Steinbox

Sunday we went to Hamlin Beach State Park.  We started with a picnic lunch on the sand.

Some people find seashells…we find rocks.

Ben likes to dig a hole, stand in it, and let the waves fill it back in.  Amelia was not sure this was an intelligent activity.

Ben was drawing in the sand.  Each wave would erase it and he would quickly make something else.  He thought this was fun…I found it kind of stressful…like some things in life…frantically working with no apparent result…no one leaves a mark on the beach!!

You can probably guess from our long sleeves that we are not experiencing typical mid-July weather!!  It was a high of 70 and pretty windy…but as long as we were there, we decided to go for it and changed into our suits.

Amelia took this picture while shivering on the sand wrapped up in her towel…this is not the most flattering angle for anyone…but Ben says we look happy!  And we are!

My favorite:

While Amelia was huddled under her towel, we put chips on top of her to see if the seagulls would come close enough to get them–and they did!  It was very amusing.

You may recall Amelia had 14 stitches in her ankle about a month ago…7 on top and 7 underneath that were supposed to dissolve.  When we returned to the doctor 12 days later to have the top stitches out, he ended up having to pull out 2 or 3 of the stitches from underneath that did not dissolve and were poking up through the incision.  Well, now we are 2 and a half weeks later, and Amelia told me there was a thread sticking out of her scar.  I told her it was just a piece of dry skin and I would get it off…but she was right, it was a stitch!  I pulled it out and it was over an inch long.  I wonder how many more are in there!  Dissolving stitches never dissolve in me either…by my count there are 3 or 4 more in there…her body just pushes them out.  They were not even partially dissolved–still were the same color thread and everything.  Very strange!

Saturday we went walking on the Genesee Valley Greenway.  I don’t know how I have lived here for 13 years without knowing about this!  It used to be a canal path and then a Pennsylvania Railroad bed and has been restored for hiking/biking/horseback riding.  You can go from our airport almost all the way to Olean, about 90 miles of trail.  Incredible!  Lots of mosquitoes though, who were completely unfazed by the three layers of bug spray on us.

Amelia, as always, loves to catch toads!

We finally set up Amelia’s pool for the season, even though it’s still not really warm enough for swimming.

We also got out her outdoor dollhouse, which she had been asking for.  She’ll spend hours at a time with it!