Summer Vacation 2009: The NE Trek

We left on Sunday, May 31 for our vacation of the Northeast states. We were gone 11 days and overall had an amazing trip. The kids are at a great age for traveling. They can sleep almost anywhere, can usually go without a nap, and are excited about everything. These are most of the pictures I took, you see, I forgot to bring the battery charger and my battery light started to blink on the first day. So, I only took a few pictures at each place.
We started our trip in Lewisburg, PA visiting our great friends the Rosenbergs. We love to visit the Rosenbergs. Our kids are the same ages, the food is wonderful and the company the best ever. I hope they come and visit us when we're in MN!
Somehow, Dennis convinced me to go to NYC and I'm so glad we went. Dennis drove right into town and found us an awesome parking place. We had a busy day in Times Square: At Rockefeller Center:Playing the piano at FAO Schwartz:Eating a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity's:Playing at Central Park with Chuck (while Sadie napped):Riding in a taxi:At the Empire State Building:And riding the ferry to the Statue of Liberty:Then, we headed out of town and stayed in Bennington, Vermont:The following day we drove to Hampton, NH and the kids got to see the Atlantic Ocean for the first time: The weather was cold and the water was colder, but the kids had fun anyways. I got to eat my first Lobster Roll and I found my first sea glass:Then we headed back through northern New Hampshire and into Vermont. We toured the Ben and Jerry's factory:And camped several nights along the way, including a night on an island on Lake Champlain in Burlington, VT:

In Burlington, we also toured Shelburne farm which was built by the Vanderbilt's:Sadie collected eggs and managed to pull one right from under a chicken. She was tickled pink:We rode the ferry, car and all across Lake Champlain and went through the Adirondacks in upstate NY. We stopped at this not-very child proofed gorge with beautiful views of waterfalls. I was beautiful, but I was a wreck. There's something about kids overlooking a plunging waterfall with nothing keeping them back but chicken wire and plastic ties that puts a mom on edge:We took in a beautiful hike:Then we drove to Buffalo to see aunt Pat. She just moved into a new apartment and I'm sure her neighbors were excited to have two young screaming kids in their midst. On the last day of our trip, we visited Niagara Falls on the Maid of the Mist and got very very wet:And spent the rest of the day at Niagara Falls State Park enjoying the falls:

A Quick Update

I keep forgetting to post this picture of the kids with their cousin, Reid. The great thing is that Reid, Eli and Sadie will get to grow up together because Reid lives in Bemidji just like we're going to in a month!!Yesterday, Dennis finished up his final rotation for pharmacy school and he also had his last shift at Children's hospital. Today Dennis is at a review for his boards and tomorrow we leave on vacation. We're touring the New England states with a stop in Pennsylvania to visit the Rosenbergs, NYC to see Chuck, and Niagara Falls with a visit to see Pat. There will be some camping and hiking along the way along with some heavy duty dvd watching in the car! We should be back on June 10th. Dennis has his hooding ceremony on Saturday, June 13 and graduation is on Sunday (though, he's skipping that!).

The last we heard he should be starting his job on July 2, but really we don't have a final date on that yet. (I guess that's what happens when you take a job with the govt.) We really hope that we're there by then, because we're supposed to close on our house by July 1:Yes, we found this perfectly cute house in Bemidji while we were house hunting and hopefully it will be ours! We'll keep you updated...

Bowling

We finally took the kids bowling at a little karoke/bowling/bubble tea store near our house. Actually, this is the second time, the first time we went with our friends the Rosenbergs and it ended after 3 frames as the children started to have simultaneous melt-downs. But, this time, we actually made it through the game. The kids enjoyed their smoothie and throwing the ball. They even managed to knock down a few pins!They had 6 pound balls, but they still needed some help from dad...Sofia, our favorite neighbor girl, came along:They showed the speed of the ball. 2.3 MPH... the game took a long, long time!
We drove past the store today and they said, "can we go to the rolling ball place". I think they had a good time.

Perks of Parenthood

Having your children voluntarily clean the bathroom! Right on!!

Wishes

Spring Game

Yesterday the Buckeyes had their spring game. During the fall, Eli asked constantly if he could go to a football game and he never got to go. So, this was his last chance to visit the "shoe" and see the Buckeyes in action. It was a father and son day as Sadie and I took naps then went to Whetstone to feed the ducks and fish. It was scarlet v. gray and Eli very excitedly told me when he got home that "the Buckeyes won!!". If you can remember back to 2005, you might recall that Eli did get to go to a football game when he was only a couple of weeks old. He slept through the whole thing. Well, four years later, not much has changed:Dennis said that by the time they got to the game (which was at 1:00, his usual nap time) he could hardly keep his eyes open. You see, Eli likes to get up at 5:45 the same time that his dad does so naps are crucial for making it through the day. Plus, the night before Eli was up late playing with a good friend and he still got up at 5:45. So, that makes for one tired Eli who just couldn't muster the energy to stay awake to watch his beloved Buckeyes. He slept until there was 3 minutes left in the 4th quarter.
He wakes: Gosh, we couldn't even put him in some scarlet and gray:Eli got to see the band which he always love. The football players all walked back to their practice field, which is right next to our house, so Eli got to walk back with them, which he thought was pretty cool.

School

Last Thursday the kids at Eli's pre-school got to bring their dads to school for "Dads and Donuts". They put on a little performance and made some little treats for the dads to enjoy. Eli filled out this poster. I love that Dennis' eyes are purple and that he finds owls at night!! I realized today that I haven't hardly taken any pictures of Eli at school. This week the theme is "bugs". They had a whole cage full of lady bugs to investigate.

Sadie walks into the classroom like she owns the place. She knows where her coat goes and that she has to wash her hands before she plays. She loves to paint and I often find her pictures in Eli's cubbie, but I rarely find a picture from Eli. She sits down to do all of the activities, sings the songs and participates like a full-fledged member of the class. I usually have to drag her out of there kicking and screaming.

Scaling New Heights

Another beautiful day, another trip to a park for a picnic:

Happy Easter!!

We had an action-packed Easter weekend, filled with fun, family and friends. Aunt Pat came which made the weekend extra special as she got to come to all of the fun events. First was an egg hunt held with our playgroup friends over at the Chandlers house. There were lots of kids and hundreds of eggs that were (not very well) hidden all over their yard. Seriously, trying to hide several hundred eggs in a small backyard results in parents just throwing the eggs in the grass and calling it good.

Here's Eli on the hunt:Showing off their loot. Between the two of them, I think they ate a pound of chocolate:Then we dyed eggs. I'm amazed that it only takes about 3 minutes to dye 18 eggs. Somehow we managed to eat all 18 eggs in 36 hours. You can hardly see it, but their names are written on these eggs. (Check out Eli's hands, they're very colorful!)The Easter Bunny promised a visit, so the kids were up bright and early looking for hidden Easter baskets. Again, they consumed more chocolate than I like them to eat in one sitting. We managed to make it to 8am mass where the kids continued to eat more chocolate and then following mass had some cake, followed by more chocolate. They sort of ate lunch and then demanded more chocolate.They skipped their naps so we headed to the park for some fishing and bike riding and chocolate eating. When we arrived home, there was lots of whining, screaming for chocolate and tantrum throwing, so we did what every parent would do. We put the chocolate stained, sugar-highed kids in their pajamas and put them to bed (at 6:30)!! We hope your Easter was as chocolate filled and fun as ours was.

Reading With Grandma

Grandma Z. came on the airplane to visit without Grandpa. We have all been enjoying grandma time, but alas, today she is flying home. We had a good time with her eating at restaurants especially Chuck E. Cheese, going to the zoo, a hike in Hocking Hills, and going to all of the normal playgroup things that we do. I think grandma got all of her reading time in!

Grandma even got to read to Eli's pre-school class: Eli had to sit front and center. The teacher had Eli introduce her. He said, "This is my grandma." His teacher asked if his grandma had a name. He looked at her very confused and said, "Grandma."Come and visit again soon, grandma!! We love it when you visit.

Why did the snapping turtle cross the road?

Look what we almost ran over:

We had to stop and play. Only the turtle was NOT interested, which was ok, because he smelled like he hasn't had a bath his whole life. (And he was trying with all of it's might to stretch his neck far enough to bite Dennis, there was a lot of snapping going on!)

Monster Trucks

Last night was the annual boys night out to the Monster Truck show. Eli was in hog heaven. Not only did he get to see Monster Trucks, but he got to see them with his two best friends, Sataya and Luke. I've never seen Eli so excited.
This year, they got "Pit Passes" so they could go down to the floor and look at the monster trucks before the show started. Eli claims that Tail Gator was his favorite...
Eli and Luke... It's really loud even with ear plugs in. The boys spent the whole night covering their ears and they came home smelling of fumes. Megasaurus was the crowd favorite. He drove around breathing fires and eating cars. I guess you have to be three to truly appreciate the splendor!

Because There Aren't Enough Family Pictures...

Another trip to Hocking Hills to show Grandma Z. the waterfalls.