ZOO

Here is my attemption to a nice day out. :)

Pretty bird! I would love to own one of these! They are beautiful and from what i have seen very smart!












I have never seen this bird before..Orange!! The name escapes me, but I thought how unusual!













This is in the reptile house. We took Amber's friend Lisa with us.













I turned around and saw this and almost had a panic attack. It scared me..lol












We sat here for awhile until the gentleman came and fixed my mom's wheelchair.












right in front of the camels just sitting around just like us.













This is the tube you go in to see the polar bears and seals. Ever have a polar bear sit on your head? lol










I'm thinking this pic should be on a zoo brochure.
Ya think?












This is the fountain towards the middle of the zoo. It's been here forever. My mom has pictures of it from when my dad and her were dating.











on each side of the fountain has these cute seals spitting water..

It was so windy these day that the water was spraying us...it felt good because it was in the 80's.







THis is where the deer and the antelope play ..lol












and where the buffalo roam.















These are the most beautiful birds!

It didn't even mind getting rained on.









It was a descent day. I wished the rain would have held off a little longer. We would have spent alot longer and really looked at everything.

HOW RUDE!

Right in the middle of writing about our trip my computer goes nuts and burned out the processor or the motherboard rendering it useless! So yeh, I had to spend even more money and go buy another one.

Ok so where was I? oh, my friend Karmyn is a very smart girl! She noticed that I kept saying that we did not have trouble going across the border. Can you believe that exactly 45 minutes from home on the Blue Water Bridge trying to get back into Michigan we were in line and about 10 border patrol officer's swarmed our truck, digging into the bag in the back, asking a multitude of questions and then when we had our turn at the officer in the box(lol that's what i like to call them) HE asked us another billion questions and looked over all of our birth certificates after all of that he excused us, I pulled away, just about to hop on the highway to finish our last 45 minutes, looking at the birth certificates he handed to me I noticed that my husbands was not in my possession. What I do? I stopped, backed up and parked, I'm thinking that was the wrong thing to do when about 5 officers came from nowhere and asked "what the hell I was doing". I gulped and said "I think the officer that we just left still has my husband's birth certificate". All of a sudden I am directed to pull over to another area and 3 more officer's ask what's up and then finally someone retrieved the paper. In other words, It SUCKED!!

The trip was a well deserved vacation that we needed. When we got home one thing after another has happened, all eventually working out, yes costing me alot of money. But still I try to be upbeat thinking things are over with, that I decide I am taking my kids to the zoo. It was a beautiful almost 80 degrees with a lovely breeze. I also invited my mother to go with us. We barely into the park and my mother's wheel on her wheelchair pops off it's rim from hitting a bump. I'm thinking great, wonderful, just what we needed. Some nice stranger tried to pop it back on with no success, so another wonderful lady asked a park person if there was any way that they could help us. Next thing you know someone comes riding on a bike with a crowbar (we'll call him our night in shining armor..lol) and in just a few seconds we were on our way. You would think that would be enough of the hex for a day. But no folks! halfway thru the zoo, the once sunny sky's opened up and dumped mega water from the cloud's above! We scurried to the bathrooms to take cover until the worst of it went away. We still enjoyed ourselves but I know we would have stayed longer and really looked at the animals better before leaving, but by that point i just wanted to go home.

What you thought it was over?

Let's talk about the new computer! On Thursday I purchased the new computer and because it was so late I had to pick it up on Friday. Well I dropped it off at home and went to work. When I got home I tried to set it up and it refused to work for me. On Saturday i went to the zoo and when i got home i decided to take it back to Best Buy, the gentleman helping me was sweet and according to him he fixed it. He said it was something that had to be deleted with a special tool that was causing the trouble. ..I get home and try again, nope it's not working right, the same thing was happening. Ok, so Sunday I bring it back and explain to a new guy what happened on Friday and what was done on Saturday. This gentlemen said I will give you another computer because I think there is something wrong with this one. On top of that he explained that it might be my antivirus program might not be compatible with this computer because it was once part of another computer. So I purchased another one and made them install everything and then before i left the store they had to prove to me that this computer really worked!! Finally on Sunday Evening I was able to acually use it.

Ok, enough of my whining.

People at work definitely missed me! I was told that I could not leave for that length of time again...lol..I know they are kidding but it made me feel good.

Kids are back at school. Everything is back to routine.

Frank is back to working 5 days for now, hopefully it will stay that way.

Anyhoo, I will post some pictures of the zoo trip just as soon as I can.

Wednesday/ DAY 5

Wednesday was FAMILY bowling day! All of us went to a bowling alley in Randolph that was about the smallest bowling alley I have ever seen. There was only 10 lanes in the whole building! Something I have never seen before.








Frank's sister Alice on the left and Frank on the right
















This is Frank's neice Brianna. Alice's daughter.








Amber waiting for the ball. Almost everyone was using the same ball, ours! Seems alot of the family have the same fingering?



























Mom watching the kids play.













Frank :)













Frank's brother Mike and his wife Angie.















Frank and Mike.














Alice

After bowling 2 games a league came in and we had to get off the lanes. We went over to their dining area and had some pizza and pop. It was a fun day with the family.

This was our last day with the family.

It took me so long to post this because my computer died!!! I bought a new one and even that one gave me a hard time. I am just now getting started with finding all my favorite things and getting started with it. Bare with me while i get used to this new computer and get all my favorites back. So much to do so little time!

TUESDAY/ DAY 4

FoxyMoron says keep the pictures coming...so I will. Between my daughter and I have have at least a thousand pictures to share from our trip.





On Last Tuesday morning we woke up and decided to go bowling which was only down the street from our hotel. We were the only people in the whole bowling alley! I had never seen that before. Frank and the kids bowled, i just watched, i just was not in the mood to bowl. They all had a blast. Amber actually kicked both of their butts!






Yep, she is the mighty victor!

















Bowling has surely changed alot from when I was a kid.

This is now what your computerized scoring unit looks like...Who remember's when we actually had to do math, and write!

Now the computer screens even tell you how to knock the pins just right.

After bowling we headed over to Mom's place and her best friend Kitty came by to see us all. Everyone calls her Aunt Kitty. She is a super sweet lady and can see why mom loves her so. Another photo oportunity came up upon us.








Frank and his Mom















Aunt Kitty and Mom












picture of Frank's arm...lol










Amber and Mom


















Darin and Mom..





Just one of those lazy days and hanging out with family.

MONDAY/ DAY 3

On monday we woke up and drove to Quechee Gorge, It is Vermont's version of the Grand Canyon (so I read on a sign nearby).

You walk on this bridge to look down on it.

such a pretty view

amazing

The gang is loving the scenery!

Then we went to the tourist village near the Gorge. So many country stores in one spot.

Amber found a cute necklace that she purchased and Darin found a new Hackey Sac to play with.

The old village stores

Darin and Amber made a friend :)

Doesn't she make a cute cow?

After shopping we went over this covered bridge just to say we did.

Just a further picture of it.

All we did after this was visit with his mother. Which was always nice to do.

We did alot of swimming in the pool at the hotel...I will post pics of the hotel and pool after. It will give me more to talk about.

EASTER SUNDAY / DAY 2

I didn't get to wish you all a Happy Easter...so HAPPY BELATED EASTER. From what I have been reading you all had a nice one.

After spending a good night's sleep at the hotel in New York we got up and headed towards our destination of South Royalton, Vermont. It only took us another 5 hours to get to our hotel in White River Junction, Vermont, we stopped there to find it and to see if we could get our room yet. We did arrive a little early and because we were getting a little snow showers we wanted to get the bags out of the back of the truck. Luckily they let us check in, we dropped off the bags and then we went in search of Frank's mother.

We did find her only about a 20 to 25 minute drive away. She was happy to see us, things the first day and being that it was Easter Sunday was a bit awkward....it's been 7 years. It got better in the next few days.

We had been invited with the rest of the family to Easter dinner over Frank's brother, Mike. We drove about another 1/2 hour to get to his house and he lives in a beautiful house on top of a hill with a gorgeous view of Vermont mountains. We don't see mountains in Michigan so it is all new to my kids.

We had delicious ham and potatoes, veggies, desserts. It was wonderful! Thanks Mike and Angie!
After dinner everyone went outdoors to ride ATV's and of course picture taking.







these are all the brothers and sisters and mom

left to right

Rob, Ann(mom), Mike, Alice and Frank

























the whole family















all the grandkids, but 1, Christopher, could not leave school somewhere..
left to right
Eric, Larry, Brianna, Peter in the way back Brian just behind mom Amber and Darin










same thing...look at all the woods...again, something you don't see alot of until you hit upper Michigan.







This is Rob, his motto is
"I'm easy to get along with"

Mike and Angie really do have a big beautiful home.











Peter, Brian, Brianna and Alice feasting.













This is Ann (Frank's mom) and her boyfriend Ron.
Cute eh?













These 2 pics are of the view that Mike and Angie have from their living room window. Mountains, trees, and more country living!











How many people can say they have this kind of view?











We all were tired after dinner. Mom went to her house and we chit chatted for a bit longer then headed back to our hotel to chill lax and sleep.

The only souvenir I brought home was a bad cold! yuck! Luckily it waited until we were ready to come home it would have sucked to be sick the whole vacation.


I am slowly catching up with all of my favorite blogs. You all have been busy while i was away. lol