Wordful Wednesday - Better Half

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Staycation 2010

On Monday, we took the kids to my parents' house in PA to stay for the week. 
(it has been a ritual for a few years now)

The kids have been so excited!  Ian & Lily started packing their toys earlier in the week.  It was too cute.  Lily was counting down sleeps.  She was super excited to have a long slumber party at Nana's house.  Ian woke up early on Monday and got dressed so he was ready to go.  Once dressed he ended up waking up the whole house, he was so excited about leaving.

After dropping them off we took our time coming home.  We went to 3 of our favorite places outside of Pittsburgh, Don Pablos for linner (lunch/dinner), IKEA & Half Price Books.  I am wishing we had these things in Buffalo.  

On Tuesday, we went wine tasting.  We had a wonderful time.  Our favorite wineries were Schulze Winery & Niagara Landing.  Their wines are so tasty!! 

While we were out we went to Olcott (like we did last year) and I got to take more photos of flowers.  I love taking photos of flowers.

We also took photos of each other.

Yesterday, most of the day we vegged out at home doing nothing but watching movies we rented.  We did go out to lunch.  Not sure what we are going to do today.  Tomorrow we are going back to my parents' house.  I want to go visit my grandparents before we come home on Sunday.  (My grandmother had surgery about a month ago)

You Capture - Black and White

Taken during our staycation. 


Go on over to I Should Be Folding Laundry to see other You Capture's for this week.

Sunday Citar

"Flowers really do intoxicate me." ~Vita Sackville-West

When we were driving from Olcott to Marjim Manor on our staycation in July (remember here), this is what we saw on the side of the road. What a beautiful unexpected pop of color.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway, here.


Thank you for stopping by Sunday Citar! This blog quote meme was created by Fresh Mommy. You can stop by her blog to see the quotes and photos that she and everyone else is loving right now.

Wordless Wednesday

These beautiful flowers are in the middle of the medians down the main street in Niagara On The Lake. They were beautiful. I just happened to stumble upon this butterfly.





Do you know what the name of this flower is? I have not seen them here in the states.

Edited to Add: They are called Irish Eyes. (GLORIOSA Irish Eyes : RUDBECKIA HIRTA) Thank you Lori for the link. I am going to have to buy some of these seeds and plant them next year. They were beautiful!

Happy Not So Wordless Wednesday!

Niagara On The Lake

Staycation- Part 2
You can read part 1 of my staycation here.

The second day of my staycation we went to Niagara On The Lake. It's a beautiful little town in Canada. We crossed the border at Niagara Falls and took the senic route down river road. If you have never done this I highly recommend it. It is such a beautiful ride!! Along the way there are many wineries and we stopped at many. My husband & I are partital to Ice Wine. Many years ago we tried it and fell in love. We both prefer sweeter wine and Ice Wine is like a yummy dessert. Here are a few shots from Inniskillin. (it has changed a TON over the years...I think I need to do some scanning for a take me back tuesday post)

Niagara On The Lake is full of little shops and resturants.Niagara On The Lake hold a special place in my heart because my mother's mom's family are from there. My mom spent many summers there as a child. It has changed a ton over the years. It was great to take my mom back there when my son was younger and have her tell me all about it. The building below is what my mom called the cop shop which is the police station where my great-great grandpa worked for a while (not sure what he did).

The historic building below was actually where my grandmother's father (PAPA) grew up. My grandmother has photos of herself chasing chickens in the side yard. My mother has shutters that were from the inside of this house that she uses til this day as a screen. When my grandmother was a child there was a porch all around the house. When they made it a historical landmark they took off the porch. It is so interesting to listen to my mother talk about Niagara On The Lake and what it looked like when she was a child. She is going to get the photos from my grandmother so we can scan them in and pick her brain for more info on the cute little town. I think it would make for a fantastic Take Me Back Tuesday post.

This is the sign that stands outside the house.Currently the house is being used as a suite at the Queen's Landing Hotel. Before the Queens Landing built their hotel on this land there was a log cabin in which my great great uncle Goring lived in, he was the one who drove the maid of the mist, remember here. (His brother blew glass, remember here.) After my Great Great Great Grandparents passed away they left the land to my great-great uncle, Goring. Goring sold that parcel of land to the Queens Landing.On the way home we stopped at what as a child I used to call the Man In The Sky. It's actually called Brock's Monument. I don't remember visiting the monument as a child. When we walked up to it and found out you can go inside. Actually you can walk all the way up it to the look out which is under his feet (for a fee). We opted out of doing that this trip.
This is a monument for Laura Ingersoll Secord and the view from behind the monument. This monument is on the right before you get to Brock's Monument.There was only one thing I didn't get to take a photo of because I forgot. One of my grandmother's paintings is in the back of a resturant/bar in Niagara On The Lake. I guess I will have to do it next time. Thank you mom for letting me ask you all of those questions about our family again and for calling grandma tonight and picking her brain.

Wordless Wednesday

Anatomically Correct Moose?!?! Seriously?

I walked right by this. My husband pointed it out. This moose was in Canada near Niagara Falls in front of a very large souvenir shop.

Big Girl Bed

One week ago yesterday, we moved Lily into a big girl bed. The plan was to do it last Saturday, but when I put it up on Friday she was soooo excited so we had to do it Friday. She slept thought the night and has all week. She has always been a great sleeper.The bed frame was mine as a child. My grandmother originally bought the bed set for my aunt when she was little and she used it for a couple years and then it was given to my parents for me. It is an antique bed that has a metal box spring and a shorter mattress. (I also have a dresser that matches, not the one in the photo below...that is Lily's changing table) My son was in the bed until we bought him a new mattress & box spring last winter. Lily's bedding was bought at Ikea when she was less than a year old. I spent hours on Saturday finishing putting her room together. I still need to take more photos of the rest of the room. I do have to share that the curtains are made of pink denim. I found a bolt of it in the clearance section at JoAnn's. There was black fuzzies through it, so they marked it clearance. The fuzzies washed right out. We made 2 sets (4 panels) of curtains for $10!
Here is a photo of my son's newly painted room that I painted on my staycation. This is the true turquoise by Glidden Ian picked out, remember here? The original plan was to put it on one wall and then tint white paint with the rest of the quart and paint the other 3 walls. I LOVED it so much we decided to buy a gallon and paint the rest of the room that color. BTW the paint went on beautifully (it only needed ONE coat!!) and I will definitely buy it again in the future. The walls are bare because I need to re-hang his pictures.

Sunday Citar

If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere. ~Vincent Van Gogh

My staycation adventures... PART 1

During my staycation we went to Olcott. Olcott is a small town on Lake Ontario, north of where I live. It is a beautiful little town. The view of the lake is GORGEOUS!! I also fell in love with these cosmos that were growing up through stones in front of a beach house. Nature is truly beautiful!


There were a bunch of adorable little shoppes. Unfortunately most of them were closed on Monday. We did get in a couple of them though. The yellow shoppe in the photo below had the prettiest chandelier.


On the way home, we decided to check out The Winery at Marjim Manor. The winery features wines made from fruit grown in local orchards. We tasted a bunch and they were yummy!! Marjim Manor, formerly called Appleton Hall is a 9500 square foot mansion built in the 1800's. While there we were told of the facinating history of this grand manor...

"In the 1820's Shubal Merritt began building a house for his wife and family. Tragically, his wife died just prior to the completion of the home. Shubal moved his children in and they lived there for some time. The paranormal history seems to begin with the reported tragic, accidental death of his son Lewis in the building. As Shubal cleaned his gun after a hunting expedition, his son came through the french doors. The gun went off, and his son died. Thereafter, at 3:00 pm the doors would swing open as if heralding the approach of the doomed son." I found this except here if you would like to read more about the haunting. A reporter at the Niagara Falls Reporter wrote this interesting article about the haunted farm.


Thank you for stopping by Sunday Citar! This blog quote meme was created by Fresh Mommy. You can stop by her blog to see the quotes and photos that she and everyone else is loving right now.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway, here.

Been busy...

Over the past week during our staycation I...

• went on a day trip to Niagara On The Lake
• went on a day trip to Olcott (little beach town on Lake Ontario)
• went wine tasting...yum!
  
• ate out ALOT...yum!
  
• painted my son's room
• painted my nightstands white (they are 4 cubes that were painted dark green)
• put together a new bed frame we bought from IKEA (bought for my room...we never had a bed frame, just the standard one that you get when you buy the bed)
• painted the basement door with magnetic paint and about 6 coats of white paint...still need to do the other side and the chalkboard paint.
  
• mailed my computer to HP...not waiting patiently for it to be returned to me.
• trying to catch up on my favorite blogs & e-mails on this SLOW laptop
• went to PA to pick up the kids, stayed 2 days
• have been doing the happy dance all week because I won a photo contest over at A Cowboy's Wife. Just waiting for the package to arrive with my new Flip Mino HD Video Camera.

Did I say I miss my laptop terribly? I can not download photos in this laptop and I hate the regular PC in the basement. Yes, I am aware I should not complain, at least I do have another computer to use...but I love my laptop. I did download some photos I took on our day trips and put them on my thumb drive and some CD's. I just need to fix them. I can not wait to share Olcott & Niagara on the Lake with you. Both places are rich with history and we had a great time. Here is a photo I took in Olcott...straight out of camera. Hope you have a great week!