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My picture taking skills are really not that great, but in August my sister was able to come visit for a little over a weekend so we got to have lots of fun with her.  Rae had never been to New York before so of course we had to do Niagara Falls.  With our zoo membership, we were able to get into the Aquarium at Niagara Falls for free so we took advantage of that for little Toddles.  He loved all the sharks and sea creatures.  We were looking into this window at some sharks when one swam up right next to the window.  Toddles jumped so high!  It sure was funny.  Then we headed to the actual falls and got to view some of that action.  We took The Maid of the Mist boat ride to get the full experience.  Rae asked Brett... "about how wet do you get on this thing?"  Brett's reply was "not too bad."  Yeah, soaked isn't too bad!  That's what we got, soaked.  Toddles liked the boat, but not getting wet.  It was a really hot day so I was perfectly happy to dunked.  We even had complementary ponchos to keep us dry, but held them instead of wearing them.  It was a super fun trip.

New twin bed.  He is such a big kid, but that bed makes him look so small.  It is a whole lot easier to read books now though.

Photos

Whatever it takes to get them to eat righ?  Of course "snakes and worms" taste a whole lot better when eaten with a 10 inch long fork.

Almost every night the little asian kids go outside with their swords and fight.  Toddles loves to join in even though he has no idea what they are saying.  So Brett made him a sword and shield.  They are going to work on a new crown.

The Fourth of July

For the Fourth of July 2012, we went to Brown's Berry Patch in Waterport NY.  It is a farm that originated in 1804 and is still producing today.  On kidsoutandabout.com (a website I highly recommend, it has lists and lists and lists of all the fun things there are for kids to do in the greater Rochester area, I wish every city had something like this) we were able to get coupons to get into the barnyard adventure for free. They have a lot of fun things for the kids to do along with meeting some farm animals.  There were goats, a baby cow named White Socks, chickens, a llama, and some ponies.  The goats have some ramps that help them climb up to the top of the barn and you can buy food, put it in a can that is attatched to a pulley and the goats pull the can up to the top of the barn to eat.  They are fast and it is pretty incredible to watch. 

They have a wooden train, and and wooden pirate ship to play in.  The pirate ship was definatly Toddles favorite thing.

Here he is noticing the goats on top of the barn.

With our coupon, we got one free ride on the barnyard express.  Luckily there wasn't a line, because Toddles saw it, and made a bee line for this chicken.  He climbed right in and was ready to go on his ride.

This little contraption was pretty neat, its called the twister.  You get and walk up the sides, and the whole thing turns.  So little ones slip and slide all over.  Toddles LOVED it.  He got the biggest kick out of it, and could not stop laughing.

Petting a goat.

We picked some cherries while at Brown's.  The fourth was the first day for cherry picking, but the pickin's were slim.  They say not to climb the trees, but there weren't any cherries low enough for us to get (curse our short genes) so Brett kinda sorta climbed a tree so we could get some really good cherries.  They are so good!  Toddles really enjoyed them too.  Luckily you don't have to pay for the ones you eat.

The fourth of July is my favorite holiday.  I love everything about it, the colors, the summer fun, and especially the celebration of our country's beginnings.  I love it!  And I love fireworks.  I don't like the little dinky ones you buy in the grocery store parking lot, (don't even get me started on how much I don't like those...)  but the big ones that you go somewhere, set up, watch, listen/feel the boom of big big fireworks.  Since this was our first July here, we didn't know where to go.  We also didn't want to go far, so I asked some friends and they said they were going to Buckland park.  So we joined them.  It was great, they were far enough away that they didn't scare Toddles (sadly last year he was terrified of fireworks), but you could still see/hear/feel them.  There weren't a million people there, and it was only 5 miles or so from home.  The coolest part was you could see 3 different presentations at the same time.  Henrietta's, Meridian park (the closest), and the city of Rochester's fireworks.  It was really neat.  Toddles was a little nervous and asked to go home in the beginning, but I held him tight and we watched together.  We ooed and awed and gasped over the ones we really liked.  We both really like the ones that crackle.  It is very rare that I get to hold him like that while he is awake so It made watching fireworks really special for me. 

Some things Toddles does right now...

Dinosaurs and animals are everywhere

He says "Exciting!" about a lot of things, but in a funny sarcastic voice

His favorite game to play is "Mommy, where are we going?"  asked over and over and over....

Everything is "let me do it!" if we don't, we have to start over so he can do it

He sings songs

He loves babies

He loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pulled apart

He doesn't like to wear shoes, goes barefoot almost everywhere

He says... "maybe someday we can get/do that... but not today!" in a sweet whiny yet sing song voice

He is the joy of our lives.

First Time Camping

Not Toddles first time camping, mine.  That is without some other adult running the show.  Since we weren't going to make it back to Utah this summer, and couldn't afford anything else we decided to take a little camping trip.  We packed up and prepared all the stuff we needed (we forgot a few things, like fixings for lunch but what are you going to do?) and headed to Hamlin Beach.  Some beach on Lake Ontario (that doesn't close near as often as the other beach).  Luckily we did get a camp site for two nights.  It was great!  We had a little trouble getting the fire started, but once we did we cooked up our foil dinners and had a delicious meal.  Thank you Grill Mates!  Toddles loved being in nature.  He especially loved diving into the tent and onto the air matress.  He followed the rules really well around the fire and was a great little camper.  He loved his new camp chair too. 

We headed over to the beach and got to play for about an hour before we had to go get dinner going, Toddles could've stayed for another 6 hours.  Luckily we were going back the next day.  We thought it would be really fun to watch a movie on the little dvd player after dinner, so we redboxed Puss in Boots and when we were settled, started the movie (it had to be close to 11pm).  About 5 minutes in, I rolled over and fell asleep... five minutes after that Toddles fell asleep... and 5 minutes after that Brett decided to go to bed too.  We only have a 2 man tent, and a twin size air matress, and for some reason we thought it could work for all three of us.  Maybe it would have if one of us didn't require more space than others (Toddles), or if one of us isn't extremely round in the middle (Jenna)... So Brett being the amazing husband he is, volunteered to sleep on the little strip of tent next to the air mattress.  I felt really really bad, but I went with it.  Luckily it cooled off that night so we actually were quite comfortable.  Brett woke up early and decided to go fishing, I told him to wait for Toddles because he was so excited to go fishing, but Brett said he would take him later.  I really thought Toddles would wake up when he heard the car turn on, but he didn't.  So luckily I got to go back to sleep too.  We didn't wake up again until Brett came back, at 9am.  Toddles rarely sleeps that late so it was really nice.  We had breakfast consisting of Wegman's doughnuts and bananas.  Then we got ready and headed back to the beach for some more water fun. 

Toddles really could have spent hours and hours in the water, but it got to be so hot that I couldn't handle it anymore.  So we packed up, and went back to the campsite for lunch.  We decided to eat the bratwurst we were planning on having for dinner, and after that, we tried to watch the movie again, but it was too hot.  I laid down for a nap.  Then Brett took a nap, while I played with Toddles.  We got some nice cloud cover so we headed back to the beach for more sand time.  We also did a little bit of fishing.  We played at the playgrounds, and Toddles went down some really tall metal slides.  There was a little creek running through part of the park that had some stone bridges to walk on.  The real fun was looking over the edge and seeing what kind of creatures lived down there.  We spotted a lot of different frogs waiting for some food.  Toddles and I watched them for quite a while during one of Brett's fishing spells.  Then we came back to them with Brett.  We found a frog on the grass and got to watch him quickly hop.  Toddles loves creatures and got the biggest kick out of those frogs.  Sadly, no pictures.  For dinner we decided it would be easiest to go to McDonald's and not eat the same thing we had for lunch.  Toddles ate 6 chicken nuggets, all of his fries, probably a quart of ketchup, all his chocolate milk, and an apple slice.  He got some kind of wired toy that he is very attatched to and calls it a robot.  Sitting close to us was a little old lady that Toddles was having fun playing peek-a-boo with.  It was really cute to watch.  After some ice cream, we headed back to camp.

Back at the campsite we found some toads that we were able to get pictures of.  Toddles loved to shine the big flashlight on them and watch them hop away.  He also for some reason really liked taking a shower in the grimy campsite bathroom.  He was really funny, and all over the place.  We again tried to watch the movie, and he was just too tired.  I think we all were.  He couldn't find his "robot" and threw a fit about it.  It was lost, it was gone, "daddy go find it!" major tantrum.  It was nonsensical, so Brett tried to find it but couldn't.  We told Toddles we would find it when the sun came out and we could see.  That kinda helped, but he was still really sad.  He did fall asleep pretty quickly after that.  Brett again slept on the ground and I stayed on the comfy mattress, but it did not cool off.  It was really really warm so I didn't sleep that well.  In the morning Brett again went fishing, but this time Toddles woke up before he got back.  I was awake but just lying there and when Toddles opened his eyes, he looked at me, smiled and said... "Mommy, the sun came out!"  We went out of the tent and the "robot" was sitting on the table.  Brett had found it and had it waiting for Toddles. All was well with the world.

(Tired of taking pictures)

 After McDonald's dinner, Brett really wanted to have that father-son fishing moment so we went back to fishing spot and tried and tried to catch a fish.  Finally when Toddles and I were losing it, they caught a fish.  I'm not sure what it was, but Toddles got to reel it in.  It was just a little thing, mostly green with some orange spots on his belly.  Toddles called it a "green tiger fish."  It was so cute.  Brett got the hook out, handed it to Toddles and he got to throw it back in the water.  It was very a very successful fishing moment.  We had so much fun on our camping trip and loved spending time as a family.  On our last morning, Brett went fishing one last time, and while he was gone I pretty much packed up our camp site.  Everything but the tent, which I considered but thankfully didn't try.  I was ready to go.  So when Brett got back we were able to leave pretty quickly.  It was a blast, but I don't think I will ever try camping while pregnant again.  It was pretty tough on the body, but I did it, we survived and had a lot of fun.

Lake Ontario

Brett took Step 1 on June 20, (hooray!)  and ever since we have been able to just spend time together as a family before third year starts.  It has been wonderful!  The weather has been really really hot and humid so we decided to head to Lake Ontario Beach Park for some beach fun.  We got some new sand toys to play with and were ready for fun.  However, because the bacteria levels were so high, they closed off the water so no swimming, but we still got to play in the sand.  It was really windy so we didn't stay in the sand for long.  We found some trees trunks that had fallen down so Toddles got to play and climb to his heart's content.  Then we went over to the vintage restored merry go round.  This is the most beautiful carousel I have ever seen.  Toddles loves animals and was so excited to ride the tiger and some other animals.

Then we got to go play at the playground.  It was a really fun day!

Trip to the Zoo

For the last year we have had a membership to the Seneca Park Zoo, and we have really loved it. Its a very small zoo, so its perfect for a three year old. But, for the last year we haven't been able to enjoy 1/3 of it because they were building a new exhibit and getting some Lions. We were pretty excited when it opened last month and we got to visit the new lions, the elephants and the baboons. Toddles wore his lion shirt to celebrate.

"Digging" or just playing in rocks was highly captivating.

I was running after Toddles at one point, and just as I turned around to look at the crowd in front of the Lions where our friends were standing the whole crowd jumped back.  MaryAnne said a lion had quickly hissed/growled at them.  I was sad I missed it.  The lion enclosure is my favorite part at the zoo now.

The baboons were pretty funny, and big!

We love our zoo!