Niagara Falls/ナイアガラの滝の巻

Now that Anna has been off work for a couple of weeks now we officially feel like a couple of retired people and I must say retirement is fun...this week our RV (or Oldsmobile Alero) took us to Niagara Falls via my Aunt and Uncle's place in Rochester, NY. Below are some of the photos from the American side of Niagara Falls as Anna and I did not bring our passports and we were not sure if Madison would need one...every time we told someone we were not going to the Canada side we got such a sad look, but we really liked the American side...below are some of our favorite photos...
今２人とも働いてないからなんだか退職した夫婦みたいな感じの毎日...楽しいけどね。さて今週はローチェスターに住んでいるデイブの伯母さんサンディと伯父さんボブを訪れながらナイガラノ滝を見に行く事に。マディソンはもちろんまだ持ってないんだけどアンナ達のパスポートを持ってこなかったから写真全部はアメリカ側からの風景...

It was a sunny day so Mommy came up with this ingenious way to shade Madison's eyes during her diaper change...
おむつを替えてる途中に眩しそうにしていたマディソン、アンナのサングラスを貸してあげました：）

Here are our hosts for the three days we were up there...Aunt Sandi, Uncle Bob and from left to right...Marty, Comet and Joey...three great doggies.
３日間泊まらせてもらったサンディ伯母さんとボブ伯父さんの家族...左からマーティ、コメット、ジョーイです。

We also enjoyed some time in their pool...that is Madison's "enjoying" face
家の裏にあるプールでいい気持ち!　マディソンの初めてのプール、写真では解らないけど楽しんでました。

There was a mall within walking distance of my Aunt and Uncle's house and Madison took her first ride on a carousel with Mommy who got quite dizzy actually!
家から歩いて５分の所にモールがあったのでそこでメリーゴーランドに乗る事に。


One of the days was rainy in the morning so we headed to the Rochester Science Center which had some great hands on exhibits...Anna and I learned a lot.
雨の日が一日あったのでロチェスターにある科学館に行ってみる事に...

Here Madison and I are looking into a video camera...
カメラをみているデイブとマディソン...

And here we are on the screen...it probably told us how this works, but we didn't read that...I prefer to continue thinking it is magic :-)
画面に映っているデイブとマディソン...

This is as far as Anna got across the rock climbing wall...she blamed the wrong shoes.
ロッククライミングに挑戦中のアンナ...あんまり登れなかったのは靴が悪いから。

On the trip home Madison decided she was already a big girl.
家に帰る途中のマディソン、もう赤ちゃんじゃないみたい！

The Unofficial Landi Family Reunion/家族で待ち合わせ

We had visited a place in Massachusetts about a half hour from where my parent's grew up called Kimball's Farm a couple of years ago and have not been able to get the ice cream cones out of our head...so when we knew the Connecticut Kleins would be coming back from New Hampshire right past Kimball's and my Mom's sister and two brothers live within a half hour of the farm an unofficial family reunion involving ice cream just seemed to make sense...so Anna whipped up an invitation and we let the Aunts and Uncles know through e-mail and my cousins know through Facebook and today we had a wonderful time visiting with the relatives.

２、３年前に行ったマサチューセッツにあるキンバル牧場のアイスクリームを食べに行くついでにその近所に住んでいるデイヴの伯母さん/伯父さん/従兄弟達と待ち合わせをする事に...ちゃんと招待状を送ったりフェイスブックを使って計画しました。


It was a weird weather day...we drove through driving rain storms on our way to Kimball's and then when we arrived the sky was blue, but within ten minutes the skies opened up again and Madison got rained on for the first time in her life...she didn't seem to mind...
とっても変な天気の日でした。キンバルまで行く途中に嵐に遭ったのに着いた途端に晴れ...っと思っていたら１０分後にまた雨が...そのおかげでマディソンは初めて雨に降られる事を体験。嫌がってなかったから良かった！

After eating ice cream under a much needed tent, the brave ones headed for the bumper boats...below are my brother Robert and my nephew Grant, my cousin Kim and her neice Brynn and my Uncle Paul and his granddaughter Molly.
テントの下でアイスクリームを食べた後バンパーボートに挑戦...ロバートお兄さんとグラント、デイヴの従兄弟のキムとその姪ブリン、そしてポール伯父さんとその孫モーリー。

Below is a quick video of some of the action...
少しビデオをとってみました。



Here is a group shot of everyone that was able to make it...my Mom, her Sister and her Brother and their families (minus those that live far away)...
Grandma and Grandpa Landi would be proud!
家族みんなで揃ってハイチーズ！

Madison did great the whole time we were there...and slept the whole way home and then some!!
一日中とってもいい子だったマディソン、家に帰る途中のお昼寝中!!

The bonus pic of the day just didn't flow with my story line, but man is it cute!!
今日のボーナス写真!!　カーワイイ!!

Madison meets Fire/マディソン、暖炉を満喫

Whenever we come to Connecticut we love to do things we can't do in the city...like park in a driveway, play tennis for free, or have a fire in the fireplace!!! So even though we had a heat index of 100 during the day, we decided...okay Anna mentioned it jokingly and I made it happen...that a fire would be nice on the stormy evening we had...so fire we did...we must have laid in there for two hours with Madison just staring at the fire and listening to the songs played by her light-up snail on wheels toy...it was a nice evening :-)
いつもコネチカットに行く度に楽しみにしてる事はニューヨークではできない事...家の前に車を止めたり、無料でテニスをしたり、暖炉で火を焚いたり!!!　日中の気温は３８度だったにもかかわらず嵐の夜にはぴったりと暖炉を使う事に...２時間ぐらい３人と２匹でのんびりと暖炉の日を見つめてました。

Yes, Ellie did shoot lightning bolts at the camera one second later :-)
エリーの目から光線発射：）

Our Swimsuit Model/水着モデル

The family that usually lives in Connecticut is vacationing in New Hampshire so the NYC Kleins decided to take advantage of an empty house and spend a few days alone at Gma and Gpas.
コネチカットにすんでいる家族はニューヘンプシャーでキャンプ中なのでお爺ちゃんとお婆ちゃんの家でのんびり２、３日過ごす事に。

Today we went blueberry picking in the morning and to Stew Leonards...the Chuck E Cheese of grocery stores...in the afternoon with all of its little singing acts and animatronics.
今日は先ず最初にブルーベリーとブラックベリーを摘みに、そしてその後スチューレナードという子供が楽しめる動いたり歌を歌ったりするロボットがあるスーパーに買い物に行きました。

Madison really enjoyed the singing mozarella lady with an important message...
モッツアレラお姉さんの歌に見とれているマディソン...

When we got home we tried Madison out in her hippo pool...
家に帰った後カバのプールを使ってみる事に...

Our plus sized swimsuit model will accept the term chubby...but don't you dare call her fat...don't forget the camera adds ten pounds...and her two month check-up had her in the 50-75th percentile...and yes we are defensive :-)
アンナ達の水着のモデルです。ポッチャリはいいけどデブって言わないで！カメラのせいで大きく見えるのかも。２ヶ月検診では全然大丈夫って言われたから：）

Madison meets the ocean/マディソンの初めての海

Today Madison met the ocean and they got along quite well...
今日初めて海に入ったマディソン...

We thought we would just hold her and let her look at the water, but the tide was coming in and it made a perfect little kiddie pool area, so we took advantage of the chance to dunk her feet in...
最初はただ波打ちぎわの近くに行ってマディソンに波を見せるだけという計画が打ち上げた波が丁度良い大きさの水たまりを残してくれたので足を入れてみる事に...

We went late in the day so we could avoid the hot sun and get Madison out a bit more...here are some of our favorite pics from the day...
一番暑い時間を避けて夕方に出かけました...これは今日撮った写真のお気に入り。

Some nice old people walked by and saw Anna trying to get Madison to look at the camera so they tried to help and instead we put them to work so we could get a family picture!!
アンナが一生懸命マディソンこっち向いてーってしてたら知らないお年寄りの人たちが立ち止まって一緒にマディソンの名前を呼び始めてくれたので、家族写真を撮ってもらう事に!!

From the below video you can see that Madison seemed to enjoy her time in the water...oh...and it was very windy!!!
このビデオはマディソンが初めての海で楽しんでいる所...すごい風が強かった!!

We especially decided to go on Tuesday night because it was called "Kid's Night" on the Jones Beach Bandshell website...it turned out the group performing was named "Toxin"...Madison seemed to enjoy them :-)
ジョーンズビーチでは毎日いろいろなコンサートがあるとわかったので"子供の夜"って書いてあった火曜日にわざと行ったはずが"トキシン"って言う変なバンドが出て来て少し困惑、でもマディソンは気に入ったみたい：）

Worship at Heckscher State Park/ヘックスカー公園でミサの巻

Today's trip took us an hour from the city into the middle of the southern part of Long Island to Heckscher State Park where we met the rest of our congregation for a worship service and fellowship in the park day...it was very nice.
今日はサニーサイドからは慣れて１時間のロングアイランドにあるヘックスカー県立公園に日曜日のミサとバーベキューをしに行ってきました。

We got there a few minutes late, so this was our view...it was a little tough to hear our Minister as the group behind us thought it would be fun to blare hip hop music at 10:30 on a Sunday morning.
２、３分遅れたのでこれがアンナ達の座っていた所からの景色...後ろにいた他のグループのラップ系の音楽がうるさくてなかなか声が聞こえなかったです:(

Here was Madison's seat...during worship...
これはミサ中のマディソンのポーズ...

and after worship.
ミサの後で...

Across from the park was a beach that ran into the Bay.
公園の向かい反対には小さい海辺が。

I needed to wash my feet after playing football and frisbee in my flip flops.
フットボールとフリスビーをした後汚れた足を洗ってます。

Introducing Floppy!!/フラッピーを紹介

Tonight we introduce our newest member of the family...Floppy!!! Floppy was rescued from the clearance racks at Anthropologie in the Roosevelt Fields Mall...he was much too cute to be on clearance and needed a good home!!!
今夜、新しい家族の仲間を紹介します...フロッピー!!!　モールにあるママの好きなお店アンスロポロジーのセール棚から助けた可愛いウサギのぬいぐるみです!!!

Madison took quite a liking to him and was cooing up a storm as she interacted with Floppy!! (Anna put the dog clothing on him...he came home naked)
マディソンはフロッピーをとても気に入ったみたい!!話しかけてました：）(家に着いた後エリーとココ用に買った服をフロッピーに着せてあげました。)

Tour of the Hudson Valley/ハドソンバリーへ

Today we decided to put our State Parks Pass to good use and we headed about an hour north of the city into the Hudson River Valley area...it always amazes me how different just 30 miles from New York City the scenery becomes...we decided this would be a sort of exploratory journey as we had never visited these State Parks before and weren't sure what we would find...the weather called for near 90 degrees so our first stop was Harriman State Park where I researched their three lakes with swimming and settled on Lake Welch, the largest one with a 1/2 mile long beach...
今日は１時間ぐらい北にある県立公園に行く事に...３０分離れるだけでニューヨーク市と全然景色が変わるのが少し不思議。今日は気温が３２度近くになるはずだったからまず最初に大きな湖が３っつあるうちのウェルチ湖ハリマン県立公園に行く事に。

We thought there would be some hiking trails and shade around for Madison, but it turned out to just be a parking lot and then the beach and Madison got hot so quickly so we left after about five minutes (that is the good thing about not paying, you don't care how long you stay) and headed to the next State Park I read about Bear Mountain State Park...after a scenic drive through the hills we ended up following signs to some Tower that I can't remember the name of but said it offered the best views in the Hudson Valley, so we wound up the mountain to check it out...
マディソンのためにハイキング用の道や木陰があると思っていたら駐車場と湖の浜しかなかったので着いて５分後ぐらいに次の県立公園へ向かう事に...景色を見ながらくねくねした道を上った後ベアマウンテン県立公園に行く途中にあった看板を辿って３６０度の景色が見える塔に寄る事にしました。

The view from inside the Tower was pretty nice...
塔からの景色はなかなか良かったよ...
The view from outside was even better...
外からの景色はもっと良かった...　

The brochure said on a clear day you could see into four states...Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
天気の良い日はここから４州(コネチカット、ニュージャージー、ニューヨーク、ペンシルベニア)見れるらしい...

Mommy apparently thought her loved ones faces were better than the scenery outside...
景色をわすれて大事な家族の写真を撮っているママ...

We do make a cute couple :-)
可愛い２人：）

On the way out of the park I turned the wrong way and 1o miles later we ended up at one of our favorite outlet malls that we had known we were close too, but didn't plan on going to...after finding an 80% off sale at Diesel, it was one of our best wrong turns ever!!
帰る途中に曲がる道を間違えて１０マイル逆方向にある一番大きいアウトレットに寄る事に、行くつもりじゃなかったんだけどどうせだからと...ディーゼルで８０%オフと寄って良かった!!