Sunday, September 8, 2013

Trip East: Canada and Grammie

We took a end-of-summer vacation to see some people we hadn't visited in WAY too long!

Penelope loves airplanes, so was very excited to fly to Syracuse, NY. We grabbed a rental car and headed north to Moira for the famous annual Vaughan Pig Roast.

The Vaughan's are Wayne's cousins, who live in same area that Wayne lived from about age 3-12. (I'm just taking a guess here, someone who knows can correct me.) Anyway, every year they have a get together over Labor Day Weekend and roast a real live actual pig. Well I guess it is dead when they roast it, but anyway. We also had fresh apple cider, endless tables of food, and about 60 people to share it all with. I got to meet lots of people that I had heard of and was promised entertaining stories about Wayne - none of which ever materialized, so my husband must not have led a wild and mysterious life when he was 10.

Unfortunately I have few pictures of this part of the trip because our camera conked out.

SO, Monday we started driving north through Quebec and on to New Brunswick. It mostly rained as we drove 15 endless hours to Moncton!

Wayne's Grammie and several other relatives live in the Moncton area. Wayne found us a camera so we started to document the trip with pictures. Wayne's uncle Ron was on vacation - actually his honeymoon! - so he let us stay in his house, which was VERY much appreciated.

Eating fish on the coast a little ways from Moncton: Debbie, Grammie Rita, Al, P & Sheena

The piles of fried fish, scallops, clams, and shrimp

Moncton has the Petitcodiac River (Say it like this: pedi-kodiak) When the tide comes into the Bay of Fundy, it pushes water up the Petitcodiac in a tidal bore.

This is the tidal bore coming through as the water fills up all of the inlets. It wasn't too exciting, but certain times of the year the wave is quite large - and surfers come and surf 20+ miles as the tide comes in!

Wayne and P with Grammie

Dinner being prepared

A quick visit with Uncle Norman's family - Sue, Rita, Roseana, Norman

Jonathon (cousin) Norman and Wayne

Check out our paparazzi in the mirror!

Grammie and P hugging goodbye

Driving down the Fundy Bay coast


Lunch on the bay


Fresh Lobster! (We inlanders had to ask how to eat it!)

The girls love their chocolate!

More driving south to Maine

Lebanese food near Boston: Falafel, grape leave wraps, baba ghanoush, hummus, vegetables!

We arrived back in Syracuse and Stayed with Marilla, Lincoln, Cheyenne, and Elliot(not in this pic)

Evan & Co.

Last free airplane ride! P is almost 2

Riding the suitcase in the terminal

Dinner at Evan & Clover's



Calvin and Hobbs Photo Op




I think the pics say it all. Isn't this what every parent thinks of when someone says, "Oh, your child is so cute/good!" ????

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Wendover

Large cargo plane
We went to Wendover, camped, went to the BBQ contest, and toured the WW2 era air force base!
Imagine being 20,000 feet in the sky and depending on these controls
This is how excited Wayne and Pippy get about airplanes and helicopters. Penelope couldn't get enough.
Camping - somehow these pics got out of order and I am too lazy to deal with them.
World's most exciting campsite, courtesy of Wendover, NV
Sitting in the cockpit
At the top of the control tower! About 8 floors of steel stairs!
Wires in a plane. Imagine if it were your job to rewire something over the Atlantic Ocean!!

Wendo BBQ

We met our friends Brian, Tara, Ian, and Tana at Wendover for a BBQ contest. Brian and Tara have been doing this for 7 years! We came to watch help sample the BBQ!
Tana holding down the fort.
Ribs are done!
Once the meat is cut and strategically placed on a pretty bed of parsley, Brian carefully makes the walk to the judges. (Don't trip!!)
Contemplating love, life, and the pursuit of BBQ.
Here are some more BBQ teams. Everyone has their own unique and sometimes top secret way of doing things.
There were four different kinds of meat in the contest: Brisket, Ribs, Pulled Pork and Chicken. This was our favorite!!
Some cuddle time with Tara!

Monday, August 19, 2013

Flying Mice and Other Subjects Of Note

Why are children magnetically drawn to a pile of freshly swept dirt?

Is it a requirement for public swimming pools to have used band-aids everywhere? Penelope and I are taking parent-tot swimming lessons. Imagine 6 two year old's screaming while 8 parents try to imitate fish and use silly words to try to make their child blow bubbles. The other two children in the class are found at the bottom of the pool. You get the picture.

We had our friends Brad and Cori and Penelope's little pal, Leah, over for lunch. It is great to have friends that are in same misery boat as you. No one freaked out when on Penelope walked into the room with a dirty diaper around her ankles. And no one blinked when, at the table, I looked down to see I still had some of the diaper contents smeared on my forearm. Nice.

Wayne has turned into Mr. Fix It! You know those fancy refrigerators that actually make your ice for you and fill your cup with ice and water? Well, ours has that, it just isn't hooked up. After three years of Wayne complaining that there are never any ice cubes... After three years of telling Wayne that all he needs to do is to attach the ice cube maker hose to the wall... After three years, Wayne says to me, "You never told me I could just hook up the ice cube maker and it works?!" We are high-rollers now. We get ice water from our fridge any time we want.

One morning Wayne non-chalantly said to me, "So, there was a bird in our room last night." I looked at him for a minute, and then said, "NO, there was NOT a bird in our room."

"Oh yes," Wayne said, "There definitely was. I'm not sure what kind, small like a hummingbird but it didn't sound quite like one."

One of us is insane. Either it is Wayne because he is hallucinating, or me because if there really is a steathly bird somewhere in our house I will go insane. Because that means there is a bat in our house and bats are like flying mice, and we all know how I feel about mice.


Sunday, August 18, 2013

RMR 2013

Helping dad get ready.
 Wayne ran with a team of 12 in the Ruby Mountian Relay.  The race is 184 miles in about 29 hours (they run through the night). Wayne did a 4.4 mile leg, a 7.1 mile leg, and one 1 mile leg. He had fun and Penelope and I went to cheer for him along the road.
Waiting to cheer - near a ranch in Lamoille

Waving


Wayne's teammates getting him water

Wayne is the one runner down the road. The 6 in foreground are a team from one of the local high schools. When their runner got to the bottom of this (rather steep!) hill, the team's van drove up and all of his teammates jumped out to encourage and run up the hill with him!
Finished with a 4 mile leg

The team van


Friday, August 9, 2013

Some Summer Pictures

Diva

Look! It's something green! The Nevada garden


Penelope the swinging maniac

Techy Kids

Penelope is in love with our neighbor's trampoline

Penelope tries to spray water like mom & dad by putting her entire hand over the spout - thus spraying herself completely

Love these buddies!

Penelope with Cheri F and Alissa H!

Browse our travel blog at www.worldgallivanter.blogspot.com.