New York Trip Day 2 - Buffalo

We explored Buffalo on our 2nd day in New York. We couldn't find a whole lot of things to do, but the boys wanted to go and see the stadium where the Bills play. We had a lazier morning before heading out around 11 or so. We were surprised to see that they were building a new stadium for the Bills. It looks a lot nicer than the stadium they play in now. 

We went in and looked around their shop while we were there, but it was all Bills stuff, I know its hard to believe, LOL. 

After the stadium, we drove over to do a short hike to "The Eternal Flame." I didn't think the hike was that long, about 1.5 miles round trip, so we were able to talk Ashley into going with us. 

The hike was downhill there with a lot of stairs to get down to the waterfall. We knew it was going to be a struggle for Ashley to get back out of there, but she did okay with it. The flame was in this alcove inside of the rock. Danny did not think it was natural, which was a bit disappointing, but I looked it up when we got back to the car and multiple sources online claimed it was natural. 

Our next destination was this park/walkway along the Erie Canal. I had planned to grab lunch here, but there wasn't really food, except an ice cream food truck and another that had burgers and chicken tenders. But the second place was closed. As we walked along the canal, we found a pricey restaurant but decided we would rather drive somewhere else. There were some cool war memorials and a battleship to tour along the canal.

We looked up what restaurants were close by and found a BBQ place between us and our hotel, so we went there for linner. The food was really good.

After eating, we headed back to the hotel for the rest of the night. The boys got some swimming time in again.

New York Trip Day 1 - Niagara Falls

On June 4th, we left for Buffalo, New York. We stayed at a hotel in downtown Buffalo and used that as a home base for the next 4 days. Our first destination was Niagara Falls. When Danny and I visited Niagara Falls with Alyssa 18 years ago, we just walked to the falls on the American side and spent a little bit of time looking at them. So with this visit, we wanted to do it right. we parked near this super store and discovered inside that they were selling tours to see the falls. The tour included the boat that goes under the falls, a visit to an observation deck above the falls, a bus ride to Goat Island, a visit to the Cave of Wonders that includes a pathway below the American Falls, the freedom to explore goat island, and admission to the daredevil museum. We also got a tour guide during the beginning of the tour that told us a number of stories about the falls and people who have attempted to go over the falls.

Before the tour started, we had about 30 minutes, so we walked down to the falls to have a look.

The Maid of the Mist tour was better than we expected. We did not anticipate the amount of water that would be pouring on to us from the falls as the boat approached Horseshoe Falls (the Canadian Falls). 

We learned that the American Falls have rocks at the base so anyone that has gone over this one has not survived. 

Horseshoe Falls was even impressive from above. This is the view of them from Goat Island.

The Cave of Wonders was so cool. It takes you on a walkway that puts you at the base of Bridalveil Falls. Water from the falls spills over onto the wooden walkway in some places. The most brave can climb up to the Hurricane deck and stand below the falls. We got soaked even with our ponchos, but it was totally worth it to stand on that deck.

Our favorite observation area was on Goat Island. There was a bridge over Bridalveil Falls and a little platform you can stand on in between the American Falls and the Bridalveil Falls. 

It also gave us a view from above of the Hurricane Deck that we had just come from.

We were pretty worn out and hungry after all of this exploring, but we made a quick stop at the daredevil museum to read up on some of the stories of people who went over horseshoe falls and to see their pictures and barrels.

Our favorite story was about a little boy who was only 7 years old. He was fishing with a family friend and his sister on the Niagara River when their boat capsized. The man didn't survive, and his sister was pulled from the river right before going over. The little boy ended up going over with just a lifejacket and his swimming suit on. He survived and was pulled abord the Maid of the Mist. 

After the daredevil museum, we went to a wings restaurant to try some famous buffalo wings. The other food was just meh, but the wings were amazing!!

We headed back to the hotel and the boys somehow had energy to swim still. We noticed this day that Ashley and Camden had developed a full body rash from the swimmers itch. So we had to get them some anti itch cream that evening. We slept well that night,

Tyler's 12th Birthday

Tyler's birthday fell on a Sunday. He wanted to  go to dinner at Chuck O Rama for his birthday dinner, so we delayed that and went on Monday, June 2. He also wanted to go to the Provo Rec Center with a couple of his friends, so we saved that for Monday as well. On Sunday, his birthday, we had ice cream sundae's for his birthday treat and let him open his gifts. 

Then on Monday, we headed to the pool to swim, grabbed some donuts on the way home and then went to dinner at Chuck O Rama after he and Camden went to their Ninja class.

Our Trip to St. George

We took a trip down to St. George at the end of May. The reason we went down there was to attend Emma and Wesley's Wedding. Wesley was one of Danny's YSA bishopric counselors and Emma was his YSA Relief Society President. Because he knew them both so well we decided to make a little vacation out of it. We stopped in Cedar City on the way down there so that Tyler and Ashley could go to the temple. They have made a goal this year to do baptisms in as many of the Utah Temples as possible so we are trying our best to help them with that goal. Danny went into the temple with them and Camden and I hung out in a nearby park with Lula.

We stayed at a Condo in Las Palmas Resort while we were in St. George. The kids like staying there because they have so many pools.

On the first night that we were there, the boys went to the Ninja gym that is right next to Las Palmas. Kai Beckstrand, their favorite ninja warrior, just happened to be running the gym that night. His family owns the gym. So they were pretty excited about getting to meet him and get a picture with him. We have been watching the new season of American Ninja Warrior every Monday night and we are rooting for him to win it all. 

We took a day trip to Sand Hollow and Zion one of the days. The sand was hot on the beach and we went totally unprepared, with no blankets or shade canopies. We didn't even really have food, just a couple of snacks. I had pictured sand hollow to be different, with more rocky cliffs that you could cliff jump off of. But then I realized after we were there, that we weren't even prepared for that since we didn't have life jackets with us. We were able to find a picnic table in the shade and just took turns wading in the water.

We left around noon, grabbing lunch at Arby's before heading into Zion. However, we had to make a quick detour to a splash pad in town when Camden started complaining about itchy skin while we were in the drive thru. We did a quick google search and learned that Sand Hollow is known for causing swimmers itch. What? How are there not warning signs posted for that? The other kids started feeling it too after Camden mentioned it. So we gave them each a wet wipe to rub down their skin. It didn't seem to help, so we took them to the splash pad and had them rinse off as much as possible in the water there. Then we had them change out of their swimming suits. Camden said it got a little better after that, so we headed into Zion. We mostly just drove through the park enjoying the view as we went. We stopped at the end of the road before exiting the park to climb up this rock formation.

Zion has a really long tunnel (about a mile long) on the road through the park. Usually the traffic only drives one way through the tunnel, so you can get stopped for a little bit of time before you are allowed to enter. As we were driving up to the tunnel on the way back, I wondered aloud about how long we were going to have to wait to go through. As we got closer, we noticed that there was no line, so Danny stuck right to the tail of the truck in front of us. We were actually shocked when the park ranger turned his stop sign just as that truck got to him. Danny ignored him and kept driving even though he waved the sign at us and held out his hand. We totally get it if there was a long line of cars behind us, but there was no one within sight behind us so we don't know why he wanted to stop us. We all laughed about it, especially when Ashley mentioned how her daddy just doesn't like to obey National Park Rangers (his conflict with the park ranger on the bus at the Grand Canyon when she was like 9 really stuck with her). The weird thing was that the tunnel had cars driving on both sides at the time that we went in. Because there was no one behind us after we left the tunnel, we pulled off at a look out point. Tyler and Ashley didn't want to get out of the car though.

We headed back to the condo after that. We couldn't go into the main part of the park with Lula, so there wasn't really anything else to see. The kids were all worn out anyways. 

I took Ashley and Tyler to the St. George Temple that evening. They loved the unique feel to the decor inside that temple.

On Friday, we left the kids at the condo and spent a good part of the day at the wedding. It was just the sealing and a luncheon. The kids opted to have lunch in the condo rather than coming with us. The sealing was beautiful and it was fun to catch up with some of the YSA's that are no longer in the ward. We also met a couple of Wesley's childhood friends.

We didn't get a picture of Emma and Wesley at the wedding, but here is one of them probably when they had their living ordinance interview with Danny.

That night, I drove Danny to the airport so he could fly to San Diego for his grandfather's wedding. We swam so more, watched a movie and then headed home the next morning around 10. We made a short stop on the way out of town so that Ashley could meet Danielle's puppy. (Danielle is her cousin and has an 8 month old Golden Retriever. She lives in St. George, so we thought it would be a good time to meet the puppy). It was hot out and the boys got bored quickly, so we only stayed for about 30 minutes. The trip home was uneventful. Here is a picture of Danny and his sister at the graveside for the funeral. 

Danny's mom wasn't able to attend the funeral, so Danny read a talk that she wrote. I listened in on Zoom during the drive. It was a good service and I'm glad that we were able to make it work for him to be at both the wedding and the funeral, even though they were just one day apart from each other.

Tulip Festival

We went to Tulip Festival pretty late in the season this year. We didn't have a free weeknight to go until May. It was unfortunate because most of the tulips were gone by the time we made it there We took some pictures with the few patches of tulips that we found. And, of course, it wouldn't be a tulip festival without a picture with these big shoes.

There was a scavenger hunt to find all of the Dutch shoes hanging in the trees. We found them and the boys earned a sticker for it. LOL The weather was nice and it was good to be out enjoying the gardens in it.