Waldameer and The Erie Zoo

We moved into our rental house last week while our house gets an extensive makeover due to mother nature.  More on that later, but will say this ...  I hate moving.  

Onto a delayed posting of summer vacation at Waldameer Park and the Erie Zoo with a pack of cousins in tow. 

I loved this park.  Lots of trees to keep cool and small enough to not be overwhelmed and large enough for all ages to enjoy.  Perfect all day park that leaves you with the sense you got to see and do everything without hours in line.  Perfect for this crew, but I will let the photos speak...

Older cousins Matt and Aaron were there too, teaching the punks how to drive.

What made it even more exciting ... we all stayed over at Grandma Rena's (my brother in law's mom)!  Don't let the kids plates fool you...literally, the best cook ever.

Everyone was exhausted though so the "let's stay up all night and have fun" slogan quickly diminished early on. 

The next morning we headed to the Erie Zoo before heading back to Syracuse. 

The next day I got to meet up with the past.  For those who don't know I owned the Eastwood Dance and Performing Arts Center from 1990-2001 and over those years built quite the friendships.  Today,  I still keep in touch.  Many of my students are now parents, so I spent a few hours at the Onondaga Lake Parkway with a few of them and their kids, along with former employees and parents.  It was the best! 

Next up:  (and I promise to be timely in posting) July 4th!

Week One: Ohio to New York

I read a few posts back and realized, except for just a passing mention, I never talked about the earthquake that hit Alaska on 11/30/2018 very close to home.  

Without going into too much (I will save that for a later post), we anticipated that our damaged house was going to be in full repair this summer.  We were also pretty shook up by it and figured a two month trip to the east coast would provide a lessoning on the nerves with aftershocks a constant for the first couple months.  As months went on, repairs still did not begin so we shortened the trip to 5 weeks. Rob stayed behind as there was much packing and dealing with insurance companies and contractors.  

It is now almost the middle of August and I am glad to report we have a rental house and moving in the next week or so and repairs will begin.   Planning to do a few posts as our house gets a full makeover, but first...our 1st week of Summer Vacation!

Big goodbye to Dad!  This will be the longest we have ever been a part. 

Alaska Airlines now flies to Columbus, making it only a 2 leg journey for us. 

But unfortunately,  still a red eye flight. 

A tired stop in Seattle.  Need a sweet treat.

Luckily todays kids have gadgets to make the time fly by. 

We arrived in Columbus in the evening and the next day caught up on sleep and relaxed down at Grammy and Grandpa Art's farm.

The following morning we hopped into our rental car and headed north to NY for the 7 hour drive.  

First thing first...a bonfire with a few of my favorite people on earth. 

Onto reuniting with cousin Livvy!

And cousin Cole!  

They FaceTime each other weekly, but in person...it is just soooo much better. 

They FaceTime each other weekly, but in person...it is just soooo much better. 

From then on, that first week went something like this: 

 

Up next:  Waldameer Park!