Mountains, Smores, & Waterfalls!! Our Anniversary + Cousin Road Trip!

This post has VIDEO!!! YAY!!

So as you know, August 9th is Fred and my wedding anniversary - yay!  This year we decided to take a little road trip to camp out in the Poconos and visit Canada to see Niagara Falls!  But we also wanted to spend time with my little cousins, Irene, Eduardo, and Cielo, so we brought them along as well.  You might be saying - what!?  It's your anniversary and you're bringing KIDS?  And they aren't even YOUR kids!?

I gotta tell you something about my little cousins.  They are just plain awesome.  Whenever we all hang out, it's an adventure, and Fred and I wanted them to have a chance to see a world wonder, ride some white water, and to try smores for the first time.   It was our moment in time to experience it all TOGETHER.

And I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Here's a photo montage of our trip!

Cousin Vacay 2011 from NTME on Vimeo.

Saturday started off with Camelbeach Waterpark in the Poconos.  It's pretty big and had some cool rides.  I however only could take 9 pictures because we forgot a memory card for our water proof camera HAHAHAHAHA!

Sunday after church, we headed back to the Poconos in the evening and camped out in a cabin.  I was all for camping, but I insisted on a cabin and not a tent hahaha.   Glad that I did because it ended up raining each night hahaha!

The kiddies had smores for the first time.  They are now addicted.  Here's a video about us trying to start a fire on the first night... it took us 2 hours because the wood was damp and we didn't have a fire-starting thingy... But Cielo saved the day with her sorceress chant!

Cielo starts the fire from NTME on Vimeo.

Fred has what he considers the best method for making the perfect smore.  He says that you should not let the smore touch the flame directly, but just have it linger nearby it.  It should make the outside of the marshmellow a crispy golden brown, not burnt.

We used Hershey's 'minis' for the smores.. rather than the chocolate pieces that you snap off.  It worked really well... very easy to deal with and you can add peanut butter cup minis if you want!

On Monday, we went white water rafting on the Lehigh River.  We stuck with the class 1 and class 2 rapids, which I think were great for the kids' first time.

Didn't buy the photo they took... probably b/c of my face HAHAHAH!

Here's some footage of our white water rafting journey!  Pretty funny hehehe!

White Water Rafting from NTME on Vimeo.

That night, we used our flashlights to do some light painting hehe!

The next day we journeyed to Niagara Falls!

This was the view at night from our hotel on the Canadian side.  LOVED our hotel!! I can't believe how close the US and Canada are together lol... I always envisioned there to be a bigger gap lol..

So that's our vacation in a nutshell!!