Niagara Falls and Easter

As many of you know, I am currently finishing my fourth and final year of medical school. I made the mistake when I was determining my schedule last year of saving my sub-internship (traditionally the hardest part of the fourth year) for the last two months before graduation. I am now pretty busy every day and most weekends, but Julie, Andy, and I were able to take advantage of a three-day weekend during Easter and take a trip to Niagara Falls. We've been wanting to see it since we came to New York, and we finally decided that if we didn't go now, we wouldn't go at all. It was also the perfect chance to test our driving plan for the trip to California. So, with much excitement and anticipation, we loaded the minivan with clothes, Easter candy, and an excited 2-year old and took off. Here are the results of our fun filled weekend!

The morning started out a bit cloudy and windy, but the views were still pretty spectacular!

This is on the Observation Tower. It's the only picture we have of all three of us, and I just happened to be talking to the very nice woman who took our picture right as she hit the button, and Andy was annoyed because it was so windy. Oh, well, at least Julie looks happy!

This is the view of Rainbow Bridge from the American side (Julie doesn't have a valid passport, so we had to stay in the USA). All I have to say is, if Canada is so great, why is everyone coming to the US?

Pretty amazing. 'Nuff said.

Andy's interest in the falls lasted for about ten seconds, before he became fascinated with the much more fun and accessible puddles on the ground.

He also delighted in chasing the seagulls around. I delighted in chasing him.

By Horseshoe Falls. Still too early in the season to go all the way down, but still impressive.

We weren't able to go to Cave of the Winds or ride Maid of the Mist; once again, too early in the season. However, we were able to go down to the base of American and Bridal Veil Falls. Here's a view of the Canadian side, or, as I told Julie, the Motherland. Maybe someday Julie will get a passport and we can actually visit!

The base of American and Bridal Veil Falls. Andy was pretty much done at this point.

Once he could try to throw rocks at the seagulls, he was happier.

Andy refused to walk on the sidewalk once he noticed other kids walking on the rocks. Monkey see, monkey do!

There's just nothing quite like a vanilla shake with Dad at the Hard Rock Cafe after a long morning of chasing seagulls!

For Easter morning, the "Easter Bunny" left a trail of chocolate eggs so that Andy could find...

...our Easter baskets! Andy's is the truck, mine is the frog, and Julie's is the flowers.

One of the best toys in the baskets were three Nerf dart guns. Andy immediately began shooting his parents.

With help, of course. He still hasn't quite learned how to get the guns to work, so I helped out a bit.

Our last picture before we went home and waited for two hours on the George Washington Bridge (expletive deleted)! We had a great time and highly recommend the Falls to everyone, although you may want to visit a bit later in the year when everything will be open!

Andyisms and Other Things

Anyone who has had the pleasure of raising small children knows that kids say the darndest things. Our little Andy is no exception to this rule. We constantly encounter multiple sayings and phrases each day that make Julie and me scratch our heads and smile. We decided that we would be remiss if we didn't put just a few of these on our blog, both to lighten our collective mood and to record them for posterity. Enjoy!

Top 5 Andyisms
1. Andy (after noticing I wasn't wearing the watch that Julie gave me, and while shaking his finger at me): "Daddy, Mommy give watch! Put watch on now!"

2. Andy: "Daddy have hair on face!"
    Pat: "Yes, I do have hair on my face."
    Andy (disgustedly): "Take it off!"
    He now refuses to kiss me on my hairy cheeks.

3. Pat: "Andy, it's time to sleep."
    Andy: "Daddy, go to work. Mommy come."

4. Proof that Andy is from his father's family: While sitting in his stroller in line to checkout at TJ Maxx, Andy scowled at the fellow customers and said, "Go away, people!"

And our absolute favorite...

5. Julie: "Andy, get your finger out of your nose."
    Andy (angrily): "I eating!"

In other news, in order to facilitate our upcoming cross country trip, we have purchased a 2008 Nissan Quest. We're all very excited to have it, particularly Andy, who now has unlimited means of traveling entertainment at his fingertips!

Who said minivans don't look cool? I think it looks a bit like a spaceship!

A nice, roomy seat for our little VIP to travel in style.

Andy's dream come true...an integrated DVD player. Andy has been watching "The Sound of Music" and has never been quieter during a car ride in his entire life (the DVD player is also Pat's dream come true because it has video jacks that should enable it to be used with an XBox 360...ahhh, the wonders of modern technology)!