Wild Wind Storm

Today we had a CRAZY horrible windstorm in the Niagara region. There were 90km/hr winds for most of the day. It was so bad that two people actually died in the area (one man was hit by a barn door when we walked out of his home). Roofs were ripped off buildings, trees were pulled out of the ground, street lights fell down, it was wild.

Of course it was also garbage day. The storm started first thing this morning. When I was getting ready I heard Sarah saying, "oh no, mess!" She wasn't kidding, both of our recycling bins were emptied and there was garbage everywhere. The whole neighbourhood was covered in garbage and broken branches. It's now evening and I have no clue where our garbage can or recycling bin went. What a day!

This is a building around the corner that I saw on my way to the post office.

This is on our neighbours front lawn, next to our driveway. The branch is actually from across the road. It's the top of a tree that cracked off and blew across the road.

Sarah Shakes it

Today while we were shopping at Old Navy Sarah saw the sun glasses and wanted to try on every pair. She soon saw the mirror so she decided she would check herself out. Well, she needed to see how the glasses looked while she danced it up. She tried on about 4 different pairs at this point, each time going to the mirror and doing a different little dance. Funny girl. Sure made us laugh!

Pennsylvania Dutch Country

On our way home from Washington DC we decided to drive through Amish country in Pennsylvania. It was a great little pit spot after driving for a couple of hours. We arrived in Lancaster at around 1pm so we headed to the local market for lunch. We then drove to Bird in Hand and Intercourse. It was fun to see all the horse and buggies and people on their old scooters. The kids loved the horses and cows, continually yelling "animals!" as we were driving past the horses, etc.

I love covered bridges, so we made sure we came across at least one on our adventure.

A different kind of parking lot. This was at the "feed and supply shop."

After driving through the "towns" we decided to take a little drive through the countryside. While driving, these three little puppies ran across the road. Thankfully, we didn't hit them. Since the kids were eager to get out of their car seats, we decided to stop and see if the family would let our kids see the pups. When I got out of the car none of the kids acknowledged me, they just continued on playing. Eventually the mom appeared and was more than happy to let us spend some time with the puppies. The whole family ended up coming over to chat. Kids can be the best ice breakers!

Sarah loved holding the puppies!

Little Dora Mae was too cute! Calvin LOVED the puppies as well. He kept saying, "my puppies."

The countryside was beautiful. As soon as we started driving around the sun came out and it warmed up. It seemed that most of the Amish families were working on their yards and/ or farms. There were a lot of adorable Amish children playing outside, which was just the cutest. This was the perfect ending to our road trip and family adventure.

Several Amish families sell goods at the side of the road, so we picked up some home made Root Beer (already drank the smaller cold jar), whoppie pies, apple pie and cream filled donuts at different homes.

Washington, DC

The next stop on the road trip was Washington DC. We actually weren't planning on going here at all. It was just a spontaneous stop, we booked our hotel the night before we left for DC. Unfortunatley the weather wasn't the greatest for our day of sight seeing. However, we still had a great day!


We did a double decker bus (hop on and off) tour for the day. This was perfect with the kids and rain, not to mention that it allowed us to easily see all the major sights in the day. Sarah loved sitting on the top level of the bus.

Towards the end of the day we found out that all of the museums at the Smithsonian are free. What great news! Here we are at the museum of Natural History. The kids are big animal lovers so this was a great place. Calvin LOVES the dinosaurs and couldn't stop growling.

Sarah was very concerned about the one dinosaur eating the other. She's saying, "oh no, what happened?"

Playing in the "termite hill" We all loved the musuem of space and flight! At this point in the day the kids were pretty tired, so Sarah's blankie was a must. Blankies are something we don't leave home without.

The Wright brothers first plane; so cool!

Capitol Hill

We got to see the White House!

I'm not sure what Sarah is doing in this photo.

We visited Union Station.

Sarah's bird photo. She was telling me that the birds were tired and wanted to go night night (just like her I'm sure).

On the Road Again

There's a story to this sign. While driving to DC we started to see these signs for "The South of the Border." It started about 200 miles before the destination, soon the signs were every 10 miles, then every 3 miles. We must have seen at least 30 of these giant billboard signs. The whole time we couldn't figure out what "The South of the Border" was. Captions about a diner, a truck stop, reptiles, fireworks, Pedro has everything you could ever want, great for kids, wonderful for families, rides, etc. The signs intrigued us so much that we decided to hold off on getting dinner and wait to eat at "The South of the Border." By the time we got near, we were all pretty excited to see what the destination actually was. Even the kids were excited!

Just before the exit, traffic came to a stand still. We were thinking that a lot of cars must be getting of to go the "The South of the Border" was well. We then saw a semi truck with half of the trailer burned off. David exclaimed, free stuff! We should pull over and get whatever is left. Of course, I rolled my eyes at such a remark. We then saw cabbage all over the side of the road and on the truck. We both burst out laughing at the possible "free stuff." Green gold! I didn't get the joke, so David had to explain the Simpsons episode to me where Homer is in a similar situation but it's sugar, and therefore says, "white gold." Of course Homer actually picks up the sugar and trys to sell it for a profit. You probably would have had to be there. We had a good laugh.

Anyways, back to "The South of the Border"... Excitedly, we took the exit and soon discovered that "The South of the Border" used to be a large amusement park and many random things. However there was now boards on the buildings and the place was a ghost town. What a big disappointment! So it was back on the road to look for food and a break. At least we got a story out of it.



Sometimes you need to stop for donuts and donut hats.

Over 50 hours of driving in 2 weeks, that's a lot of time in the car. We're so thankful that everyone did great and our car survived (we had a couple of scares). We had such a great trip, that we're already looking forward to our July road trip with Matt and Libby.

Sleepy kids, thank goodness for blankies.

Seeing Savannah

We loved Savannah! Just wish we could have stayed here longer. Next time David and I would love to come without the kids, it was just such a romantic city.

Checking out "Savannah's Waving Girl" by the water front.

This area is actually a little port for the river boat cruises. There were lots of cute little shops and the best candy store!

We checked out the cemetary of Savannah. The tombstones were mostly from the 1700's and early 1800's, pretty neat. This was also one of the places that the movie "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" was filmed. We also saw the street where the bench from "Forrest Gump" was. The bench is no longer on the street but rather in the local museum.

Savannah, Georgia

Today we drove from Orlando to the beautiful historic city of Savannah. The trees here are beyond amazing! I think I could walk around for hours just taking photos of the trees. Even the kids were commenting on the "big trees" as we were driving through the streets. Tomorrow we plan on spending the morning seeing more of the old city and then we'll be off to Washington, DC (10hrs away). We're kind of winging this part of our trip, booking our hotels the night before and deciding on where we're going. We figured that since we have to make the drive home anyways, we may as well see some more cities along the way. So far so good.

Our Sunday

Today we took it a bit easier again. We try to alternate park days with home/ swimming days. This seems necessary for naps, down time, etc. We went to the outlet mall for a bit of shopping in the late morning and then back home. There was a plane writing messages in the sky over Disney World , "Jesus loves U" and "Jesus 4 Gives." We thought this was pretty entertaining as we drove, a neat idea too. The shopping plaza is just around the corner from our condo, so we took a short walk to the grocery store to pick up supplies for dinner. The kids were tired and cranky and we needed a break, so it was a 7pm bedtime tonight. With the park days and often later dinner times, they've been going to bed later. The kids can only handle this for so long and so can we. At home David and I are used to always having them go to bed at around 7 and therefore having the evening to ourselves. Anyways, it's good to have the evening and good to know the kids are getting the sleep they need. Tomorrow should be our last park day, Epcot round 2.

More Animal Kingdom

On Saturday we headed back to the Animal Kingdom. At this point I'm feeling almost done with all the Disney, however, in order to see everything with the kids we pretty much need to go to a park twice. We went on the Safari again but everything else that we did was new. We loved the Bugs Life Show and Lion King Festival show. Sarah is a big Simba fan, so that show was a must. Sarah also got to hug and have her photo taken with a lot of different characters in the park. I continue to be amazed how thrilled she is everytime we see a character. I thought she would be a least a little scared, but she is more than eager to give each one of them a big hug. Seeing the look on her face each time she runs up to a character is priceless... pure joy! It reminds me why we came here, why we endure the cranky times, lack of schedule, naps, crying, etc. As we were walking away from Donald Duck, Calvin blew him a kiss. Made my heart melt. These are moments that I treasure and will never forget.

The Electric Parade and Magic Kingdom

On Friday we went to the Magic Kingdom for the morning and then back home so that the kids could nap. We wanted to be sure to see the Electric parade at the Magic Kingdom while at Disney World. The parade doesn't start until 9pm, so naps were necessary! We were amazed how well the kids did being up so late. Turns out that the lines are way shorter (or non existent) after 9pm so we were able to go on a bunch of rides after the parade and fireworks. We even rode the carousal with all the Disney princesses! Sarah thought this was pretty great.

Sarah loves to get her picture taken and now fully knows the drill. When she finds a place that she thinks would be good for a photo, she'll pose and say "cheese."

I love this photo of little Calvin and David. This is just before he fell on the walkway and hurt his upper lip. Busy little Calvin is always saying "walk" and wants to go everywhere his big sister does. He also loves to run, but he often falls, resulting in many bumps, bruises and scrapes. Poor guy.