Our Return to WNY

 I am sitting here in Williamsville, NY on our last night before we return to Oklahoma. We have been here since Friday and have had a wonderful time! You may remember our last trip that I blogged about here. Our purpose for this trip was to drive thru more towns than last time, do a couple touristy things, and to talk to a local realtor about our plan. We were successful in all things and are sad to see our visit come to an end.

Saturday we had planned on going to Niagara Falls in the morning but it was rainy so instead we headed east to drive thru small towns east of Lockport including Gasport, Middleport, and Medina. This is downtown Medina here...

I'm not sure of the town but from there we headed north toward Lake Ontario and found this little park overlooking the water....

From there we headed west along the highway past several old farmhouses and corn fields. We returned to a favorite town from last time--Olcott--and got to see their summer carnival in full swing! This town is precious is we will be visiting it frequently when we move.

We continued west along the coast and headed toward Niagara Falls because the rain had cleared! We parked and headed to the falls. We saw the falls last time but several walkout points were roped off due to snow. This time we got to ride the Maid of the Mist boat that goes right up to both falls. It was amazing!

After we finished with that, we headed back to the Rainbow Bridge for our walk to Canada. We had already eaten lunch in Olcott but we worked up a sweat with all of our climbing so we decided to share a banana split and enjoy the view of America from the other side.

Today we had an appt. to meet the realtor at 3:30pm and planned a couple of things before then. First on the agenda was to check out the Underground Cave/Boat Tour in Lockport. We got to go inside the old canals of the Erie Canal that were built in the early 1800s.

After this excursion we grabbed lunch then met with our realtor at his office in Lockport. We chatted about several things involved with relocation and he seems to be a very good source when the time comes! He drove us to go thru this 150yr old Victorian house, then took us on a tour of the town!

We intended to have dinner south of Buffalo in West Seneca so we headed in that direction and stopped to see the beaches of Lake Erie. Last time we were here, the beach was covered in ice!

The sun was warm and people were having a blast swimming and flying kites.

This is where we ate at in West Seneca. I got the recommendation from an online forum for the area. We were not disappointed! The ambience was romantic, and the food was wonderful.

We are sad to be leaving, but this second trip here just reaffirms our desire to move to this area. The people are very nice, the houses are beautiful, the towns are quiet and laid back, the weather is perfect. I look around and I just think about how I can't wait to have family visit so that I can show them all of the neat places we have found! I know Brad will love it and there are so many family-friendly things to do. Stay tuned for the next step!

Enjoying our Saturday

 This is one of my rare weekends off so we planned a big cookout and pool party! It was also partially a let's-celebrate-the-finished-deck party. I made sliders, hotdogs, baked beans, fruit, chips, and my mom brought potato salad. I got the idea for the watermelon from--where else?--Pinterest!

They are little flowers! Too cute.

Brad has been doing very well swimming alone with his arm floaties this summer! He has been using them for a few weeks now and is very confident in the water. I had water in the baby pool for the smaller guests, but Brad wanted to chill in it for a bit too.

I was getting some Vitamin D when Brad decided to put his chair on top of me and then sit in it....

We had a great time with friends and family today. There is no better way to beat the heat than with a pool! We were out there for several hours and had a blast.

Ding Dong the Deck is Done!

 We actually finished it on Saturday but I have been too busy to post pics until now! Do you remember this picture from when we ripped out the bad wood?

...then we replaced that half and some boards on the other....

....and we finally finished painting the ENTIRE thing! It took forever (and 5 gallons of deck paint) but we got it done and it was so worth it!

I'm glad we finished Saturday because we got a little bit of rain on Sunday. The color is great and contrasts well with the green of the trees and the light colored brick of the house. The new wood blends perfectly with the old wood and you can't tell the two apart! 

I will be building some simple bench seating soon and that will get painted to match. We are having a big cookout and pool party on Saturday to show off our hard work! I'm sure we saved at least $1500 by doing it ourselves.

In other news, only 2 1/2 more weeks until we return to western NY! I have been talking to a realtor to arrange for a meeting and possibly some showings while we are in town.

I went to check our local YMCA on Sunday. I took Brad and he got to play in the nursery while I tried out a few machines in the fitness room. When I was done I picked up Brad then grabbed the list of classes that are available. I think the first one I will try is the 25 minute abs class, then I really want to do the hour long Zumba class!

Independence Day Celebrations

 I hope all of my friends and family had a wonderful July 4th with their favorite people! Every year we have a tradition of going to my dad's acreage in Tuttle for burgers and fireworks. My brother Eric usually tries to meet us out there. My dad just bought a new grill so we got to break it in for him! The food was great, the shade was nice, and my brother and SIL got there just in time to join us.

We had each gotten our own set of fireworks to blow so when it got dark shortly after 9pm we got the show started! Unfortunately most of the ones that my brother lit malfunctioned in some way and started some scary grass fires in my dad's field! All of the guys snapped into firefighter mode and thankfully got them put out before things got out of control. This happened several times so we were worn out by the end of the night! Finally around midnight we decided to just save the leftovers for next year.

My little one had a fun time watching all of the craziness (even when we had to grab him and hide behind the cars!) and running in the field.

It was really neat watching the full moon rise on the horizon a deep red next to the fireworks!

We all had a fun time with each other and I made dessert for everyone after we got trash cleaned up outside. This is one of our favorite holidays!

Fun at the Circus!

Last night our family went to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus downtown! It was Brad's first one and I think he had a blast. The show was almost 3 hours long and the performers were amazing.

The snacks and souvenirs were VERY expensive there, so instead we went to Braum's afterward for ice cream! I also got several video clips of the really good tricks, like a man on fire shooting across the arena!

July is already here, and Wednesday will be the 4th. Right now it looks like we are going to my dad's house for burgers and fireworks like every year. Here are my patriotic nails that I did!