End of Summer

Oh how I wish Ithaca's summers could last all year!

I cannot believe August is almost over and that school is back in session. The funny part is that Ben isn't taking or teaching any classes this semester so it doesn't really affect us that much.

We had a Stake Day a few weekends ago at Watkins Glen when Ben was at his annual Management Conference.
I went with Kristy and The Timothys (the new CES missionary couple in our Branch)

We had a fun time hiking, exploring, and enjoying a beautiful day in upstate NY.

Last weekend we had a bachelorette party for my good friend Nicole from work.
We went out to dinner, played some games, and had a fun time!

THEN... we had an awesome Saturday in Ithaca.

I went to the Ithaca Farmer's Market in the morning for crepes with some friends.
Then Ben and I rented a canoe for a few hours and took it out on Cayuga Lake!
It was a lot of fun... and a lot of work

View of Cornell from the lake.

We were trying to get a close picture of both of us without tipping the boat!

The dock at the Farmer's Market

After our canoe outing we got some yummy calzones and brought them to Treeman State Park

They have a place to swim and sweet waterfalls!

The water was pretty cold in the evening so we decided against it but are planning on going back soon!

I fell in love with Ithaca again this summer!! Let's hope the winter weather doesn't sneak up on us too soon :)

Birthday Outing

With my birthday on Sunday this year it made for an extra fun birthday weekend!

We were planning on going camping in the Adirondacks, but the weather didn't look very promising on Friday night.

We decided to move that to another weekend and do a fun day trip to Niagara Falls instead!

We left Ithaca early Saturday morning and made our way to the falls in about 3 hours

The highlight was definitely the "Maid of the Mist" boat that took us right next to the falls on either side of the border!

There were some pretty amazing sights from up top and down in the water!

After enjoying our time around sunny Niagara we drove to Rochester and hit up the mall

I was shocked when I saw a Delias store! I knew that they had a few stores but had never seen one before. I was excited to go inside as I used to shop their catalog back in the day!!
(Please tell me some of you know what I'm talking about)

Then we went to Macaroni Grill for dinner and a birthday serenade.

Sunday morning brought the big day! We had birthday cinnamon rolls, went to church, and opened some presents.

Ben gave me the last piece of my "tennis set"
(I received the racket for Christmas and tennis skirt for Valentines day)
Apparently he wants me "to go pro" haha

Ben decided to test out our grill and cook us steak :)

It was a success! We had a delicious meal and saved room for fresh lemon raspberry cake!

Ben even remembered to sing happy birthday this year, and didn't demand me to blow out the candles like last year :)

HOORAY FOR SUMMER BIRTHDAYS!

Berry Season

About a week ago Ben and I went blueberry & raspberry picking at Grisamore Farms just down the road.

I think Ben ate his weight in blueberries but we had fun picking and enjoying the nice sunny weather!

Besides your typical munching, the berries have been used to create a few delicious desserts recently.

Muffins, cream pie, mini cheesecake, and my lemon raspberry birthday cake were just a few of our favorites :)