The Schafer Family

Road Trip: New York:

We took three days to drive out to New York. Our car was packed full and the kids did great!

Lennon didn't sleep a ton on the way out--he was too excited!

Our first stop was in Canandaigua. We stayed at the cabins at Onanda Park where we had our wedding reception in New York ten years ago!! The kids had fun playing at the beach.

Tesla loves when we travel because she gets to sleep with me. We share a bed in hotels and in the cabin we pushed our beds together and opened up our sleeping bags as one big blanket.

We got to spend some good time with Mike and Jan, and Chris, Taryn, Chloe and Olivia. Lennon and Chloe hit it off, being so close in age.

And Tesla loved having a girl to play with:

While in Canandaigua, Marilyn, Beka and I took the kids to a farm to pick up some maple syrup. The kids loved seeing the animals.

Tesla making friends with the farm cat:

After Canandaigua we drove down to Albany for the Miller Family Reunion. The last time we were there was when Lennon was 15 months old...too long ago. Brenda let us stay with her, which was great to save on hotel rooms. Here, Tesla is helping Brenda look for the bunnies in the morning.

It was great seeing and spending time with Adam's grandparents, John and Pat!

Pat was in heaven having everyone to visit!

And though John put on his grumpy facade, he enjoyed everyone too!

There was a great playground at the family reunion and the kids had a blast. Lennon always does a great job taking care of Jordon!

Having fun hanging out at his great-grandma and papa's house!

Wisconsin:

We said goodbye to New York and headed onto Wisconsin. We had a couple days with Grandma and Grandpa before the Hood's got there.

Tesla is always super cuddly with Grandpa, which melts my heart!

They love each other so much!

And then the cousin love started!

We had a picnic/birthday party for Tesla and Emery. Emery and Lennon got to decorate the Lego cake:

And Tesla was thrilled with her Princess cake:

It's great being there in the summer because the kids can run and play outside.

Dad and Adam got put on the thrilling task of setting up Tesla's Doc McStuffins car (I think there was minimal cursing involved!):

So excited!

Tesla's surprise birthday present!

She loves it!

Uncle Dick was chosen by Tesla to help her steer--he has a blast (though I'm not sure his back did!) It was fun watching Tesla attach herself to Uncle Dick, mainly because I cried every time he walked into the room when I was little!

Tesla loves Jenny, I think because Jenny knows how to play the hard-to-get game, which is speaking Tesla's language!

Lennon helping his sister build her new Tangled Lego set:

Both Lennon and Tesla doted on Soren!

4th of July!
We went to an uncrowded area to watch the Grand Geneva fireworks, which was awesome except for the massive swarm of mosquitos.

Having fun sitting on top of the car!

During the actual show, we huddled in the back of the Forester in hopes of getting a break from the mosquitos...didn't happen!

Lennon enjoying sparklers for the very first time--though Emery's a pro at it:

Auntie Leah helping Tesla with hers (I tried to play it cool, but I'll be honest that the sparklers stressed me out a bit. I grew up playing with sparklers but I heard such horror stories and haven't been around them since childhood.)

Lennon was balancing his enjoyment with his cautiousness (he's holding onto it as little as he can!)

Spending some time with Great-Grandma. The kids loved playing snake eyes with her--I remember playing that for hours at her house when I was little!

Tesla admiring her Cardinal jewelry box that Great Grandma gave to her (it belonged to Tesla's Great-Great Grandma who was a lover of all things Cardinals):

All the kids admiring their cardinal gifts:

Leah, as always, has to work hard to get love from Tesla. But Leah's always worthy of the challenge and is luring her in by showing her photo shoot pictures of Tesla: