The Strong Museum

One of the days while in New York we drove into Rochester and went to The Strong Museum.  This place was amazing!  I think we spent 5 hours there, but it was not enough. (Editor's note: Yes, it was.)

 This room made you into Lego-type figures that move around.  The boys had a great time dancing and watching themselves.

 I had to pry them away from every exhibit so they could at least see half of the museum.

 We had to take our picture in front of the Sesame Street door.

 As you can tell this wasn't as exciting as the other activities.

 I'm not sure what happened right before this.  Although I'm sure the wind just blew the wrong way.  As you can see, Anders was in a mood.  Shocker, I know.

 Hans made friends with a troll.

 John wanted to do the same thing as his dad.  And this must be what his dad's facial expressions look like to him.  Love it.

 Anything art the boys are game.  These light tables are so simple and yet kept them captivated for a long time.

The museum also had a pretend grocery store.  The kids could take little carts, shop for things, and check out themselves.  Gus loved using the register and even put on the store manager apron and talked on the intercom.  

We ended the day by getting milkshakes.  That was the only thing that was going to get these kids to leave.

New York

This summer we went to New York to spend the week with my family.  This is the first summer our Fiene clan has been up there and not gone to the cottage.  It was different, but I loved exploring the area around my grandparents house.

Our first stop was my Aunt Diane's house.  It is always our first stop and we are always excited to be there.

 Aunt Diane always has fun things to do.  There were fun whistling arrows for the boys to shoot AND they made their own ice cream in this ball.  After the ice cream ingredients were put in the boys were charged with rolling the ball around without stopping for 10 minutes.  They had tons of fun.

After we got to my grandparents we did a ton of stuff.  I kept forgetting my camera.  I'm sure there are pictures floating around somewhere.  We went to the Herschell Carrousel Factory.  This museum was pretty neat.  We were able to see the process that went into building a carousel and carving the horses.  It is actually pretty sad if you think about the fact that people don't work with their hands like this as much anymore.  Everything is mass produced.  After walking through the museum the boys were able to ride on a few older carousel type rides.  They had a wonderful time.

 It wouldn't be a true visit with Grandma if there weren't marshmallow shooters involved.  The boys, and Fritz, has a blast with these.

 Anders had a hard time getting his marshmallows to shoot out.  He huffed and puffed, but nothing.  But that didn't stop this little warrior.  He eventually figured it out.  I'm just glad he didn't start bashing his brothers over the head with the shooter.

This kept them occupied for hours and Fritz had a great snack.

 We also got to go on the Maid of the Mist.  I haven't been since I was a kid.

 All ready to get wet.

 The falls were beautiful.  These are the American Falls.

 This part of the horseshoe here is part of the Canadian Falls.  

 We survived and managed to only get our shoes wet.

The day before we had to come home we all (aunts, uncles, and cousins) had a gathering at my Uncle Mark and Aunt Anne's house.  Or, as the boys like to call him, Uncle Whitey.

The boys really got into the Can Jam game.

We had good food, games, and laughs.

Gunflint

Hans' parents have a cabin on the Canadian side of Gunflint Lake. Hans spent his summers up there as a kid.  This summer Hans took John and Gus up there to spend some time with his parents.

 This is the view from the cabin.  Beautiful!

The boys checking things out.

 The boys went on hikes, took baths in the lake and showers in the falls, and put one foot in Canada and one foot in the U.S.

 When they weren't outside they were hanging out in the lovely cabin.

 They played checkers...

 ...and chess.  I wonder how many fights this caused.  Gus doesn't look too happy.  Or maybe that is his thinking face.  I can't tell the difference some times.

In the evenings they roasted marshmallows in the stove.

Fun times were had by all.

The boys had a great time telling me about their adventures.  They weren't sure about the outhouse...but I can't really blame them on that one.