Letchworth State Park, NY

After experiencing Niagara Falls, nothing else quite compares, but we still enjoyed exploring one of the state parks in our area. Letchworth is interesting because it is only about 14 miles long, but there are three different water falls to see in the gorge. They claim that it is "The Grand Canyon" of the East. Well, whoever coined that phrase probably never went west of the Mississippi, but it is a fun place to visit, especially when you get there and realize that it is "Biker Day." I learned a lot about Harleys and those who ride them, plus there were two different wedding parties wandering around snapping pics in front of the falls. Who knew that nature could draw such a crowd?

Upper falls at Letchworth State Park.

All five of us, by the Upper Falls.

Multiple rainbows are visible around the falls, luckily, they do show up in the pictures.

The middle falls in the park.

This is pretty much what Western NY is like. There are literally trees everywhere on gentle rolling hills. It is green as far as you can see in every direction. But what allows for all of this luxurious green? Rain. Lots and lots of rain, and then there is the humidity factor, lately it runs about 85 percent. No lotion is needed, but we have learned that there is true wisdom in waiting to shower until the end of the day. I have never sweat so much in my life since moving to this area, but hey, it is green. No one can debate that.

Journey to Niagara Falls

It took us a few weeks to get there, but we finally found our way to Niagara Falls. We waited for Michael's brother and his wife to come up from North Carolina and join us in the adventure. We started on the American side at Goat Island and the Niagara Falls State Park. This is a picture of our family standing above the Horseshoe Falls. The force of the water sends mist shooting high up into the air that you can see from miles around. The noise is thunderous and it feels like constant rain that you cannot escape.

We decided to get up close and personal to the falls and paid to go down an elevator to the base of the Bridal Veil portion of the falls. It is called Cave of the Winds. We got really wet, especially up on the Hurricane deck. The force of the water blowing on to us was overwhelming, especially for Maura. The yellow slickers helped a bit, but we still got wet.

This is a view of Cave of the Winds from the top. You can see the deck that goes into the flow of the water.

This is American Falls and Bridal Veil falls, but from the Canadian side. After getting a bit bored on the American side and frustrated that we could only see the side or top of the falls, we crossed over to Canada on the Rainbow Bridge. Easy to do, but it requires a passport so we pulled out all five and made the crossing. The view from the Canadian side is amazing. We are going to have to go back at night when there are lights shining on the water.

Even though it had already been a long day, we decided to take a trip on the Maid of the Mist. It is a short ride, but incredible. After putting on blue slickers to protect you from the mist, the boat goes right into the mist thrown up by the Horseshoe Falls and right into the center of the horeshoe. When you stand on shore, you lose sight of the boats in the mist. Maura did not like getting wet in the morning, but she really wanted to go on the boat and did not mind getting wet in the afternoon, go figure. All I can say is, if you go to Niagara Falls, don't spend too much time doing your hair before you go, by the end of the day you will look like a wet rag doll. But it will be worth it, the views are incredible, and you have to experience the sights and sounds of it yourself to really appreciate it. I am glad that we made the journey and know that we will return many times in the future.

Italian Fesitval

Even though we don't have any Italian heritage that we know of, we could not pass up on the opportunity to go to a festival in downtown Buffalo that centered around great Italain food. We found a lot of different food options, but of course, the kids wanted pizza. Michael and I tried to be a little more daring and ate some meatballs and portabello ravioli.

Hayden thought that he had died and gone to pizza heaven. So many vendors, so little time!

After lunch, the kids found pastries and cookies.

But, Michael and I found deep fried options. Ever had a deep fried Twinkie or Oreo? Well, we haven't and it was too weird to pass up. We tried a deep fried Snickers and although it was really sweet, it was very good. Gotta love these Italian vendors!

Hill Cumorah Pageant

After nearly deciding not to go because it was raining so hard at our house, we drove out to Palmyra, NY for the Hill Cumorah Pageant. We should have had a little more faith to begin with because the weather was wonderful throughout the evening, despite the weather reports. This is our family standing in front of the stage which had been built on the hill. We had just finished eating at our stake's potluck dinner with new friends and ward members.

This picture shows more of the stage and how it is set up. It is massive, and the whole area looked much different from last November when Michael and I arrived near sunset and there were only four of us walking around on the grounds. The atmosphere was charged with energy and families were throwing footballs and frisbees, eating picnic dinners and meeting up with friends and family. It felt like a family reunion and we all felt comfortable there.

Then, after a few cell phone calls, we were able to meet up with Braden and Brianne from our previous ward. It was great to see them before the pageant and to see Brianne's costume up close. Braden would change into his angel costume later. They were smiling the entire time and were having a great experience performing in the pageant. They walk through the crowds each evening and meet with people and it was fun to visit with them and hear of their experiences. It made it much more meaningful to know some of the performers personally and we were thrilled that we were able to find them.

These two are amazing, I only hope that Hayden and Sydney can be this close in the future!



One of my favorite scenes during the pageant was the depiction of the vision of the tree of life. There was water spraying up that set the backdrop and the imagery was spectacular. There were so many great moments during the pageant, even Maura climbed up on my lap and at one point said, "Mom, that is so beautiful, take a picture, take a picture!" And of course, the music was wonderful and the costumes were incredible, especially for the Book of Mormon characters. We had a great night with our family and with new friends. Come join us next July!

This and That

Despite the continual rain showers, and cool weather, we are pretending that it is summer here in western New York. There is a great amusement park called Darien Lake that we have bought season passes to. We have gone the last three Fridays, and this last week it was finally warm enough to swim at the water parks. All three kids loved the wave pool the most. We also went on the log ride, a river raft ride called Grizzly Run and Shipwreck Falls too. On the way home we had to take a detour around the parade that was happening in Alden, and we had to make two emergencies potty stops, one was at a bar. It was all that I could find and Maura was desperate! Needless to say, I hope that Michael will be accompanying us for the next Darien Lake adventure because I was exhausted by the time we pulled in on Friday.






This week we also tried out a babysitter. One of the girls who lives on our street came over and took care of my girls while Hayden and I went to the middle school to get him registered. The girls liked her a lot. Can you believe that there are 3 typed pages in a small font that list all of the supplies that we need to buy for middle school? Sydney has about a 2 page list for third grade as well. I thought that with the $6,000 school tax that we pay things like that would be covered! It may take us the rest of the summer to find all of the stuff! Oh well, it will give us something to do I guess.



Other happenings this week... we fed the missionaries dinner, bought double scoop ice cream cones in Hamburg, went to the drive in movies, had dinner at Tina's Italian Kitchen, took the kids to golf lessons, and bought a lawn mower. We also dog sat the neighbor's dog, went shopping at Vidler's, played at Hamlin Park and went to the Fisher Price Toy Store.

So as you can see, our busy schedule has followed us to New York. But we wouldn't have it any other way.

Hayden's 11th Birthday

After being in New York for nearly two weeks, we can't believe how much it rains. Nearly every day since we have arrived it rains, sometimes two inches in one afternoon. So of course, the thunder storms rolled in on Hayden's birthday. We decided to go celebrate indoors at a place that has inflatable slides and bounce houses, arcade games and stuff. It was a brilliant plan. I sat and read a book, the kids wore themselves out running, climbing, jumping and bouncing. No fighting, no mess, no problem.

Sydney, Maura and Hayden at the top of one of the slides.

After the kids were totally exhausted, we came home and waited for Michael to join us. We barbequed at Hayden's request and then we had birthday brownies and ice cream. Hayden wanted brownies because we still had cake from Maura's birthday hanging around.


Even with eleven candles to blow out, he made it look easy. Happy Birthday Hayden, we love you!! And we are especially proud of you for earning your Arrow of Light before your birthday!

Maura Turns Four!

Maura may be one year older, but she still wanted to celebrate her birthday the same way as last year- she wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese. Luckily, the only one in the area is about 10 minutes away. The five of us went for a couple of hours and had fun spending our tokens, earning tickets and redeeming them for prizes. Maura loved every minute of it. And I have to say that I still enjoy a high scoring game of skeeball!

I could not have made a cake in the new house last weekend, but I pulled it off this weekend. I had unpacked enough boxes to find two matching cake pans and Michael somehow dug out some matches that were not confiscated by the moving company. It took a little more effort in a new kitchen with appliances that I am not used to, but in the end, it was a cake, and there were four candles, and she made a wish and blew it out. Now my baby is four and I feel old! Oh well, Happy Birthday Maura, we absolutely adore you.