DeLancey Family Spring Travels Volume VII: Buffalo, NY

Accommodations: Mom's House

Sunday April 17:
We drove from Pittsburgh to Buffalo and settled in for the evening.

Monday April 18:
My grandfather was in the hospital, so Grammie watched the kiddos while I went to visit with him. It's hard seeing someone you love sick, but at least I was in town and could hand deliver the Get Well drawings RJ and Logan (with Grammie's help) made for him. A few days after we returned to California, he was released, and then ended up back in the hospital with a bleeding ulcer, and last I heard, he was transferred to a nursing facility to rehabilitate after his illness and the cauterization of the ulcer. So he is thankfully on the mend!
We also took Gramma Ho! Ho! out to Red Lobster that night for what turned out to be RJ's third lobster of the trip. There is certainly no denying that he is my child - his insistence on getting that lobster was incredible. Then there was the disappointment that I "only" got him a lobster tail instead of the whole damned thing.

Tuesday April 19:
I am seriously under the impression that Tuesday is positively the WORST day to be in Buffalo with children. I had been wanting to take the kids to the Explore and More museum in East Aurora. It is only open Wednesday through Sunday and we were only in town Monday and Tuesday. Then Mom and I thought that the Herschell Carousel Factory museum would be cool for the kids. Guess what? During the Spring, they are also closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. We thought about driving to Rochester to take the kids to the Strong National Museum of Play again, which is tons of fun, but the kids were already worn out from all the driving and traveling. I really didn't want to mess with them any more than I had to since I was going to have a full 12 hours of travelling with them solo on Wednesday. So we ended up hitting the Niagara Factory Outlet Mall and they got to ride the coin-operated mall rides and eat frozen yogurt.

Wednesday April 20:
While it would've been nice to stay with family a little longer and perhaps stay for Easter, we were so travel weary, I was relieved to be going home. I was done living out of a suitcase and carting the kids around, and they were done with being carted around and not having time to just play like normal. Sure, they got to do some exciting things and see family and friends, but there is a limit to how much of that a 3.75 year old and a 14.5 month old can take! Three weeks of the break neck pace we were on was definitely stretching the limit quite a bit. Luckily, our trip home wasn't too bad, though we all could've done without the delay in Cleveland. It was nice to sleep in our own beds that night!

A few more pictures are here.

DeLancey Family Winter Travels Volume IV: Winter Activities Edition

We were in Buffalo. So, we played in the snow.

We went Ice Skating with Josh and Zach.

We went sledding down a hill a little too big for RJ at Chestnut Ridge. He was not a fan of sledding there, but Luke and my Mom had fun (and so did Lance, Amy, and I).
We went skiing at Holiday Valley. When RJ got carsick 5 minutes from the resort, we really did not have high hopes for him skiing, but he perked up after a snack and ended up LOVING it. We had to carry him in kicking and screaming to eat lunch. He especially loved the magic carpet. He also tried the tow rope lift later in the day, but had a harder time with that. He loved to go down the hill, but he could not make the "pizza" to stop himself.
Then we found a sledding hill more his speed at Westwood Park. Even Logan went down!
Then the adults played a rousing game of Asshole the night before Amy and Luke had to go home. The next morning, RJ laid on the guilt pretty thick too. "Aunt Amy, why can't someone ELSE teach your kids?"
And on New Years Day, we picked up Grandpa and headed to the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, which was great for everyone!

DeLancey Family Winter Travels Volume III: Christmas Celebrations

Christmas Celebrations in Buffalo, In Pictures.

Dinner and Gifts with Dad/Grandpa





Wiglia Dinner with the Ciesielski's



Christmas Morning at Mom/Grammie's


Christmas Dinner with the Hoelzl's

Buffalo Visit - Summer 2009

We typically fly to Buffalo around Christmas time so that we can see most, if not all members of my side of the family in the short period of time that we can get off during the holidays. However, this year will be the first year ever that we're not going to be able to go back to Buffalo or Pittsburgh for the Holidays, because mid-November marks the beginning of my third trimester of pregnancy, and flying is not recommended in the third trimester and Christmas Eve is exactly one month to my due date.

So...this summer we decided that RJ and I would take some time and see some family and we did just that. RJ got to spend some quality time with Grammie, Grandpa, Aunt Amy (who flew up from South Carolina) and his Great Grandparents too.

RJ was pretty much spoiled by everyone. He was on a permanent sugar high from his daily ice cream cone from Grammie. I suppose these are the kinds of things that children get away with when they don't see their Grandparents very often!

Also, we got a chance to do some of the things that there's rarely time and/or the right weather for.

Grandpa, Aunt Amy, and I took RJ to the Buffalo Zoo so he could see the animals. He was particularly enthralled with the elephants and the otters. It was interesting for us adults too because the elephants were having a little scuffle while we were watching them. The one elephant tried to hit the other one with its trunk. I can't say that I've ever seen that before. While the animals are always a hit, RJ was also very happy to have a chance to ride the train and the carousel and play on the playground while we were there.

We also went to the Taste of Lancaster with Aunt Amy and Grammie, where RJ's big thrill was getting to see a modified bobcat pick up garbage cans. He called it a digger and was even more thrilled when he got to see it parked as we were walking to the car.

Aunt Amy, RJ, and I also met Grandpa for some playing and trail walking at Steigelmeier (a.k.a. Losson) Park. It was pretty fun watching RJ play on the same playground that I remember being put in when I was a kid and running away from us on the same trails that I explored as a kid.

Grammie, RJ and I also went to the Taste of Williamsville one night. RJ completely downed some cucumber gazpacho (it was amazing) and scallops and really enjoyed getting to climb into the fire truck driver's seat and play with the fire hose (the fire fighters had a wooden house with trap door "fire" to shoot the water at with the hose). He also nearly gave Grammie a heart attack because I let him play in the bounce house with the rowdy big kids and climb the jungle gym. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of this, but Grammie might on her phone.

Grammie and I also took RJ to the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester. RJ really liked playing in the white pearl "sand"box, playing with the slinkies, the race cars, and a ball pulley thing that let him pull a rope making a ball go up and then fall out on various metal tracks all suspended from the ceiling. I think he was confused by the infinity mirrors, but it made for a cool picture.

Also, for our gastronomical delights (in addition to loads of ice cream from Anderson's, Frosty's, and Antoinette's), we got some Texas Red Hots (a.k.a. Slime Dogs), Roast beef from Anderson's, and some tastes from various restaurants in Lancaster and Williamsville at their respective "Taste of..." events. We also got some real yummy homemade meals. Thank you to everyone for taking good care of us while we were in Buffalo!

If you click on any of the pictures, you will be linked to all our Buffalo Summer 2009 pictures.