Family Vacation to Seneca Lake!

We had so much fun a few weeks ago in Seneca Lake! Grandma (Barbara) is originally from Odessa, NY (near Watkins Glen) so we decided to visit her old childhood vacation spot, Seneca Lake. It was a blast and we got the best weather that area can report! Very lucky.



Lily had so many playmates all week and they did not hold back on attention. Daddy's cousin, Kristin, her husband Paul and kids Spencer, Matthew and Carley, had a house right next to ours. They were so great and played with her all weekend.


Aunt Sarah is making a movie on her cool vintage camera so here is Kristin leading the kids in some signs to include for the "credits" of the movie (with Paul playing wii in the background.)

Below is the whole family at the Seneca Lake Lodge. This is a very special place to the family as it was once the hangout of Uncle Larry (RIP). I think he would support the bunny ears to Uncle Peter. You can't see it but Peter was doing the same to Spencer. Before we ate, Lily and Carley played with Grandma at a playground while the rest of us went for a hike up to meet them at the lodge. Easy hike and great views!

This is Montour Falls where we hiked which is between Watkins and Odessa. Lily's new favorite word is "waterfall, waterfall, waterfall, waterfall..." and so on. Grandpa Skip seemed to notice that Lily likes the word waterfall. Grandma is now showing Lily one of her old stomping grounds when she was a kid.

The campfire is probably the best thing about staying on a lake and chillin'. Lily only made it to one of these, which is not related to it being the best thing, so we had her stay up one night and start it a bit earlier. She loved it.

This is her first marshmellow. She actually took enough bites to spread it all over her face but, otherwise, didn't care for it.

Paddle Boat!

The deck, scary for Mom and Dad when she is walking on it, near it and most especially RUNNING on it, was pretty awesome.
Grandma and Papa (Burke with "fish" as Lily calls them) showed up for a night and we all got some bonding time.

Ahhhh, lake.

To see more pictures, go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mwbowers/June2009HalpernBowersGriswoldVacation?authkey=Gv1sRgCMONypOanNyZPA&feat=directlink

Happy 4th of July Long Weekend-Sunday!

BASEBALL!!!!!!!!
Lily went to her first game of the season today and wore her pink boa and pink sunglasses, of course. The crossing guard that helped us across the street said "Hey Hollywood!" which really cracked Mommy up.

Lily kept yelling "Yeah, Baseball!" and "Yeah, ruuuuuun" no matter which team was at bat. I am sure Daddy will teach her the rules of the game as she gets older.
Of course, she mostly ran from the area we were standing back to the above garbage can and back again but we did get a few moments of her watching the game....
Erik, Marigold and Marin met us at the game. Marin is one happy baby, for sure. Not to mention gorgeous! Then Lily was so exhausted she slept on the couch, which she NEVER does. It was so cute and looked so comfortable that Mommy later joined her.
To sum up this series of events, 4th of July weekend was one of the best in my memory. Lots of fun and lots of relaxing. Many of the pictures of the relaxing are not shown as those are boring. ( :

Happy 4th of July Long Weekend-Saturday(NIGHT)!

We went to Grandma's house to watch the fireworks (or as Lily calls them, "firewooks") and had a great time. The view is perfect without the annoying people traffic. Lily stayed up until 10PM and was AWESOME the whole time. Had lots of friends to play with so it worked out great.

Her friend Alex(ander) and mommy Valerie below. They move to Belgium this week and we are sad to see our good neighbors leave. Oh well, all the more reason to go to Belgium! ( :
"FireWOOKS!!!!!!!" is what she kept yelling over and over. Oh and the carrot on her face was from her friend Marie.


Its actually quite hard to get a picture of the firewooks.

RUNNING!!! So much fun! (Please note the dress Lily is wearing along with her doll that Marie is carrying.)


Marie wanted to get on Mike's shoulders. What choice did he have, do you see that beauty!??
Oh and weirdo Adrian in the picture. ( :


Good times!!!

Happy 4th of July Long Weekend-Saturday(DAY)!

We started out our 4th of July Saturday by hanging on our deck and playing lots of ball and chase. She loves chase. Mommies favorite is when she can just sit and point where Lily should run to...as IF she were being chased. Ahh, that Mommy sure is lazy.

Here are two pictures of our delicious lunch which was lobstah bisque from leftovers from the previous night's seafood boil.

and a close up of the delicious bisque!

Lily anxiously awaiting her cupcake and looking as cute as ever....

Then eating with her face..look Mommy, no hands!

Happy 4th of July Long Weekend-Friday!

We started by enjoying our nice day off with some fun around the house and celebrated Erin Engle's birthday with a seafood boil! Delicious!



Getting dirty with the eating...



Ahhh, I wish Mommy had this picture....of HER and Lily.