Medical trips, a road to terrible news.

So far these last few weeks has seen me traveling to medical appointments, and we got a big blow yesterday. A few weeks ago, my youngest had complained (more of FREAKED out) about what he claimed to be water in his ears. I sought out some swimmer ear stuff, that didn't work, I got him some ear wax stuff, that didn't work we took him to the Dr. and nothing in his ear, ear looked fine, but he reported he could not hear. Yesterday he had a special ear testing and we were shocked, upset and concerned to find that he actually has loss hearing in his right ear. It appears to be permanent too. We have and nor do the medical people have any ideas as to why or how this has happened. I am devastated. He will need additional testing, but it seems he has some serious damage. I am still trying to deal with the whole thing. My son is handing it well and has come up with several jokes..."now if I truly do not want to hear what your saying I can blame my ears, or I never listen to 1/2 of what my teacher is saying anyways." I have tried to laugh along with him, but nothing is worse then hearing ANY medical news about your child. It continues to tear me up. My oldest son has been dealing with some medical truths as well. He claimed he needed an emergency trip to the ER last week, which landed us in Urgent Care and later that week at the DR.'s and yesterday he started PT, which he has to attend 3x per week for 6 weeks.  He has scoliosis. I personally have not seen a medical professional in several years (excluding the Obgyn) and recognize that I too need to address the reality that our bodies need to be attended too. I stepped on the scales on Sunday and I am up up up another 6 pounds from my usual obese weight. All of us have to address our dental watch our eating habits, and I have a few additional demons that are affecting me medically as well.  I am struggling with moving forwards with getting real about all of this as I tend to AVOID anything that I can't handle or don't want to address. My famous "there is always tomorrow" is getting more difficult to say, as the tomorrows are getting less likely to be there if we wake up. Truth be told more friends are getting sick, my parents are getting older, I have friends with cancer and other life threatening diseases. Some serious work needs to be done for myself and my family. Just thinking about it makes me crazy inside. I am predicting that there will be more medical trips to be taken, more obstacles to overcome, and more things to be addressed. Plan to make myself an appointment for a full physical and start myself off on a better healthier lifestyle for all of us. Since I am so into my trip planning looks like I need to make some plans on traveling to some medical appointments.

Weekend round-up

Where does the time go? In a flash it is already Sunday! Friday I worked my volunteer position at Vera House. It went well. Realizing that I was in the area for the SBH Harriet May Mills BBQ, I decided that I would enjoy a FREE lunch and say "hi" to some of my former co-workers. (If I had enough balls, I would have made it to all of the FREE luncheons SBH offers during the summer.) They do one at each site all summer long on Fridays and the food is usually something pretty delish. Harriet May Mills is one of the residential group homes and was once over seen by Victoria. I was inform she no longer works there...I had hoped to say Hello1 Anyways, the meal was catered by Limp Lizards, and it was good and even better...it was FREE! I got on the scales this am and I really do not need any food FREE or otherwise and I really need to make that a focus of my life, but anyways....The company was enjoyable as well and I was glad to be "welcomed" despite the fact that I really do not work there as I did. I ate with Renee and Becky. I enjoyed catching up, and vowed to Renee that we would someday get together to "walk" or hang out. She lives about a block from me... isn't that always how it works out. We discussed plans to consider running/walking in the SBH walk come September.....I can barely walk down the street with the dogs. I had FB chatted with the girls about possibly joining them on the Run or Dye run in October....I really have to get my ARSE in gear if I think I can manage any such things.

Picture of Harriet May Mills House.

After I had a nice pulled pork sandwich and some cookies, I made my way home to obtain my son for his medical follow up. He has scoliosis, which is why they are thinking he is struggling with back pain. Only remedy is take care of his back, be aware of how he is lifting etc. and a prescription to PT for six weeks 3x per week. (at $20- a pop). GREAT! Those Friday FREE lunches are sounding more appealing then ever.

(North Medical has one of those Horse Statues so I snapped a Picture)

 

Home and dealing with DOG poop, dinner and quick clean up! I gathered up my scrap stuff and made my way to Sandy's for Consultant CLUB!!! I have so missed Ms. Sandy and was glad to have an evening of good old SCRAPBOOKING. She has been struggling with a 22 day long headache, so I went quickly in my scrapping and headed home around 9pm with four pages of layouts, several cards and a cute little book. She always has some GREAT items for her clubs.

Two of the pages we made, she's trying hard to keep a smile despite her pounding head.

At home I made it just in time to watch an absolutely horrible movie rented from Red Box. Movie 43 or something like that. It had several well known actors in it doing really stupid skits. Forget the title and will forget the movie I am sure.

Saturday I enjoyed coffee and talk with Renee (not the Renee from the next block over). Explored plans for a Girl's Night later that evening, and hit the grocery store, saving about 1/2 with my coupons etc. Yeah me!

Then I made my way back to Sandy's for a little "play time" and helped her prepare several layouts which I was rewarded with a 8 page pack myself for helping. YEAH again.

Cat was there and she is always fun, so we enjoyed each others company and played with scrap stuff.  Quick lunch and I was off to tend to DOG duty, while the boys went to the mall for football gear, dinner and a movie. At home I allowed myself to fall into the Fourth Game of Thrones book for a little bit and even took a dip in the pool, despite how COLD it was out. Hair colored and showered I prepared myself for "GIRLS NIGHT", got Renee and we were off.

 Lyn and Doreen

 Cathy giving clues for Taboo

 It was the first Girls Night since some changes in the relationships with these women and although I enjoyed myself it felt like the tension could be cut with a knife. Grateful that I was able to spend time with these ladies despite it all. Cathy seems to be doing well, and Doreen too. Her daughter Nicole is off to Florida on Wednesday for school. Exciting times ahead! Lyn, Doreen's neighbor, also joined us, and this was the first time I had met her. We played the game Taboo and I ATE like a PIG!

 LOVE THIS PICTURE!

Admitting that I miss those CRAZY girls nights we had in the past! Wonder if we will ever get back to that.
Overall.....Full weekend of WONDERFUL people I LOVE much!!!! Hoping today will bring yet another "clan" of amazing women, I haven't seen in a while into my home. Open Scrap today at my house. Several friends have noted that they are busy, but might come later, so we shall see who and if things happen. Myself.....I am going to do some quick clean up (desperately needed) and spend this raining day playing with my CRAFTS and being pleasantly surprised if I do get some friendly company!

Flash Back Friday: Hershey Park 2012

Feeling "sweet" I thought I would FLASHBACK to our 2012 trip to the Sweetest Place on Earth; Hershey Park in Hershey PA. This was actually my fourth trip to Hershey in my lifetime, but it was the 2012 summer vacation request from the boys so we focused our family camping trip to Jellystone in Quarryville PA around a Trip to this Chocolate lovers Dream Park.

The first trip I took to Hershey I went with my best friend Linda when I was about 7-8 years old. Quite honestly I have little to no memory of that trip, but as it so happened my second and third trip was with that same bestie Linda, with our own little girls in 2006. Linda was her own daughters girl scout leader and the girl scout trip was to Hershey Park. She and Holly (another friend) we co-leaders of the troop and had bent the rules to allow my daughter and me to come with them. (My daughter is a year younger then Linda's daughter Amanda, and Holly's daughter Morgan, so she was not a part of their troop). The entire trip was through the Girl Scouts of America so the price for camping and the park was next to nothing. I was pumped. There were also activities which were included such as the Hershey 3-D experience, the laser light show and activities located at the campsite. We were in for an exciting full weekend of adventures. The first evening went well. We hit up chocolate world, rode the FREE making of the Hershey empire ride over and over and over. Free chocolate at the end too! Bought some chocolates in the gift store, participated in the baking of chocolates, rode a few rides, and watched the laser show. Back at camp that night, it RAINED, RAINED and RAINED some more. My daughter and I were free of wetness in our little two man tent nestled under a tree, up on a hill for the night, but the rest of the troop woke up in puddles, and most items were soaked! We attempted to weather through the storm, and headed to the park for another day of fun. First ride of the day was the Hershey 3-d experience, which I do believe has been removed from the park, but I am not positive. It was basically a 3-d movie all about chocolate, we must have rode the FREE Hershey ride a few more times, obtained some more chocolate and headed to the amusement park. It rained most of the day, and although the rides still ran, and my daughter and I were personally enjoying ourselves dry under our poncho's and grateful not to deal with crowds, when Linda announced that they were calling it a day, heading back to our wet camp sites to pack up and heading home. I'm not sure who suggested it, but we ask if we could get a raincheck, (I'm not even sure if they would still do it), and we all got FREE return admission tickets within the 2006 season! We missed out on some of the base camp Girl Scout activities leaving a day early and we got a hotel room on the way home. We had two total and all of us, (here had to be like 12 in total) slept in the two rooms. The girls in one room with Linda, and Holly, her youngest and my daughter shared the other. I'd say it worked out just fine.
The third trip was later the 2006 season, this time I brought my oldest and my youngest. My youngest was free (due to his age) so the only admission I had to pay for was for my son. Once again we went with Linda and several of the other girls, but I pretty much went off with my won kids. We again took the FREE ride and got some more FREE chocolate. My older children went on several of the rollercoasters, while Gavin (2 or 3, at the time) went on the children's rides.  I still remember going on the log flume ride. Gavin kept repeating "boat" and he was really enjoying the peaceful leisure along the water, until we went down the big hill. Poor kid, I am sure I have scared him for life. We also enjoyed the Zoo's of America which is included in the Park admission. The best part of the zoo was the prairie dogs, that kept poking their little heads up from their underground homes.
We all had a great time on that trip and there was no rain to speak of.
On our 2012 trip we planned two days at the park. The first day was spent at the FREE Chocolate World area of the park. I think we had to pay to park, but was offered a token to exit if we were just in the Chocolate world. I'm not 100% positive on that, but If your just passing through and you do not want to go to the theme park, but want to buy ANYTHING HERSHEY, and ride a FREE ride, I highly recommend at least going to Chocolate World. There are some attractions at Chocolate World you have to pay admission for, but there are lots of things to do for FREE!

Mr. Hershey's claim to chocolate fame is all in the COWS!!! The use of milk in the chocolate made his chocolate so creamy and yummy, the Hershey chocolates are known through out the world. Fun about the chocolate tour ride is you SMELL the chocolate as you ride the ride. YUM!
We decided to take the FREE ride a few times, before we purchased and took a trip on the Trolley ride.
The Trolley ride was recommended by Mary and it is a tour of the town of Hershey while being narrated by a duo of characters who present the life and times of   Mr. Hershey.

"The Hershey Story explores the rags to riches accomplishments of an American entrepreneur who used his personal wealth to enrich the lives of others. Hear never-before-shared stories of his innovation and determination. Find out how Mr. Hershey revolutionized the process of making milk chocolate. Discover how the Hershey Industrial School’s orphan boys became heirs to his fortune. ". I actually cut and paste this paragraph from the museum The Hershey Story; which we did not go to, but it explains his life in a nice few sentences. 
The Trolley ride presented in period clothing explains as it drives, the story of the Hershey enterprise. At each stop, a new character would arrive. (I am sure he was riding on the back of the trolley and changing before each stop) but the counterpart to the narrator would be at each location to further elaborate the story for each stop. Once he was a worker, an orphan boy, Mr. Hershey's mother and Mr. Hershey himself. At one point we all sung songs from the day. "Daisy Daisy, Give me your answer do, I'm half crazy all for the love of you" La La La on our bicycle built for two"

Boarding the trolley was the ticket taker.

Here are our two fun characters. They guy was so much fun, and he was funny too.

Mr. Hershey's home. The whole town is all about Hershey, and even the lamp posts are shaped like Hershey Kiss's.

Below is a picture of the old orphanage. It is something else today.

Mr. Hershey's dream was to develop a whole town for his Hershey factory workers, and many of the streets are named after this. There are lots of parks and things also named for Mr. Hershey.

The Trolley was fun for the most part, and it was interesting however, I don't think the boys were as excited about it, and it really wasn't that thrilling. I personally learned a lot about the life of this man, but I could have easily foregone this adventure for something else.

After the trolley tour, we headed to our hotel for the evening. After camping most of the week we were in need of a nice hotel.

This sign was on a billboard along the way, and my hubby and I spent a little time that evening at the ONLY thing around, and can you believe it, we found a CASINO!

 The following day we headed back to the town of Hershey and enjoyed the Theme Park. Quite honestly it is like most theme parks, and we enjoyed the several rides offered. As usual when we go to theme parks we were ready to hit everything hard maximizing our experience to the fullest. My husband and I are good rater of theme parks and on a scale of 1-10 we gave it an 8. Primarily the score was lower due to no fault of the park, although Mark felt the layout was a poor design and this is why he rated it lower, but the HEAT was what spoiled it for me. It was sooooo hot on the day we went that nothing seemed enjoyable. There is a lot of walking it seemed with spans of space between several of the rides. It was also difficult to determine where you gain access to and exit from several of the rides so we walked to an exit for a ride several times thinking we were heading onto the ride. Additionally the waterparks also not the parks fault were PACKED. I also did not like these designs as well. For all the space this park had when we were at the wave pool area, the chairs were lined up in rows so tightly you had to disturb people on either side to find a seat. Needless to say the water parks were our least favorite due to the crowds. The heat did keep people at those locations so the rest of the park including the Zoo's of America (included in your admission) was free of people, but the heat kept the animals away as well, and we saw very little.

The rides however, for the exception of the more popular rides (the rollercoasters; Storm Runner is one of the most popular) had little wait time. I only went on the wild mouse rollercoaster and one other that we did actually wait for quite awhile to get on. (They provided fans with sprays of water during this wait. I cannot remember which one it was however).

My personal favorites and the one we rode at least twice (quite possibly because their was air conditioning and NO lines) The kissing Tower, which is really not "a ride" but a tower that brings you up about the park and town giving you a panoramic view of everything. I got several pictures, but couldn't find them to show in here. Second was the Resees x-treem cup challenge. Also air conditioned and inside. Similar to the Toy Story Ranger ride in Disney, you and your partners battle against other cars at laser shooting candy bars. We went on this ride several times.

We were all hot and tired, irritated for the last part of the day and actually were all growling at one another having had enough. We skipped the laser light show and evening entertainment and headed back to our hotel. I think we would have had a much more enjoyable time if it wasn't so hot and crowded. I did enjoy the costumed candybars, but the boys would not pose for me.

Cooling off!!!

Overall it is a fun park packed with great rides and attractions. Downside to this trip was the heat, the crowds and the overall park layout. However, we did have a ton of fun!

 

 

RAINED OUT at Clay Concert.

Yesterday evening after some coaxing, I had convinced my son that we should pack up the dogs, a few lawn chairs, some cold drinks and of course bug spray and enjoy a FREE concert in the park. Clay Park offers FREE concerts all summer on Tuesday evenings and although it has always been an enjoyable time in the past, we never seem to make it to them. A few years ago, while Gavin was playing summer soccer at the YMCA (which is right next door to Clay Park) we would complete his games and stroll over to listen to the music. He really enjoyed himself, these past few years I struggle to get him out of the house. Finally he was willing and ready so we hit the road.
We were a motely crew I am sure. Two fold up chairs swung over my arm, bags as well, and Peanut dragging along sniffing everything in his path. Gavin tugging Riley along who will periodically stop in his tracks and either take a seat or lie down. All I wanted to do was establish a place on the grass to plop everything down, then plop myself down and enjoy some music. As were walking Peanut proceeds to poop. Stop everything retrieve a poop bag, clean it up (chairs still clanging on my back). Okay it happens better here then in my house. Moving on....Doesn't Riley decide to poop too. Right in front of a row of senior citizens enjoying the completely sunny clear weathered afternoon. Stop again find a bag and proceed to pick up POOP once again. His were a little harder to pick up. YUCK! Anyway we are back to walking towards our little claim on park reality and find ourselves a nice place directly in front of the stage. The band has already started and Hey I know that song, this should be an enjoyable concert...... I thought.  I spend about 5 minutes getting the chairs from their handy carry bags, grab camera for some pictures, adjust the dogs who have now tangled themselves around one another and the chairs, slide a H2O into the chair cup holder and sit down. Aha!!! Lets enjoy the evening. THEN SUDDENLY out of NOWHERE RAIN!!!!!! And it is still Freaken SUNNY out! To top it off it wasn't just sprinkles of rain it was a monsoon (is that spelled correctly?) It came in buckets! Please just pass I prayed...please. Gavin took off holding Riley and headed to a pavilion like so many other SMART people, I was left to contend to the bags, chairs and poor little Peanut who didn't like this rain one bit. I didn't even bother to re-bag the chairs I had just released to the grass. I flapped those things up under my arm swung my opened bag over my shoulder and walked as fast as I possibly could to the car. Never had there felt to be a more difficult struggle. Thank God Peanut was just as interested in moving towards the protection of a shelter as I was. By the time we made it to the car, (actually well before), I was SOAKED to the bone. I was literally as wet as if I had jumped into a pool! Water dripped from me as I threw chairs into the back end of the van and cursed as the sun popped back out just as quickly as it had disappeared. REALLY!!! So wet, there was no way I was about to try this again, so we headed home. My camera was wet as well and steamed up when I looked through the lens, but I took a few practice pictures to make sure it was still working and look at Peanut....poor wet drowned rat!

 This was after a quick dog shake!

 This was what my camera was seeing from inside my car. I was so worried that the thing was destroyed.
Well we tried, I came home and insisted that Mark take a look at his wet family. He had reported being ill and that was why he could not join us. (He must have known). Well maybe next week will be a better success.

This is what the sky and park looked like as we were leaving.....Sunny and beautiful!!!! So my luck!

More POOL fun and back to "LIFE"

No current trips to speak of, we have been busy with the pool and the puppy. Yesterday I held a everything summer party (Graduation/birthdays/pool is finally fixed) Party. I did not invite as well as I should I guess and we only had a few friends and my parents, but it actually ended up better that way. I could actually enjoy myself instead of feeling like I was constant hostess. Puppy has been getting better with adjusting to the family and things are going well overall! Plans today include a few more friends over for a cook-out and swimming. I have decided on Monday however, I have to get myself back on some sort of schedule. Calls need to be made about my business, organized for Gavin's upcoming football, appointments need to be made, I have to get back to the gym, and start examining the next phase in my life. I have been on "vacation" much to long.

We have continued to enjoy the pool investment, and working on making the puppy use "outdoors" as his restroom. I spent yesterday morning working on an application for a state exam for a position at my husbands place of employment. My first real job was similar and had great pay. I have been reflecting over the "if I had stayed" with the state 23 years ago nonsense, and recognize that had I stayed I might not have my daughter and I most certainly would not have met my husband and had my two other editions. My pursuit to find "better" employment and "better" pay by going to school and gaining my degree backfired with regards to that position, but I have had several experiences I never would have had, gained a family and ultimately I do have my Masters degree although as bitter as I sound I realize it has done me NO good. Anyways, returning to the state, even if it is for the next ten years or so, getting some investment in retirement and actually saving some money possibly makes the idea of exploring this job as an incentive. I have been pondering over should I get the position what shift would be most well suited for my lifestyle and my family. A day shift seems the most practical, but then being a new hire, day shifts may be hard to come by, evenings interestingly enough would be the worst for my lifestyle...years ago that was the best shift, party after work sleep all day and off to work to do it all over again. I am currently leaning towards nights, yes it would suck not to be home at night and I am sure it would mess up my sleep patterns, but it would give me time in the morning to get the boy up and out, home and family time in the evening as well as my other business....and who really needs me or misses me in the night. Except maybe my hubby. It would actually work out well. Work, come home get Gavin off to school maybe even hit the gym first, sleep all day, and enjoy the evening with my family. It's a thought. It wouldn't have to be forever, just until a day shift opened up. Anyways, this is suppose to be my trip blog...not my life blog...so

 

We were able to use the pool all day Sunday and I finished my third book in the Games of Thrones series whiles resting myself in the pool and sun. It was lovely. I started the Fourth book and I am finding it difficult to get engaged in it.

 As I noted Monday I began the day with the application for the state exam, and spent the rest of the day playing taxi to my children and running around myself. I had to stop at my "job" to sign some stupid paper about the current/new job description, then get my daughter to take her to work, then my eldest son called reporting that he was about to call an ambulance he was in so much pain. STOP!!! No you are not calling an Ambulance.....(cauz I will get stuck the bill) let me come get you.  He had scheduled an appointment for Friday with a Dr. regarding pain in his back and I had hoped he would simply work the "pain" out. Any hoot! I spent all of the rest of the afternoon and into the evening at North Medical Urgent Care spent $30- on co-pays and Flexeral (Which I told him was all they would do anyways) and was pleasantly rewarded by my husbands "dinner" of pizza and wings. North Medical holds one of those horse statues I have noticed around the Syracuse area, but I failed to bring my camera. Possibly on Friday.

I spent the rest of the evening full bellied watching the True Blood episodes that I had missed while on vacation and found that I am not as angered by this season as I had been after watching the first two episodes. I have one more to catch up on which I hope to watch sometime today. I had, by chance found the Sookie Stackhouse books a few years ago at the Thrifty store and began reading them well before I knew there was a series on HBO about the characters. I was hooked and even splurged on the first season simply to catch up on what I had missed as I could not wait for HBO to release it on the demand channel. True Blood had become my obsession for a while and I even dressed as Sookie for Halloween last year, but when this season started and the last two years had strayed so far from the books, I began to loose interest. It has now become a "will eventually" watch from a MUST or WIll die watch.

Today, well I have already taken my Princess off to work, waited patiently for the puppy to make poops in the backyard, and played a round of games on FB. Next on the agenda is getting things together for Gavin's football, catching up on my cleaning and making phone calls for "party" bookings before I have to get the princess from work and take her to her college interview. Pretty uneventful day, but things that have to be done. Hopeful that there will be some fun trips to report upon soon. Til then TTFN

 

 

POOL PARTIES CONTINUE

As I finally catch up with where I am in todays time, I thought I would skip Flashback Fridays and officially be done with the last two weeks of my trip taking. We have all been going like crazy and we spent the last two days feeling like we have finally caught up with ourselves. Riley has been in his new home now for two days and despite some poops (man are they big and do they stink), he has been a welcomed edition to our little happy family. Yesterday I did some work on the pool, and invited the neighbor and her twins over for some pool fun. Jenny and her two year old twin daughters, Gavin and I all took a break from the heat and cooled down in the pool. Riley had an accidental dip the evening before when he walked off the edge. Well, we know he can swim at least. If he liked it? I am going out to get him a kiddie pool today.
Nick came home for a bit and Lexi was actually at home herself most of the day (that never happens). After dinner we had Carol, Mike, Tyler and Steven over for swimming, and Mike (THANK YOU SO MUCH) fixed our electric problem and now we do not have to worry about the house burning down.

A quick update on that. We lost power to the pool when the pool guys were working on it. As we were off to vacation the days following we never got an electrician out to take care of it, so we had been using an extension cord to keep the pump running.(thank God this didn't happen while on vacation, I can't imagine what Lexi would have done) Sunday evening all tired out from the craziness. IE: Gavin and his ear, people at the house all weekend, up late and never really caught up from vacation he fell asleep in my bed and I fell out myself shortly after. My husband, bed-less, made a place for himself on the couch and began watching TV. Thank God he did because he smelled smoke and yep, our electric was on fire. Anyways...Mike has saved us and we are all fixed, and there should NO longer be any pool concerns. (SO knocking on wood right now).

Back to POOL Parties! As the evening progressed we were visited by Renee and David and about 8 of Lexi's friends. The pool was PACKED! and I was just saying how much I hoped the pool would get it's use for how much $ was put into it. It wasn't a trip and quite honestly with HOW much $ we have been spending of late, there may not be many upcoming soon, at least we have the pool to enjoy. Only one more out of town trip planned for the summer season, and that is back to Lake George to do the unvailing of Mark's Grandfathers grave and family reunion. I'm going to try and keep some small day trips happening, but I predict they will include any access to puppy's for al least a little while.

Todays plans.....clean house, grocery shop and puppy pool! And if I have time, read!

A new family member from Pen Yam NY. Welcome Riley

I mentioned that we have been trying to get a new dog preferably a husky well I found one for sale in Pen Yam, NY (still an hour and a half away from our place.) but closer then some in PA etc. So I made arrangements, coordinated with my GF Kelly who is still here visiting from Florida to join us as Auburn is on the way, and we were off to get our NEW FAMILY MEMBER.
 We left early got Kelly, her son Mathew and Katie's son Devon and made our way south in the Finger Lakes to the sleepy town of Pen Yam. The community is largely Mennonite and we got our new 13 week old Siberian Husky "Riley" formally Jaden from a Mennonite family who breeds dogs. He was one of 6 in the liter and 1 of three left of them when we arrived. Gavin picked "jaden" from the website and was not changing his mind and after we got there about which puppy was coming home with us.

We ALL fell in love! Isn't he beautiful? I am a little apprehensive about having a "new" baby in the house, but he has been such a treat. He didn't like the car to much, but he seemed to get used to the humans he was forced into.
We began our return trip home and decided to make a stop at Seneca Lake State Park to allowed Riley a good walk, get some water, and send these high energy boys into the Spray Park.

Seneca Lake State Park is located in Geneva, NY right along Route 5. I have made a few trips here, and it has always been a great treat. (I will have to do a Flashback Friday on this one). Todays visit was more of a along the way stop and not really a day event, although we could easily spend the day picnicking, playing in the playground, swimming on the beach or dancing in the spray park.

 Gavin would not leave the dog's side and walked, carried and snuggled with him most of the time. Devon and Matt, played in the park while we waited for the spray park to open.

Walking with Riley is difficult, he is just learning what it means to be on a lease. He was a big hit at the park, and several people came up to pet him. He was GREAT with people and seemed to tolerate most of the time spent in the park. He as were the rest of us were HOT however, and once the boys entered the spray park...all he seemed to want to do was go in and play himself. His whines convinced Gavin that his play time was over, so he spent the rest of the day holding the pup while Devon and Matt enjoyed the water.
(its a lot harder to go and seek out pictures with a new puppy on your person's...I missed some great shots of the boys playing in the water, but he is so worth it.)

All watered out the boys dried off, Gavin focused on Riley and we were off on our way home.

  Along the way we found this car hop style restaurant and stopped for some lunch.

McDonalds had been the boys first choice, but I just love hitting these types of places. We can eat at McDonalds any day. Burgers and fries, frosted mug root beers, and we were all good to go. The boys enjoyed ordering refills of sodas at the walk up bar.

  Gavins face in this picture shows how he was feeling about NOT stopping at McDonalds instead and tried of my picture taking.
We ended the day, by saying goodbye to our Florida friends, (for the moment, Kelly may be staying in the area) and back to the house to get Riley used to the rest of the household especially Peanut our pre-existing Pup, who is six years older but so much smaller. The rest of the family has fallen in love with him already. I have picked up urine, but Gavin has taken on poop duty. It's gonna be a long road to good doggy's, but so far it has been an amazing journey.