Well you may or may not know that after the convention Leigh and I followed each other up to Niagara Falls, seeing as she had to get home some how and why not by the falls LOL.

After her getting us lost during the first 10 minutes we were a bit hesitant to follow them for the next 4 hours but after a quick map check we got back too it, without getting lost again (phew!)

We stopped for gas at a Bikie hangout and then proceeded to the Falls. We checked in to rooms next door and both freaked out when there was a door to nowhere on the 11th floor, for those who have met our LO's you would have freaked too. So we got the lock changed and then proceeded down to the Maid of the Mist, where we got totally wet but was worth it.

At dinner that night (Hard Rock Cafe) we found out that it was actually Walkers birthday, I felt so bad cause she told me the night before but, um, I think we ALL had had a few drinks and she didn't mention it on the day.

That night Leigh came and made me go shopping (Did you know shops are open till 1am) and eat Dairy queen and then we sat on IRD in the stairwell so that we didn't wake the kids.

I tell ya I haven't laughed so much with this whole convention and now at the falls. The convention and falls has been the highlight of this trip (which has been fantastic, so what does that say for the convention)

Anyway, bed at 2am, this girl is a bad influence you know.

So after still being half asleep we trudged ourself to Marineland, this is what Walker wanted to do for his birthday, and it was great. There were kiddy rides that even Parker could get on, Killer whales, we patted the Beluga whales and then we fed 500 friendly deer, sorry, did I say 500, I meant 5.

(Leigh can explain that one too you)

Then it was time to go, it was so sad, this was the end of the convention for me, Leigh, Bill and the Boys had a huge trip ahead as they have to both go back to work tomorrow and we didn't think that we would have spend as long at the place.

So that was our extra extension to our convention. We drive back to Ohio tomorrow and are off to Disneyland!

ROFLMBO! Rachel, you are a maniac!:smt047 We did indeed get lost and it took about a half hour I think to get back on track. It showed us that you were not looking either when we strayed off the correct road! lol Bill and I wondered why on earth you still had us in the lead after that one, but trusting souls you must be.:smt047

As far as the bikers went, what visit to America would be complete without meeting up with the Hells Angels? Hmmm? Believe me, it was a very small group. I have met up with hundreds of them travelling sometimes.

*I* am a bad influence?! Egad woman you are a party animal! When it comes time for the secret service to look for people to help illicit sleep deprivation in others I am putting your name in the hat! LOL I must say I was dragging my carcass all around Marineland the next day. Totally worth it though as you are a riot. Here I had this picture of Aussies being so quiet and demure. Guess I will not look at Sarahh the same again either...LMBO!

Walker and Curran are still talking about petting the Belugas. They had a blast and Walker said he loved it. He did ask me on the way home where his cake was though. Oops. We will have a party with friends here in a week or so.

Ok, ok. I am so very sorry about the 495 *missing* deer. :razzing: Someone PLEASE tell Rachel that they used to have the deer running amok in the one section and you had them eating your armpits too?! ANYONE please back me up on this! They have put the females and the babies behind a fence and all you actually saw roaming about was about 10 juvy males in that huge area. Melanie, did you see them when they were a huge herd? **help**

We left Rachel and the crew at Marineland and we travelled out just as it started to rain. By the other side of the skyway it was pretty strong winds and fun drive. We thought we would be through Toronto in no time regardless but construction:coffee: and a trailer which had shifted its load and required a crane to re-load :coffee: :coffee: ate up hours for us. We took until after 8 pm to get through TO (we left at 5:30pm). By the time we got to Kingston the spray off the road was pretty good and the fog started so it became a white knuckle drive for most of the trip. Once we hit Kemptiville (about 40K outside of Ottawa) both Bill and I were very seriously overtired and pretty much driving impaired from exhaustion. We pushed on but considered more than once overnighting somewhere due to safety, but some rousing music and political debates kept us going on. lol

We arrived home at 1:30 am. Bill and I got to bed around 3:00am and had our cats stuck to us like glue. Bill was up at 5 am and I was late today at 6:30 am. I thought of you Rachel as I got up and wondered if you were on your way to Cleveland by then.

It was fantastic. I am so glad that we had some time together to decompress and relax as I really did not have much time at the convention to socialize as I would have liked. This was unfortunately due to obligations with the hotel and it applies to Mary as we both ran around taking care of behind the scenes issues. The relaxed pace of going to Niagra Falls (Canada, eh?!) was just what the doctor ordered.

I miss you already and I know you are still in the country. Have a blast at Disneyland and be sure to keep in touch.

P.S. If California has any trilliums you can pick them there and not get arrested! :smt047 Tell Parker and Cooper to pick whatever they like! It was so cute to see them pick flowers for Mommy.

Marineland, Niagara...We were last there 2 summers ago, and Brandon is STILL begging to go back! I can't believe that they don't have the 500 deer roaming any more though. That was one of the best parts!

Thank goodness someone else recalls this! I had gone on and on about it and when we walked into the kingdom and saw like 10 of them only I just about passed out. The look from Rachel was priceless. After all, I was responsible for getting us lost, introducing her to bikers, telling her that the Maid of the Mist tour was very loud upon approach to the falls and they found it was not (maybe listening to my kids scream nulled their hearing a bit...) and then finally the deer fiasco. Methinks she will not trust me again! lol

They put the females and babies in behind a fence as they were getting too aggressive apparently. It was a definate lunchbag letdown.

Pretty much what I saw! Thanks so much for posting the pics Melanie. **praying Rachel reads this thread**

When I went we were at the end of season and for some reason they had the buffalo and some other animals put away but we entered the kingdom and saw nothing even though we were told there were 500 in there. I was with my Mother and she insisted we take a look around so we wandered over to the spot where they sell the impossibly overpriced wee ice cream cones with the tablespoon of alfalfa pellets and I bought two, one for her and one for me. While I was paying my Mother tugged at my arm and said "uh, we will need a lot more than 2!" I turned around and there were all 500 friendly deer staring at my two itty bitty ice cream cones. I must have bought 20 of the darn things in an effort to get out of there alive since we were the only two people in there and they ate my shoes, shirt, armpits, hair...:icescrea: :icescrea:

OK OK, Ibeleive you there was 500 deer at one time, just not when we went. I did notice though that Melanies deer were the females and we were with the males, maybe we went to the wrong pen ROLF!

My sleep deprivation is catching up with me, we drove from Niagara to Ohio and then flew to LA to get to the hotel. It was a really long day, fortunately our plane didn't leave till 5pm, which was better than what we originally thought.

We are now at the hotel and we have either really slow adsl or dial up LOL, I really want to be in bed but I am waiting for my laundry to dry.

Cooper is so excited to meet lightening mcqueen tomorrow.

Leigh, I am so glad that you got home safe (sorry it was so late) I am also glad that you got a relaxing vacation LOL, I had a blast!

Leigh I was checking who was online and saw someone looking at this, so I checked in. Gosh it bought back some good memories! Miss ya :hug:

Oh, this does bring back SO many memories, Rach! Miss you, too. :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug:

Now I will have to see if I can hunt up the convention and Marineland video to have a look again. It was just so great to be able to have those days to decompress after the convention. I loved the convention, but it was so much work and I did not get a chance to really socialize as much as I wanted to. Oh, and I will have to get out my froggie that Lesley presented to me. I have wonderful memories of meeting up with Lesley, Mary, Becky, Em and so many others, but having that time in Marineland was priceless afterwards. The boys STILL talk about it! They have begged each year since then for us to go back, and we likely will this summer. Walker has stated several times that that was his 'best birthday EVER!'

You were such a bad influence. :smt036 I am sure that you were popping chocolate covered expresso beans to have all that energy all day and all night long! IRDing in the stairwell was something else. Bill figured we were nuts. Pretty sure Dan took it in stride. :haha:

We have to do it again sometime. We loved having you for New Year's, but it was not long enough at all. :( Curran is still determined that you are coming here or we are going there by boat. :haha: He still wears that kangaroo hat you got him, btw.

Are you STILL bitter about the 5(00) friendly deer?! :ANYWORD: