Maple Weekend

Duane and I took the kids to the Gabel Farm for Maple Weekend today.  We took a hay ride to the farm, got maple suckers and candy, checked out some boiling sap, and hiked the Sugar Bush trail!

The kids enjoying the hay ride.

Duane showing the kids how they tap the trees to suck out the sap.

Jonas really liked that Rosie the dog followed us through the whole trail.

Happy 4th Birthday, Abby!

Abby had a "rock" themed birthday party!

Up first, gem mining!  The kids sifted through their sand to find pretty "gem" rocks.

Painting rocks

"Blarney Stones" - the kids hit them with a hammer to break them, and there were bouncy balls inside!  Cool!

Cake Time!  Rock cake with worms...eeewww!

And last but not least - presents!  Abby told me she wanted Easter eggs!

We love you, Abby!  Thanks for a really fun birthday party!

Splash Lagoon

Duane, Grandma Deb and I took the kids to Splash Lagoon for an overnight stay during winter break.  The kids had a ton of fun, and I was just glad they kept it really warm in there :-)

The kids spent some time swimming in the hotel pool early on Friday since the water park didn't open until 10.  

There were only a few things I could get pictures of since Duane and I were on the water slides and things a lot with the kids.  This is a little "Frog Pond" that Brynn and Jonas swam around in for a while.

We took a break from swimming around lunch time and saw an animal show.  The kids got to touch a bunch of different animals.  The animal Bransen is touching there is a hedgehog!

Jonas really loved the snake and giant tortoise.  He hung out for a little bit after the show to get to touch them.

Jonas and Bransen had some fun playing in the arcade!

This is called the "Aqua Tumbler".  Basically you climb inside and get tumbled around.  Brynn, Bransen, and Duane were all brave enough to try it...and loved it!

Wave pool fun!

Relaxing in the lazy river.

Jonas and Brynn really liked this island in the activity pool.  

Collins Snow Day

It has been a while since I've posted...over a month!  I will try to play some catch up today since I have (another) unexpected day of from work.  

The Lafferty girls joined us for a snow day in Collins.  There was some tubing/sledding fun, playing on the swing, and a hike to the creek!

The tough 4 that made the hike all the way down!

Disney on Ice

Last weekend we took the kids up to Rochester to see Disney on Ice.  The Lafferty's came too, and we even got to go to Red Robin for lunch afterwards.  The kids all agreed - Stitch was the best part of the show!

Waiting for the show to start

The show featured four Disney movies:  The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Stitch, and Peter Pan.  And of course, Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy entertained us as well.  

It was fun for everyone, and the kids were great with the car rides and long wait at the restaurant.  Can't wait until next year!

Flooding

We decided to hike down to the creek on Saturday to check out the flooding creek.  With all the snow melting and all the rain, it was pretty crazy to see how high the creek had gotten.

Maybe it is hard to tell in the pictures, but the water was moving super fast, too.  We played around and hiked for a couple hours, and right when we were finishing up, we got caught in a torrential downpour!  We were all soaking wet - but the kids still wanted to play in the tree house when we got back instead of coming inside.  Thank God for the warmer temperatures on Saturday!