Whee!! The best part of the show!

Everyone Loves Marineland! (NOT!)

"There's a place I know in Ontario, where the sealions kiss, so the story goes...."

Ok, so you've maybe heard the commercials that sing at you 5 times during the dinner hour alone, and the kids say "I want to go there!". You promise yourself that this will be the year you travel to Canada and take them there. Meanwhile, you can't get the stupid song out of your head. The season passes and you say, "Maybe next year, where did the summer go?". Then come next spring, the songs start again. Well, at least this year they came up with some new words to the same old song. We decided this would be the year we go and Emma invited her friend Erika to join us.

"How was it?" my friends ask, since they're kids are begging them to go too (it's the song! taunting you to go because you can't get the tune out of your head!). Well, plan on walking all day long. The park is soooo spread out, it takes forever to get from one part to the next. That wouldn't be a problem, if say, you could ride your bike through the park, or wear your roller blades or use a skateboard, but all of those options are forbidden! The roads are wide enough for three cars, why not give us a break? They could make a fortune transporting people on golf carts from place to place. Dress it up like a whale or something, and every kid will want to ride on it. Sell all-day passes for the Whale Tram! It's that bad! I think the only thing that kept the kids going was the promise of the next ride. Honestly, I must've walked 5 miles. And I'm not one to complain about exercise!

"How were the shows?". LAME. I believe all the shows are the same, as there is only one arena to watch them in. They spent the first 20 minutes telling a story about the Kings scepter, crown and cup getting stolen as a way to get the sea lion and walrus to follow the trainers around and mimic them thinking, scratching and waving. Finally, they got to the dophins jumping, which truly is amazing. Then the show was over - no killer whales! (they save them for the area where you have to pay to pet and feed them.) Anyway, the kids enjoyed the show, and that's what it's all about anyway.

The tanks of Killer whales and Belugas was cool. They would surface and you could see them up close - even feel the spray from their blowholes! But don't lean over the concrete wall, or stick your hand out, whatever you do! You will get yelled at! We paid for tickets to pet and feed the Beluga whales, and that was a neat experience. Their skin is so squishy and soft- not hard and rubbery like it looks. I lifted Emma up to look over the wall just as our Beluga was surfacing, and he blew air out of his blowhole and scared her. She started screaming to get down and wouldn't touch him! The good thing is you can view them underwater, but they don't really do any jumps. One tank had a 10 day-old baby girl killer whale. She was so cute, at 250 pounds!

The kids liked all the rides. Austin liked the Sky Screamer, (the newest ride they are advertising) which is a 450 feet tower that shoots you up, and then drops you down. You don't free-fall the whole way though; it kind of bounces you down so you don't get that free-fall feeling for more than a second. Emma's fave was the Yo-Yo swings. The Lady Bug roller coaster was a favorite of Erika, who would've ridden every ride if she were tall enough! She's a ride maniac! I was a bit disappointed in the "longest steel roller coaster in the world". It had 2 loops, a butterfly loop, and a corkscrew, then just alot of track! It was very bumpy, and whipped your head around. I only went on it once. I much prefer the Superman at Six Flags. My favorite ride was the one home, since I'd had enough by the time we left!

The highlight of the day (for me anyway!) was petting and feeding the Beluga whales. Their skin is very cool to the touch, and squishy!

Mike and Emma on the Lady Bug. Check out the hair on the lady in the third seat!

Emma's favorite ride is the Yo-Yo.

Erika and Austin on the Lady Bug. Future Roller Coaster Rider Club members?

Riding the high seas

Max just loves his bed - the bathroom sink!

What a nutty cat!

Camp get-away

We spent Saturday night down at Laura and Daryl's camp. Mike was going down to help Daryl put in the upper deck that comes off the loft bedroom, and since the weather was actually cooperating, we decided to join him. The weather was quite cold down there near Alfred State College, so much so that we had to start a fire in the wood stove when we got there, around 1:30 pm.

The sun stayed out most of the day, but it started to rain, right when Austin got stuck out in the middle of the pond on the paddle boat by himself. Have you ever tried to paddle a paddle boat being the only person in it? You tend to do "doughnuts", going round in circles. It was quite funny to watch! Austin didn't think so.

The cabin is coming along quite nicely. The inside looks beautiful, with the walls and ceiling covered in knotty pine. The bathroom and bedrooms have walls and electric outlets now, and we just heard news that the electric has been connected! Yea! No more generator to have lights, and more importantly, we can now dry our hair!

Austin caught this bass - he's a great fisherman!

Mike and Emma hammering boards. Emma actually nailed a few nails herself!

This is the pond, with a new sand beach.

This is a view of the living area from the loft bedroom.

The view from the new upper deck, off of the master loft bedroom.

Chris (in pink!) and Brandon digging a hole for the deck post.

Brandon and Daryl securing the upper deck.

Kareoke Mondays

On Monday nights, at the Bill Gray's in Seabreeze, my Dad and sister Debbie go to sing kareoke. Since we finally had a beautiful evening, I asked Mary if her and the kids would want to join the B's there for dinner and to watch them sing.

Dad was the first one up, and Austin sang third. Quite a crowd gathers by 8 pm, so Dad and Deb end up with a large audience. The kids started getting a little restless after one too many of the younger singers were up. We decided to walk over to the outlet, where the bridge swings to the side in the summer to let the boats travel between the lake and the bay. They thought that was pretty cool.

We stopped to feed the ducks and the swans on our way back. There were two ladies there with garbage bags full of loaves of bread. I don't know if they bought the bread, or got old bread or what, but some of it was Wegman's specialty breads, round loaves with the fancy cuts on top. So here is Austin and Joey, with a slice of bread each, doling it out to their sisters a pinch at a time, and these ladies are throwing 5 slices at a time into the water. They must've had 20 loaves of bread between them. You'd think they'd give the kids a slice or two! The one woman said she comes down twice a week! Whatever!

The night topped off with a custard from Abbott's. Yum!

Joey and Austin feeding the wildlife in Irondequoit Bay.

Austin, Joey, Emma and Erika pose at the Irondequoit Bay outlet, where two women were feeding the ducks and swans whole loaves of bread.

Emma with her cousin, Julianna.

Austin was very brave and sang the whole song "Drops of Jupiter". He was very good!

Erika and Emma were twirling to the music and cheering on my Dad and sister, Debbie.

My Dad singing one of his many songs at Kareoke night. His stage name is "Bubba".

Doug trying to escape....

"Resistance is futile!"

Laura, Amanda and Emma enjoying a little fudge.

Dad with his bonfire.

Me and Julie looking caught....

Here's the view of the river from Mom and Dad's house in Waterport.

Adam was listening to music and sketching.

Laura and Amanda counting Boggle points.

While in Waterport, we stopped at Brown's Berry Patch for snacks, and I took this picture of Julie and Adam!

Rain Rain Go Away.....

It has rained virtually every day. Things are wet and soggy, and everyone is waiting with bated breath for summer to begin. It's a new month, maybe it'll happen soon. Thank God we went down south, or we wouldn't have had any sunshine in July! (no kidding).

I haven't blogged in a while, so I'm trying to catch up since Doug and Julie's visit. They left back to Huntersville on Wed. the 28th. I miss them - the company, the lack of a schedule, and the spontaneity. They stayed at our house from Sunday till Wednesday, sleeping in the kids' room, while the kids stayed in our room. It was like camping for Austin and Emma - an adventure! Adam stayed over a few nights on Austin's mattress in the basement.

Monday was spent with them and the family out at the parents home in Waterport. The weather was yucky (surprise), so the girls played Boggle and drank wine inside. Mike took Austin and Brandon fishing on Dad's boat. We had a bonfire, played a game of bottle cap tossing, and headed home around 9 pm. But the real excitement happened when the trailer broke while trying to get the boat out of the water! A new metal piece for $70 bucks and it'll be good as new.

Tuesday D & J were going to go to Laura and Daryl's camp, down near....darn, I can't think of where right now. The kids and I were going to join them overnight, but of course come Tuesday morning, it was raining again. We all decided that spending a day at the camp all muddy would do it no justice, so instead Laura and Amanda came over, and we all went to the Memorial Art Gallery to visit Julie's friends (where she used to work). Unfortunately, the gallery itself was closed, because I would've enjoyed seeing the exhibits, and exposing Emma to the art.

Mike had a volleyball game, so we went to Hot Shots to watch him lose...I mean play, and have some eats. A few drinks later and we were all having fun heckling and cheering for him and his team. Amanda was getting silly cheering for a "cute" guy on a different team. It was a fun night. Once we got home we watched Mystic River, which started out good with a good twist, but ended up feeling thrown together with a particularly corny scene near the end. We ended up feeling tricked and gypped (jipped?). Anyway, I ended staying up until 3 am watching Good Will Hunting. A very good movie!

Life has gotten back to normal, as much as possible anyway. The sun is out today, so maybe we can actually leave the house...