Friday, August 24, 2012

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory...

Yesterday, we took the ferry to Vermont to eat at Olive Garden and to visit the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory. We had some time to kill before our tour began, so we took the kids to the playground to get out some energy. The tour was only 30 minutes and included a video about Ben & Jerry's history. Our tour ended with an opportunity to sample some Punky Pineapple ice cream, which is a flavor that isn't available to purchase. The kids had lots of fun, and, Paul and I ended our day curled up on the couch watching The Hunger Games together.

The kids on the playground.
Getting them to all look at the camera is impossible.
The Flavor Graveyard.
Waiting patiently for the tour to begin....
and now their patience is wearing off.

All of Ben & Jerry's flavors.
Enjoying some Punky Pineapple.

Our family dessert. It included 4 flavors of ice cream
and over 10 toppings. Holy cow!

My kind of picture.... the kind that
doesn't show my body. HA!
The boys thought it was pretty
fun to put their heads in the holes.

Redford Picnic...

The Catholic church up the street from us hosts the annual Redford picnic. It is also the home of the oldest carousel in the western hemisphere. The local story is that it was built between 1910 to 1920 and it was left behind by a traveling carnival that went bankrupt. We also heard that years ago Disney wanted to buy the carousel for millions of dollars, but Redford declined the offer. In addition to riding the carousel, we spent the day eating food and playing booth games with our friends, who also lives in Redford.

Beckett and Payson enjoying cotton candy.
Payson fishing for a prize.


A little game of mini golf.

Excited for the carousel to start.

Beckett asking to get off.
Payson begging for the ride to end.
We went back later, after Paul woke up,
so he could ride the carousel too.
A tractor engine is used
to power the carousel.



A few pictures from our 
most recent trip to Parc Safari...


Paul and Beckett enjoying the water slide.

Payson getting mad a Paul for forcing him to go down the slide.
Beckett running up the hill to go down the slide again.
Paul took him down, at least, 15 times.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Our New House...

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to cancel the building of our custom home. It was a very hard decision for us, but after months of delays and excuses from our builder, we just couldn't take it anymore. August 20th will be our one year anniversary of moving to New York and we are still living very minimally because 95% of our things are still packed in boxes. After informing our builder of our decision, we started looking at houses. We knew it would be hard to top the home we designed, but we had high hopes because there were much better homes on the market now compared to last year when we looked. 
On our last day of house hunting, we drove by a house that had a "for sale by owner" sign in the yard and pulled in their driveway. The home owners were happy to let us look around despite the fact that they were obviously loading up their cars and boat for a fun day on the lake. We left the kids in the car, ran inside and immediately knew this was the home for us. Later that evening, we called the owners, made them an offer, to which they countered and we accepted! Our plan is to close on the house around the 14th of September. We are so excited and looking forward to finally settling into a home for our kids to grow up in. 

Here are some stats about our new house:
4 Bedrooms and 2 Bathrooms
2400 sq.ft. on living level
700 finished sq.ft. in basement
1.5 acre corner lot
Maple hardwood floors
11ft. ceilings in the living, kitchen & dining areas
4 seasons room
Granite countertops in kitchen and bathrooms
Unfinished bedrooms and bathroom in basement
One block from Peru schools

Our beautiful new home!!!
Custom built-ins in the living room.
The 4 seasons room beside the living area.
Aka... our play room.
Our awesome kitchen!
A very open design. Kitchen, living
and dining are all open to each other.
Master bathroom with vanity area for me!
The awesome master shower.
There is also a tub to the left.
Our huge backyard. Our property
line is well beyond the trees.

Friday, August 3, 2012

The Wild Center in Tupper Lake...

Yesterday, we decided to go out to the Wild Center in Tupper Lake and I convinced my pregnant friend, Jen, to come with us. She has a two year old boy, Elliot, and is due any day with baby Noah. We actually live right around the corner from her and I am on standby in case she needs help when she goes into labor. All of the boys had a blast running around and observing the animals. 

Checking out the fish and turtles.



Watching the otters swim fast.




The tree slide.




Can you tell it was past nap time?  Lol.
Jen and Elliot.