Our Last Days in the States

Ian and I are flying out today! It's finally happening! It's a little bit scary and I don't think that the enormity of the entire process has quite sunk in with me yet.

This last week we did a whirlwind tour of western New York and Pennsylvania. We left Denver at 12am after a fun afternoon hanging out with the Plazas and Youngs in Aurora. We had an appetizer cooking contest and were stuffed to the gills by the time we actually got on the plane. We got to Buffalo after a layover in Newark completely sleep deprived. At least I was, Ian did a pretty good job of sleeping on the plane. After a wonderful breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa Roz at the original House of Pancakes (Ian had an omelet the size of a loaf of bread, should have taken a pic of that one) we had a nap. Then we were off to Niagra Falls for a little walk around because I hadn't been there in years. We stayed on the American side and visited Goat Island and the Three Sisters. Then we took a ride on the Maid of the Mist - which was awesome! The spray really felt good after walking around in the blazing heat.

The next day Uncle Kool and the kids took us out tubing and waterskiing on the Niagra River. I'm a baby about water and I was envisioning being trapped in seaweed and bitten by fish all morning. I tried, I really did, I nearly stood up once. Mostly I was just floundering around in the water trying to put the skis back on. Ian was pretty awesome - He did a lot of skiing before he finally biffed it. Then we went tubing and I was hanging on for dear life. It was all very fun, but I especially loved sitting in the front of the boat with the wind in my hair while Uncle Kool did crazy turns trying to throw Ian and Joey off the tube. I think I was meant for speed boats. I developed the most wicked sunburn of my life. It took three days for it to heal and Ian would keep touching it by accident.

We had dinner with all the Rowswell clan and had fun talking and eating. So much good food! Can you tell that part of the this trip was eating all the things we can't get in Wyoming? We drove down to Ripley the next day after hitting up Ted's Hotdogs for tasty tasty Sahlens hotdogs and loganberry juice.

In Ripley we got to hang with the Cochrane's for dinner and played a game of Gloom afterwards. Aunt Mary Beth broke out the calendar that Aunt Jannie had made and we schooled Ian in all the grandchildren and greatgrand children, which means that I also had some memorizing to do. Since I made the lap quilt for Grandpa with the the family members names embroidered on it, ten great grandchildren have been born! I need to work on some patches.

We spent the night with Oma and Opa in North East, PA. We took a hike in the big woods looking for my old swinging vine and at how big the vines in the vineyards I planted have gotten. Then we did a little winery tour. It was so much fun. Turns out that Noble vineyards buys grapes from Cochrane Farms for their Noiret.  We also had a fantastic cranberry wine and I finally tasted Dandelion wine for the first time. Then we had a huge dinner down at the Fiddle Inn in Harbor Creek with all my relatives.

The next day we hiked the creek and took a tour of Findley Lake. Then it was off to Grandma Cochrane's to look at picture albums and say goodbye. After that we had an amazing piece of pie at Meders and made our way back to Buffalo.

Now we are all packed and ready to get on our separate flights to Seattle. We'll spend the night there and fly out to Japan tomorrow. So much adventure! Talk to you all soon.