New York, New York

OK - so we didn't actually go to NEW YORK, New York, but we still went to New York!!

Scott and I had a great time spending time with his family and seeing the beautiful countryside of upstate NY. While some may see it as a disadvantage to be 30 minutes away from the nearest Walmart, you don't see this kind of beauty in my neighborhood!!

Most of this may not be that interesting if you don't know Scott's family, but I'm going to try to document as much as I can remember for the future. Rumor has it that Scott's parents may not be in New York forever so I want the boys to remember this stuff!! I have had a lot of neat memories here, but this house is where the family came together when Scott was a boy. Grandma Rachel lived there for many years before Scott's parents moved in, so it holds many, many memories for their family. Here's the house - all 3 stories, plus basement, plus garage, plus barn, plus two trailer homes, plus 10 acres of beautiful land -

You don't see this kind of detail in houses nowadays -

This is one my favorite features - the staircase to the second floor. It is extremely steep, long, and red!! The stairs are so narrow that I can't fit my whole foot on a single step! I know I have big feet, but it is very easy to get tripped up on theses stairs!!

This is the view from the top! That little white spot down at the bottom is the house!! The red bard is to the left of the house and the first trailer home is on the left side of the pic. It's pretty amazing!!

A part of the trip that I especially enjoyed was getting to spend some time with my sister-in-law, Kathy and their kids.

They have four great kids - Kelsey (7) Lauren (6) Ella (2) Elijah (6 mo.) and we went to the park one afternoon to have a little fun. I haven't seen the big girls since they were like 3 and 4 and I've never seen Ella and Eli so it was so neat to get to see how they've grown up and have such great little personalities. The older girls remind me very much of some other nieces I have!! Here are my observations of them at this point in their lives -

Kelsey - self-described tomboy, but still likes pink! Very competitive, asks lots of questions, needs to see the big picture at all time!! (sounds like someone who lives here!!)

Lauren - self-described "girly-girl" - not really into competition, always has a quick smile, usually followed with a cute giggle, maybe followed with a loud, long laugh!! Is always having a good time!

Ella - where do I begin?? This girl is a ball of energy, always into things, curious, inquisitive, and is not the kind of child you want to go missing! More than once I saw Kathy go into almost panic mode when Ella couldn't be accounted for, probably because she knew the possibilities! This is one of my favorite pictures of Ella. I think it's right before she started licking the rocks!!

This girl has no fear - at all - none!!

Then there's Eli - quite possibly THE happiest baby on the planet. He probably doesn't realize yet that he has 4 mothers!! He's a great baby!!

Here a couple of other cute pics from the park -

Finally, onto the point of the trip. Scott's dad has retired from 40 years with Word of Life and a dinner/program/reception was held to honor him. Here are the happy couple:

David, Melodie, Bernadine, Tim, Doug, Scott, and Nathan

Nathan, Heather, Rachael, and Madeline

This is Monty and Gail. Monty is Bernadine's brother and I really enjoyed getting reacquainted with them. I got to spend a little time at their house and see their beautiful property. If my memory serves me correctly, they have 35 acres of sprawling hills, trees, and a really neat pond. I kept thinking as I was taking it all in about how much the boys would absolutely love that place, with all the creatures and their natural habitats. Monty is a builder and is in the middle of an adding a new addition onto their house so they can enjoy the land a little more from the inside. It's going to be a really nice touch when it is finished.

All in all, it was a very nice trip. It was good to get away from the normal busy life that we lead. Life is definitely a little slower in this part of the world. And it was nice to see Doug get a little reward here on Earth for all of his years of hard work!! Congratulations!!

Thanks to Deneise, my mom, and Emily for handling the kids while we were gone!! They had a great time and quite possibly, didn't miss us at all!! Thanks a million!!