Our summer vacation started out with a whirlwind of crazy airline problems. Basically we discovered two days before leaving that our flight had not actually gotten "ticketed" (whatever that means American Airlines!). It was some complication with purchasing the rest of our frequent flyer points but them never actually getting put toward the tickets we reserved. So after a million phone calls and retelling the story dozens of times to dozens of different people one man finally threw us a bone and helped us out instead of trying to say it was our fault. Unfortunately, our flight out was already full and the only way to get to Buffalo was to take three flights starting off with a flight to Seattle (which is just a bit out of the way). When we got to the Phoenix Airport we found out our flight out has delayed by half hour which was problematic since our connection time was only 45 min. They told us we should be fine, but of course we weren't and we ended up staying at a hotel in Seattle for three hours in the middle of the night. Seattle was beautiful for the few dark hours we saw it. But we did get to see Mount Rainier from the plane in the early morning and it was beautiful. My kids and Zach all decided it totally counted as a trip to Seattle. We flew to Charlotte and then one more flight to Buffalo where we got in at 6 pm instead of 10 am. We came in very late to a big family dinner at a restaurant and everyone cheered for us since we had finally made it!! The whole time, Zach kept saying, "It's an adventure!" and ultimately he was right because the kids were darn good troopers through the whole thing and maybe even possibly thought it was a little bit fun. Just the same I would rather not do that again.
Our first night we drove to see Niagara Falls at night and watched fireworks!
The next morning we went to Cave of the Winds to get soaked...
A big elevator takes you down to the bottom of the falls.
You have to wear ponchos and special shoes because you get really wet and it is slippery.
Jimmy was excited to finally see his favorite Weisse cousins, Owen and Ben...
The Hurricane Deck is the place you get the most soaked. Jimmy and Aunt Nat were brave enough to venture it. I could only take pictures from far away because my camera was getting soaked.
We managed to get a family picture without too many raindrops on the lens.
We wanted to do a boat trip, too, but being 4th of July weekend we didn't plan our time quite well enough and it was going to be too long of a wait with the kids. We opted to spend our time getting ice cream instead.
Gus found a Buffalo with wings in the parking lot!
Then it was time to drive to Auburn, NY to stay at "The Blue House."
I was just a little bit in love with it...
The kids loved it a lot, too, and were so excited to spend a week at the lake!
This was the view from our porch...
We spent lots of time at Marty's cousin Patty's house in Skaneateles, NY for all the Weisse Family Reunion events. The first night was rather informal and we all roasted s'mores by the fire.
The day of the official Weisse Reunion we managed to gather almost everyone for a group picture...
We tried to get a picture with Zach's immediate family, but some people took a little convincing...
At least Aunt Angie doesn't need to be sad that we took a great picture without her...
My kids all picked favorite relatives. Gus' favorite has been Zach's cousin Brian since he was two.
Gus was more excited to see Brian than any of the kid cousins. Nora, however, told me in confidence that Ryan was in fact her favorite because he let her punch him all the time.
But Brian was still high up there in the running for her as well...
Jimmy prefers the kids his own age and they are a close second for Gus as well.
Uncle Ben was another favorite because he let the kids tie him up and beat him up to their hearts content...
Nora was so excited to finally meet Penelope and Soraya. She wanted to hug Soraya all the time. Nora was pretty much in heaven with so many little girls around and also because of this swing...
The little boys spent most of their time playing corn-hole and other games...
There was tons of food and it was a great party...
The kids where all enthralled by Patty's husband George's flame thrower that he used to light the bonfire.
Every time Gus saw him from then on he would whisper to me, "Mom, that is the guy with the fire!"
And that was all just the "official" reunion. We still had 4th of July to celebrate at Aunt Patty's as well. The little girls were very cute and festive...
Again, we attempted some family photos...
And there is always time for more competition in the Weisse Family...
Nora decided to befriend all the big girls who doted on her all day...
Then we had a whole week of relaxing and playing by the lake with lots of family staying nearby. Our house owned two kayaks, a paddle boat, and a canoe so we kept ourselves pretty busy...
Jimmy was proud to catch a few fish (unlike his dad), but Aunt Nat was the one with most of the luck...
One day two of Zach's uncles rented a pontoon boat to take everyone around the lake.
Even Nana/GG got to come along for the ride.
The kid's favorite part was getting out of the boat to swim on a big sandbar...
We spent one day at the beach area of the lake which was very shallow and fun for the kids...
Close by was a cute little restaurant called Green Shutters that had great local ice cream...
We also just loved hanging out at our house.
The front porch was my personal favorite spot...
I just wanted to sing "On the Front Porch" from Summer Magic every time I was out there.
Nora and I did a little photo tour of some of our favorite spots in the house.
The stairs leading up to the cupola were pretty fun (and check out the wallpaper!). The kids all called it the secret room...
There were a few other secret places to be explored, but sometimes they were a little too scary to want to go inside of...
And at least once the two littlest girls managed to sneak off by themselves and get into a little mischief. While I was showering and other people were busy/distracted, they managed to climb the stairs (which they were not supposed to do alone) and go play with a box of baby wipes in Ben and Michelle's room. They were pretty cute when I found them. I think at least Nora knew she was being sneaky.
Most of our nights we all gathered together at one rental house or another.
The kids enjoyed some quality cousin time...
The week went by fast because we were having so much fun.
We didn't want to say goodbye to the Blue House...
Or the lake...
But it helped that we still had some fun vacation time in Washington, DC to look forward to...
