bear with me as i attempt to play blog catchup and remember details about events that happened long ago and far away.
at some point in september, the girls and i took a spontaneous trip to batavia, to visit my mom while my stepdad was out of town. my sisters planned to come out for a bit, so we turned it into a full fledged girls only adventure.
we hit the road after co-op, passing pilot mountain (which is only a few minutes from our new stupid house, so it’s more of a “welcome home” landmark, but the photo coming from the south is cooler. we stopped for lots of fast food and junk along the way. slept in a random hotel in pittsburgh. and then finally arrived at the lake.
pilot mountain. 
fast food in wv. 
sleeping beauties in pittsburgh. 
lake view from the deck.
we didn’t have anything on the agenda, except visiting folks and laying low. our first stop was to check in with cousin/nephew holden, who has grown quite a bit since our last visit. he was also quite interested in hazel, which was pretty hilarious. then, aforementioned sisters, nieces and dogs arrived on the scene for some shenanigans. and, later in the visit, my pal mary casey dropped by for breakfast, which i’m lumping here with other visiting type pics. we also saw brothers, aunts, uncles and various friends, all of whom i neglected to photo.
holden time. 
sister time. 
girlz. 
mary casey fun.
as usual, there was gratuitous amounts of food. this time, however, i managed to keep things 100% keto. well. maybe 98%. its always easy with antipasto and wings from a local pizza place, but my mom even took it up a notch with a homemade cauliflower crust pizza.
antipasto. 
wings. (plus antipasto). 
cauliflower crust pizza.
on our last day, my mom and i took the girls to the rochester science museum. despite growing up in the area, and having 12+ years of visiting with kids, not to mention a window of time where my sole reason for trip to ny was to hang with baby bro jake, i don’t think i’ve ever been to this particular museum.
i won’t bore you with all of the details. for the most part it was standard science museum stuff, with exhibits about the erie canal and it’s locks added for local flair.
entrance. 
water table. 
weather girls. 
pulleys. (she’s learning about simple machines at co-op, so this was a hit). 
erie canal locks. 
teamwork. 
archaeologists. 
(fake) poop categorization. 
lego marble run. 
native american diorama. 
making electricity. 
our favorite. topological sand box. 
cutest construction worker.
one part of the museum that we were least expecting was a fantastic exhibit about how blacks were represented in media and culture back in the day (mostly following the civil war and abolishment of slavery, i think).
hazel got pretty bored, so i wasn’t able to read all of the things, but it was very informative. and sad. blacks were stereotyped and charactatured, in a very negative light. they were often portrayed as animal-like, or savages the children unkempt, and the women as jezebels. anyhow. i can’t do a better job of explaining it than the pics i took do. i think you can right click on them to see them larger to read the texts. i almost transcribed it, but i’m about 45 blog posts behind, so this is the best you get…
aside from this exhibit, there was a really great (and more hands on and kid friendly) one about the underground railroad. we followed the paths of several prominent figures as they made their way to rochester, which was a hub of helping escaped slaves secure their freedom. anna has been really interested in folks like harriet tubman and frederick douglass and what life was like for black people both during and post-slavery. so, she thought this was pretty great.
anyhooooo… the next day, we sadly sad goodbye. and headed back south. sigh.