One Benefit of Rain

We seem to have had more than our fair share of rain recently!  It cleared up enough for a walk this evening and Will really enjoyed splashing in the puddles.  He was completely soaked when we got back home.

I just realized this photo looks ominous with the car behind Will,
but the car was parked so he was safe!

Harvestfest at DelGrosso's

We visited DelGrosso's Amusement Park today for their Harvestfest celebration.  Will enjoyed an animal show as well as an insect show, where he actually raised his hand to volunteer to hold a tarantula and to eat a bug!

Will liked the carved giant pumpkins but was not in the mood to
have his picture taken with one.

He WAS in the mood to have a picture while he was bottle
feeding a sheep at the petting zoo.  Sheep are his favorite farm animals.

Slinky Action Zone

It was wet outside and a little rainy today.  We had plans to play with Monica and Caleb but since we couldn't play outside anywhere I thought it might be a nice day to go to Altoona to the Slinky Action Zone indoor play area.  As it turned out Tuesdays are free in the big play area!  Will and Caleb had sooo much fun exploring the tunnels, which resemble a huge hamster cage!  I forgot my camera (of course) so I'll add some more pictures later that Monica took.

We bought a few tokens for the boys to play some of the games while we were there.  It turned out that Caleb was very lucky and won a huge pile of tickets by rolling a token into a dump truck.  He was kind enough to share his tickets with Will so both of the kids got to pick out some cool prizes before we left!

Hauling a Pumpkin

Perry gave Will a big pumpkin he grew at his farm.  Will was so proud to haul it home in his gator!

Clothie Pants

Will loves, really LOVES, his pajamas.  I think he would wear them all day every day if I would let him.  While mom and grandad were here he actually went upstairs in his room, got out all of his pajamas and was trying on different pairs when I went to check on him.

We were getting dressed to go to Lake Tobias yesterday.  We had to try on several different outfits since the weather has changed so after I found something that fit him, I told him to leave it on since that is what he would be wearing to the park.  I went to my room to get ready and Jerry noticed a few minutes later that Will was in his room with his door locked.  (We had already had the discussion before about not locking doors since it is a safety concern.)  Jerry knocked and Will opened the door wearing his pajamas.  He had locked the door because I had told him to leave his clothes on.  I wondered why Jerry was laughing - I was mad that he had the door locked and his pajamas on.  Then I saw the pants he was wearing....

My son had stuffed NINE clothies (cloth diapers he likes to sleep with)
in his pajama pants while he was wearing them!!
I got a great laugh!

Lake Tobias Wildlife Park

Today we rode to Lake Tobias Wildlife Park.  It was a really nice little zoo with an open air safari ride where you can feed and pet various animals including elk, water buffalo, deer, long horn cattle, buffalo, emu, and others.  They also had a petting zoo with sheep, goats, and ponies, a reptile house, lots of chickens (some of my favorites!), and lions, bears, and tigers (those weren't my favorite since I don't like to see animals like that confined).

After leaving the park we decided to stop by Hershey's Chocolate World since we were relatively close by.  Will was so excited to take the factory tour and get his piece of chocolate!

 

Saturday

We went for a short ride on the bike trail in Alexandria today and then stopped at Memories Restaurant in Huntingdon for dinner.

Will was actually drawing on the placements and I noticed that he drew a little guy
with pupils in the eyes.  I was pretty impressed  : )

Niagara Falls

We had been planning a vacation with my Mom and Grandad to visit Niagara Falls, Washington D.C., and some other nearby sites.  Our plans changed slightly when my mom's position at Intrepid was eliminated.  We shortened our trip a bit but still got to enjoy seeing Niagara Falls.

Mom and Grandad came up on Friday and we left for Niagara on Sunday morning.  A huge storm moved through shortly after we arrived and made it a bit difficult to get to dinner at the Skylon Tower since we planned to walk.  We tried to wait it out, but the storm was moving so slowly that we finally had to start walking so we didn't miss our reservation time.  Thankfully we had umbrellas so we all managed to stay fairly dry.  Dinner at the tower dining room was great and the view was awesome.  After dinner Grandad hit the casino but didn't have as much luck as he usually does. 

We stayed at the Embassy Suites so we had breakfast at our hotel the next morning.  It wasn't as great as the food at other Embassy Suites I've been too but compared to the breakfast we ate last year with Jenny and Craig it was terrific!  After breakfast we walked to the falls overlook.  Since it was a bit chilly we decided to forgo the Maid of the Mist ride.  We were mainly worried that Grandad would get too wet and end up with a relapse of pneumonia.  Honestly, I think we all got plenty of mist just walking along the overlook area!

On our way back home we stopped at the American side of the falls.  Jerry and I hadn't seen that last time so it was nice to see the different perspective.  The view is worth seeing but it doesn't compare with the Canadian side.  I'm glad mom and Grandad went to the trouble of getting passports - it was worth it!

On the way in we stopped to watch the glass blowing demonstration.

Mom and Grandad took Will on the cable car ride at the whirlpool
on the Niagara River.

Dinner at the Skylon Tower.

Part of our view at dinner.

We walked to the Hershey store on Clifton Hill while Grandad was in
the casino.  Will scored a whole bag of Hershey kisses with his
coupon for a free sample!

The picture is horrible but it's the only one I have of all of us since Jerry ran
ahead with Will in the stroller for some reason - I was so mad!

My beautiful mom!

And my cool grandad.

The American side of the falls.

David Suprised Us Today

Jerry's brother, David, has been telling me he's coming to visit us ever since we moved.  We've been here almost two years now and we haven't seen him yet.  Needless to say, I didn't believe him when he sent Jerry a text message this morning that he was filling up at the gas station and was on his way.  He sent another message after our Sunday School class saying that he was almost to Winchester.  That finally convinced me that he really was on the way since the timing of his message matched the progress I knew he should have made in that time.

The guys made good use of the pool table!

 

Bad Words

One of Will's favorite songs right now is "Hot & Cold" (he likes the beat, and when you listen from a 3-year-old perspective it's all about opposites!).  It would be a great song except for one word needlessly added near the beginning.  Whenever we turn it on for him we have to cut the volume during that part.  Today he asked why we turned it down so I told him the song had a word in it that we didn't like to hear.  He persisted and asked what word it was and I told him it was a bad word.  Will replied "What word, like Obama?"