Halloween/Fall trip to Buffalo, New York

We recently came back from a trip to Buffalo, NY.  I was so glad that my family got to see a "real" Fall, and go trick or treating on a brisk evening.  My wonderful cousin and her family hosted us, and we had a great time!  As I am a frugal lady, I made our Halloween costumes.  Now, when I say "made", I mean that I got some pieces of clothing/material together, used a Sharpie, paper, tape, and safety pins.  There was no sewing involved, because I just don't have that kind of skill!  We were Starbucks-themed.  Roger and I were baristas, and the littles were drinks.  Bug (this is what we call Aryanna, by the way) was a Strawberries and Creme Frap, and Ford was coffee (decaf, of course).  We also got to go to Niagara Falls, which was really spectacular!

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Traveling with Ford makes me nervous every time.  I see the looks of worry on peoples' faces when they see him squirming in my arms at the gate; thinking he's going to be a nightmare on the plane.  This was the 5th time flying for him, but the last time he flew, he was only three months old, so he was sleeping a lot more those days.  I am still nursing him at 15 months, but he's certainly not a newborn anymore, and there is so much to stimulate him at this age, so I wasn't sure how this would go.  Although he was hollering while we waited to board, once we settled down on the plane and we began to take off, I nursed him to sleep relatively easily!  He started to stir during our descent into Buffalo, and I finally exhaled all the breath I'd been holding in for the four-hour flight!

Waiting for our plane to NY.  Bug was playing her rendition of "Cups" with Ford's water bottle.  Ford was being his creepy little ginger self.

Bug couldn't wait to experience this type of weather.  She wanted to go crazy in the leaves!  Bundling up and going outside was fantastic, and even though she was cold, she didn't want to come inside.  Ford kept trying to run into the street, so Roger had to be his shadow.

I love how they're standing the same way!

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Prepping for Trick 'r' Treating was serious business.  I had to tape Starbucks logos onto shirts and hats and aprons.  I drew the order preferences onto Ford's plain white shirt because I got it on sale at Target for around $2.00.  However, for Bug's costume, I cut little rectangles out of printer paper and safety pinned them onto the back of her sweatshirt, because she can totally wear that again!  And it should last her a while.  After all, it's a women's XS from H&M!  (Ford is wearing his Halloween costume for pajamas now.  I refuse to use something like that only once.) 

Trick 'r' Treating in my cousin's neighborhood gave me the warm fuzzies.  Her neighbors were so sweet!  The sense of community there was a lot different than it is in Vegas, and we live in what is considered to be a family oriented area!  It was drizzly and a little chilly, but not bad at all.  Bug said that she wished it would rain on Halloween, and rejoiced in her wish coming true.  I rejoiced in gorging on the candy haul later after the kids were sleeping!  Muahaha!

The Sharpie is mightier than the embroidering machine

Ford was trying to jack Aryanna's straw.  Rude.

His first piece of candy!  Although, he really just chewed through the wrapper and melty goodness came out.

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Niagara Falls took our breath away, but the park there was equally beautiful, in my opinion.  We walked from one side of the falls to the other, and got quite the workout doing so!  It was really windy on the one side, and peaceful on the other.  Ford was fast asleep on the loud, windy side!  Walking through the peaceful side, I could smell the leaves and I realized how much I missed the Northeast.  

Aryanna wished on all of the 15 ladybugs she found at the park.  We would be walking, and turn around to find her way far behind us, crouched down and talking to her hand.  By the time we were done with our little tour of the falls, we were starving and had to hit up my favorite grocery store in the Northeast:  WEGMANS!  The subs are SO good, and I literally had written down "eat a Wegmans sub" on a list of things that I needed to do while in NY.

It saddened me to leave, so hopefully we can go back next year, and have more touching family moments like this: