Pocahontas Opening

Well, we made it through a week of dress rehearsals and the first weekend of shows. We are all very tired, but the shows have been going very well.

Grace was given a special job selling tissues. She went around say, "the show is really sad and you might want some tissues to cover your tears." I don't think there was a single little old lady who could resist - Carrie even heard some behind her in the audience say, "Look, I've got three packs of Kleenex in my purse already, but I just had to buy some from her." Those who declined got this response from Gracie, "Well, I'm serious! You're going to need them." She sold every back they had halfway through the second show! They would've had her sell other things, but our conscience wouldn't allow it since the other souvenirs were more spendy.

Opening night was extra special with Julie's sister Carrie and her family attending. Nick and Emma sent J.J. and Katherine "Candy-Grams" (little bags of candy with notes attached that get sent backstage during intermission to cast members). We had a great time with the Juchau family all week, visiting Bob's Red Mill, McMennamin's Edgefield and OMSI as well as enjoying a Thanksgiving Feast.

The Cobarrubias clan (with friends and relative that came to the show).

Here Grace and Joyce are getting an autograph from "John Smith" (Mitchell Booth).

Getting Ready for the Show

Day 2 of Pocahontas Dress Rehearsals have passed - we have only 3 more run throughs before opening night! With sound and lights still needing to be set, it's a little scary! The kids are amazing, though - costumes and sets are SO COOL! The dancing blows me away and the singing is really GOOD (and I'm a pretty tough critic). If we can get the technical stuff worked out, this show is really going to be amazing.

It took us three tries to get J.J.'s mohawk right. He's one of the very few kids that got to get this warrior haircut and he's pretty excited about it. He looks pretty fierce with his costume and makeup (no war paint, but he gets a bow and arrows).

Katherine looks lovely and is loving the really challenging dance choreography.

Grace has even been recruited this time to dress up and sell souvenirs! She is thrilled to have a special part!

CYT Showcase

Katherine took a class this term called "Sounds of Music" where they learned intricate harmonies. This fabulous group of girls gave a tremendous performance - so fun to watch (and listen to).

"I'm not That Girl" from the Broadway Musical Wicked.


"I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta my Hair" from South Pacific


"Sisters" from White Christmas


Okay - think outside the Broadway box for a minute. Here's J.J.'s class: Cultural Dance and Conflict. The kids LOVED it - the parents were all a little uneasy. I love Heather (the teacher/choreographer) and her fearless creativity. J.J. had a blast learning the martial arts moves. I'll never forget driving home from CYT about the third week of class. After listening to Katherine's sweet voice singing her showcase song, I asked J.J. how his class went. "Oh Mom, I finally get to KILL someone! I'm so excited." Well, there you go! This is where boys in musical theater classes get to be boys.



I have to say I'm just as proud as "my" kids in the beginning voice class that I TA'd - they did so great. They sang songs from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and nailed everything we worked on. Happy night with lots of warm fuzzy memories. Now it's on to Pocahontas!

Proud Mommy Moment

Here's a video (sort of long - 4 minutes) of Grace reading a puzzle book that her late Uncle Arnold gave her a few years ago for Christmas. I wish I could have caught the 2 minutes before when she started reading the story to herself. I was pretty stunned that she was doing so well and tried to hunt for the camera without her noticing - then she looked up at me in amazement and said, "Mommy, I'm reading it!" She surprised herself!

Grandma, this is for you...

(hit the pause button on the right column - 3rd button from the left above the "Get Tracks" on the music player - to stop the music before playing the vid.)

Great Wolf Lodge!

Right on the heals of auditions came our family trip up into Washington state to celebrate Sovann's birthday. We got an incredible deal on a deluxe suite that included a living room-style area and separate kid's area with their own flat-screen TV. We also had a fridge and microwave so we could fix our own food for a few meals.

So Sunday, after helping run sound and packing everything away, we headed North to Great Wolf Lodge! We stopped for a light lunch at Booster Juice and then enjoyed the fall scenery and time to spend talking while driving another hour and a half. We all howled (literally) with delight as we drove into the parking lot of this mega-resort that is part water park, part hotel.

We all were thrilled with everything from the cabin-themed room (complete with bunk beds for the kids and a gas fireplace for the grown-ups) that had a balcony overlooking the "Howling Tornado" water slide (so big, it's outside the waterpark and nearly matches the 8-story hotel's height)! This place is AWESOME - they've thought of everything, with details like log-cabin style details that make everything feel rustic and homey at the same time, to over a hundred lifeguards, warm towels by the poolside and (one of my favorites) a retractable clothesline across the bathtub to dry our suits off at the end of the day.

What made it even better was that we were there with friends. Katherine hung out with her friend Kaylee and had a blast being a teenage girl. Grace and J.J. jumped into the readily available life jackets on deck and got to practice all their swimming strokes in the MANY different pools. What fun! My only complaint was that the water was so heavily chlorinated that my eyes were stinging just sitting on the deck.

Being there with friends, we were also able to trade kids a couple times - in the evening (after taking J.J. and Grace to the Disney-style animated clock tower "bedtime story" show) we dropped the little ones off with Dawn while Sovann and I joined Katherine and Kaylee for a thrilling (and pitch-black) Howling Tornado ride. Yes, I screamed. I think it was something like a 40 foot drop that we went down (that big funnel thing you see in the picture) in the dark!

After exploring a bit (the lodge itself is quite an adventure, with an arcade, multiple restaurants, day spa (and kid's spa) along with Magi-quest "treasures" all throughout the place), we returned to give Sovann his birthday present - a Flip video camera. Have to say, this was our best Dad-birthday we ever put together! He was thrilled.

I whipped together a light supper of Ramen salad and croissants with fruit and then we headed back to the water park. Plenty of fun snacks also kept us going (water slides and jumping across gigantic floating lilly pads takes a lot out of you, you know?). The kids always know it's a special occasion when Mommy gets Cheetos AND Pringles!

That evening, we all gathered around Katherine's laptop to await the results of the Pocahontas casting list to be posted on the CYT website. J.J. was cast as young Keokum (a friend of Pocahontas) - his first speaking role! Katherine was understandably disappointed with the fact that she was "just" in the Algonquin tribe chorus, but showed great character by congratulating her little brother and stating that "I'm going to learn a lot, Mom - and I can't wait to learn all the neat dances." I know she was hoping for a leading role (or even a chance to be on one of the advanced dance teams), but I am really glad she's having a good attitude and still putting forth her best effort.

Katherine and Sovann found the Great Wolf Starbucks the next morning and used their gift cards (earned from Katherine's Orthodontist for getting regular cleanings) . Then J.J. and Sovann hung out in the wave pool and I spent most of the time lounging on deck and chatting with some of my mom-friends that were there. For lunch, we had our final birthday splurge and visited "Camp Critter" bar and grill for an amazing meal. More fun- and great food at fairly reasonable prices! Katherine and I shared an appetizer platter, J.J. and Sovann shared a buffalo burger, and Grace got a bucket full of chicken strips and fries. We were too full for dessert, so decided to go back and swim off all those calories. But before leaving late that afternoon, we went back to experience the Campfire Sundae.

This has got to be one of the best family vacations ever (well, not sure anything could beat the free trip to Disneyland last year, but this was a close second)! We left very happy, refreshed and bonded closer as a family with our tummies full of ice cream and our heads full of happy memories.

Pocahontas Auditions

After much practice and excitement, with J.J. and Katherine both spending hours and hours over the past 3 months, auditions for the fall CYT show have arrived! They both did so great and gave it their all - I am so proud. They both got callbacks and spent half the day Saturday learning dance steps, reading lines and singing their hearts out with their friends. Then we all had to wait...and wait...and wait - I think this is the hardest part. In the end, we learned that Katherine will be a part of the Algonquian tribe chorus and J.J. will play the part of Young Keokum (Pocahontas' friend). Below are their audition numbers.

Gracisms

My, oh my! Where has the summer gone? Most of July was spent in the garden and at doctors' offices. Katherine was sick with several back-to-back viruses on the road trip, which developed into a sinus infection after we got home, which her body responded to with a severe case of the hives (which didn't go away for a whole week). She was on five different medications, but eventually it all went away. Shortly after that, I came down with a cold which developed into pneumonia! I was still battling that when we hosted a backyard Bible club, but it was so much fun and such a great way to get to know the kids in our neighborhood.

Most of July was spent at Fir Point Bible Camp. Can you say HOT? We nabbed a thermometer one day and discovered it was 106 degrees in the kitchen one night while cooking dinner for 150 hungry campers and staff. I was perspiring from places I never knew I had sweat glands! Boy did it feel good to go swimming that night! Katherine had a good time being on staff for the first time, helping out in various jobs and doing "Kid Control" (staff child-care). J.J. spent one week with Lola in Portland while we were at camp, then a week at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's with his cousins Nick and Emma. He learned how to crochet, played with Legos a lot and even got pretty good at driving Mom and Dad's golf cart around their property.

Grace got to spend a week with each of her grandmas plus a week at camp. Great grandma Ramsey showed her how to play the harmonica and Grandma Smith did lots of painting and crafts with her. She went to VBS at the Calvary Chapel in Grants Pass where our friend George now works. All of our family (including Sovann) gathered one weekend and had a great time visiting Wildlife Images (got to see grizzley bears, bald eagles, and other wild animals up close), swimming in the river and exploring the new Taprock Grill in town. One night while playing Rummy with the grandparents, Great-grandma told us about her conversation with Grace earlier that day. She told us, "Grace was looking for Kathleen [my mom] and couldn't find her, so she came over to my chair and asked me, 'do you know where your daughter is?'"

Grace continues to be precosious, even as she's becoming less of a toddler and more of a little girl. She's very excited about going to Kindergarden in a couple weeks and her mother is feeling clingy and weepy over her "baby" going off to school! J.J. has been sharing a lot of his knowledge with her this summer, and she surprised me the other day by counting to 100 while we were driving around town. Her reading skills are blooming as well and I often hear her reading to herself now (I'm really amazed!).

A couple months ago, we went to a wedding where Grace ran around with some boys just a little older than her. The were teasing her and telling her that they were 18 or 20 years old, and she got VERY upset. "Mommy!" she said angrily, "those boys are LYING!" Knowing that they were just responding to her controlling attitude, I responded gently with, "Honey, they're probably just teasing you because they don't like to be bossed around. I know how you like to be the boss." Before I had even finished my sentence, she shot back very matter-of-factly, "No, Mommy! I DON'T like to be the boss, I just like to tell people what to do."

Earlier this month, we were camping and again she was getting to know some boys her age. One of them was rather shy and didn't want to share his name with her. Exasperated, Grace marched over to the little guy's mother and said, "Would you please make him know me?"

The kids have all improved greatly with their swimming skills this summer. J.J. passed the swim test at camp this year and went off the diving board for the first time ever, and Katherine just finished a Jr. Lifeguarding class. Grace has finally gotten over her fear of putting her face ing the water and will even float face-down in the kiddie pool in our back yard. Earlier this summer, the kids went to a friend's house and Grace began by not letting anyone let go of her in the water (even though she was wearing a life jacket). At one point, though, she decided to be brave and discovered she could paddle around and keep her head above water. For the rest of the day, she told everyone we saw about her bravery. "I'm so excited," she'd say, "I thought I was going to drown but then I just used my bravery and now I can swim! I'm so proud of my bravery."

New Stuff

Life is such an adventure! I love it when new things happen, especially at home for some reason. Yesterday was full of different-ness, from beginning to end. It started with a trip to the orthodontist for Katherine, who got pretty new turquoise bands and these funky crossing wires around her brackets that help straighten her teeth. You know how hard it is to keep your tongue from exploring something new in your mouth? Well, I'm in the front yard and Katherine comes running out with her mouth tightly closed, motioning madly about something. She then gingerly opens her mouth to reveal the tip of her tongue, stuck between the crossed wires of her front braces. That happened probably 5 or so times, but she figured out how to un-pierce her tongue each time, poor thing.

Later that morning, my sweet friend Danielle came over for a wedding makeup consultation. We spent a couple hours fine-tuning lipstick shades and eye colors while chatting about her plans for the future. What a precious time we had enjoying the art of enhancing feminine beauty while sharing little pieces of each other's lives. How blessed I am to have little jewels like Danielle pop in and out of my life.

Shortly after, another jewel stopped by - my mother-in-law. She heard that I was sick (with pneumonia) and wanted to help out. She offered to take the kids to the free lunch program down the street and give me a little break. The kids went, ate, played on the playground and enjoyed time with their "Lola." Another unexpected blessing.

Shortly after they all got back from lunch, our new refrigerator arrived. We exploded into action, clearing out food, mopping up old fridge leaks and wiping up the lint and grunge off the floor. Kudos to the Riegelman's crew who deftly moved our old fridge to the garage and brought up and installed the new bottom-freezer model (a tight squeeze coming up 2 flights of stairs). Katherine stocked our new fridge with food and creatively arranged magnets and the chore chart on the clean walls of the lovely new Amana. I was hoping this new unit would hold everything from from our old top freezer plus all the extra stuff in our full-size upright freezer (which was really only a little more than 1/2 full). I was not disappointed! I still am amazed at what we fit in there.

Everything was going great as we positioned the old fridge down in the garage (long story short - it needs to stay working and plugged in until Friday when the Energy Trust guys come PAY US $30 to haul it away). Then the delivery guy plugged it in and POP! - everything went dead. Well, just everything in the garage (which included our FIOS phone & internet service, outdoor lights, garage door opener and outlets. After a house-call by our handy-hero Rick (who determined there must be a GFCI outlet somewhere that needed to be reset) and a call to Uncle Savin (former owner of the house who led us to the hidden GFCI), power was restored and everthing was "cool." Blessings #3 and #4.


Can I also just say that I love my family? My kids have been great, helping out around the house and doing their chores plus feeding their minds with reading and leftover schoolwork. OK, now I'm bragging, but I feel the need - they have also volunteered to help in the yard! J.J.'s a pretty awesome weed-puller, Grace loves watering my potted plants with her little can, and Katherine hauled branches and helped dig and move dirt around without complaining!! Yesterday was no exception, and as different things arose that needed to be done around the house and yard, my little blessings (#5, 6 & 7) jumped right in to help.

After dinner (which Katherine fixed), I decided it was time to cut Grace's tangled locks. I made Sovann promise not to cut her hair while we were gone last month because I didn't want it too short. My goal was to trim the ends and even it up to the sections Grace had chopped off herself a few months ago when she wanted to have "Mary Marvel" hair. I found those short strands in the front and moved to the back at that same level.

I watched the first strands fall to the floor, about 5 inches long. I knew it was too short, but evenness was what I was after so I kept going. I thought Grace would look in the mirror and cry. I wanted to cry. I asked Grace, "Do you know who's going to love your short hair?" I was sure she'd say, "Daddy!" But instead, she said, "Yes, ME!" And she does love it. It must feel good - light and bouncy much like her spirit.

As the day ended, my husband (blessing #8 today) came home from battling the demons of broken relationships. This man works everyday with people who are either severely sleep-deprived (grumpy and irritable at best) or severely wounded (counseling clients, many dealing with intense "stuff"), and he genuinely cares for them and often shares their emotional pain. He is my hero. He works three different jobs to provide all we need and still comes home and empties the trash and does laundry. Not only that, but he serves consistently in leadership at church and feeds his mind and soul regularly by reading and listening to podcast sermons and worship music. Did I mention that he loves to play with the kids and teach them stuff like wrestling and tennis? Last night, he came home and sat on the couch with Katherine to connect with us after a long, tiring day at work. Not many men I know would willingly sit through "My Girl" with all it's coming-of-age girly stuff, but Sovann did. It was a sweet moment to look over and see my daughter tickling her dad who took it all in, tired as he was, and engaged with us in what we were enjoying. He didn't run away and hide, he didn't make fun of us, he just loved us where we were in that moment. I am so blessed.

My Garden

Here are some pictures of my garden and the hanging plants on the deck. On the deck, notice the beautiful "beehive" hanging basket from Todd at Christmas.

Between the green Adirondack chairs on the deck is one of the Japanese maples mom gave me last summer.













On the patio below you can see the 2 new rhodies I just planted that will hopefully grow up to wall off that end and to the left is the new wisteria going up the deck beam.














Next is a pic showing my baby blueberry bushes (along the red fence) with peas, pumpkins, cukes and squash to the left.














My flower bed on the east side of the house is filling in nicely and all the foxgloves are blooming right now (but I still need to plant a few more things around the weeping pussy willow).














Our cherries are just about ripe and we'll have LOTS of persimmons this year (but very few apples, and last year we had a bumper crop of those). In the front, the lilies are blooming and the cannas are just coming up.














I planted two ornamental crab apple trees to help block out the neighbor's hideous orange van that is permanently parked behind my rose garden. They don't do much now, but the green leafy part is supposed to branch out and grow bigger.














By the front steps, the thyme is blooming and nicely filling in between the square pavers to make a little patio area in front (where the overgrown spruce that dad took down for us used to be).














So that's what I've been working on since we got home from the road trip.

Road Trip Day 28, Yellowstone

Awoke this morning a little weak and weary, but a shower and lovely hotel breakfast did wonders. We stayed at the King's Inn, which had a display of African trophy animals that the owner had shot himself. There were lions, gazelle, a huge rhino, elephant head, zebra and ostrich.
We were treated to an impressive drive through Buffalo Bill State Park from Cody to the East Entrance of Yellowstone. We drove through a gorgeous valley with snow-capped mountains all around. Just under the lush green grass was bright red soil. Kevin declared a no-media day, so the kids could take in the surroundings.
As we climbed the mountains and entered Yellowstone National Park, we saw more and more snow, piled 5+ feet high in some places. The lakes, solidly frozen over just a couple weeks ago, were now breaking up and slushy with big islands of ice and snow in them still. Despite the gorgeous scenery, I lost my fight against sleep and drifted off as we wound around Lake Yellowstone. At some point, the group stopped and went on a short hike to see the bubbling paint pots and colorful hot springs, but I slept through that as well. After that, we drove to Old Faithful to watch it spout (which we were told was a little more frequent than usual because they'd had quite a few earthquakes lately). We were given money to buy lunch in the cafeteria in the lodge there, and I couldn't resist sampling the bison meatloaf. It was OK, quite lean, in fact, but I must admit I enjoyed the mashed potatoes and gravy that came with it more.
We drove North through the park and our our next goal was to see some wildlife...we weren't disappointed! Along the road we came across many small herds of bison with hefty little babies - tan little calves just resting and chewing their cud along with their mamas and papas. Before the day was done, we also saw lots of elk and dear and one black bear foraging for food in the woods. We also stopped at Upper Falls and walked a short trail to view the river, swollen with fresh snow-melt, roaring over the cliff in a tumultuous boil. J.J. and I went back up near the parking area and did target-practice with his cool, new hand-carved eagle sling-shot, flinging pine cones and pebbles at the tree trunks.
We went back up into a snowy mountain range and down into grassy valleys filled with sparkling streams as the sun set and turned the puffy clouds various shades of pink. Just as we were leaving the park through the North Entrance, we were treated to a herd of buffalo running along the undulating hills, the little calves romping along as quick as the lumbering cows and bulls. It's the first time I ever saw these huge creatures moving that quickly and I couldn't help but think of the brave native peoples who hunted the bison not too long ago.
After another hour and a half of driving, we stopped in Livingston, MT where Junior's grandmother fixed us all burgers and fries at her restaurant, "The Dawg House." It was a short half-hour drive to Bozeman where we stayed at Kevin's alma mater, an SDA boarding school. It was past midnight as we unload and flopped into our sleeping bags for our final night on the road!

Road Trip Day 27, Mount Rushmore

We were up and out of our motel by 7:30 am. South Dakota so far has been long, straight stretches of road along rolling grassy prairies and expansive sky. We saw a few antelope a couple times, just grazing in the fields, but most notable were the hundreds of billboards, often ten or more in a row for the same thing. There was very little traffic, and long stretches of nothing but country for miles on end. At some point, though, we entered "The Badlands," a very interesting section of smooth, rocky, bare land striated with pink and tan sections.
We stopped at a gas station and found some pretty cool sling shots with different animals carved into them. I'm glad I got a souvenir for J.J. here, because our next stop was Wall Drug, "The Biggest Drug Store in the World" and their prices on everything were quite inflated. What a fun place, though - it was more like a mini-mall than just a drug store, with tiny little themed shops throughout. After getting their souvenir smashed pennies, the boys and I skipped through the shopping part to the "Back Yard," sort of a western-style mini theme park with water play area, kiddie rides, a roaring/flashing T-Rex and a huge, saddled Jackalope for picture-taking.
We came upon a young man named Taylor who was in charge of an attraction where you could go mining, sluicing, or digging for polished rocks, gemstones and fossils. The kids were having a hard time agreeing on with activity to do, so Taylor was very gracious to let them do two for the price of one. First they donned hard hats and headlamps and entered a darkened "cave" complete with dripping water sounds. They had so much fun searching for fools gold and rocks that after finding them all, J.J. hid some and they searched again. Then they took their little tin pails over to a big sandbox and dug like little archeologists, sifting the sand to find fossilized plants, shells and teeth. When they were done, they each got a full-color brochure with all the different kinds of stones and fossils pictured so that they could identify what they had found.
We topped off the fun with some ice cream and headed out to Mount Rushmore. As soon as we turned of I-90 to get to the memorial, the Black Hills of South Dakota rose up sharply and we found ourselves surrounded by pine forests. As we drove along, old abandoned gold mines were clearly visible in the sides of the mountain.
We arrived in the afternoon and the kids quickly put together a satisfying meal of chicken, rice and broccoli. They took a short hike and then we sat for about half an hour and tried to sketch the mountain. It really was impressive, although the carvings themselves were smaller (yet higher) than I'd imagined. Sketching them proved to be very challenging, with most of our being a unique "impression" of the noble memorial.
The next stretch of driving took us all the way through South Dakota and into Cody, Wyoming. What we didn't know was that we'd be driving over a very steep mountain pass on a little two-lane road (that was under construction in several places) with twisty, turning switchbacks both up and down. Add to that the late hour, windy conditions and pitch blackness of the night and the fact there were no lights or sign of civilization for miles around, and it all made for some pretty intense travel (including one sick kid who was sound asleep one moment and hurling up his dinner the next). Halfway down the mountain (it was 1 am by then), our little caravan stopped in the middle of the road and we got out, stretched our legs, marveled at the stars and switched drivers. We didn't get to the hotel until 3 am, and by then I was only half-conscious as I stumbled into the bed and slept soundly until 8 o'clock the next morning.

Road Trip Day 26, Chicago to Sioux Falls

The girls banded together and made breakfast for everyone this morning, toasting waffles on the grill along with other leftovers from the different groups. Our journey this day took us from Chicago, through the upper corner of Illinois and along the southern ends of both Wisconsin and Minnesota into Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We saw more of the same beautiful land and weather today traveling through America's heartland.
When we stopped at a Subway in Wisconsin for lunch, I spied a cheese market nearby and ducked out in search of my favorite food! A funny little guy behind the counter with his Swedish/Minnesota accent sliced me samples of salmon-dill cheddar, chicken soup jack and salami-in-cheese yumminess. I settled on a purchase of the sharp white blueberry cheddar and a sampler bag to share with the staff later.
We crossed over the Mississippi River again while Shelle and I formed a plan for the food on the upcoming final leg of the trip. We decided that with all the miles on the road over the next three days, it was best if the staff purchased food for the kids to save time. Those of us in the little silver van (Caeden, Tienna, J.J., Shelle and I) zoomed on ahead of the bus and big passenger van to a Walmart near our hotel in Sioux Falls and filled two shopping carts with snacks and sandwich fixings. Add to that about 8 bags of ice and we were packed FULL. We squished the three little kids into the back of the van and piled bag after bag of bread and chips on their laps. Then we fill the two seats in front of them up to the hilt.
When we got to the Motel 6 a few miles away, the big group had arrived and were cooking mac-n-cheese for everyone. We tossed them the hot dogs and peas we'd just bought and called it a meal.

Road Trip, Day 25 - Toronto to Chicago

Today we said goodbye to Canada and crossed the border back into Michigan on this sunny but chilly day. We stopped at a beautiful park for lunch that rested on Lake Huron's sandy shores and ate at picnic tables while huge steamers slowly chugged by. The water is incredibly clear and blue and all of the great lakes are so big that they look like oceans, complete with waves.
Katherine and her three closest buds (and a couple of the boys) have come down with a pretty crazy virus. They're all dizzy and weak, with coughs and sore throats and head congestion and pink eye! They walk around arm-in-arm, holding each other up and swaying around, the poor dears. We've got them isolated in the white van with one of our nurses (Angela Loverage).
This part of the country is absolutely beautiful - I think I could live happily here with the dense deciduous forests and thousands of lakes. We noticed quite a lot of road kill on the freeways, so the wildlife must be plentiful, too. Between the Canadian border and Yellowstone National Park, we counted over 15 dear and numerous raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, skunks and birds all victims of vehicular collision. I even saw one white-feathered chicken and what we thought might be a fox.
We arrived at our destination in Chicago around midnight and the kids did an impressive job of unpacking the trailer (fire-line style) in almost complete silence (in consideration of neighboring houses nearby the church annex we slept in). They have really come a long way and are working so well as a group. I am surprised there hasn't been more interpersonal stuff going on (getting on each others' nerves or fighting). That's not to say there hasn't been ANY, but when conflict has arisen, things have gotten worked out quickly and with very minimal drama.

Road Trip, day 24 - Niagara Falls

Shelle very graciously dropped Katherine and J.J. and I off at my cousin Lynn and her family's hotel this morning. My two aunts, Sue and Nancy (and their husbands) had already arrived and were finishing their lunches so we broke out our sandwiches while we got acquainted with precious little Lia and Jaden.
Katherine was feeling dizzy and tired this morning (what I thought was a leftover affect from yesterday's roller coasters turned out to be a really nasty virus, and I only hope none of our family we visited caught it from her), so Dick and Nancy drove her with Sue and Don down to the Niagara Falls viewing area (on the Canadian side). Mike, Lynn, and their kids walked down to the falls with J.J. and I and we had a bit of a hard time connecting with the driving group (it was pretty crowded with this being Memorial Day weekend).
It was a warm, sunny day and the mist coming off the falls was refreshing! I was surprised that the water was so beautiful - a clear greenish-blue with little pools of foam from the churching waters along the shore. The American Falls were beautiful and rocky at the bottom, but the Horseshoe Falls were the most impressive - so wide and high with so much water tumbling over that you can't see much of the bottom for all the spray coming up.
After we all joined up, the Donoahues and Pens decided to try the Maid of the Mist boat tour of the falls and headed off to do that while my aunts and uncles stayed back on shore. We donned our blue plastic ponchos and boarded America's oldest tourist attraction that's been running since 1846. After being herded down the gangplank and into the boat like a bunch of cattle, we found a place on the top deck where we could see the falls, hear the roar and feel the full spray from one of the world's 7 wonders. It was amazing to go so close to the falls and hear stories of people who had gone over these falls and lived to tell about it.
We met back up with family on the shore, got some frozen yogurt for the kids, and enjoyed a leisurely stroll along the park that borders the falls view walk. It was nice to have time to talk with my family and get caught up on life. Dick was very kind to J.J., letting him take pictures with his big, fancy camera, and it was a blast to see the cousins playing together and pick wildflowers and climb trees along the way.
We walked a little further to the Macaroni Grill, which we soon learned was their grand opening night. Staff were swarming everywhere and nervous servers took our orders and brought our food. The meals were delicioius, though, and we left with full, happy bellies (once they sorted out our bill, which took quite awhile for some reason). They even sang to us in Italian (two girls with lovely voices) and when J.J. requested they come back and sing (in French), he gave them his pocket change as a tip.
Jaden kept us entertained by making hilarious faces and trying to stuff noodles into his apple juice cup - I think he's destined for the stage because he is just such a character! Poor Lynn lost her voice during the meal, so it was a good thing we had paper table-covers to write on to communicate (and play tic-tac-toe on, too.
After dinner, we said our goodbyes and walked back to the hotel where we would be picked up and rejoin our group, but not before ducking into a souvenir shop on the way. What a beautiful day to share with wonderful family at an amazing place! Back at the hotel, we tucked the sickies into bed and a rep. from each room did a load of laundry (I hear they didn't get to bed until after 1 AM).