Movie Date to take our minds off trying times....

Great Northern Mall
Clay, NY
October 5th 2014

Mark and I have not had a date is several weeks. He has had a-lot weighing on him, and we are all feeling at a loss as we have officially found out that Ben will be moving with his mother to Florida next month.
I cannot begin to express how this will impact our entire family.Juggling children after a divorce is difficult enough, but when the child moves several hundreds of miles away it becomes like a part of our heart is ripping.
Gavin was devastated when we told him, but Mark has been.. in denial, but lately  he has become detached and withdrawn. He had shown some interest in the new movie with Denzel Washington, The Equalizer so on Sunday I surprised him with a movie date.

I know that a really great movie (even with Denzel Washington) can never replace the change that our family will face in November, but it does take the mind away for those few hours as we watch the drama that unfolds on the screen. I'm sure that this upset of the family will continue to impact us and how our life proceeds in the future, but we will move on and stay hopeful. After all Florida is a GREAT place to travel to!

SU Football

Syracuse University Dome

Syracuse, NY

October  3, 2014

Last Thursday an email popped up on my computer screen. Anyone for SU tickets? I JUMPED on it. and since my neighbor Emanuel was the ticket holder I sent an email back ...I WANT FOUR and yelled over the cubicle divider....YES!!! I Want Tickets....

By Friday evening I had the family PUMPED for some FOOTBALL!!!

R U READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

We were and the tickets were FREE!!! I love FREE and I love getting to the games....even though SU is NOT doing well This game was NO different. They lost to Louisville, 28 to 6. 

Every chance they had to score was somehow messed up. Inches away from a touchdown and we ran out of time. It was SOOOO disappointing. I am beginning to think our family will NEVER see a winning team ever!

Otto came out on the back of a motor cycle.

and here comes the TEAM!!!

Lots of orange in the crowd.

 Half time cheers!

I have to say there was a different feel for the crowd on a Friday night early in the season, then the previous afternoon games later in the season that I have seen. There was much more ENERGY!!!
When the crowd would make NOISE it felt like the place was going to take flight. I can't even begin to explain the audio sensation.

What a nice way to spend a Friday evening with the family, even if SU lost...again. With Ben moving away we have been enjoying every moment we can with him and watching an SU game is one thing we know he will miss in sunny Florida. Our next family adventure will be in Lake George for perhaps our last family trip to this area of the world. Mark's mother is moving as well, and we will no longer have a need to go to Lake George to visit her. So many changes happening it is hard to keep up. Until next time TTFN!

Canandaigua Wine Walk

Canadaguia, NY

Wine Walk

September 4, 2014

On Saturday I went with my meet up friends to Canadaguia for the wine walk. It was about an hour drive from were we all started and it was RAINING when we left, but the clouds opened up just for a bit while we walked the streets of Canandaigua.

For a small fee we all got our souvenir wine glasses and our trip tick to wine and food tasting.

All of the places offering wine tasting or foods to taste too.

First Stop was Simple Crepes, it was also where we ended our walk that evening for dinner. The winery featured was 1911 Spirits which is located in LaFayette, NY at Beak n Skiff. I have had their apple wine tastes before and loved them. I drove on this trip so my tastes were limited!!!

The stroll along the streets kept us entertained with things to look at and PLAY with.

Scott and the Black Sheep!

Second stop...although it was third on our list if we were following a list...was Adorn. It would have been third if the VFW winery happened to be there, which it wasn't and apparently it never did show up.

Getting a taste at Adorn and browsing the jewelry.

I contemplated purchasing a tierra...justfor the day but at the price of anywhere from 20+ dollars. If there were a few plastic ones available all of us ladies would have been jeweled up for the event.

Purple balloons indicated a wine tasting ...

Red balloons are food tasting...

In the Olde Homestead Country Store we were fed some seafood stew (which I passed on) and some other food I dipped in crackers.

I loved this Halloween themed witches hat.

More balloons that way....at the Coach St. Clay. Ravines wine cellar wines. I tried one sip and dumped the rest. Sorry...I was not a fan of this wine at all.

We just get a glimpse of those clear blue skies......

Carol has a little fun dancing to the music in the city center...

Blue Balloons???? Not part of the walk, but they had wine and food. We hit the jackpot with this hidden stop not on the tour....Beautiful paintings and we all got our fill of wine and crackers.

The artist daughter said..."Help yourselves" so we did!!!

a toast on the street! (Yes we are breaking the LAW!!!! Do not do as we do!!!)

I didn't try the wines in this shop, but I did try some tea and I simply LOVED the hot cinnamon, in retrospect I should have bought some to take home.

At the finger lakes Gallery,...(I couldn't afford ANYTHING in this store sale or not) there was cheese tasting from Wegmans. I am such a fuddy duddy....the cheese's even had me wrinking my nose. I'll stick with some good old America. Something about 18 month old cheese doesn't seem right.

Cheese tasting...

Right next door, we hit up the candy store and there were samples of fudge, chocolate truffles and out of the world with YUM....chocolate covered strawberries.

Tina and Carol enjoying their strawberries....

The music store had some amazing uses of old instruments as well as some odd uses of things to make musical instruments. Pictured below, that is a real cigar box.

Next stop is The Saltydog. More wine served. I had stopped after someone had filled my cup at the painting studio several stops back.

Some pretty coral.

and these guys are totally fun.

Cheers!!!

We made two more stops Frozen Yogurt and American Made both offered food tasting. I did not like the BBQ, corn and mashed potatoes with horsey sauce at the Yogurt place, but the corn chowder at American Made was to die for. At last we made it to our starting destination Simply Crepes and we made it just in time for our dinner reservations...
Nearly everything on the menu is in a crepe and it was so incredibly good I would go again and again and again. This was Kim's...

Tina had soup and salad.

and mine was buffalo chicken...It was soooooooooooooooooo gooood!!!

but the Very best part was the FREE (part of the wine walk and dinner purchase)  desert!!!! I had carmel apple crepes paired with vanilla ice cream. It was AMAZING!!!

Here we all are making funny faces and just about to dig into our deserts!!!

What an amazing day. I am so glad I went. This meet up group has been so welcoming and so far I have experienced nothing but good people and great times. I am not sure when my next adventure with these wonderful people will be, but I am sure it will be a fun time! TTFN