NY Trip

And finally I'm back with pictures of our trip to NY.  We love going up there in the summer, not only to see all of the relatives, but to escape the heat - and this was an unusually hot summer in NC.

It was the weekend of the Spiedie Fest and Balloon Rally.  Spiedies are a local type of kabob, with pork or chicken marinated, skewered, and grilled, then placed in a slice of bread.  Yummy!  They also have twice daily balloon lifts.  We went down there Sunday morning.  Walking into Otsiningo Park at 6:30 am, we could see two balloons filled up but not yet launched, just filling the sky over the trees.

We saw them from laid out on the ground, completely airless, through all stages of filling - first with cold air just to expand them, then with hot air to make them bouyant.  The boys were allowed to be right near the baskets and really enjoyed watching the process.

Then we watched them float down the valley.  It was a great morning!

Later that afternoon, we went to Great Grandma's 90th birthday party.  Over 70 folks were there to celebrate with her.  Here she is with 4 of her 6 children:

And here with many of her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

The next day we went down the street to the creek Ryan, his brother, and their friends played in when they were kids.  During the summer, it's only ankle-deep in most spots, and you can walk all the way down to the river.  The kids enjoyed playing in it, looking for 'mud bugs' and fossils, and getting wet.

On our way home, we took a detour into Washington DC.  We spent the afternoon at the Museum of Natural History.  And in the evening we went here:

Matthew has been really into baseball this year, and the Nationals' pitcher, Strasburg, is his hero.  It was Stras' first game back after having been on the DL.  Of course Matthew had to buy a Stras shirt, and insisted on the white one against my better judgment.

Jeremy is not so much into baseball, but he made it to the middle of the first before he asked to go to the playground.  :)  I took him there, then we got ice creams for all and went back to our seats.  We stayed through the 6th, when the fun and excitement of the trip was catching up with the boys - they were clearly exhausted!