Springtime brought some warmer weather, just in time to release Emma's butterflies.

We held a funeral for the butterfly who didn't make it. Joe ended up with a nasty case of poison ivy from the woods behind our house.

Spring beauty

Niagara Falls, part 2

The next morning, the weather was better, relatively speaking, so we went to the falls and walked all around. It was really neat to see. I am glad we caught it that morning, because it was the best weather of our trip.

We drove up to Fort Niagara for a picnic lunch before touring the fort. It was a huge park, along a large river, and had tons of picnic tables and pavilions. Amazingly enough, we were the only people having a picnic in the cold rain!

After lunch, we headed to the fort and toured it. I had no idea of its strategic importance during the days when river transport was dominant. The fort changed hands between the French, British, and Americans several times over the years.

We ate dinnter at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was over priced, and the food was just okay, but the memoribilia was neat, especially for the boys.

We went back to the falls after dark, when they light it up. The pictures were all blurry, but it was beautiful in person.

The next morning, with snow flying in the air, we headed back to Chardon. We need to make another trip back when the Maid of the Mist is open!

Niagara Falls, part 1

So, for spring break, just after Katie broke her arm, we headed for Niagara Falls. We figured we needed to see it before potentially moving away from the area. Thank goodness we didn't camp like Joe was talking about at first! It was way too cold and wet for that! We used Mariott points and stayed at a great hotel in Rochester. I had heard that the Canadian side of things is nicer, but since I don't have a current passport, we couldn't cross the border. What people should have said is that the US side, other than the park itself, is a total dump. Quite shocking, really. We wouldn't have wanted to stay in any of the hotels right by the park. Anyway, the weather went from warm and sunny when we left home to cold, wet, and foggy within the 2 hours or so it took us to get there. We checked out the visitor's center, and what view of the falls we could see. It was pretty in its own way, but the fog really rolled in after this first picture, to where you couldn't see anything at all.

Joseph and Emma were not dressed for the weather, but had a cute moment together walking back towards the car for our picnic lunch.

After eating our lunch in the car, we looked at the area visitor's guide. It had a museum listed, which was free. Being on a limited budget, anything free was right up our alley. We set off to find it, and drove right past it without realizing what it was. If you click on the picture to zoom in on it, you will see way over on the right side, over the door, it says "Daredevil Museum." It was combined with a bus station and mini mart. Awesome. They actually did have a few cool things like some of the contraptions that people have used to go over the falls. It was good for a laugh anyway.

We decided to call it a day and head to the hotel. The pool hotel was huge (for a hotel), and we spent quite a bit of time there over the several days we were there.

Katie and her "flipper." It worked amazingly well to keep her cast dry!

The Party

Emma invited some friends from school, and they had pizza and watched Kit Kittredge: American Girl. They had a blast!

Emma's baptism

Emma was baptized on March 7. I did a terrible job getting pictures...there aren't any of me with her, or any of lots of the people who came, or the cake in the shape of the number 8 that Mona Pascavage made for her...but here are the pictures I did get. We had a great turn out of members of our branch, and enjoyed celebrating with so many friends. Emma was so excited to reach this milestone!

Emma with her best friend from school, Caitlynn Goodrich



Emma and Daddy right before the baptism

With our wonderful sister missionaries, Sister Schumann and Sister Lee

with Aunt Tammy and her new webkinz!