End of Summer

We have had a very busy last two weeks of summer.  In addition to getting a dog, we have been to the San Francisco zoo twice, Alcatraz, Pier 39, Ghirardelli square, Lombard street, the California Academy of Science, and had a visit from our cousin Andy and a visit from Grandpa Bill and Grandma JoAnn.  Oh, and Zach had is first soccer game of the season.  Here are just a few of the many pictures that we took.

Ocean Beach by the Cliff House

Sutro Bath ruins

View of the Golden Gate Bridge from Land's End trail

Sea Lions at Pier 39

Alcatraz

Solitary confinement

The recreation yard

view from the rec yard

the cell block

View of Alcatraz from Coit Tower

SF Zoo

The Grizzly Bears were very active and we even saw one catch a fish

We had a great summer!  School starts on Tuesday!

Our New Addition - Toby

The kids have been asking for a dog for 2 years.  They finally wore us down and this week we got a dog!  His name is Toby and everyone loves him.  He loves to snuggle and never lets a good lap go to waste.

This morning he ran in to jump in bed and wake up the boys

We got him some squeaky balls to play fetch.

Josh is 10!

In between all of our trips, Josh had a birthday!  As usual it was all baseball all the time.  He got baseball shirts, baseball cards, baseball books, baseball tickets and a Dodgers backpack to replace his old Dodgers backpack.

Julia and Zach made a beautiful mural with a giant coconut tree with 10 coconuts and drawings of all the characters from the movies we have seen this summer.

For his birthday he wanted vanilla cake, vanilla icing and mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Julia did a great job on his cake.

Happy Birthday Josh!!

Update: I took Josh to the doctor for his 10 year check up today and he is 5'3". 

His height off sets his size 9 1/2 men's shoes.

Update #2 - Steve just took Josh to get new basketball shoes.  The new shoes are size 10 1/2.

Wow.

The Vacation - Part 5 St George - our last stop!

(Disclaimer: my camera memory card was full at this point of the trip.  The following pictures are either Julia's or "borrowed" from my sister Robyn's blog.  Thanks girls!)

We flew from Buffalo to Las Vegas.  Denise and Lizzie were kind enough to pick us up at the airport late that night.  We may have gotten in late, but we had to be up early the next morning.  We had lots to do!  Like shopping and getting our toes done

Lizzie had made an awesome squid cake and the kids couldn't wait to dig in

Then Thursday we went to the temple with my nephew Joseph who is getting ready to leave on his mission.  He is going to Mexico!

Robyn, Joseph, Jose, Helen, Claude, Denise, Jill and Steve

My mom and dad

Lizzie organized the kids and made the cutest Elder Cruz pirate ship

On Friday Lizzie had to leave to go back to school so Steve and I drove her down to Vegas and had a night on the town.  We stayed at the Flamingo because for my birthday Steve got me tickets to see Donny and Marie!  The show was amazing and so much fun.

 

The next day I took Steve to the airport to fly home and I drove back to St. George to see what the kids were up to.  While we were gone they had a great time.

Playing with Joseph's new camera

 

Hanging out at the water park

Zach and Josh

 

Julia and Megan

That night we celebrated the 4th of July

Grandma had plenty of glow sticks to play with in the pool and Julia decided we needed the flashing light fountain to make our celebration complete.

Robyn brought Morning Glories and Joseph got stuck lighting them for all the kids.

Then we watched the fireworks from the back deck.

Our second week in St. George was filled with movies, going out to lunch and swimming.

And going to the Swig!  A most excellent beverage spot.

Julia got on a puzzle craze.  We did every puzzle in the house!

We had a great trip!

The Vacation - Part 4 Palmyra and Niagara Falls

The last stops on our east coast trip!  The first place we stopped was in  Fayette at the Peter Whitmer farmhouse.  We saw the chapel there and got to go inside the farmhouse where the church was organized.  It has been re-done to look how it may have looked back in 1830.

Plaque on front of the chapel

Peter Whitmer farmhouse

Inside

Next up was Palmyra.  The first day all we had time to do was go to the Hill Cumorah.  The front of the hill was busy with preparations for the pageant.

The next morning was Sunday so we got up and went to church.  Luckily the church was close to our hotel, so we had a nice 2 minute walk to get to church.  After church we went to see the Palmyra Temple grounds.

The E.B. Grandin building where the Book of Mormon was published

We saw pages hanging as they would have hung to dry back in 1830.  The kids all got to take a copy of one of the sheets and learn how they were folded to make all the pages in the right order.

Smith family log cabin re-built on the site of the original cabin 

Inside

Smith family frame house just down the road from the log cabin

Julia's photos of the Sacred Grove

 

The next day we headed for Niagara Falls

Julia took more pictures than I did of Niagara Falls (try 218), so I decided to use her pictures for this part.

American Falls - taken from Goat Island

The railing really is right at the edge of the falls

We saw the IMAX movie about the legends of Niagara and about the people who have tried to go over the falls.

The Maid of the Mist boats take you right to the bottom of both falls.

View of American Falls from the Maid of the Mist observation deck.  You can see the mist rising from Horseshoe falls on the right.  It is kind of cool because you can even see the mist rising from the falls miles away.

After the Maid of the Mist boat ride, you can walk up this path right to the side of the bottom of the falls.  We did it.  It was very wet.

View from the boat of the bottom of Horseshoe

The protective ponchos

Everyone got soaked!

After the boat ride we walked over to Horseshoe falls.  It started to rain on us, but luckily we had our handy ponchos on and we were already soaked, so it didn't matter. 

The hotel where we stayed had a basketball court.  Everyday Josh wanted to make sure that we made it back before dark so we could play some basketball.

On our last day we took a tour of some old locks on the Erie canal in Lockport.  Josh was actually OK with this tour since we got to go in a tunnel that had been blasted in the rocks to get the water downstream.  We also got to see the new locks in action.  Lockport is one of the only places on the Erie canal that is a double lock.  Boats have to be raised or lowered through two locks to get through.  

 Lake Ontario

After that we headed to the Buffalo airport.  Las Vegas and St. George here we come!