Ski Lift Ride!

Ok, so I am REALLY late in putting together this one, but I wanted to write about something Sof and I did with my parents in mid-October, back when the weather was the opposite of what it is today. It was unseasonably warm then, while we have wind chills in the teens now! Anyway, my mom read in the paper that the local ski resort, Bristol, (by local I mean the one most skiers here go to, but is really about an hour's drive away) was opening their lift for fall foliage viewing and rides to the top of one of their runs. This is something I have always wanted to do. I remember missing out on a similar adventure in the Adirondacks when I was about 10 or 11 and just thought it sounded cool! SO luckily my mom asked if we wanted to go and I said YES! We had a beautiful day and a gorgeous drive into the finger lakes area with a clear blue sky and nice views from the hilltops. When we arrived we realized that most of the Democrat & Chronicle subscribers had also read the article decided to give the lift a go. SO we got into line and waited for maybe 30 minutes and took a ride up the mountain! It was great! I took a ton of pictures and loved it! When we got to the top, conventional wisdom told us to get back into line for the ride down, since they were loading only every 3 seats and the line was again long! mom went into line and Sof and I explored a bit, wandering a little ways down a path. She and Grandpa did the same as I waited with mom. the ride down was worth the wait at both ends! We could see a long way and the trees on the mountains were perfect. We grabbed a hot dog at the bottom and drove on back along the 5 & 20,which is a winding route through a village or two! It was really a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Late Fall!

Here we are in November now and I realized that I haven't blogged in a while! Sof has been having a great time at pre-school and was the "Leader" yesterday, which meant she got to bring a show and tell and that we provided the snack!Very important stuff! She is getting excited about the Christmas program that they've been rehearsing for and keeps whispering about decorations they are making for the tree at our local McDonald's! Just before Halloween I got watch her at dance class for a quick pumpkin dance, which I will attempt to upload! She wore her Dragonfly everyday dress up outfit, since we had a tough time deciding on a costume! We also went "real"trick-or-treating around the neighborhood for the first time, you know, after dark and walking, rather than driving!! It was a breezy night and we tagged along with neighbors and made quite a haul! She wore her ballet outfit from her recital as her costumefor this event! So sweet! Just this week we started having lake effect snows early and I have just crammed her into a ton of snow gear to go out and play. Uncle Andy and Molly gave her monster feet stilts a Christmas or two ago and she figured out that they would make fun footprints, so she and our friend Kailee from across the street are out trying it out! I am hoping to get this post done before they come in freezing and having to pee! I hope all of you have a blessed Thanksgiving, we are looking forward to having Andy home for a few days and to getting shopping, decorating and relaxing done!

More fall Fun!

Just this week, we have gone to another pumpkin farm, this one is much closer than the one we went to last month, right up the street practically! On Columbus Day Sof and I met some Margy School friends there and loved walking around the dark pumpkin hollow where we could see tons of artistically carved pumpkins. Then we went on a hayride to pick a pumpkin and finished up with a donut and cider in the big barn. On Friday we got to do it all over again on a pre-school field trip! I was a volunteer! It was so much fun, Sof talked about it for ages before it happened and then loved showing her teacher around the Pumpkin Hollow and the creek. We picked out more pumpkins and had more cider and donuts and played in the bin of corn kernels. Have you ever made a corn angel? Sof and her buddy did! That night we went to the crazy Canal View party at my school and handed out treats to students! Fall is a good time!

Early Fall

We have had some beautiful fall weather around here! Early in the season, Sof and I met our buddies, Becca, Katie-pop, and Ethan-ator for a fun filled day at Brown's Berry Patch! It was a warm day and the girls rode the pony, went down the big slide, got face/body painted and bounced on the huge pillow! Sof's turn on the pillow was a short one, but Ethan and Kate loved it! Ethan also loved the water troughs, as you can see. Sof was happy to play with the water pump as well. We picked apples and took pictures with the pumpkins. A great time was had! We wrapped the day with a sleepover and Sunday morning pancakes!

Back at Home

Late August brought us home for a while. We continued the Sofia Birthday Fest by having a special dinner prepared for our homecoming by grandma, (thanks,mom!) Also Sofia was surprised by a new two-wheeled bike (Dora of course) (thanks for putting it together, Grandpa!)and balloons along with prezzies and cookie cake for dessert. We also celebrated that weekend at the local playground with Margy School friends and had a perfect day for playing in the spray park and having cupcakes in the shade!
Another big deal for us was Sof's first day of pre-school. The Open House was the Saturday morning before, which was a new experience for German and I to be in the audience of a Parent Info session. (We were sorry we had to miss Andy's ARE celebration in Boston, but will definitely visit, soon! BTW--He's trainigng for the Boston Marathon next spring!WOW). Sof started the Monday of the first full week of school for me. Grandma is our official Queen of the carpool and was raring to go! I was able to sneak away from my classroom for 20 minutes to see her off and shed a tear or two on the way back! She picked out her dress, a gift from Abuelo complete with kerchief, which she kept on all day, surprisingly! She had a ball at school and was thrilled to celebrate her birthday there last Friday when she got to be the student leader! (oooo, ahhh!) She is back in dancing with Miss Karen on Saturday mornings and we are working on making our new fall schedule feel normal after a summer of late mornings and lots of travel! Now if we could just get over our Early (too early) fall colds!

Last trip of the Summer

We have had a summer full of travel, which has made it quite fun! In last week of August, we headed to Puerto Rico to visit German's dad and to attend to family business. It turned out to be a successful, relaxing trip. We spent a lot of time hanging out on the farm in Adjuntas as well as making short day trips along the windy mountain roads to visit "the aunts" (tias) outside of San Juan, cousin Yamillie and Tia Bruni in Ponce, a visit to the beach and almost daily trips into the village square of Adjuntas (one of the only places to get a WiFi connection.) We celebrated Sofia's 4th birthday with the Aunts in San Juan and at a dinner with German's art teacher and friend in Adjuntas and we returned on her birthday to celebrate here with Grandma and Grandpa. Sof got to try some new tropical foods, coconut and pineapple fresh picked, we saw some interesting flowers and got to feed the chickens. Of course there were dogs to deal with, but Sof has come a LONG way since Connecticut! Here are some pictures of some views and people we saw. I am really glad we got to connect with so many family members this summer.

Our Trip West

Ok, so if you read my last post, we spent a long weekend east of WNY in early July. Later in July we headed west of WNY for another long weekend. We made it as far as Chicago! In the hopes of showing Mireia even more of the land we know, we decided to take her to Chicago to see another great American city. We drove the "long way" through Ohio to avoid customs and stopped for an overnight in Ann Arbor to visit with Aunt Alice, Aunt Ellen and any cousins that happened to be in the area. We arrived in AA at noon-ish on a Friday and met up with cousins, Dan and Janette, and their girls Morgan and Kiera! Sofia was excited to meet cousins she had never met before. We met at a cool museum in Downtown called the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum. There were lots of displays on how things work, including a ball bearing exhibit from Uncle Tom's company. Sofia and Morgan enjoyed the water tables the most. I enjoyed the section that was closed off for toddlers only to play in. It was quieter and more contained. It was nice to let Sof play where I wasn't asking her to slow down and wait for me. She liked the water table there and all the rubber sea creatures that floated along it. There was a pretend house and books and puzzles to play with too! It was fun! We went on a long ride through the city after that and met up with everyone for lasagna at Auntie Alice's! And homemade birthday cake to celebrate her b-day the following day~Yummy! The next day, we New Yorkers headed out to Chi-town and Aunt Jessica and Uncle Ralph's house. We enjoyed dinner on their deck, and time with them and Cousin Ann and her husband Rob. Sofia and Mireia again were faced with befriending a dog. This time only 1, Maggie, much more sedate than two black labs! I think Sof was really taken with Maggie by the time the weekend was over. Sunday morning, we drove into Chicago and parked in a garage under Millennium Park as Uncle Ralph recommended. We spent the day walking around the city and went up the Sears Tower. We also rode a Trolley Bus, which was free-yeah and took us around to see some sights like Navy Pier and the river and shopping areas. We then wandered around Millennium Park where Sofia found another fountain to play in along with many other children! This fountain was much more elaborate than the one in NYC and was created using two towers covered in LED screens. The images on the towers would change to show different faces, up close and even blinking if you watched long enough. Water would spray our of a hole positioned by the mouth of each face and would also pour down the sides, much to the delight of the kids who brought bathing suits! We listened to some live music there and I enjoyed a wander through a perennial garden. There was also a huge shiny thing called "The Bean". It is a sculpture that looks just like a giant dollop of mercury was dropped in the middle of the park in a bean-ish shape. We could walk right up to it and look at ourselves in the reflection. You could also walk underneath the curve and see lots of reflections--so cool. I have never seen anything like it! We bought souvenir shirts and couldn't resist an Obama '08 shot glass and then headed back to R & J's for brats and burgers on the grill. It was very relaxing to hang out in the Adirondack chairs and to look out over the wildlife preserve that backs up to their yard. Everyone else saw a raccoon and deer, but me! Oh well! On Monday we headed back to Michigan and happened to catch my mom's bother, Uncle Bill and Aunt Sherry coming home from their weekend on the lake, so we stopped to visit and to take about an hour's break from the car. It was a great spontaneous thing that just worked out! We stopped in AA for pizza and more visits and then headed for home! It was another memorable trip!

Boston! 3 of 3

After a 2 hour drive with potty training frustration and me changing "the plan" 100 times, (sorry, Andy, I am psycho!) We made it to Boston. Mireia, German and Andy toured the city, while I adjusted my attitude (thanks for listening, Moll) at Andy and Molly's apartment and Sofia slept in their air conditioned bedroom, thankfully! (Motherhood was definitely wearing on me that day!) When G, M and A returned from their visit to the Prudential Building and Cheers and a wet ride on the T, we had burritos (from the yummy burrito joint A and M introduced me to in the spring) and enjoyed visiting the evening away. The next day, Monday, G, S, M and I went on a Duck Boat tour and this time I got to drive the boat! German was asked to hold the bowling shoes of our bowling fan driver/tour guide and Sof felt like an old pro at boat rides and travelling at this point! After the tour, we walked to meet Andy for lunch on his break, since he had to go to work that day! We saw the long line of people looking for iPhones at the Apple store on the way through the mall to the Cheesecake Factory! Andy and Molly were hoping to join that line the next day! We had a long lunch and took cheesecake to go and the Lopez group headed back to WNY! What a trip and what great memories! I hope to do it again next year! Not sure if Andy and Molly agree, but hey, they're family, they won't be rid of us! Thanks for being such great hosts!

Beach Part of trip 2 of 3

After meeting with Uncle A. we stopped for some great Chinese Food and headed out to meet Kathy, Jay, & Grammy (Molly's Parents and Grandma). We loved meeting them. Meeting "the boys" was another story for Sofia and Mireia. "The boys" are Homer and Rufus, two black labs who are very nice dogs and fun to be around, if you are not terrified of dogs as Sof and Mireia are. I am not a big dog person either, but I enjoyed these 2 immensely! Both Sof and Mir got much more comfortable as the weekend went on, thankfully! We all had to face a fear or two this weekend! On Saturday, we spent the day on the beach! Mireia, Sof and German made a sand castle and we all hunted in tide pools for interesting sea creatures. We saw little fish, lots of hermit crabs and snails! I decided that, since the tide was out and other people were doing it, that I should walk/swim out to a rocky looking thing just off the beach area. It turned out to be more swimming than I anticipated and Andy and Molly were just thrilled that I dragged them along! As we were really getting to the point of no return, Molly saw a jelly fish and warned us to watch out! (Gulp!) Jelly fish?! They sting, right?! I was so paranoid that I was a tad ridiculous about swimming in between Andy and Molly and thought that every wave was another one! Once we finally got out to the rocks, we wandered a little bit and caught our breaths for the haul back to shore. Again a time for jelly fish fear! It was a relief to be back on sandy ground when we could walk again and I felt like a heroine for getting out and back with out a rescue. (Rocks may appear closer than they are in reality!) Andy and I both encountered stinging sensations across our legs at one point and while it was uncomfortable, it was not worth the fear of running into a jelly fish that I put myself through. (Something about fear being worse than fear itself?!) Apparently the stingers of jellyfish can just be floating in the water, unnoticed! In the afternoon we were treated to a motor boat ride around Long Island Sound, Ala Jay! It was great! We started off in a river that led right out into the ocean. It was hot and still in the river area, with the fear of green fly bites and German's general unease of being in or on the water at all. After some motor oil tinkering we were out in the open water! Sof loved the speed! She kept wanting to go faster! The spray form the water and the rush of wind was so refreshing! We saw a couple islands, one inhabited with egrets and one with a historic lighthouse on it that humans are only allowed on once the birds have migrated south and then only for one day allowed by the group that is striving to preserve the area. (Forgive me for not remembering the names of islands or river.) I really got a kick out of looking at the charts (not maps)of the water we were in and Jay taught me how to identify different buoys based on the markings on the charts. It was cool. Sof fell asleep nearly standing up resting on my knee and we all got our fair share of sun. German did great as well and even took off his life vest shortly after we got underway! We went back to the house to prepare for a feast of lobster, another new experience for me! Molly did a great job showing me how to rip apart the lobster and I enjoyed it! Sof didn't go for it as much, she preferred the corn on the cob! Yummo! Mireia and German are seafood fans, so they really enjoyed it and had less trouble than I did getting to the juicy meat!! Late that night, Sof had a shower under protest, since she refused to get in Grammy's special tub we had tried out the night before and ended up nearly flooding the upstairs of the house with (see Molly's blog) and she finally went to bed. Then I had a chance to visit with Andy and Molly more on the deck in the dark. Andy found Jupiter in his telescope and we all had a look, pretty cool! The next day we had time for a walk on the beach, and saw many washed up jelly fish, I just couldn't get away from them! (See Andy's site for photos.) We played fetch with Homey and Rufy and regretfully said goodbye as we loaded up to head to Boston for part 3 of our trip!

Early July Trip NYC 1 leg of 3

For the month of July, we had our exchange student from Spain back with us, Mireia. Since she was here simply for a relaxing visit,and not taking classes, we decided to show her more of the country than WNY. We decided to head east to visit Andy and his girlfriend, Molly! Luckily Molly's parents were able to host us at their gorgeous home a walk from the Connecticut shore, and a 2 hour train ride to Grand Central Station. So we met up with Molly on a Friday morning and hit the train station from New Haven to Grand Central! Sofia stared out of the window until she dozed off. She was thrilled to be riding a train! The adults discussed Spain and the differences between schools in the U.S. and there. Molly is taking a Spanish class this summer and had a chance to try out some of her new skills on German and Mireia. We arrived in NYC and were taken with he ceiling in the train station, so we took some pictures before heading out to the streets. Make sure to look up the next time you happen to be in Grand Central! We needed to go to Madame Trausaud's to pick up our double decker tour bus tickets that we ordered on line. We had some glimpses of Times Square and saw lots of taxis along the way. We hopped on the next bus and saw all the sights from 42nd street to Battery Park where we got off for a hot dog and to get in line for a boat ride in the Harbor. It was a hot summer day, perfect for taking pictures and seeing EVERYTHING, but quite warm in the sun when it wasn't breezy! I thought we'd be working on our tans on the beach later in the trip, not on the bus! We opted to avoid the long wait for the security check and not take a boat to Liberty Island, but rather cruise the harbor and see the city from there. It was a great choice! We had wonderful views of Ellis Island, Lady Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Man-hat-tan Bridge (as our very specific tour guide prnounced it!) and a more somber view of where the twin towers should have been. At different locations around the harbor, we saw an art installation of waterfalls under and around the Brooklyn Bridge, they were very cool! We were dropped off back in Battery Park where we were able to relax and people watch a bit. Sofia found a fountain to cool off in and got soaked as well as refreshed! We decided to walk around the construction area at ground zero and were happy to see a Starbucks sign on a Marriott Hotel on the way. Our guide on the bus told us that Starbucks was the public bathroom for NYC so we walked our sweaty, sunburned bodies through a very pretty marbled hotel lobby and spent some time getting our selves washed up in a very clean marbled restroom. Sofia put on her back-up pants at this point, since it was really no fun to wear a damp skirt that was just making her hotter! (And I thought we'd need to change for a potty accident, not a fountain encounter!) We wandered the area where the construction is going on for the Trade Centers and then headed back to where we could catch the bus again for more sight-seeing. Along the way, Mireia stopped and bought her souvenir "I 'heart' NY" T-shirt, as every good tourist should. The man selling them was so taken with Sofia's cute-ness in her search for an orange version of the shirt, that he gave her a choice of three different pink NYC shirts to take for free, she chose one and promptly put it on. Molly took their picture and we thanked the man and headed out! Who said New Yorkers weren't nice?! We toured around the city for another hour or two and Sof fell asleep on the bus then we walked and walked back to the train station for our trip back to Connecticut to meet up with Uncle Andy who rode the train from Boston after work. We really had a great time despite the heat and my embarrassing fall on a city street corner as we were heading to he train. So my souvenir was bloody knees and a cranky attitude. The knees were patched quite nicely by my husband on the train with some band aids bought from the drug store just outside the station and an iced coffee from Molly helped the attitude!!! We were quite exhausted by the time we reached the New Haven Train station! We were also happy to see Andy to head into our next leg of the trip, relaxing in a beautiful house by the beach!

The Shed Move!

When we moved in to our house (about 3 years ago) we were lucky enough to have a shed on the property. German started talking about moving it from its spot about 10 feet in from the back and side corner of our lot, not a bad spot, but one that could be improved upon.(I was pretty sure that it was impossible, or going to happen years and years from now, silly me!) This spring we started to notice that the floor was rotting and German decided to replace the floor. Well the can of worms was overturned! The joists were rotten, the foundation nonexistent, critters enjoyed digging under it and therefore, a move inevitable. The logical and most perfect spot was a quarter turn and slide to the end of our driveway, which extends into the back yard. The move and repair really began in earnest about 2 weeks ago when school let out. the whole project involved a roll away dumpster, a few strong cables and some PVC pipe, our mini van and a plan and lots of hope! The dumpster was here for a week and was loaded up with not only the yucky old floor, but many other items and leftovers from earlier projects. I even took some fixtures to a local store that sells salvaged items from house demos, where I found a door perfect for the double door entrance that is now much more visible as it faces the house! Today the satisfying (almost) end to the project happened. German had painted the floor and walls, gotten the doors installed and the trim painted, so all the junk we can't apart with needed to go back in, off the back patio! We reconfigured the inside to make more space for my potting area and garden tools and there is lots more room for lawn mowers and wood scraps. Now we just have to paint the doors and level the area where the shed used to be to plant grass. It is all very exciting!! Enjoy the picture of the move which I took when I arrived home one afternoon, super surprised to see that it had gotten started without me! If you are interested in seeing more silly people move sheds, look on You Tube, we did and were surprised to see that many people have tried this before!