On to the Rayhill's!

July 14. On the road again, new creaks and rattles noticed after a couple of days away from driving. Rich plans to look at some stuff on the van while in Utica. We are headed to Rich's childhood home for a few days before heading to the Cape. We got off to a semi early start after a full day yesterday. Despite gloomy weather we managed to swim, fish, visit and swim some more. Reese found a new friend in a cousin. Tommy is eight, my cousin Tim's eldest. They caught crickets and spent lots of time jumping off the boathouse. He went with Tim and his family after playing with Tommy for an hour without looking back. They tubed and swam for hours. Stacey and Gillian showed up with baby Charley and the little girls went crazy saying 'I want to hold it!' which made us all laugh. Charley, as all nine month olds, ate up the attention. The adults marveled at where we are in our lives, and what we had done as youngsters. Adam, another of my cousins, (uncle Adam to the kids) helped end the day on high note with fish catching at the Marina. It is truly a kid's paradise up in the Muskoka Lakes. Not bad for adults either. We head south toward a stop at Niagara Falls before barreling across New York to the Rayhill side of the family. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful, kind, fun generous family!!! My heart is full!!

Stuck in Buffalo traffic after a stop for gas, it is 5pm and both kids are passed out in the back seat. We are anxious to put the last couple of hours behind us and be at Paul and Regina's place. We'll be staying with Rich's brother and sister in law for few days before we all pack up for Cape Cod. Peter, another of Rich's brothers, and his family live down the road so we get a lot of bang for our buck when we visit. We barely made it through the border again. The kind looking gentleman admonished me about crossing the border without a passport, as if I had done it purposefully. They can look up the electronic version which I found interesting. Niagara Falls is as you would expect. Lots of people, lots of gulls, lots of water. We went down to the falls in yellow ponchos and disposable shoes to get whipped into a wet waterfall frenzy before jumping back in the car. Ruby even liked it even though she was convinced she didn't want to go.