Family Portraits

Well we thought it was about time to finally have our family portraits taken. Even though we have a great photographer in the family,Rozannah, (you can check out her great blog at http://ellemenopeephotography.blogspot.com/ the picture of CR and baby Apollo is my favorite I guess when we have our baby girl in December we'll have to give Ryan some tattoos too -I love that picture CR). Anyways since Rozannah couldn't do what we wanted we flew Deb out from Preston, Idaho for our glamour shots. I think they turned out ok.
Really someone in our ward had a TOTALLY AWESOME 80'S NITE and it was a lot of fun. And what totally awesome 80's nite would be complete without GOONIES, POP ROCKS, CARE BEARS, and SLAP BRACELETS. Rozannah was pretty disappointed that no one brought their GARBAGE PAIL KIDS to trade.

Camping with Friends

Friday we went "camping" with a bunch of new friends in our ward. Well actually everyone else did the camping - we just went for the day and left before the scary campfire stories started and came back to sleep in our own soft comfortable beds - with the bathroom only a few feet away. As much as I wanted to stay the night - it sure is nice to have the comforts of home, especially when you have to pee 5 times a night. Anyways we all had fun, even with burnt tin foil dinners (I was so hungry too - good thing I brought the Princles!) Oliver had a lot of fun with his new BFF Cannon and everyone else. Below Penelepe is sitting with Annie and Megan around the campfire. I love camping and with friends it was so fun, the kids were entertained with each other and the "Big Kids" had fun too.

Monster Garage

All I have to say is Ryan is so funny and he loves mechanical projects. So our neighbors across the street placed their old gas powered scooter on the curb (which if anything is on the curb in Buffalo - its free game to anyone). Well Chris saw it on the curb and it ended up in the garage. Chris also found a seriously old school trike on the curb, as well, and got it for Lorenzo which was way too big for him. Somehow the two objects ended up in our Monster Garage and Ryan had to combine the two. He obviously had way too much fun. Good thing a picture is worth a thousand words, because I can't even describe it. All I know is Ryan and Chris have had a lot of fun riding it around. It's street legal you know. (ya right)

I Fought the Law and the Law Won

So we spoke in church on Sunday and I talked a little bit about obedience and how that word has a completely new meaning since becoming a parent. Why must children, excuse me, why must my children not listen. Well this is what happens when kids don't listen - they get hurt! Penelepe knows one of the rules in the house is to not go down to the basement. Why? because its not a finished basement and has things that could hurt children and the stairs are scary. Needless to say she didn't listen and fell down the stairs. Not only did she fall down the stairs, but since there isn't a railing on one side she also fell off the scary wooden stairs and landed first on a saw horse and then on a saw and finally ended on the cement. I honestly thought her eye would be gone when I looked at her. Super scary. Luckily all she got was her first black and bloody eye. Pobrecita!

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?