Santa and more Niagara

Last year, I was 2 weeks away from having Chance, and we stood in line for over an hour to see Santa. This was no easy feat with an almost 2 year old who loves to run! We met Santa a couple of times as he walked by and Charlie gave him high fives, yet as was Charlie's turn to sit on Santa's lap, he freaked. But then Santa gave him M&M's (that old saint knows what makes Charlie tick!), and allowed Mommy (and almost full term Chance) sit on his lap with him...and we managed to get this picture:



That poor old saint had 3 people on one knee. I hope he recovered in time to drive his sleigh around the world...

Anyhow, this year, Charlie had no problem getting on his lap, and telling him about the "Big Little Car" he wanted for Christmas. Chance, however, was just not sure. We did get this quick shot just before Chance lost it:




I also caught this pic on my camera, after Chance's exit...



And afterwards, we did a little photo shoot in the mall:





Also, more Niagara Pictures... Chuck put together a couple of panoramics...

The Canadian Horseshoe Falls


The American Falls


There's a constant rainbow or two when the sun's out, because there's always a mist coming from the Falls. Kinda neat that God reminds us that He won't destroy us with water again, as we look at this extremely powerful sight!




And, you know me, always the daredevil, right in front of the "danger" sign. But I'd like to remind certain people (Chuck) that Chuck did it first! ;)





A couple of fun facts: Only one person has gone over the Canadian Falls (without any equipment) and survived. A 7 year old boy was in a boating accident, and went over, and was recovered (he did have a life jacket on) at the bottom, with no injuries! His 17 year old sister was rescued just before going over. Also, the first person to go over on purpose was a widow and a school teacher (is that really enough to give you a death wish?! haha!). She and her cat got in a barrel, and survived the trip with only minor scrapes and bruises. The next person who survived went in a steel barrel and was in recovery for 26 weeks with lots of broken bones. I told Chuck that if I was in an indestructable container and knew I wouldn't get injured, I'd do it ;)



Anyhow, many people have died, not only falling down the falls, but trying to raft the white waters before and after. The pictures really don't capture how incredibly huge these falls are. And to think, Man has slowed the falls to only 40 miles per hour! I don't know what it was before, but through dams and things, we've slowed it down to keep it from eroding too much. It was eroding 10 feet a year, now it's only 1 foot every 10 years!



Enough water still flows over the falls a minute to fill a million bathtubs. There's just no way to truly explain, you have to see it for yourself. God's creation is absolutely awe-inspiring!