over with scattered state parks through out New York. We played in Hector Falls, which was right off the highway. Uncle Chris and Oliver managed to make it behind the waterfall to cool off even more than the rest of us. Afterward we made it to Watkins Glen. Wow! Amazing! So beautiful. I wish our pictures could show you how beautiful it really is. If you are close to it - so worth the two mile hike (I think it was about 2). I lost count of how many waterfalls there were but a great family outing. Penelepe walked almost the entire way - so its an easy hike - I'm almost embarrassed to say that she beat me to the top. Those last few stairs were killers. We reached the top just in time to escape the monsoon that hit. As for the pictures I love to post pictures - I always like looking at other blogs with lots of pictures - so hope you like them. Usually I don't like to put pictures of me - but the one just of me- Ryan loves because it shows my true colors! I'm sure I was telling the kids to either stop flinging themselves over the wall to fall in the river, or to stop splashing in the puddles (like we weren't wet already). When did I become such a mean mother?

California Aint got nothing on Buffalo

First of all I promise never to use the word aint again on my blog. So we went to Crystal Beach the other day, which is actually in Canada, and had a great time. It is on Erie Lake, which is so huge, you can hardly see the other side. I was planning on having a nice relaxing nap or reading a book on the beach while the kids played in the still calm lake water, but was surprised to find huge waves coming in. The kids loved it! The beach was nice and sandy and the kids were able to make some sandcastles or something like a sandcastle. Uncle Chris showed the kids what a real sandcastle looks like and he also took Oliver out for a ride in the kayak. It was just like we were hanging out on the California coast - who knew New York had so much more to offer than big cities! Ya Obviously not me!