Great America

We made it up to Great America last week. Chris had a fabulous time!! We had a really hard time pulling him away from Wiggle World - he kept accosting Dorothy the Dinosaur! Sophie, Ella, Michal & Kenna also enjoyed themselves. Here are a few pics. I'm behind on my posts, but some birthday weekend pics will come, I promise.
IP

Another Day in the Big Blue Car

Apparently, the Big Blue Car is made for two! Sophie & Ella had a great time discussing who would drive (apparently only Sophie), that it was TOO hot in the car, so they needed to put on the air conditioning, and that the Wiggles needed to be on the radio at all times! It was quite cute. Here are some pics of the ride around the yard.

A shameless plug

For those of you that didn't know, Sophie's favorite National Historic Landmark is Pleasant Home, here in Oak Park. It is a fantastic house museum (pictured here with Sophie & Ileana on the porch) and Sophie's favorite pastime is to look at and count the hundreds of lions heads that adorn it.

Pleasant Home is one of 25 local landmarks that was selected to be part of the Partners in Preservation program and you can help. Please visit: Partners in Preservation and cast a vote for Pleasant Home - actually, you can cast as many votes as you have e-mails and you can vote daily until the contest ends. The historic site with the most votes will be guaranteed funding and runners up get funding too!

Help make Sophie's visits to Pleasant Home that much more enjoyable! If you are ever in town, let me know and I will bring you on a free tour. Thanks for your help.

-Chris

At the New York State Fair

A summer in Central New York is not complete without a trip to the New York State Fair. One our vacation, we took Sophie and nephew John to the fair for a day. Actually it was less than a day since it rained for most of it. Sophie enjoyed the barns and barns full of animals - cows, llamas, bunnies, chickens, horses, turkey, and more.
She wasn't so keen on getting her photo taken with the butter sculpture but she loved the free samples of cheesecake, cheese, and all the other goodies there.
Sophie soon became addicted with Ileana's favorite game, I Got It. She had some trouble throwing her balls into her own play area but she enjoyed it. John won but Ileana went home empty handed.
We didn't ride too many of the rides on the midway but Sophie was fascinated by the people, lights, and all of the merry go rounds.

Sophie's Vacation

Sophie kept very busy on our vacation last week. The week started with a visit to the Derrigans in Buffalo. Sophie and Molly got along well and along with Cavan, enjoyed a day at the zoo together. We spent a night in Niagara Falls where Sophie saw "the water fountain". Though the picture might show otherwise, Sophie actually loved the Falls. But it was a toss-up when compared to the spaghetti ad meatball dinner.
A morning at the butterfly conservatory and a trip to Niagara on the Lake completed our stay in Western New York. If the weather had cooperated, we might have stayed a bit longer but the rain seemed to follow us everywhere we went.

On our way to Syracuse, we stopped at the Willard Memorial Chapel, in Auburn. Sophie had about had it with the car trip and proceeded to dance around the inside of the chapel, during the tour. After the tour, she attempted to scale the exterior walls. Luckily she didn't get too far. For more on the chapel interior, be sure to check out Tiny Bungalow
The vacation ended with a visit to relatives in Syracuse where Sophie took in the New York State Fair (I'll follow with a separate blog on that excursion). We had lunch one day at one of Syracuse's great beer establishments, The Blue Tusk. Sophie enjoyed almost as much as I did.
We have been trying to get Sophie to swim all summer. Finally, she took the plunge at Uncle Eric and Aunt Rhonda's new place. Unfortunately, the swim was also cut short by a rain storm.