Thanksgiving

Jim and I hosted Thanksgiving this year and we had 26 guests join us for Turkey and all the trimmings.It was a nice day with cooperative weather and a good time was had by all.

Jennifer Ends 2014 Race Season With A Half-Marathon

What a year for races. Started the year with the 10 mile Mountain Goat, then Green Lakes sprint tri, Oswego Intermediate tri, Aquabike at Musselman, Delta Lake Intermediate tri, the I'm All That at the Skan Races (Skinnyman sprint tri, Escape From the Judge swim, 5K road race) and the finale of this epic year was today - the Empire State Half Marathon. Cold and windy but finished in 2:50. Now, time for a break before winter tri training begins

Air Show-Cleveland, Ohio Sunday-August 31st

Today Jim, Cathy, Josh and josh's friend Georgio attended the Cleveland Air Show. It was a beautiful sunny day and the demonstrations were awesome.

A Weekend With Addy-August 24th and 25th

Jeremy and Emily are going to rent a table at the Colton Flea Market tomorrow and they have to leave home about 5am to get there and set up so Jim and I took Addy for an overnight. It is always such fun to have her visit. The last time she was here we had some homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies and she thought they were the best. When she got her Saturday she asked for a cookie so Jim offered her some Animal Crackers But she wasn't interested. We showed her that the cookie jar was empty but she still insisted she wanted a cookie. Jim remembered he had a small package of Chips Ahoy so he offered those and then she was happy. The moral of this story is to always have some homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies on hand.

A Day At The NY State Fair-August 22nd

Today Jim, Jim and Josh picked up Jennifer and they spent the day at the Fair. It was a little rainy when they first arrived but soon cleared up and made way for a very pleasent day with moderate temperatures and minimal crowds. There were quite a few new things to see this year as well as the old favorites. Josh said he had an awesome day and everyone came home tired but happy.

Addy Comes to Visit

On Wednesday, August 13th Jennifer picked up Addy in the morning and brought her to the house to stay overnight. She seemed to have a lot of fun . They went to the beach for awhile and there were great waves. She also played outside here and had fun with Josh.

Jennifer Takes Josh To NYC

Jennifer took Josh to NYC on Saturday, August 16th. She took Chris when he turned 14 and this year it was Josh's turn. They got on the bus in Syracuse at 6:15am and returned home about 1am on sunday. Jim went along with them also. They had a long day of sightseeing including Rockefeller Center, The 911 Memorial and a ride on the Staten Island Ferry s they could get a close up look at the Statue of Liberty. Josh said he had an "awesome" day.

Skeet Shooting

While Jim was here last week he, Josh and Jim did some skeet shooting. They always have a lot of fun ding this.

Chris Graduates From Fire School-July 12, 2014

Jim and I drove to Cleveland on Thursday to begin our adventure -a trip out west by train . We leave for the train trip on Sunday but before that we traveled to Hocking, Ohio to see Chris graduate from Fire School. We were up and on the road at 5:30am as it is a 4 hour drive from Hiram to Hocking. We arrived about 9:30 and made our way into the auditorium for the 10am ceremony. It was a nice event with a few short speeches, the handing out of certificates and then a short slide show showing some of the different scenerios the cadets had to go through. The hardest for Chris was repeling as he doesn't like heights. but he did it! After the ceremony we headed back to Hiram and arrived home around 4pm. Now we rest awhile before heading to the train station in downtown Cleveland at 1am to boardthe 3am train to Chicago. Let the adventure begin.

Amtrak "Empire Builder" Westbound

 

 

A few weeks ago, we embarked on an "epic" (according to my Dad) journey out to Washington State and back. We used Amtrak as our mode of transportation this time around. On previous trips, we had flown and drove cross country.

Our big observation about Amtrak is not to use them if you absolutely have to be somewhere at a certain time. Amtrak schedules usually state that trains run from several hours to occasionally a day or so late. This is due to the infrastructure of the railroad, freight cars being given priority, and the usual maintenance issues that may come up.

We left Cleveland on Sunday morning, about a half hour late on the onset. This turned into a 5 hour deficit due to track maintenance in Gary, Indiana. We made it into Chicago and our connection by about an hour (it should have been several hours). After a short stay in the lounge, we were off on the 2nd leg of our journey to Seattle. We had reserved sleeper cars, so this part of the trip included first class accommodations with meals and other services. The food was great, samples are posted.

One thing about your trip in a sleeper car, your porter can make/break your trip. My parents had a great porter, but ours was more along for the ride than to assist travelers.

Amazingly, we arrived into Seattle only 1/2 hour late. We were able to get our rental car and arrive on Friday Harbor several hours earlier than we expected.

Jim and Josh Visit New York

 Last week Jim and Josh cae to spend a week with us. They arrived on Monday and returned home last Sunday. On Tuesday we went shopping in Syracuse for garden plants ( my Mother's day gift and Birthday gift from Jim and Cathy) and Jim bought three Holly Berry bushes to put out front. That evening we went to Watertown to have dinner with my Mom. Wednesday rained all day so we just lazed around the house. On Thursday Jim and Jim pulled out the old Mock Orange bushes from the front of the house and then spent the whold day planting new bushes, perenials in my garden and cleaning up all the landscaping and putting down new mulch.Thursday night Jim went to Brewerton to have dinner with a high school friend while Josh stayed here and kept us company. On Friday Jennifer came and brought Addy with her to spend the day and stay over-night. They all did some shooting and Jim had some fun with his Drone he got for his Birthday. Addy played out on the playyard and took a long afternoon nap. On Saturday all the kids came for lunch and we celebrated Josh's 14th Birthday that is coming up soon. I think they had a good week- and the weather was pretty good.

Jennifer Does A Triatalon At Green Lakes

On Saturday, June 7th Jennifer did another Triatalon at Green Lakes State Park. She called this one " just a sprint" and it involved a 1/2 mile swim, 13 mile bike ride and 3 mile run. Jim and I went to Green Lakes to watch her and after we went to her house for lunch and Jim helped her with some home repairs she needed.

Josh Wins Multiple Awards At School

Tonight, Joshua received several awards in tonight's ceremony. This included:

Student of the Month - September
Caring Student Award
Merit Roll for this school year
Presidential Achievement Award for studies this year.

Jennifer Rides the Syracuse Triathlon Bike Course

AAA is projecting that 36.1 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles during the Memorial Day holiday. Does that count bike rides? If so then I am one of those millions. Rode the Syracuse 70.3 triathlon bike course this morning which is 56 miles. Made it through without any bike issues and I could still walk when I finished. That is the longest I have ridden so far this year.

Independance Fire Dept. Open House

This year marks the Bicentennial Year for the City of Independence, as well as the 20th anniversary of the FD being in the current building.

Today, the city and FD hosted an open house which featured a re-enactment of the signing of Independence's charter at City Hall. At the FD, we had various activities including showcasing the new truck, a spray trailer, a smoke trailer, food, shirts for sale, and as a grand finale - an extrication demo.

I'd guess we had a little over 200 attendees, and if the weather cooperated a bit more, we could have easily doubled that number.

Chris suited up as Sparky and entertained the kids.
 

A Day With Aunt Jennifer

Yesterday Jennifer entertained Addy while Jeremy and Emily checked out some sales at the annual Bayberry Community Yard Sale. She had quite a busy day with swimming, feeding the Geese and Ice Cream as well as some time at Aunt Jennifer's playing with the toys and using sidewalk chalk.No wonder she fell asleep on the way home.