September 2018 Update

Welcome to the beginning of the school year, when things are supposed to get back to a more normal schedule.  I’m not sure that’s true around my home and family, but we did start back up with school for Zach, Jemmie, and Levi, and our Awana year started at church.

But this story starts back in mid-August, and, after all, it’s still technically summer until September 21, and it’s over 80 degrees here today, so forget that.

I mentioned last month that Kortney and Daisy came home with us after Cai and Amy’s wedding, so we got to have lots of fun spending time with them for that first week since I wrote last.  We went to Hamlin Beach, several area parks, and just generally had a great time getting to know our Minnesota family better.

Krista and I celebrated our 38th anniversary on 8/22.  Well, that’s when it was, but because we had just gotten back from the wedding, and because we didn’t want to go away while we had company, we waited and celebrated it this past weekend.  38 years ago, we spent our honeymoon at Watkins Glen, so we decided to go there again.  On our way down Friday night, we stopped at Stephanie’s Family Restaurant in Bath to get what Google said was the best fish fry in Bath.  It was really good!  Sometimes these little places that look like a hole in the wall have the best food!

We stayed in a hotel in Horseheads (yes, for those of you not from this area, that really is a town in New York State) Friday and Saturday night and enjoyed relaxing in their pool when we weren’t out having adventures.  On Saturday, we went to Watkins Glen and hiked 1.5 miles up the gorge like we had 38 years ago.  Somehow it was easier back then.  I blame it on 38 years of erosion making the gorge steeper.  Yeah, that’s it.

Actually, it wasn’t that hard, and we really enjoyed seeing beautiful waterfall after beautiful waterfall.  When we got back, we were ready to relax and even swimming sounded too hard, so we went to see Crazy Rich Asians at the theater across the street from the hotel.  Then we went to supper at a local BBQ place in the same mall as the theater and had a delicious beef brisket.

Ready to go!

Waterfall selfie #1

Views of the Watkins Glen gorge

Cavern Cascade

Video from behind Cavern Cascade

We started on a side path in the middle, then walked back to the beginning (where we are here) so we could do the whole trail

Waterfall selfie #2

Since we stared at this waterfall for a while, I thought you might like to too

This one is actually called Minnehaha Falls (like in Minnesota), but ours has a heart shaped basin!

This is the Rainbow falls

And behind the Rainbow falls (we got wet taking this picture!)

I took this picture to show that sometimes the water is calm

We made it!

Headed back on the easier Indian Trail

And the last leg on the South Rim trail

On Sunday on our way home, we wanted to do more hiking, so we stopped at Letchworth State Park and took an easy walk along the top of the gorge there.  We wanted to try another local restaurant, so we ate lunch at Brian’s USA Diner in Mt. Morris.  It too was very good, and we felt really accomplished for trying new things on this trip.

The Genesee River gorge in Letchworth State Park

At Letchworth

Anyway, I jumped ahead there, but, on 8/23 I remembered it was the 90th anniversary of my Mom’s birth, and on 9/15 I remembered it was the 90th anniversary of my Dad’s birth.  I miss them, but I know I’ll see them again, and I know they are infinitely happier where they are now, with their Savior.

We decided to go see our new quarterback start his first NFL game in the preseason, so we went to the Bills preseason game on 8/26 against the Cincinnati Bengals.  The game was rather disappointing, but the weather was wonderful, and we had fun anyway.  Ella and Cody and their kids and Amelia even got on the national TV broadcast during a crowd shot.  That’s a benefit of having good looking kids and grandkids.

Bills selfie

My famous family as shown on Fox!

Hannah and Kevin wanted to put a new floor in their living room, and since we had done it at my house before, and these things are always more fun to do as a group, Cody, Levi, and I helped Kevin with it.  We found some interesting holes in the floor under their carpet once we ripped that out, but we were able to figure out how to patch them, and the new floor looks great.  This old body felt a bit of after-effects of being on my hands and knees for hours, but it was a good feeling of accomplishment that was aching in my thighs and back.  And arms and neck.  And feet and knees.  And…  Well, you get the idea.

This hole was covered by the metal plate you can see. We patched the hole with wood

They had built a little ramp from the living room floor level to the kitchen floor level that we removed

Here you can see the new floor going over the old

My barbershop chorus, the Chorus of the Genesee, did two local concerts last week.  On 9/11 we sang The Star-Spangled Banner, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, and God Bless America at Webster’s 9/11 Memorial Ceremony, and some of my kids and grandkids came out to hear us.  Then Thursday 9/13, we sang about 30 minutes’ worth of songs as part of the entertainment at the Irondequoit Farmers’ Market.  We sang all kinds of songs, some of which you’ve probably never heard of, especially two of them which our director wrote.  But you’ve probably heard before Sweet Caroline and Over the Rainbow, but not like we sing them!  Or if you’re a Frank Sinatra fan, you may have heard That’s Life, but again, our arrangement is different than his.  We’re working on our annual contest next week where we’re singing Over the Rainbow and a song called The Little Boy.  Hopefully, it will go well, and I’ll tell you more about the contest next month.

We remembered my son-in-law, Mat’s, birthday on 9/12, and thanked him for loaning us his wife and daughter for a while last month.

That’s it until October!

This is one of those random waterspot photos that look like something. To me it looks like a three-toed paw print