Bates - Day 8!

What do you do when you live near the beach? You go there lots. Ben and Fiona are too cute. Fiona figuring out how to manage not being the youngest is also "cute" lol. 

Then it was makeover time. First Ben - with a stop to a drop in haircut place to fix Ben's hair.

Then Anna gave Kate and Alice makeovers.

And after a lot of waiting for Ben, Uncle Andrew finally arrived!

Bates - Day 7!

In the morning after the complimentary breakfast we went to the Niagara SkyWheel and then played some arcade games. The weather wasn't super cooperative and we were all tired, so we headed home. We dropped off Suzanne and Ben at Grandma's on the way home

Bates - Day 6!

Independence Day - I'll never forget leaving the Mormon Trail Center at Winter Quarters on Independence Day in 2018 and watching fireworks all long the highway to Lincoln, Nebraska where we stayed for the night. When Anna said that she really wanted to go to the falls on the 4th so she could see fireworks, I got it! So that was the plan for today, spend the day in Niagara, ending the day with fireworks!

Andrew drove his car, Mom and CJ drove their car, and Suzanne and I and the kids drove in the pilot. Andrew wanted to do the newly reopened Behind the Falls adventure so we parked at the falls and met there. (The drive to the falls is SO bad. Should have taken the 407!)

Mom and CJ decided not to come do the Behind the Falls attraction. So off the rest of us went to buy tickets and line up. It was a really fun experience. You take an elevator down to a rock - table rock and you are near the base of the falls. It's neat to be "up close and personal" with the falls. We all had lots of fun looking around and taking pictures.

After enjoying the falls we went to find food - Wendy's was the easiest choice. And then Andrew took us to check into the hotel. A friend of Andrew's from high school had recently opened a hotel and gave Andrew a special rate on two rooms - one for me and one for Suzanne. After checking in Andrew took the kiddos swimming, Mom and CJ left.

We went back to the falls for the fireworks, and they did not disappoint. There were fireworks going off all over the place. The show by the falls was awesome, and there were fireworks going off all over and the lights on the falls - it was all pretty darn magical!

Bates - Day 5!

Sunday! Mom and CJ came to church with us today, and then everyone came over, including Andrew, but he came later. (CJ went off somewhere for a bit for quiet time!)

We hung out. And eventually there was BBQ.