International Travel

Hello Everyone,

Did you see my post's title: "International Travel?" Don't get too excited. I don't mean to say that it wasn't an exciting trip, but Canada is about as unexciting as international travel can get. Our four day trip up there was mainly to visit our Aunt and Uncle and their family, though we also made a few other stops along the way that helped to break up the long drive.

Paraphernalia of travel:

jackets to keep us from freezing in Canada, a book to wile away

the many miles, medicine (in the diaper bag pocket) to treat

any sudden illnesses, a bucket in the event that car-sickness
becomes a reality :-/, and a hat to.....um...advertise Denver

Wholesale Foods!

Mom and her bottomless box of snacks.

A victim of two much love

Our first stop was the Corning Museum of Glass in New York.

(I wonder if we have ever had a vacation that didn't include
visiting at least one museum. I can't think of any.)

"Watch your step" takes on fresh meaning.

Corning Museum of Glass

Welcome to Corning Museum of Glass; walk right in!

(Ever notice that the photographer is often last?)

"What do you think? Do I dare touch it?"

One of the many beautiful glass creations we saw.

When Candace saw that this glass mosaic of President Theodore
Roosevelt had been displayed at the World's Fair, she said "Just
imagine: I'm looking at the same thing that ladies in fancy gowns
looked at!"

"Look, Candace," I said "your lady in the fancy gown!"

Until recently, I had never even heard of glass pumpkins; now they

seem to be popping up everywhere (that is what is being made
in this picture from one of the fascinating glass-blowing

demonstrations we saw).

He didn't get to use rocks or a baseball, but he still had fun
being allowed to break glass. :-)

Do they instinctively know their place in the family?
Our amazement at their all sitting in order of age reminded
me of the story of Joseph's brothers, only this time it truly
was a coincidence.

Charity - "through a glass, darkly..."

"...but then face to face."

(I know, those two photos are AWFUL, but, when I was able
to apply 1 Cor. 13, I couldn't resist.)

Conrad, do you truly think that knocking is going to get the
elevator here faster?

Back on the Road

Snacks eventually lose their charm...


...and I have to take back what I said on an earlier post about
our family not going out to eat on vacations.

Candace sips water with a clear conscience in the place of the
unhealthy alternative: soda.

"No fair! it's chlorinated!"

One of those crazy toys that you can only buy in a kid's meal.

We made quite a spectacle at the hotel! (Not due

to misbehavior, of course; a big family just can't travel these
days without attracting attention:-).

I thought I had completely come to terms with being
separated from technology for several days. Why, then,
was it so tempting to settle down in front of the computer
in the hotel's lobby? ;-)

Niagara Falls

If children see a statue, they want to climb it. If they are already
up there, it makes sense to take a photo of them.

"Normal routine" or otherwise captioned "Prince royal."

Niagara Falls (specifically, the American Falls) as seen from
the American side. The Canadian view is much nicer (partiality
for my own country can't keep from admitting that).

Looking down, we could see the Cave of the Winds (decks beneath
the falls). My siblings started begging to go down, but Dad said,
"There is no way I'm sticking all my children in slickers and taking
them down there to get soaked!"

Unrelenting power.

"This is the token of the covenant, which I have established
between me and all flesh that is upon the earth...[that] the waters
shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh." ~ Genesis 9:15&17

Just think, that is Canada over there.

The Cave of the Winds

On the right is the man who said he wouldn't be caught taking his
children to the bottom of the falls!

Those sandals were necessary! Our shoes would have been soaked.

ADVENTURE!!!

The Hurricane Deck where you could get as close as twenty
feet to the falls! It was like being in the fiercest rainstorm
I have ever been in. Candace and Conrad spent most of
their time on this level.

A drenched, but exhilarated, survivor of the Hurricane Deck.

"I could do that again."

A random people-observation.

I like to see people feeding birds.

Ontario, Canada

"Last but not least," as they say, we arrive at our final destination:
our aunt and uncle's home.

No visit with our Canadian relatives would be complete without
Scrabble. My uncle (on the right) is the standing champion; once, Dad
beat him by one point. Dad doesn't give up easily, however!


He needs all the help he can get.

Bedtime for a bunch of girls who don't actually plan to sleep
for several more hours.

Bedtime blessings. - Photographing prayer does not
encourage reverence I discovered. :-)

You can't really tell from the picture, but that was a candle-light
breakfast. Apparently in Canada it is not unusual to have the
electricity turned off for several hours for maintenance work once
in a while. It was quite adventurous preparing 18 people for church
without the luxuries of running water, heat, and light!

Two nearly identical Sunday shoes + two similar stocking feet =
some confusion in getting two boys appropriately shod for church.

We are in Canada. It is cold in Canada. Windshields freeze
as a matter of course in Canada.

A post-Sunday-dinner discussion in which my scientific cousin
expounds on the "theoretical world" while Conrad stubbornly sticks to
a "real world" viewpoint. Really, that is what they were discussing.

Children and Leaves

Rake 'em up.

Get ready, get set...

...GO!

The age-old game of "I'm dead; bury me in the leaves."

Fall Fashions - she fits right in, doesn't she.

After I snapped this photo, my cousins first question was,
"Can you see my tooth?" I think what she really meant was,
"Can you not see my tooth?"

Just friends - too young and too closely related to be
anything more. :-)