Visit to Auburn

Back on Fri Mar 27th, we drove up to Auburn, NY to visit Alison's family. We originally were planning to go in the summer when it was nicer out, but many of Ali's cousins were going to be in town, so we decided to go when we did instead. Grandma and Papa Bob also drove up, as did Ali's brother Andrew and his family. Our trip up there was the quickest yet - no traffic and summer construction season hadn't started yet; plus we managed to keep it to only one food/bathroom break, which is impressive between Alison and two young kids!

On Friday night, we just went out for pizza and then turned in early at the hotel. Saturday was a busy day, however. First, we went to Ali's Uncle Al and Aunt Irene's Max200 shop, where they manufacture and sell dog agility equipment. We got a tour of the shop, and also got to see one of their dogs in action on the equipment. Next we stopped by Al and Irene's farm. Nicholas and Sarah had fun feeding hay to the horses, and also fed and got to pet some sheep and some chickens. David insisted we do at least a little trainspotting on the New York Central Line (since we were SO close). After less than 10 minutes of waiting, a freighter came through. Then we went to Ali's Uncle Chris and Aunt Margaret's house and met up with Ali's cousins too. Two of them have young kids as well, so there were plenty of little ones walking and crawling around. The weather was warm enough to sit and play outside; we even wandered out onto the golf course behind their backyard. When it was Nico's bedtime, David took him back to the hotel room and watched some college basketball, while Ali spent more time with her cousins.

On Sunday, Ali's Uncle Dennis and Aunt Pam came down from Rochester, and we went out to lunch/brunch. After that, we let the kids run around in the new Veterans Memorial Park, which was almost complete. The man who is leading the town's effort to build the Park stopped by and chatted with David for a bit. After that, we went to Liverpool, NY to visit Jessie - a family friend of Ali and her Mom's. Jessie and her husband Chris just had a baby as well, and we took turns holding the baby and playing Uno Attack with Sarah and Nico. For dinner, we drove back to the Auburn area to have a big dinner at Ali's grandfather's house.

Our trip back to Bowie on Monday seemed like it took a bit longer, as we picked up a brief cold sometime over the weekend. When we finally made it back, we collapsed and took most of the rest of the week before it felt like we recovered.