Niagara Falls Reunion

I am SO far behind on my blogging (obviously)!  I will hopefully remember a lot of what we did the last month of Summer!

On the weekend of August 19^th we went up to Niagara Falls.  The annual “Jones” family reunion was this weekend and we decided instead of just going up one night or just for the day that we would make a weekend trip of it. 

We got up there on Friday and went to Chris’s Aunt Doloris and Uncle Bob’s house.  They live in an apartment complex that has a pretty even driveway so Makenna was able to ride her bike again.  This just shows us we really need to pave our driveway.  This poor girl only has been able to ride this bike a few times and she really enjoys the opportunities to do it.

On Saturday before the family reunion we decided to go to Fort Niagara.  I don’t think Makenna was too thrilled so she seemed to immediately attach to another family – who we did not know.   She ended up taking off with them right away (and I mean within 10 minutes of us being there) and she disappeared.   I was used to this happening but Chris was not and boy was Makenna in HUGE trouble when daddy got a hold of her.

She had managed to follow this couple, who had a little boy, up the stairs of one of the structures in the fort.  I knew she couldn’t have gotten too far so I looked around and then went up the stairs and sure enough there she was.  What I couldn’t understand was why this couple assumed we were the type of parents who would just let their child go wherever. 

 

We continued to walk around to the different buildings and then at one point they were having a cannon demonstration.  Makenna freaked!  She was so afraid of how loud it was going to be that she couldn’t relax.  They allowed us to come up around the cannon to see the demonstration but when they were going to actually light it, we had to stand way back.  Well, Makenna wouldn’t even get near the demonstration.  She literally wrenched her hand out of mine and ran away to a “safe place.”  I kind of chuckled but then went over to her and held my hands over her ears.  It happened really quick and then tears started coming.  I think we both thought we’d have a moment to prepare after the fuse was lit but it was like – lit – BANG!  No long fuse there.  Once we got her calmed down, we finished walking around and then went to the family reunion.

Makenna obviously enjoyed this as she got to swim and swim and swim.  She barely came out to eat and then went back in as soon as I would let her.  She also got to meet some cousins who were relatively around the same age

The next day we decided to stop at the Niagara Aquarium – which was really not that exciting.  They did have some seals that were blind – as you can tell by looking at the eyes.  There were penguins, fish, sharks, turtles, and frogs.  But it wasn’t really that big and we were done within an hour.

So we decided to go across this bridge over to the “Discovery Center” – this was even smaller than the aquarium and nothing really too exciting for Makenna to do.  It dealt more with the history and formation of the falls.  So we left there and headed home.