One good weekend

Cory's sister Danielle and her boyfriend Trevor came to visit us last weekend. I took some time off from work and gave myself a 5-day weekend (nice!) It was so much fun having them here, and getting to show off New York.

First, we went to see all the church historical sites (that's what we do for everyone who visits). This is the frame home the Smiths built (I love fall!)


The temple, framed by fall leaves.

The original rock wall the Smiths built to mark their property line -- it's up on the temple grounds.

The next day, we drove 2.5 hours north to a place called 'The Thousand Islands.' When Cory and I moved out here, we made a list of all the places we wanted to visit while living on the east coast -- and this was the only place left on our list. So now we've seen everything :) The Thousand Islands is actually a group of more than 1800 islands, stretching from northern New York into Canada. Many of the islands are privately owned -- people buy the island then erect these gorgeous houses.


The only way to see the islands is by boat, so we took a 2 hour boat tour around the islands. This is us on the boat.

Haha, this is where Trevor is going to some day live...

This is the smallest of all the islands. All you need to be counted as one of the islands is a tree and some other form of vegetation. Wa-la!

They call this the world's shortest international bridge, cause it passes right over the American/Canadian border. Our tour guide says the guy who owns the islands used to banish his grand kids to another country when they were being bad.

This is Boldt Castle, as seen from the water.

The Boldt Castle pump house.

For a few extra dollars, you can take a tour of the castle, which is exactly what we did. The grounds were gorgeous. And the castle was so cool-looking.



Haha, I was trying so hard to keep a straight face... and failing miserably...

I love this picture of the 4 of us, on the terrace of the castle.

This is a state park called Watkins Glen. It's so pretty, carved out over centuries of time by water. Cory took Danielle & Trevor down to visit (I stayed home, by this time, I was feeling rather sick... too much playing, I'm afraid)

This is a good picture showing how narrow it is.

We'll sure miss all the cool stuff that's in or nearby New York when we move. We've seen some really cool places and it's so fun to show them off. It was nice having visitors, even though I felt crappy for lots of the time. Thanks for coming and seeing us, guys!

Canada, eh?

Cory is good luck out here in New York. He’s a member of the sports club here at NYCC. They held a raffle to raise money for their club events, and so Cory bought 20 raffle tickets. It turns out it might be the best $10 he ever spent. He won the grand prize – a 2 night stay at a hotel in Niagara Falls – complete with breakfast. So we took advantage of his winning and turned it into a Memorial Day weekend trip.

Having already been to Niagara Falls twice (this being our third time) we decided to be total tourists. Our hotel was on the Canadian side of the falls, just up the hill. (Seriously, it was within walking distance, which was very nice). There’s tons of stuff to do along this hill that leads down to the falls. Mini-golf, arcades, lots of food, museums, casinos, a ferris wheel and plenty of souvenir shops. We bought fun passes (good for 6 activities) and played all day long. (Beware: lots of vacation photos to follow!)

A dinosaur mini-golf course! So much fun!


The Ferris wheel we rode on - you can see both falls from the top - it's really amazing!


The views from the Ferris wheel.



Cory playing an arcade game. It was hilarious! He had a plastic sword and had to slash at the bag guys on the video screen - making sure his sword stayed within the sensors - kind of like a Wii. I was laughing so hard - he's so cute!



At the wax museum - Cory with Indiana Jones and Lara Croft - Sarah with Captain Jack Sparrow and Will Turner!!


Gorgeous tulips down near the falls.

I’ve wanted to go to Toronto ever since we moved out here … so we included Toronto into our trip (given that we were already halfway there). We got to go to the temple there (very pretty!), down the boardwalk along Lake Ontario, and to the Toronto Zoo. On Sunday it turned out to be stake conference for the entire country! It was being broadcast live from a stake center in Toronto, and so we got the privilege of hearing President Monson speak! It was really neat - he used to be a mission president in Toronto, so to hear his reminisce was special.

The Toronto temple.



Lake Ontario boardwalk. Very pretty - same blue color as the lakes by us.

Elephants at the zoo. Pretty big!




Tiger cubs (about 1 year old) playing at the zoo ... sooooo cute! I told Cory I wanted one but he thinks that would not be a good idea. Too bad!

Overall, we had an awesome time! It was fun to see Niagara Falls again (the power of all that water never ceases to amaze me!) and see some of the sites of Toronto. Of course, my favorite part was all the time I got to spend with Cory. We went to yummy restaurants together, watched the NBA finals, watched the Stanley Cup finals, slept in, and enjoyed being with each other. I have the best husband in the world, and I love him more than anything. It was great to spend some quality time together!! Best $10 he ever spent is right!!