Watkins Glen . . .

First of all, the pictures don't do this amazing place justice. Partially because I'm not a good photographer and partially because it is just so beautiful.

We went on a 2-mile hike and I felt like we were in a movie set, like maybe Lord of the Rings or King Kong or Jurassic Park (without the danger!). It was a little rainy and misty and that made it even more beautiful and surreal.

The hike basically runs a long the inside of a gorge, with a river flowing along the bottom. As the hike progresses, we were actually walking underneath water flowing into the gorge.
Pretty amazing.
There were beautiful waterfalls. You can see one in the distance that we walked right underneath, it's a fairly good-sized waterfall and feeds into the smaller one right behind Jake and Jack.

This definitely reminded me of Lord of the Rings--"Up the stairs we go . . ."

Some friends hiked with us, and it was an easy enough walk that the kids all did fine, in fact all these kids except Jack beat most of the adults through the trail! It almost felt too easy for all the amazing stuff we saw. Back in Utah you have to hike miles to see even one waterfall.

After the hike, we had dinner and let the kids play and roast marshmallows over a fire at one of the campsites nearby. "And I say to myself, what a wonderful world . . . "

A Day For James

Friday was a busy day, for James and all of us.

It started out with his class play. His class has been working very hard on it for 2 weeks and it was fun to see them as "blossom" as actors. The teacher had them all memorize their lines which was very impressive.

The whole class being introduced in their costumes. James (far left) played the Weasel.

Here's James in his scene with "the dog" (his friend Sadie). Our camera was having a little trouble with the lighting in the room so some of the pictures ended up a little blurry (I had to turn off the flash). I so need photography lessons.

The whole family after the play. It was nice that Jake could be there, too!

Friday evening, we went to a Binghamton Mets baseball game. They are the minor league Mets team. Here's some of the team watching the team throw some warm-up balls. The boys oohed and aahed at how fast and how far the professionals can throw!

The boys were invited onto the field for the national anthem. It was pretty cool to be out there with the team on the actual field.

The boys all sat together which may or may not have been a good idea. They got a little crazy and a lot silly through 9 long innings. Luckily there were enough concessions to occupy them, but that may have made things worse . . .

James and Domenic sporting the latest in baseball headware.

After the game there was a fireworks show. What's more American than baseball and fireworks? And it was a perfect night--beautiful and not too hot. We had a great time.

Mark and Lissy

What a wonderful time we had with Mark and Lissy. It's always fun to "rediscover" the place where we live while we show it off to someone else.

The hike up to Taughannock Falls. Tiny Mark on the bridge.

The falls. I forgot how amazing it is that we can drive 15 minutes, then walk just a mile over a well-maintained trail to see this.

The Taughannock trailhead.

This was a new discovery for me. I hadn't yet been to Treman State Park (another one within about 15-20 minutes of our house). In just about a mile and a half walk (a little steeper trail this time), you see these amazing little stone bridges, the walls of this beautiful gorge covered in greenery, and a huge waterfall.

Jack is getting a bit heavy for this backpack. I'm grateful Mark took over halfway. We're standing in front of Lucifer Falls (you can see more of it below).

Lucifer Falls and the Feils.

We went to one of James's baseball games and all the "boys" had a great time playing on the nearby playground. They have such cooler toys now than they did when I was a kid. Mark liked this bouncy swing.

Mark, Jake, and James took off one day and hiked Buttermilk Falls trail. This is just one of several waterfalls you see along the trail. Tiny Mark on top.

Tiny Mark halfway up the falls.

Mark and James checking out another waterfall.

Poor Jake and Mark--the day they chose to go kayaking it rained. Melissa and I were smart--we went shopping. My new favorite store--H&M.

Sweet little Evie. Everywhere we went people smiled at her and said how cute she was. Partially due to her homemade flower headbands (Melissa is so creative!).

Anyhow, thanks for coming, Mark and Melissa, and giving us a chance to rediscover and re-appreciate where we live. And, of course, getting to enjoy lots of time with you and Evie. We wish you lived closer!

SUPERFREAK . . .

This weekend's Ithaca Festival (an annual occurrence) kicked off with a huge parade. We had heard the parade was very entertaining, and it definitely met expectations. I'm so glad to finally be able to show our friends outside of Ithaca a few of what Jake and I call "True Ithacans".

These are not the true Ithacans, just our kids. Anxiously waiting for the parade to begin.
This is La Leche League. For those who aren't familiar with them, they promote breastfeeding. Hence the slogans "Free Range Milk" and "Nature's Finest on Tap". Oh, and the giant breastfeeding doll.

True Ithacans are completely into anything and everything natural and organic, and especially vegan or vegetarian.

Even the Fingerlakes Cycling Company managed to put their freak on.

Of course composting here is huge. There are a multitude of community services encouraging and teaching the eager Ithacan how to compost just about everything imaginable.

These interesting Ithacans are advertising "Green" transportation. Luckily, I think you can still use green transportation without dressing like this.

These are Jake's newest clients, the Rollerderby league. I'm not joking. He'll provide medical coverage for their . . um . . games? meets? events? competitions? (I'm not sure what it's called when you dress strangely and race around on skates trying to plaster your competitors . . . ) starting this summer.

I don't even remember who this guy was with. I affectionately call him the bag man. In case you can't tell, he's covered in plastic grocery bags. A creative way to recycle?? James was very concerned that he was going to suffocate. I guess it's good to know my warnings about not putting plastic bags on your head actually got through.

Not quite sure what this group was promoting, but it seems to be the spirit of the "True Ithacan".

One of the "Scooter Commuters". Hopefully he doesn't actually wear this mask while commuting. If I pulled up beside him and he looked at me like this I might have a stroke while driving and that might be bad.

Some oil companies have been investigating some shale drilling opportunities in the area. I guess the drilling process is called "Fracking" (short for fracturing I think). I might be more on board with their cause if, well, they didn't look so strange.

Couldn't really tell who this guy was with, either. But he was really enjoying strutting around like a peacock (check out the stance). Male ego or flamer? You decide.

These came near the end of the parade and were almost the strangest of all. Ballerina look-alikes (I say look-alikes because they had no actual dancing skill) dancing with their partners, see below.

The human ballerinas were dancing with Volvos dressed as ballerinas (of all cars, why choose the Volvo I wonder?). Quite the show.

And to round it out, the chainsaw band (with their backup chorus, the kids on the truck). I don't actually know if they can legitimately be called a band because there was no actual music. Just a lot of banging (kids) and chainsaw revving (adults). Maybe it would sound like music to someone.

I hope this little demonstration of the "Truly Ithacan" won't frighten any of you from coming to visit. Just remember this is a very concentrated dose, whereas when you live in or visit Ithaca, you see this in smaller moments.

Hope you've enjoyed the show.

Jake's Birthday BBQ Bash

For Jake's birthday we had a BBQ party. Not because he wanted a birthday party but because he wanted to have a bunch of friends over and grill for them.

The birthday boy himself. We had some concern about his grilling skills after the first batch of hamburgers nearly went up in flames (he was bragging about his burgers and opened the grill with a flourish to find it filled with flames). Luckily, most of the burgers were still fine and the next batch turned out beautifully. YUM!
Our friend Jeff brought his lacrosse sticks. He played lacrosse in college and is quite amazing. Everyone else who tried to play were not quite as amazing, but the boys had a good time. For our Utah friends, lacrosse is HUGE out here. We've decided it should be Jack's "sport".

James liked playing around but doesn't want to play lacrosse "for real". It's a bit too aggressive for him I think!

Jake's request for birthday dessert was oreo ice cream dessert. It was a bit of a struggle to get the candles in but we managed and doesn't Jake look thrilled to have us all sing Happy Birthday so he could blow them out? I forgot to ask him if he made a wish.

Anyway, a good time was had by all (we hope)!

Happy Birthday Jakey!