Extending The Fun

This past weekend was so nice for a number of reasons and today's "weekend extension" was even more enjoyable. On Friday, our brother-in-law, Dan (David's sister's hubby), and Dan's son Adam were in town from Indiana. Dan and Adam's business has them travel to various locations around the country to complete contracting work. Dan and Adam had business in a town in New York that is located about 2 hours east of our house. Although they did not have to be to their job until Monday, Dan and Adam came on Friday. They were hauling their 16ft trailer with all their tools and wanted to offer their hands (and skill) in any projects around the house. This is not the first time Dan visited us and was put to work. I always feel bad about that but Dan insists that he loves it.

On Friday, Dan and Adam arrived later in the evening so we just sort of hung out and chowed down on pizza and wings. Saturday was another story! In the course of the day they fixed the shower off of our bedroom that was leaking into our front hallway, replaced a new exhaust fan in the same bathroom, added an exhaust fan with light in Madeline's bathroom shower stall, better secured our garage door, and fixed the connection to my wireless printer. The most I could do was keep the men's tummies happy. So, after they finished we were able to leisurely dine in the dining room (the wallpaper is still not done but I was hoping that eating off the China would help counteract that). I made Beef Wellington, yummy fried potatoes with onions, sauteed fennel and crumbled blue cheese, baby carrots & brussel sprouts (the way my brother Paul taught me....Mmmmm!) After dinner, the boys headed out for a few drinks.

On Sunday, we took a drive up to Niagara Falls because Adam never saw the Falls before. Unfortunately, the weather that day was quite crappy. As you can see from the photo above, it was rainy and dreary. I think this was the first time I have been to the Falls at his time of year. Although the Falls are always impressive, the green of the summer weather just makes everything prettier. After stopping for an early dinner at the Niagara Falls Hard Rock Cafe, Dan and Adam headed out of town so that they could be closer to their work locale for the next morning.

Today, was a GREAT extension of the weekend. See, David's work was off for Martin Luther King Day last Monday yet, David had clients in town and therefore he worked 12+ hours on his "day off". So, today was David's MLK holiday. The fun part was that Madeline had school this morning. After dropping Madeline at school, David and I had a "date morning" without having to pay a babysitter. We started off our morning at a trendy coffee shop in downtown Buffalo. While in Buffalo we scoped out the "Extreme Makeover-Buffalo" house that was debuted on ABC last night. We took a ride to Beaver Island State Park to do some birdwatching of migratory birds. While in the neighborhood of the park we drove through the neighborhood and past the house that we missed out on before we found this house (the day we decided we were going to put a bid on it we found out that someone else signed a contract on that house days before) and we realized that we love the house we chose so much more. Finally, David and I did a small amount of window shopping at a local mall before picking up Madeline.

Although the morning was action packed, the three of us went roller skating in the afternoon. I haven't roller skated in YEARS and this was Madeline's first experience at a roller rink. I used to love roller skating when I was younger so it was fun for me to get back on skates. However, I did take a few good tumbles so I anticipate being a bit sore tomorrow. Madeline was having mini-meltdowns when we started out at the rink. She was frustrated that she kept falling. Yet, after spending a little time at the rink, Madeline was zipping along on her skates and was having a blast and did not want to leave.

Now....the big question is this. Today's "weekend extension" was so enjoyable, I wonder if David would be willing to take a vacation day once in a while for a scheduled morning breakfast date with Mama and afternoon family fun.