Hold on for another wild ride

Well Ella had a great time at the magic show. The magician even made a poodle out of a balloon and gave it to her. Here she is with it.

Then it was off to Grandma's house. First we dropped the car off at the garage when we got there. Let's just not talk about that. Then back to my Mom's. I realize that I can not find my camera. I think I left it in the car, but am not sure. I get over that and am getting Ella ready for bed and need her p.j's. I go to get the suitcase and can not find it. I ask Luke where it is and he does not remember putting it into the car. So now here I am in the middle of a CAMMIE i.e. breakdown. So Luke takes my Mom's van and drives back to Auburn. He gets the suitcase and the extra set of keys for our van. On the way back to my Mom's he goes back to the garage to get the camera. Now mind you this is at 11p.m. I was sure the way things were going that he would be arrested for breaking in the car at the garage. Well all went well.

The next morning we all get up to shower and get ready to leave for the Adirondacks. Well Ella decides to have diarrhea. So the departure was waylaid a little until she was done. Then on the way we made a wrong turn and got lost, but we made it there.

Santa's workshop was a lot of fun. Ella had a blast. There were only about 15 - 20 families there so nothing was really packed and it was very enjoyable. We fed the "real" reindeer, and gave a bottle of milk to some pigs. Ella rode her first roller coaster. Her face was fantastic, but I was laughing to hard to get a picture. She did attempt to see Santa, but did not do so well with it. Later in the afternoon she saw him and did give him five. Not bad for four years of work on her.

We even saw the North Pole. Here she is with it in an Ella pose.

Then it was off to our motel. It was a really nice one. I was a little worried, but it was great. She was so tired, but had a hard time falling to sleep.

Finally success.

Then the next day we were off to hike at High Falls Gorge, but not before a quick stop at the local candy shop. When we got to High Falls Gorge we were all getting ready to hike and my sister Edna reached into her bag and sliced the pad of her left middle finger on her razor. Well it was not good. The EMT there could not stop the bleeding so we also got to see the Lake Placid ER. She is fine thank goodness, but it took two visits to get the bandaging right. Then we had a great time hiking. While my Mom and sister were at the ER the second time Ella, Luke and I went and did some of the hiking. Ella did a great job. We had a map and she pretended to be Dora the Explorer and followed the map. Some of the trail was rather tricky and she did really well.

Once my Mom and sister got back then we did the gorge and waterfalls trail. That was really spectacular. Now mind you my Mom, sister, and I are not fans of heights. So my Mom decided to stay back and just watch us. Edna and I went for it. Of course Luke and Ella were pros at it. Edna and I had two different approaches to the bridges. I was slow and steady wins the race, Luke said I looked like an old lady. Edna was run as fast as you can. So pictures were interesting. I would slowly stop to take some and Edna would hold her camera up and click it as she ran by. A pretty funny site the both of us must have made. Well here are some of the photos from the hike.

The top of the waterfall.

Looking down at the scary stair case.

Ella and Luke standing against the mountain.

Notice Edna in the purple tank top she is running to end.
On the lower bridge looking up at the very scary higher bridge still yet to be crossed.

When we were done. Ella had the chance to mine for gems. She is always gathering rock collections so this was right up her alley.

She really enjoyed finding the gems and then finding them on the identification chart.

As we left there was a large wooden statue in the gift shop of a Native American and Ella wanted to take her picture with it.

Well that concludes the wildest vacation ever. We had a great time and would do it all over again if we had too, just not the need to fix the car of the hundredth time, or just not the getting hurt part, or the lost camera part, or the lost luggage part, or the diarrhea part, or the wrong turn part, but all the rest was great. It was nice to spend time with my family crazy or not.