Independance Day

We started off the festivities by going to Olcott New York on Thursday night. There is a mini amusement park near the beach where rides cost twenty-five cents each. We rode some rides, ate Coney Island hot dogs (not so good) and then drove back down to Lockport for Kung Fu Panda at the Drive In.


On the Fourth, we loaded up the car and headed to Finger Lakes National Forrest for some camping. The forrest is between Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake. We found the greatest camp site (primitive camping) and got everything set up. We went with some friends from our ward. The kids had a great time fishing (we were right next to a pond) running and of course getting dirty!

A look at the area..beautiful! Its wine country so there were vineyards everywhere

That night we made dutch oven diners, and drove into Watkins Glen to watch the fire works! What a sight! Watkins Glen is surrounded by rolling hills so we were able to watch five different shows of Fireworks. Not to mention all the firefly's! That was the most fun to watch. When we got back to our camp site we sat outside and watched them dance around the outskirts of our fire light. Then when we went to bed and the fire was out we were surrounded! It was awesome!
'H' did so well. It was her very first camping trip! In fact all the kids did! The next day we cleaned up and as we cleaned we met a girl from a campsite close to us. She asked if she could help us with cleaning (H wasn't liking sitting in her playpen anymore) so she held 'H' and we talked. It was a great experience..she talked about just loosing a baby two months ago and how she was searching for something but she didn't know what it was. We had a great opportunity to teach her a little about the gospel. We gave her a Hill Cumorah Pagent card and 'P' and 'R' gave her a Book of Mormon. She was very gracious and we gave her our number in case she had questions or wanted us to go with her to the pagent. Since then we've been praying for her and hopefully she'll find her way in life!
After that we headed back to Watkins Glen to swim in Seneca Lake! They have this section of beach where it doesn't get any deeper than waist high on the kiddies. So we went swimming and had a picnic. The beach was great! the water was perfect and there was also a playground and bathrooms.

'P' and 'M' got to use their new towels...here they are warming up under the sun..'P' got out of the water and fell asleep on hers.
I thought this was a funny picture..those floaties sure accentuate 'R's ears..