Brooks Family Reunion Part 3

We made the most of our time while we were all together. It was easy to find motivation to get out of the house with 100 degree weather! We went swimming at Treman, visited the Corning Glass Museum (mostly to have an air conditioned venue) and we even went on a sisters (and husbands) night hike while the grandparents played with Evelyn and Norah in Norah’s air conditioned bedroom. I didn’t take any pictures at any of these events because I was too busy enjoying myself so I’ll have to try to steal some pics from my sisters. I do have this one group shot of all of us before Emily, Mike and Evie had to leave.

We spent our last full day with Ashley, Matt and Natalie at Treman State Park again but this time we did the gorge trail which is stunning. It is a steep hike and 5 1/2 miles round trip and I was a little nervous about doing the whole thing pregnant so Bryan and Matt dropped off a car at the top while the rest of us started hiking. We offered to wait for them but they kept bragging about how they’d catch up (it is probably a 10 min drive one way) and sure enough they did. I think they ran up the trail.

Matt, Bryan, Natalie and Stacy hiked most of the trail in the gorge up and over waterfalls. My dad carried Norah in the back pack.Ashley and I played it safe on the trailI wish I had some pictures of the dramatic Lucifer Falls that this hike leads too. It is really impressive. When we were at the top Ashley, Natalie, Stacy, Norah and I drove down to the swimming hole and my parents, Matt, Bryan, Dean and Lorraine hiked down. They were gone so long we were starting to get nervous. Turns out they hiked almost the entire thing in the water. They went so far down they could hear the diving board at the swimming hole. My poor mom wasn’t in a swimsuit and she was completely soaked. Matt and Bryan said she earned their deepest respect as she scrambled down the waterfalls without the slightest complaint.

Brooks Family Reunion Part 2

Emily, Mike and Evelyn arrived next and we took them to Taghannook Falls and the Museum of Play.

I think I have a picture of every member of my family by this waterfall except Natalie and Taylor now – and Norah is present in almost all of the pictures – albeit in an Ergo carrier in some.The highlight of the Museum of Play was predictably the Wegmans Grocery store. My pictures are terrible but these girls were on the move and there was no posing them.Another big hit was playing with Grandma. She helped the cousins make a fort of pillows in the center of the living room and played endless rounds of duck, duck, goose with them – or a version of it. My mom kept trying to demonstrate how to properly play duck duck goose by demonstrating how you pat heads using stuffed animals and she even tried showing them youtube tutorials on the game but it was to no avail. Evie and Norah instead just chased Grandma around the pillow fort yelling “duck, duck, goose.” They LOVED it and it was hilarious to watch. They were shrieking with laughter. Another favorite game was crawling inside this tunnel and being pulled around by Grandma.We also took Emily, Mike and Evelyn to beautiful Ithaca Falls. Evie and Norah held hands almost the entire timeI kept getting these sun spots in the pictures so I held up my hand to block the sun and then I couldn’t get the girls to stop holding up their hands.

Brooks Family Reunion 2011 Part 1

My family had a reunion this past week in Ithaca. Schedules didn’t line up perfectly so we were only all together at once for 2.5 days but since Bryan and I hosted the reunion here in Ithaca I was able to enjoy an 11 day span of family time. My parents came first so they would have time to recover from jet lag before everyone else arrived. I mostly took advantage of their free baby sitting so I could take care of some errands and packing but we did have some quality Sciencenter, Park and Gorge time.

Here are some photos from a hike we did in Watkins Glen:

Girls trip to the Zoo

Bryan has been pretty tied up with school lately so this past Saturday Norah and I headed up to Syracuse to visit my friend Kari and her two fabulous little girls Bailey and Avery. Kari’s husband is a resident in orthopedic surgery so I can always count on her for some girl time.

L to R: Avery, Bailey and Norah

I can’t believe how fast Bailey is growing up. Kari was pregnant with her at my wedding and now she is a big sister, 5 and headed for kindergarten. Little Avery is still little for pushing 3 but she is growing up too. She has become quite the conversationalist since I saw her in March. It makes me excited about how much Norah will be learning in coming months and seeing these cute girls together makes me so excited to have another little girl:)

Hard to believe that in 4 months Norah will be a big sister with a little sister just like Bailey.

4th of July Weekend

This year we celebrated the 4th of July by going to Canada.  Ha ha, we just went to the Canadian side of Niagara Fallsbut it was a nice little adventure. We went with our friends Stacy and David – David is from New Zealand and apparently a suspicious character so we were stopped by unnecessarily rude border patrol guards on our way home. The rest of us were born in the US of A but were considered suspicious by association and had to explain in the office how we new each other and what we were doing in Canada.  Even Norah was expected to make an appearance despite being sound asleep in her car seat. I am happy to report that the Canadian border patrol guards were professional, polite and welcoming. Just before we pulled up to the booth Norah had been admiring the stamps in her passport. When we handed the passports over to the Canadian official she said “stamp, stamp” and he said “Does Norah want a stamp?” and stamped her passport even though it wasn’t necessary. I thought that was pretty classy. I am so proud to be an American and live in this wonderful country that has the privilege of sharing such a long border with Canada:)And so is Norah!We went on the Maid of the Mist and had a great time. We were struggling with holding on to a very independent Norah until we figured out that she fit snuggly on the cleat for the rope. She had a little ledge to rest her feet and could look out over the edge of the ship. Bryan of course had his hands on her the whole time to make sure she didn’t fall backwards but it really worked out well. She loved it until she started getting soaked. We finished off the day with a stop at Cayuga Creamery for ice cream and some play time on this awesome trainWe celebrated the actual 4th at a branch BBQ. Norah enjoyed the pre party at the park playing with her friends Lincoln and Camilla.

June DC visit

Monday June 20th Norah and I drove down to Virginia for to see Bryan’s little sister Courtney dance. The trip would not have been possible without my friend Stacy who accompanied us and attended to Norah’s every need on the drive. We stopped in DC to see Ashley and after a light lunch at Whole Foods we headed to the Natural History Museum and later had dinner at “We the Pizza” on the Hill. 

After being in the car for 6+ hours Norah was running around the Natural History Museum like crazy. It took four adults (Myself, Ashley, Matt and Stacy) to keep track of her. She was going up to strangers and telling them what animal they were looking at and grabbing other kids by the hand and trying to have them run/jump with her. We really had to work to keep up with her.Believe it or not, Norah is hugging, not strangling, this statue of a hominidUnfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of Ashley or Matt but I did get a cute pic of Stacy and Norah together on the CarouselAshley took this picture of the rest of usWednesday and Thursday were spent shopping, swimming and watching Courtney dance. Norah LOVES Courtney and LOVES watching her dance. She enjoyed trying imitate dance moves during her rehearsals and would clap and cheer for Courtney when she saw her on stage saying “yay Courtney” over and over again. When Courtney left for her rehearsals Norah would look around the house for her saying “Courtney, where are you? Courtney where are you?” It was pretty funny.

I took about five pictures of Courtney, Susan and Norah in front of this shop in old Leesburg and in everyone of them at least one person looks like they are in agony from the sun in their eyes but at least this one Courtney is laughing about it – or maybe something completely unrelated. I can’t remember already.Norah and Greg both had a fabulous time at the pool. Norah enjoyed pouring cups of water on Greg and he seemed to appreciate it.