Sunday, February 24, 2008

Nightlife and Last Day.... #3

We bundled everyone up and headed out to view the town. Our hotel was in the Clifton Hill area which is very touristy with tons of lights and attractions. This is a picture Carrie took of the Skywheel and some shops.



We walked down to the bottom of the hill. This brought us to the Niagara River facing the American falls in it's lit up splendor.



Walking back UP the hill was a killer. Sean weighs a ton! I had him wrapped inside my coat with me to keep him warm (I was wishing I had a sling about then). Danielle rode in the stroller. After buying some fudge Tom and I decided to take the little kids back to the hotel and take them swimming before bed. The older kids decided to explore a bit more. One of the places they visited was the Hershey store. The storefront is a huge Hershey bar. Here's Carl and Val fooling around with a Hershey Kiss...



And Michelle getting a pet from him....



The last morning we checked out at 11. Drew had to give the van a jumpstart since the back door hadn't shut all the way (latch is touchy). The inside lights being on for 2 days killed the battery. We got the van going and headed down the Horseshoe Falls parking area. Here's the beauty before it was shattered...

The river/rapids above the falls...



The brink of the falls...



Everything gets covered in ice because of the mist....



The only picture I could find of Jake (includes Eileen and half of Tom lol)...



Here's a picture of both falls on the way out of town (American side to the left, Canadian side in the center)...



And everyone exhausted on the way home...



Since we didn't end up spending any money (besides buying the fudge) we decided we'd order Pizza and wings and pick them up on the way through the village. It was GREAT not having to make dinner! When we pulled into the driveway we found something attached to our storm door. It was a HUGE green and gold ALOHA sign. We're not sure where it came from but was hilarious to come home to.

The really neat thing....on the way home from dropping Carl off Val says to me...that was the BEST vacation I've ever had. Considering what she'd been through that day and she'd been on Carrie's Make a Wish trip to Florida/Orlando for 10 days....that's an awesome statement. Money well spent IMO.

For those accessing my blog from this post directly...check out my other Niagara Falls posts and pictures...

Fallsview Waterpark...#2
Now Onto the Fun Stuff...#1
Thanks for linking to me Access Niagara

Fallsview Waterpark...#2

Walking into the place was suffocating at first. The temperature was a very humid 86 degrees (fahrenheit). We went to the front desk and had our bracelets put on. It allowed us entry to the park all that day and until 3pm the following day. We rented a family size locker (yeah right! we could've used 3 of them) and went to change our clothes.

The place is AWESOME!!!! There are 4 main areas...

The Tot splash area...


Interesting tidbit but probably TMI...Danielle ended up causing the tot area to be closed down on the first night. She'd gone down the little yellow slide shown on the right with a poopy swim diaper. They had to sanitize it and keep it closed for so long.

The Beach clubhouse...



The wave pool and slide area...



Everyone had a great time although Danielle needed a bit of encouragement at first. Here's Liz and Allison trying to psych Danielle up to go play...



Her favorite spot was sitting on the end of mom's lounge chair. Usually she was people watching (just like her mom)



Eileen and Olivia were going nonstop. Here they are in the wave pool...



The clubhouse had a huge bucket on the roof. As it got full of water it would start clanging. Then this would happen...



Resulting in this...


That's Michelle, Allison and Liz getting drenched.

Here's Luke and Drew relaxing for a bit...


Jake was almost impossible to get a picture of because he was on the go constantly.

Liz and Carrie showing just how much fun they are having....



I know I already showed off Sean in the water but he's just too cute to not share again. Here's him and Olivia in the tot section....



We stayed at the park until 3 the 2nd day. As we were leaving it was announced that the wave pool and slides were closed. Seems someone either got sick or pooped in the wave pool. Both sections share the same water supply. I'm not sure how long they were closed down for. It made me glad that Danielle only affected the little tot section. LOL We headed back to our hotel room and ate dinner which was cooked shrimp with cocktail sauce, seafood salad on pita bread, veggies and dip and cheez-its. (so solved the lent/meat dilemma)

The next post will be our night and the last day of our vacation.

Now onto the fun stuff.... #1

I have over 20 pictures to share so I'm breaking the trip up into a few posts.


As it usually goes I left too much to do until the end. I was forced into bed at 4am when Sean started crying for me. There was lots of discussion about what time to leave. Opinions ran anywhere from 6 - 10am. Knowing that people would want to shower before we left I thought getting out the door at 10 would be doing well. We rolled out of bed somewhere between 7:30 and 8 and we were pulling out of the driveway by 10:30...not too shabby.

On our way....



We got to our hotel about 1:40. Our hotel rooms (we had 3 of them) were ready. We went up, settled in and had lunch. Here's the view from our rooms...



The pool wasn't too big but with the waterpark package it didn't matter so much. On the 2nd night a little boy walking along the hot tub seats knocked Danielle into the tub and underwater. When I realized that she wasn't suppose to be underwater I grabbed her arm and pulled her out, sputtering and crying. She was ok but scared. I took her into the sauna to keep warm while I dried her off for the night.

After everyone had enough lunch we headed across the street to the waterpark. This picture was taken on the way OUT of the park, but oh well. The park's built on the roof of the casino's hotel. That hooded figure is Allison.



Next post is the waterpark.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

I couldn't leave things as they were

I just couldn't leave the last post as a first post on my blog....it's too sad. So I'm showing off my waterbaby. Sean LOVED the waterpark. He's always liked water but I never realized how much until yesterday. I put him in the tot section of the park and he played and played. We finally took him out after he was in there for an hour and a half. He splashed, he tried to catch bubbles, he laid on his belly and put his face in the water. The rocking you see him do is what he does when he's really happy. (it's also how he dances). I apologize to my friends on dial-up. I know videos are a PIYA for you. I promise not post them very often.

Tragedy mars our GREAT vacation

First let me say that everyone arrived home safe and sound. Secondly let me warn...the next story is disturbing. I have to start at the end of our vacation for a few reasons. I need to get it off my chest and stop thinking about it. I also want to get it over and done with since it really does distract me from the rest of what was a wonderful vacation for everyone.

We checked out of our hotel at 11 and headed to see the falls. We had visited it the night before and saw it lit up but the kids wanted to see it upclose during the day. Here's a pic I took with Olivia's camera to show just how close we got to it. The blob on the left is the ice covered railing.



When we first got there we debated on whether to get some hot cocoa at Tim Horton's or to wait until we were ready to leave. The line was pretty long so we decided to go outside first. Michelle, Val, Carl (Val's boyfriend) and Carrie were already in line so opted for the hot cocoa first.

We went out and enjoyed the beautiful view. It was a pretty nice day but still cold. As Michelle, Val, Carl and Carrie came out Danielle started complaining her finger was ouchie. Checking it out I realized that it was FREEZING! So I asked Tom if we could go in and get the hot cocoa now...he agreed so in we went. Tom, Drew, Luke and Jake went into Tim Horton's while the rest of us waited in the center of the "mall".

Tom was about to order when the other kids came into the mall. Val walks up to me and says...MOM! We just saw a man go over the falls!!! WHAT!?!?!? You're kidding right? No mom really! Looking at her face I realized she wasn't kidding me. She was shaking like a leaf. I ran into TH and told Tom then I went outside to see if they were mistaken. The police were pulling up and walked with me to where the crowd was gathered. The officer asked if anyone had any pictures. I went inside to ask the girls and check the cameras. We didn't have anything that would interest the police.

Val said she was standing near the brink of the falls (about where I took the picture) and saw a man in a leather coat swimming underwater with the current. Everyone was shouting NO! NO! He came up and then went back down again to swim some more. When he came up again he shouted something. Val thinks it was something along the lines of....Don't worry and I'm ok (I think). He then went over the edge of the falls. Val said at that moment EVERYONE went silent. Older ladies next to her started crying.

I found a newspaper report about it on Sun the 24th.

At first I was upset that someone would do that. Then I was angry! How dare he ruin this experience for all those people!!! How dare he be so selfish as to mess up a huge group of people. I'm just so thankful we decided to go inside when we did. The little kids are having a hard enough time understanding this (not that anyone really can understand it). I couldn't imagine if they'd actually seen it. Val said she looked around after it happened and noticed that there were no little kids around. Thank God for that. On the way home everyone was pretty somber. I found myself starting to cry on and off. I cried for my kids. To have to live with that scene in their head for the rest of their life. To not be able to look at or talk about Niagara Falls without thinking of that horrible instant.

I keep looking at the 4 kids, wondering if they are ok. Wondering if/how this will effect them. Carrie has me worried. She hasn't really said anything about this. I did tell her I'd call school on Mon and tell Ms S what happened. She seemed to like that idea. I reminded her that if she wanted to talk about it she could talk to me or to Ms S.

We really did have a good vacation otherwise. I took quite a few pics of the waterpark including an adorable video of Sean the waterbaby. :o) Everyone wants to get on the computer to update their various pages. I hope to have a more upbeat and picture heavy post up by tomorrow night.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

A little housekeeping

I've been wanting to update my blog for some time now. It's nice to get it done and off my mind. It's amazing how much energy a thought can suck out of you. Makes me want to dust off and revamp my food blog now. It's always something.

The girls have recouperated well from the flu. I know my sister's youngest ended up with it too. I'm not sure how her other two girls fared. Sean seems to have avoided getting it (unless this is what he had while admitted to the hospital...but he tested neg for influenza). I've been fighting something in my chest. While it's irritating it hasn't gone into something that slows me down. Unfortunately Luke and Jake are not feeling well now (as of last night). Nothing like being sick during vacation. What makes it worse is that it's Island Week. What makes it doubly worse is that we reserved 3 hotel rooms in Niagara Falls, Canada for 2 nights, starting on Thurs...including admission into an indoor waterpark. We have my BIL to thank for the trip, he's paying for most of the bill.

This week is our school's mid-winter break. Those of you who've been around here a while will realize what that means....ISLAND WEEK!!! Yep, it's our 4th annual Island week. This year hasn't been as packed full of plans as past years. I figure actually hanging out in 84degree temperatures in the middle of February is more island like then chicken kabobs (and I might get to making those still. We've been going like gangbusters on decorations though. There's talk of some of them following us to our hotel rooms. lol I'm hoping to have pictures up soon.

We're probably going to bring most of our food (hotel has breakfast covered). I'm thinking we'll probably buy lunch on Thurs and dinner on Fri. I'm a little stuck on what to bring/make (nothing to cook with) for lunch on Friday. It's lent and someone who's going with us is Catholic so that excludes most subs. If anyone has any ideas before tomorrow night when I'll be grocery shopping....leave me a comment and let me know!!!

On Friday I had Val back into the dr's. She'd been nauseated/vomiting and having constant headaches for about 3wks. The dr put her on blood pressure medicine. (listed also as preventing migraines) My first thought was...that's ridiculous!!!! But then thinking back, it makes sense. Her pressure has been high for a while now. We've always given excuses why it was up....she was in pain, she was sick, etc. There's no excuse now and it's still the same. Monday she had a GYN visit and they just as shocked to hear what meds she was taking. They looked back at her July visit though and yep, her pressure was up even then. Amazingly she hasn't had a headache since the day after starting her med. So she's happy. She'd due back to the dr on March 11th when I bring Sean in for his next well child check. By then Val will be a legal adult since her birthday is the 9th. :o)

Sean is growing so quickly. His first tooth made an appearance last week. (Can I just say...OUCH!!!) His newest trick happens while he's sitting on the floor, which he loves to do. He takes both his hands, puts them betweens his legs and pushes himself backwards across the floor. It's adorable! He hasn't figured out that he can get places by doing it but it's still helping him get into things. Might not be what he intended to get into (aiming for somewhere in front of him) but it works nonetheless. I'm still not finding much time with my hands free. Seems he loves sleeping in my arms or on my lap. Not so in our bed. As soon as I try to lay him down he's done! My typing skills don't fare too well with him awake since nothing is safe if it's within an arm or leg's distance from him. (hard to type on a flying keyboard lol) As a matter of fact, he just woke up and is "telling" me to wrap up my time here.

I hope to have lots of good and fun things to share about our trip over the border when I get back...including pictures.

Friday, February 08, 2008

I spoke too soon

Last post I mentioned "Nothing huge like the flu (yet) but there's always something going around to keep these guys feeling off." Well guess what....we have the flu going around. Olivia's been sick since Sunday, Eileen since Monday and Danielle since Tuesday. That's why I'm up at this horrendous hour...Danielle was having a fever induced tantrum. She wanted to be held, but not held. She wanted covers but not her princess covers. She wanted to lay down but not like that! The commotion woke up Sean who also started crying. Tom decided to let us have the bed and went out onto the couch. Danielle decided she wanted to be on the couch so Sean, Danielle and I kicked Tom off and sent him back to bed. After an hour of being juggled around Danielle eventually started snoring again and Sean nursed himself back to sleep. Yet here I sit...exhausted but unable to find the Land of Nod. It's going to be a loooong day tomorrow. Luckily I had already decided to keep Olivia and Eileen home from school this morning, even if they felt well. Why send them back for one day and let them get exhausted and exposed to something else. This way they'll have the weekend to recoup even more. (They're still complaining on and off that they don't feel good)

I'm hoping that Sean and I can avoid coming down with this. I have to call my sister and see how her girls are doing. Yes, her girls were here when Olivia came down sick on Sunday. I'd feel guilty except there is NO way I could know this was coming on. I may regret saying this but generally it's a fairly easy flu to be dealing with. Pretty much just high fevers, a headache along with a few muscle aches and a cough for some. (Danielle hasn't started that part yet). The sick ones spend most of the time on the couch or on my lap. It's also done the classic flu thing where they feel well for a day or two and then get hit with it all again.

Hopefully everyone will be done with this by the time midwinter break and our annual Island Week comes around. I'm not sure exactly which day we'll start but the break is from the 16th to the 24th. Tom's already making lists and planning the decorations. I have a few ideas for food in my head. Danielle and Tom were making a guest list. I guess the whole universe is going to be here according to them. lol

I probably should cut this short and climb onto the couch with the little ones. Val will be getting up for school shortly. (she gets up earliest so she can shower without a hassle) I'm thinking Luke and Jake may try to stay home today since they were complaining they didn't feel good last night already. Maybe I'll call Drew and see if he'll drive Michelle to work for me (needs to be there by 10am). With only an hour or two of sleep under my belt I'm not a safe candidate for the job.