Rochester Zoo

Last weekend we spent the weekend with the Langes.  Tim helped Jeff to shoot a wedding in Buffalo, so Jaime and I and all of the kids spent the day together.  Since it was a sunny day, we decided to go to the zoo.   We brought a picnic lunch and spent a few hours looking at the animals and playing at the zoo.  All of the kids had a great time!

Jaime was very smart and brought the wagon, so three kiddos rode in that - this time it was Bridgette, Abby and Cameron's turn

A lot of the team, Leah got stuck in the stroller.  She didn't mind too much (yea right!)

All four kiddos in the tunnel to the wolf (?) viewing area.  Leah didn't get farther than the entrance to the tunnel, she just wasn't quite brave enough to follow the other kids down to the end yet.

Looking at sea lions!  Cam and Leah both LOVED this, especially when the sea lions swam by

Cameron and Abby peeking for sea lions

 Cam hanging out with a slightly creepy looking stuffed polar bear.  Leah wouldn't get within five feet of these stuffed animals, they scared her too much!

 Cameron, Bridgette and Abby with the polar bears

Cam and Leah, my little penguins

There was a neat playground with animal musical instruments like this one.  Leah liked banging on the alligator xylophone

So did Cam!

Cameron the turtle

 Cam and Abby are a two-headed turtle, and Bridgette is riding the two-headed turtle.  Don't ask... coming up with this story meant they didn't argue about whose turn it was to be in the turtle shell!

 I was trying to get Leah to look out of the hole and be a butterfly.  Instead she came around the side and yelled, "Peek-boo!"

Cameron knew what to do (well, sort of... he still hasn't figured out that you aren't supposed to put your hands through the hole!)

Since we brought a picnic lunch, we let the kids get ice cream.  Leah was VERY happy to go to town on her ice cream bar.

 Cam and Bridgette

 Hello there messy baby

After ice cream, we let them play on the playground.  There is a giant spiderweb the kids can climb on. Leah couldn't really climb, but she sure could shake the rope up and down!

And she could climb!  I showed her one time how to climb up this rock climbing wall and after that she got it every time on her own.  Smart little monkey!

Cam, Leah and Bridgette.  Abby decided to brave the rather chilly weather and play in the water feature.  The other kids chose to keep playing on the playground.

Leah loved running back and forth through this tunnel.

What a cutie pie, I love her smile behind the schnuli

Cam climbing on the spider web

We also saw lots of great animals, but they are not nearly as fun to take pictures of.  The kids had so much fun together, I love to see how well they all get along.  We are looking forward to going to the Oktoberfest with them this coming weekend!

Ginia and Aaron's Wedding

We spent the Sunday of Labor Day weekend in the Adirondacks at Ginia and Aaron's wedding.  The wedding itself was at the Big Moose Chapel, followed by a reception at The Woods Inn.  We also stayed at the Woods Inn and it was very nice.  The ceremony was very nice, and the reception was relaxed and a lot of fun.  The weather report was for rain in the evening, but we were lucky enough to only get a few sprinkles and otherwise perfect weather.  It was a very fun day!

Cameron "reading" the hymnal before the ceremony started

The ceremony starts... Mrs. Nelson being escorted in by two of her son-in-laws, Dallas and Brian

Cam continues to read - at this point he was very quietly repeating the words that they were saying during the ceremony.  It was very cute.  We also thought he looked adorable in his little blazer!

Time for the bridesmaids - here is Meredith (Ginia's younger sister)

And Liz (Ginia's older sister)

And here comes the bride with her dad

Mrs. Nelson did a reading; she had trouble getting through it without crying

Ginia and Aaron saying their vows

The kiss!

After the ceremony - Leah and Poppa being silly together

Cutie pie Leah

Tim was trying to get her to smell the flowers or pose near the flowers or something... all she wanted to do was eat her snacks in her snack cup

Wide angle shot of the church

Mr. Cameron, looking very serious

Miss Leah in her pretty dress.  I love the way her hair curls up in the back!

Hello cutie pie!

Two adorable kiddos.  Incidentally, this is one in a series of about 30 pictures, trying to get both kids to look at the camera and smile at the same time.

Poppa and Cameron checking out Big Moose Lake

He is getting so big!

Aaron, the groom, hand made this entire canoe.  It was amazingly gorgeous

The bride playing badminton

They also had croquet set up, which Cameron LOVED

View of Fourth Lake from the Woods Inn

Cameron, Poppa and Leah playing croquet

 I don't know who thought it was a good idea to give Leah a croquet mallet... she certainly had fun with it though!

 After croquet Cam played some badminton with Nana

Poppa gave him a hand!

Taking a rest after some serious dancing

We also played horseshoes, did some dancing and ate some delicious picnic-style food.  After dinner there was an Adirondack story teller, who was great.  Cameron especially enjoyed that.  Leah, having only taken a quick nap, was not at all interested in sitting still and listening to anything.  Nana and Mama took turns keeping her occupied away from the storyteller so she didn't disturb anyone!  After the storyteller there was a big campfire and we got to make s'mores.  It was a very fun wedding - Congrats to Ginia and Aaron!

NY Fair with the Borsts

The last weekend in August, the Borsts came up to visit. Cameron and Leah were very excited to have Jack and Ella here to play with. Once the kids were in bed on Friday night, the adults sat out by the fire pit and solved the problems of the world... or at least took care of a few very deserving bottles of wine.

On Saturday morning, Tim's softball team was in a tournament. They were a few players short so Jeff got to play too. The rest of us went to watch their team get crushed by another team. Still fun though. We had some lunch and everyone took a rest before we headed out to the Fair. Getting to the Fair was horrible. What is normally a 20 minute drive took us about 2 hours. It was terrible, I don't even want to type about it and relive it. Needless to say, we will be trying a different tactic next year.

We got to the Fair and it was so CROWDED. Sunday was supposed to be bad weather, so it seemed like everyone who would have gone on Sunday was there on Saturday. We did everything we wanted to though: got our 25 cent milk, saw the sand sculpture, saw all of the animals and ate lots of delicious food. We went home full and happy.

Kim and Jeff decided to leave on Saturday night after we got home from the Fair. Hurricane Irene was bearing down on the East Coast and they were worried about what driving on Sunday would be like. In the end, they definitely made the right decision... but man, what a long day for them!

It was a fun visit, even if it was too short. Here are some pictures.

Leah really loved the milk

After every sip, she asked for more to drink

And followed every sip with a satisfied "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh". It was so cute.

Everyone really liked watching the horse jumping competition

Especially Leah, who made sure to point out the horse every time it went by. She really enjoyed it.

Hi Dada, do you see the horsies?

After the horse show, we headed over to the horse barn to see more horses. Cameron was excited that he got to pet a horse.

Cameron asked me to take this picture. He really liked the fluffy chickens in the cage behind him. They were dyed blue and purple and looked like cotton candy.

Cameron, Jack and Ella

Cameron petting a bunny

Parents vs. Kids Soccer Game

Towards the end of August, Cameron had his last soccer game.  It was a fun game, parents versus kids.  We used a giant soccer ball so that made it even more fun.  Both Tim and I took a turn on the parent team.  Not surprisingly, the kids kept getting the ball away from us and scored a bunch of goals.

My little soccer player

He's a cute one, my Cam  :)

And of course, the cutest spectator ever!  Actually, she was not really interested in watching the game.  She mainly wanted to drink water out of Cam's water bottle and try to get in the middle of the action.

 Before the game started, everyone stretched out.

Cam was the first goalie.  He LOVES being goalie.  He actually had a couple good blocks, including taking the giant ball right in the face!  He took it like a man though and was proud to have stopped the parents.

Cam and Mama going for the ball - can you guess who got it?

The kids loved bouncing on the ball almost as much as they loved kicking it.

After the game was over, there was a pizza party.  Cam does not love pizza, so he only ate a bit. Leah, on the other hand, chowed down and ate a couple pieces.  As you can see, she isn't shy about digging in.

First she ate all the cheese off, then she ate the pizza sideways.  She was a complete mess at the end, but she was a happy, full baby.

This was the best picture we got of Cameron with his medal.  He was pretty grumpy by the end of the pizza party and did not want a picture of him in uniform with his medal.  Instead, he allowed us to take a picture of him with his cookie.  :-P

It was a great soccer season.  We were very proud of how well Cameron did, he really improved every week.  He was able to score goals all season with no problem, but by the end of the season he was passing to his teammates and helping them to score goals.  That made us very proud!  He is also a very good goalie and isn't afraid to get in front of the ball.  We are looking forward to the next soccer season.