Day ????: On the road again...

On Saturday, I packed up the kids and the car again and headed to the Southern Tier to visit family in and around the Corning/Horseheads communities.  We made our first stop in Corning at my Aunt and Uncle's house:



Aunt Judy and Uncle Bruce with the kids and Sarah, the dog.























My aunt and uncle live on a huge property out in the middle of the woods. While their street and property now has neighbors and is paved....it wasn't always that way.  The area is beautiful with a meadow as their yard and surrounding trails and woods that are just begging to be explored by kids!!

Before any exploring could begin, though, my sister and cousin arrived with their children so that we could attend the annual "Cardboard boat derby" on nearby Waneta Lake.  This is an annual event of boat entries made from cardboard and reels and reels of duck tape (to "help" achieve some semblance of water-proofing).  As a little aside, my sister and her son's boat has sunk every other year that they have entered.  The good news? This year Kelly managed to "borrow" a boat from another friend that was water worthy. While they didn't sink, the next step will be some lessons about paddling.

The kids in "The Graf Cousins" boat with Tia Kelly ready to give a good push.



Occasionally, the kids needed to be towed by the nice lady in the kayak [FYI, she is holding the tow rope between her teeth!!]



The cool thing about the race was just having all of the cousins together!



Oldest to youngest, Ana, Olivia, Kevin, Diego and Grace.





Although the kids didn't win the race for the fastest (or the slowest, thanks to the kayak tow), they enjoyed another "lake swimming" experience.

Fun Facts From Today:

Number of times a child asked me "Are we there yet?" = 3

Miles driven = 163

Number of wrong turns = 0