What most refer to as bowling....

So we discover Friday night after volunteering, that maybe we should stick to the Wii.

Here are some shots we took in the dark bowling alley....

John, showing off...

Me pretending that I'm good. I did get a couple strikes and spares...

Rachel and I had about the same luck throughout the night, but still had fun...

And one of the funniest parts of the night, captured on film... Jeff took a turn...

And you can see both his anguish and his lonely pin left standing....

We played 2 games. In the first game, John won, Rachel came in 2nd, Jeff and came in 3rd and only beat me by 2 points. In the second game, John won again, then Jeff in 2nd, and beat me by 3 points- I came in 3rd and Rachel came in 4th. It was fun even thought the floor was so slippery that we had to walk funny, which doesn't work in bowling. And the ball really did whatever it wanted as it approached the pins because of the floor. We had free tickets from when the guys donated blood, so it was worth it in the end.

#2 Volunteer at the Rescue Mission!

John and I had an opportunity to volunteer at the Rescue Mission Friday night. Rachel and Jeff tagged along and we met up with our church there. It was so much fun! I can't wait to do it again. I love volunteering and helping others. Rachel and I helped serve the food and the guys helped out on the dish machine. It was a great experience, and made me realize how absurd I am when I open up my overflowing pantry door and stare at it blankly thinking I don't know what to eat. Heck, I have a can opener and a can of veggies, and that is more than some have that eat at the Rescue Mission. God is so good to the Mission. They get all there food by donation and most of the staff is volunteer based. My favorite part is that the people come in get dinner and are allowed to stay the night if they are willing to go to the church service there at the Mission. There are also showers and a laundry facility for them to use.

Here are some pictures of us inbetween serving.

Maryanna...
Jeff on dish...

Greg helping with the dishes...

John was helping with dishes and stocking the serving line with dishes...

Maryanna, me, and Rachel, and a couple of the youth volunteers behind us...

All of the volunteers from our church:

Kristi (me), John, Rachel, Jeff, Maryanna, a youth member, Greg and a few more youth volunteers...

Day 8 and 9 of our trip!

On our final 2 days of our trip we did a lot. On day 8 we drove from Syracuse to Buffalo. I was really excited about this part of the trip....

We went for.... WINGS!!!

Before...

After....

We stopped at none other than the Anchor Bar. Home of the original Buffalo Chicken Wing!!!

After lunch we took a hop and a skip over to Niagara Falls. We stayed state side for this visit.

I snapped a picture of this picture because it was amazing to see. It all started with a large chunk of ice that clogged up the water upstream. It is really cool to see a picture of this.

John and I checked out all parts of the falls. This is the American Falls...

American Falls...

This is a view of the Canadian side from the American Side... that is where John and I visited the last time we went...

We stood at the edge and you could feel the spray of water...

This is the Horseshoe Falls (the Canadian part of the falls.)

It is so cool to see the water just disappear.

It creates a beautiful color...

This is a picture of the stream rushing towards the falls.

And this little guy was in the park there. None of us had ever seen a black squirrel with a brown tail. It was so cool to see.

On our last day, before we drove all the way back to VA, we took a detour with the team. We got to go to Cooperstown, NY, to the Baseball Hall of Fame. John and I had never been there.

This is a picture of the scanned line-up card from the 1979 World Series game when John's dad was playing with the Pirates.

This is John standing in the Hall of Fame.

Here he is posing with a statue of Babe Ruth...

After the Hall of Fame we had to get on the road back home. I think there was some sort of Hot Air Balloon Festival in West VA/ VA, because we kept seeing balloons.

It was a pretty and sunny ride back. We made it home a safe and sound.

We hope to get to go to Canada again in a couple years. We were so blessed to get to go!

Day 5, 6, and 7 of our vacation!

On day 5 John got to hang out with his dad, Tim, and go fishing together. Apparently there was a large fish caught and a picture taken with John's camera phone. That picture didn't save properly, so here we have a classic story of it was

this

[----------------------------------------------------------------------------]

big

(according to John it was 23 inches or something. Whatever, they had fun and Ginette and I teased John about not having a picture)

That night and again on Day 6 we played cards together. It's one of our favorite things to do when we are all together. Here are some pictures of us playing cards.... the dogs do not know how to play... lol!

Ginette and I hung out around the house of day 5 and did some shopping on day 6. I'll show you my favorite find...
And Here I am napping with all the dogs....
Finally on day 7 it was pretty enough to get to go to a game. Here is the field. It is next to an old train boarding area.... (see foreground of picture...)

Ginette and I went to eat lunch at the park with the ladies and got to see the team warming up. John was dressed like the team and like his dad. It was so fun to see. Here is John with his mom and dad- Ginette and Tim.

Here are I am with John and Tim.

I got to see John hit a few balls. he was hitting pretty good considering he doesn't play for a living.

Here is Tim pitching to John. I know they had fun together...

John getting ready to swing...

I love my smart and athletic husband.... So cute...

Here they are lined up at the game during the singing of the national anthem.John got to walk the line-up card out to the umps and opposing manager. This is the first time he ever got to do this... AND he got to do it twice because it was a double header! How fun!

here he is chatting about the secret stuff they chat about out there....And on with the game...