Happy Memorial Day (weekend)

It's memorial day weekend! Enjoy your picnics and bbq's, Nascar and popsicles.

mmmmmm, popsicles.

As we enjoy our extended weekend, please don't forget to take a moment to remember those who have served, and those who have given their lives so that we may eat our popsicles in our great country.

Thank you to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, to their families, and to those who continue to be willing to risk their lives everyday to ensure that America stays the land of the free.

Happy Memorial day!

Now go eat those popsicles!

Welcome to the family

As promised, pictures of Mike's new toy....

His new motorcycle!

It's a new Honda Shadow, and Mike is quite pleased with it. It's shiny.

In fact, he's off riding it right now. I think Cody wanted to go with him. He's a little confused about this whole motorcycle business.

Looks like Evan wanted to go too! I think he has motorcycles in his future... Bye Daddy!

Niagara Falls

I have to warn you--Evan has not been interested in having his picture taken lately, so they all will pretty much look like this one.

Bad pictures or not, we had a great time in Niagara Falls. First of all, the weather was beautiful, and there was NO ONE there. We were on the Canadian side, and I could tell by the size of the parking lots and general touristy-ness that they get some major crowds.

There's barely anybody in this picture! Not shown--waterpark, Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, 20 other haunted houses, 4 more Ripley's--and then multiply that by 10. It was like being at Disneyworld. But empty. And not as cool.

Now, I've heard people say that the Canadian side is much better than the American side, but it seemed to me that there's just more stuff to do in the surrounding area. (see above picture, haha) The falls were beautiful on both sides, and I even liked visiting the Falls on the American side better--it was more like a state park, with lots of trails and trees and prettiness. I will admit that the surrounding area on the American side was a bit seedy. Kind of depressing, actually. I guess thats why people tell you to stay on the Canadian side. I will agree--but don't skip the trip if you don't have a passport--It is totally worth it to see the falls.

Really, Niagra Falls is so big, that I couldn't get a picture that captured all of it. This is as close as I got, from the "Sky Wheel" (Add that to the list of touristy things--the only one we took advantage of)

Awesome. We had a great time walking around and exploring the area. It's a little scary to stand right next to all that rushing water, and you really do get wet!

Evan had a wonderful time as well, as you can see.

We got to go swimming at our hotel, and we also went to a butterfly garden. It was awesome. This was my favorite butterfly--

--and Evan's favorite thing there was the turtle.

We had a wonderful time, and are really glad we went. Naturally I got almost no knitting done, but I did finish one sock to complete a pair--one more lonely sock left to go. Then I'll start another one. Ha! I started my scarf about 8 times and frogged it just as many--now that I'm home I think I can give it enough concentration to get it going. Hopefully!

Mike has a new toy, which hopefully I will have pictures of soon...stay tuned!

Spring Arrives!

We have been enjoying some warm and wonderful weather here, and the trees finally have leaves and blooms on them. And the bugs are out. I'd forgotten how many bugs there are here, and how hard it is for me to get used to them. God help me if/when we are stationed in the south! Evan has learned what bees are, and we spend a lot of time watching them buzz around from flower to flower. The boy can spot a bumblebee from a mile away! He also likes chocolate covered strawberries.

Naturally, it's supposed to be rainy and cool this week, as we are planning to go to Niagara Falls. We're Oregonians though, so we will enjoy ourselves nonetheless. We like roadtrips, so we figure we'll enjoy the drive, enjoy the sights for a few days, and head back. Stay tuned for updates!

I'm particularly looking forward to the drive up to Canada because hopefully I can get some knitting done. I have two (different) lonely socks that need mates, and silk/alpaca yarn that wants to be knit into a lacy scarf. yum.

By the way, this is Mrs. Stripey Chicken.

I loved making her, and Evan seems to have taken her on as his own, so I see many more hens in our future.
See you after our trip!