bou-tang clan: niagara falls!

Well, we all survived our first camping trip. Niagara Falls was amazing and I, personally, loved the US side. Although the Canada side had picture perfect views (and was more commercial/built up), the US side had more green space and places to walk and explore and equally beautiful scenic viewpoints. Jackson was awesome - he loved walking and flirting! Most things were very inexpensive (which was a surprise for us) but we did splurge on a tour of Maid of the Mist (i.e. boat ride that takes you into the horseshoe falls - some serious "funny water" for my Arctic girls ... Yikes!). They provided blue ponchos for all of us (including a tiny one for Jackson!). It was all a bit tourist-y and I have to say that most of the babies/toddlers/younger kids DID NOT have fun. The boats are cramped, you get wet and all the little ones want to do is move ... Jackson wasn't going anywhere, we didn't care how much he wiggled. We were able to see all the sites within one day (lots of walking which was great!). We even made it over to the Canadian side. Tony and I have passports but children 16 and younger can cross into Canada with both parents and a birth certificate. Well, we were prepared and had a great time walking across the bridge into Canada!

Camping and sleeping at night was a bit hard. The first night Jackson was so curious about the tent and having both Mama and Daddy sleeping with him. It was very cute at first but after 30 mins or so we didn't really know how the whole sleeping thing was going to work itself out. Of course, Jackson finally got to sleep and the following night was much better. One thing Mama and Daddy realized was that our nice, super light backpacking tent will need an upgrade to a bigger, more family friendly size!