Thursday, August 04, 2011

 New York & Pennsylvania~ (part 1)


It seems like ALL of our vacations & travel are centered around Taylor's hockey and to be honest  - it is!  Our latest trip to New York was stemmed from Taylor's invitation to participate in the USA Hockey National Development Team Camp.  He was chosen as one of the best from the Pacific District Region (AK, WA, OR, CA, NV, AZ) to participate.  It's quite an accomplishment to be chosen, so he went!  Brayden and myself have always wanted to go to NY too!  So, we went too!  His camp was in Rochester, NY - after Brayden and i decided that we really wanted to go (poor Lance couldn't b/c not enough vaca time:() we researched Rochester only to find out it is about 5-6 hrs. away from NYC! Yikes - that was a bummer... we had originally thought that we'd drop of TV in Rochester and then go to NYC for a few days and then come back for TV etc... Well - that wasn't gonna work... But, we certainly made the most of our week in upper NY (Rochester).  After we dropped TV off and BV and I got rested up from the looooong plane trip & drive over, BV and I made plans to visit my "new" step brother.  We were finally found by him last year - he is the son of my step dad's from his first marriage and was adopted to by his step dad.  Anyway, BV and i were dying to meet him and his family and were thrilled that we were about 4 hrs away - so, we hopped in the car and drove through NY and 1/2 way through PA to get to State College area.  It certainly was an amazing experience to finally meet him - there are MANY similarities of him and my dad - it is CRAZY!!! I love it ! :)  We had a great time visiting with his wife Diane and 3 little girls - so much fun!  BV had a great time riding his quad around for about an hour straight!  We were only able to spend about 24 hrs there and needed to get back up to Rochester to see how TV was doing...

Dave & Diane

The day after getting back to Rochester, my parents arrived to watch TV and to explore Rochester & Buffalo with us.  We had a great time!  We were happy that TV didn't have games one day, so we took a quick trip to Buffalo to see Niagara Falls.  It was amazing!  We wanted to visit the Canadian side of the Falls - we had heard that it is a much better view etc...  It's always so much fun crossing the border with my dad - usually, a great story unfolds that we get to talk about;)  This one involves having a machete in his trunk and realizing that we have to declare all weapons as you cross the border (the machete was for Dave jr) and then another with my silly BV telling his Gpa "good job - Dave" on the way back into the USA & the strict crossing guard glaring at us as he heard this...oh my - there was some intense moments but we can laugh about it now!!! LOL

WE are standing in front of the falls - you can't see it very good b/c of all the spray/mist that was drenching us!  




BV in front of the falls

Back to hockey - Taylor did a good job.  As the week progressed he got back in his comfort zone more & more and played a really good game.  We've had some positive feedback since then - so we are proud of him and are continuing to pray for God's direction in his life.  Please keep him in your prayers...

TV - #16 - i didn't bring my good camera so this is the best hockey pic that i got:(


This video was taken with my iphone - Taylor is in the navy blue jersey #16

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