Living Treasures Animal Park & Erie Zoo

Living Treasures Animal Park, near Pittsburgh PA, where you can literally feed every animal!  It was a cool experience for the boys, wonderfully maintained petting zoo, and definitely one we will be returning to!

Another visit to Erie Zoo, this time with Paxton and family!

Mama's 5k and Mudslide

Running has become my thing in the Summer.  I begin training and running certain number of miles in the Spring in preparation for 5k races.  This year was my 2nd time running the Bemus Point 5k, a fundraiser for Maple Grove High School.  I was a a minute slower than last year but managed to run it in 30 minutes and 29 seconds.  The morning of the race was hot and humid, so my legs felt like weights. 

A week later, my team of girls and I (we called ourselves Rum Runners because our headbands said "I Thought You Said RUM" LOL) participated in Holiday Valley's (Ellicottville) Mudslide Mud Run.  It was also a 5k race but an obstacle mud run through the muddy puddles, ponds, and hills of the ski resort.  We took a chairlift up to the top and ran as a group down to the bottom.  After all the climbing and crawling obstacles, we had to slide into a giant mud puddle!!!

 These were our "before" photos… on our way up the chairlift and at the top of Spruce Lake right before the race started.

 and this was after we slid down into the giant mud puddle in the end!  You can see we were soaked with mud.  It was gross and dirty, and nothing like I have experienced before.  Thankfully, we were able to hose off afterwards!  It was the dirtiest thing I have ever done to date, quite the adrenaline rush!

my medal!

Father's Day 2015: Mini-Golf and 50's Diner

Father's Day miniature golf

the boys practicing their putting

Burgers and shakes at Redline Diner after!  

What a gorgeous day we had celebrating daddy!

Fruit Picking Experts: Strawberries, Cherries, Blueberries, and Blackberries too!

Strawberry Picking with friends at Aber's Acres Organic Farm:

Cherry picking at Brix Winery in Westfield:

I prefer cherries over anything, so easy to pick, and perfect height for the boys!

We picked 9 lbs. of cherries!!!

Blueberry picking at Aber's Acres Organic Farm:

The blueberries were delicious and the boys really are great at picking them, we picked 4.5 lbs. of blueberries and mama got 40 bites!! Due to the rains in June there were mosquitos that thought the blueberries were delicious too.  The mosquitos just loved me/hated me too much and I ended up getting attacked.  No joke.  Neither of the boys had a single bite.  Note to self,  always wear bug repellent and pants when fruit picking.

With all the fruit we picked, we made many, many jars of freezer Jam.  Strawberry, cherry, and blueberry jam!!!  We have a freezer fully stocked with homemade organic jam!  I even baked cherry tarts!

Soon after our fruit picking adventures, we discovered we had our very own wild organic blackberry and raspberry bushes in the backyard!  Lucky us!

Summer Begins! Bonfires, Hammock, Slip n Slide, Swimming, & Paddle boarding!

Ahhh, Summertime.  What do I think of when Summer comes to mind?  Sunshine and being by the water, whether its the beach or in our case…. Chautauqua Lake.  I'm a sucker for nightly sunsets and fireworks.  I love the warm breeze that we get at our house.  I think of the sound of laughter and jetskis on the water.  I love watching the boys play on the playground.  I enjoy relaxing on a hammock, or siting on the dock watching the boys splash in the water.  I love fires, and roasting marshmallows after a day of boating.   These are just some of the many things we get to do all summer long!
 
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As summer rolled around and we had many warm evenings, we decided on having Sunday be our bonfire family night.  We would either cook some sausages over the fire or bring our dinner down to the boathouse and roast marshmallows over the fire.  It was the perfect summer activity to do together and wind down after an action-packed weekend.  Just as some have family night dinners on sundays, we decided as long as the weather cooperated we would have Sunday bonfires after a day of boating.  We enjoyed it so much that we bought a picnic table for the boathouse lakefront, and shared in the fun with friends and Brad's dad and Nancy also.

Staring at these incredible summer pink sunsets never gets old!

For my birthday, I got an early birthday present:  a hammock!  I have wanted one ever since we moved here and pictured lounging on it right at this spot on the top of the hill overlooking the bay.

The boys enjoy it very much too! 

Heck, sometimes the whole family lays on it together and we read books.

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Tried out the slip n slide this summer too…. it was a lot of work to clean it up and put it away after but so worth all the giggles and laughter.  When it would get scorching hot or humid, this was a good cool down to have.

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Our next door neighbor had the same idea, and one of the weekends made a giant slip n slide for not only the kids to enjoy, but adults too! Ha!  That was mine and I think Brad's first time on a slip n slide, and it was crazy silly fun.  You practically throw your body on to the ground to slide, and feel awfully sore for the next few days.   My ribs hurt so bad it hurt to laugh!  I figured out its best to start sliding on the knees first than move to the belly, but by the time i figured that out it was too late!  LOL

Taking the boat over to the Yacht Club swimming pool in Lakewood was another first for us this summer, we enjoyed playing in the pool with friends and attending the family BBQ pool side functions.

 Jumping off our dock and swimming on our lakefront.  The water was so clear and clean, it lasted all summer too.  Its so nice when we don't have too much seaweed or blue green algae to deal with like other summers past.

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Jax's first time on the paddle board with daddy.  This boy has no fear and loves to try new things!


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