Sara and her kids visit

After vacationing in Kentucky, we left the bluegrass state on Sunday, July 21 and headed for Ohio to spend the night at Sara and Eric's.  The original plan was to take Eric to the airport Monday around noon so he could fly to California for a work conference leaving Sara and the kids in Ohio. But our plans changed a little.  Since we had the 12 passenger van and not wanting to leave Sara all alone in a new town (although I'm sure she could have managed), we decided to extend our vacation by convincing her to come to New York with us. Eric was a great sport and drove to NY Friday after work and spent the weekend out here. We had a great time!!

Here we go to NY.  Timmy had no qualms about telling Aunt Sara very loudly, "I CAN'T SEE.  YOUR HEAD IN MY WAY! YOUR HEAD IN MY WAY!"  Being the nice aunt she is, slouched down from Ohio to New York so Timmy could see the TV strapped to the back of the passenger's front seat.  Also if you count the white handle of the car seat in the middle row as Luke,  if you look closely you can see all 10 passengers. (back row Max, Alex, Sophia, Oliver, middle - Henry, Luke, Timmy,  front - Sara, Julia and Parker)

The days were all so fun they run together.  We played at our house, went to the spot in the mall the kids call the tree place, which is a place for younger kids to run around.  But I believe it was Wednesday, maybe Thursday we went to The MOST - a hands on science museum for kids. Here are Parker and Tim as robots.

Olive and Henry "digging" for fossils.

Group shot outside the museum.  (Oliver, Parker on Sara's back, Henry in stroller #1, Sophia, Alex pushing Luke and Julia, Timmy, and Max)

We ate outside Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dale's, which was great because it was so nice out and made clean up much easier.  Here are the babies with their 1st ice cream sandwiches.

Movie night at Aunt Kathy's.  We actually had two movie nights.  We watched Despicable Me and the next night Wreck it Ralph. It was nice for the adults, we could get our naps in before Scrabble and cards.

A Shook visit also wouldn't be complete without a trip to the zoo. So Friday, we all loaded up and took Julia for her first trip to the Syracuse zoo.  It was warm, but a good time. Here they are outside the white leopard exhibit. (l-r  Julia, Luke, Tim, Alex, Parker, Max, Sophia, Henry and Oliver)

The tiger we usually take a picture by was getting repainted, but the baby elephant was ready for snap shots!  (l-r Julia, Timmy, Oliver, Parker, Sophia, Henry, Alex, Max and Luke)

Eating popsicles before leaving the zoo. Ahh!

Saturday was also beautiful.  We headed up North to see Kathy and Dale's cabin, but first we stopped at a great fenced in park to play and have lunch.  Then we went to a small Erie canal museum that turned out to be very entertaining for all of us.  Here's Eric, Parker, Oliver, Henry, Alex, Randy with Luke, Max, Sara and Julia and Sophia right outside the museum.  Aunt Kathy was there too!

A life size diorama  of the Erie canal to learn how the lock and dams work. It was a huge hit with the kids and adults.

Parker and Max playing around.

There was also a display on block and tackles, Sophia and Henry are trying out here.

Alex and Henry are using the cranes.

Eric and Parker learn how the back of the boat directs it.  I didn't get my camera out at the cabin but we had a good time there - paddle boating, looking for raspberries, and taking golf cart rides.  We left just before the rain really began to pour.  Sunday the Shook gang had to head back to Ohio.  Just before that Alex left for camp, so that will be my next post.

KENTUCKY

This year Burnside, Kentucky was the destination for our vacation with part of the Steffen clan.  Check in was Sunday, July 14. Prior to that our family drove to Sara and Eric's,( now in Ohio) on  Friday to start our fun early.   As our two families followed each other to the resort, the decision was made to stop at a farm stand on the side of the road.  We got carried away and  bought 1 1/2 bushels of peaches, 3 watermelons and a lot of corn on the cob.  Needless to say our families were way more excited about the fresh produce than everyone else and we had a lot of left overs!  Anyway, the picture above is from Monday, the first outing of our vacation to SomerSplash Water Park.  Here is Sophia, Max, Oliver, Timmy, George, Parker, Henry, Alex holding Julia and Madison holding Lucas.  That is all the kids on vacation minus Eleanor (Joe and Renee's new baby) . This pool they're in was horseshoe shaped and never got higher than about Timmy's waist - it was perfect for the kids and they loved it!   There was a small kid section of slides and tubes, Sophia really loved. A wave pool Henry enjoyed.  A lazy river Alex liked and lots of water slides Max (and I ) had a lot of fun on.  Randy and Timmy also had a really good time, as well as the rest of the group.  It was a fun day.

Baby Eleanor was the youngest vacationer she was less than 1 month old.  We were so excited we were able to see her!

Here Henry, George and Timmy are playing on the rocks behind our cabin.  You might notice the  picture looks a little cloudy, that's not a camera effect that is fog on the lens, from bringing my cold camera into the hot KY sun.   The camera was so cold, because Randy kept our cabin at arctic temperatures.  He wanted  "frost on the windows in the morning".  He never quite got frost but some mornings were pretty close.

Cousins hanging out and staying up late. (Alex, Madison, Sophia, and Max)

 Julia (Sara and Eric's littlest) and Lucas side by side in their matching highchairs, eating. When those two were in their chairs they were usually smiling and usually people were passing by smiling, talking to them and giving them more food. 

Wednesday we went to a small, near-by museum.  There was an optional train ride we opted out of, but we still checked out the train.  Here's Randy, Henry, Timmy, Sara, Julia and Parker.  The little guys even got to sit inside the train making them  happy.

Here Grandma and Sophia are checking out an old washer in the museum.

The highlight of the museum for our little ones was the display of cowbells they could run back and forth ringing.  I'm pretty sure the whole museum heard them enjoying them.

After the museum we took a number of windy Kentucky roads to see a waterfall. ( On the way saw a fence made of old tires in front of a trailer-school bus house.  A house made of a trailer connected to an old school bus. ) The waterfall was beautiful.  Here's a big chunk of our group in front of it, right before the rainstorm came that frightened us all away.

The waterfall.

We discovered Burnside is a founding place of boy scouts.  Here is Eagle Scout, Eric, Cub Scout, Max, and Boy Scout, Alex in front of the plaque commemorating this first troop.

A close up of the plaque if you'd like to read it.

Back at the cabin one day Parker giving Luke and George a wagon ride. Timmy rushing over to join in on the fun. 

Aunt Donna gave Timmy his first haircut while on vacation!  Henry, Timmy and Randy also got hair cuts.

 It was HOT the week we were in KY.  It was so hot, we tried frying an egg on the tennis court next to the pool.  It didn't work.  We also splashed around in pool a lot, where the water was as warm as a bath, maybe warmer.   We still had a lot of fun. Henry loved paddling around in that little floaty.  The first day we came to the pool he was sure he wouldn't want to get into the water but I made him wear his suit down to the pool and he finally decided to get in and then of course we couldn't get him out.  

Alex has made great strides in the pool, once really afraid of the water, he was going under water and horsing around with everyone.  Max's new trick were cannon balls!  And Sophia learned how to swim underwater, do handstands in the pool and she and Madison had tea parties at the bottom of the pool.

There's Timmy in the boat floaty watching Oliver join the fun. 

Lucas loved the water!

Four of us after trying to catch a moonbow.  While visiting the water falls the first time, Eric read a plaque explaining this falls was one of two known falls that, at the right time, had  moonbows.  What is a moonbow?  A rainbow made by the refection of light from the moon and mist from the falls..(  If Niagara Falls wasn't all lit up at night it would most likely make moonbows as well.)  Friday, if the conditions were right, would be a night the moonbow would be visible.  So Eric,Sara, Randy and I tucked the little ones in and asked Madison and Alex to sit in the cabin while we went to see if we could find a moonbow.  On the way there it seemed promising, the sky was clear and we could see the bright moon, but right outside the park fog set in and at the waterfalls, we couldn't even see the moon.  But we had a lot of fun trying, and the next night Eric and Sara went back and saw a very faint moonbow!

Saturday we headed out to see some sights. A dam was at the top of the list. Here's (l-r) Margaret, Coco holding Luke, Kelli, Madison, Audrey, Sophia, Sara holding Julia, and Donna in front of the look out spot.  Right after this picture Henry had a nasty fall. He was climbing up a path and next to a pile of big dry tree branches he fell and got a huge scratch from his armpit to his elbow.  It was bleeding and seemed pretty painful. 

Here's the dam.

We also visited a water powered mill.  It still grinds corn once a week for a about an 1/2 hour or so.  We missed the grinding but looked around anyway.  It was hot but fun.

Here's the actual stones they grind with.   We bought some cornmeal ground with those stones.  A few days ago we had some muffins made from the cornmeal and a recipe out of a cookbook Randy got me from the mill.

The kids had a lot of fun getting in the ice cold water in the spring fed stream.

The last night we were in KY, Saturday, after our dinner, I still wanted to see the trolley that took people down the side of hill to a staircase in the trees that took you to the dock.   The kids had already ridden on it, because earlier in the week their Uncle Eric had taken them fishing where everyone came back with a smile and a story of the fish they caught.  So here 's our ride.  Henry, Kelli and Randy waving good-bye to the other half of our group at the top of the hill.

Max and Timmy riding down the hill.

All of us on the dock. Back row- Parker, Eric, Madison, and Randy.  Middle - Oliver, Sophia, Henry and Max.  Front- Sara, Timmy, Alex, Kelli and Kara.

The dock and Lake Cumberland.

Eric, Parker, Oliver and Sara riding the trolley up.  The next day was Sunday and it was time to pack up and head home. Eric and Sara and our family were following each other to Sara and Eric's with plans to take Eric to the airport on Monday so he could go to a conference for work, leaving Sara and the kids in Ohio. But we changed our plans and Eric took himself to the airport and Sara and the kids came to NY with us.  I'll post those pictures another day.