Author: soggycheerios

Friday July 13 was probably my favorite day of the trip. How do you top NYC was my initial thought, but spending a day at the beach, with the ocean waves was magical. There was no amusing the kids, no keeping them close, it was perfect, everyone was content the entire day.The kids have never been to the ocean and didn’t know what to make of the salty taste to the water. Eventually they got used to it and everyone had a great time. Hallie didn’t care for the waves AT ALL, and spent her time in the sand. We had sand everywhere and sea weed was falling out of our swimsuits but it was all worth it. Next time I will be renting a beach house and we will spend more than one day at the ocean. The beach we went to was called Avon by the Sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to go to New Jersey and visit Danny’s Sister Nancy and her little family. We haven’t seen them since Alyssa was 4 or 5 months old and Loei was 1. He is now a 6 year old happy, friendly little boy and we loved getting to know him better. Alyssa and Loei hit it off, there is a special bond between cousins that make them instant friends. We were also able to meet up with our good friends Shana and Devree in Chinatown, and caught a quick breakfast with my sister and her kiddos on our way back home.
Most of our trips in our Nevada days consisted of driving I-80 for 8 hours through Nevada to Salt Lake City. This trip also consisted of driving I-80 for 8 hours headed East also, instead of sage brush, salt flats and sand, everything is green, lush, and full of life. The highest elevation of the drive was 2250 feet above sea level. It was an easy drive and I can see us taking this trip again sometime soon.
After an evening eating and swimming and a good nights rest we took off for the Statue of Liberty. We left from the Jersey side. The boat ride provided great views of the Statue of Liberty. We stopped on Ellis Island.

Thursday July 12 was spent in New York City. We went to Chinatown first. That was an adventure. We stopped at Columbus Park on Mulberry street and let the kids play for a few minutes. Devree and Shana made it to Chinatown soon afterward so we set off to find them. So much fun seeing them. It was like no time had passed at all, we sat and ate a delicious lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. The Sweet and Sour Chicken was loaded with fresh mango chunks.
From Chinatown we set off for the WTC. We had tickets for the Memorial there. We saw the one and only tree that survived and looked at the massive pools where the old building stood. It was a humbling moment and a great time to teach the children as well.
Off we went to Central Park, but not before riding the subway up there. It was a bitter sweet moment, the subway is an interesting place and not necessarily a place of rest, but we were so thankful for the seats and the A/C that we didn’t mind the dirty germ infested place. The doors opened at one stop and quickly closed as their was a fire down there, you could smell the smoke. On another stop, Hallie made a mad dash for the door, good think we caught her before she got too far, I can’t imagine having her on the outside of the doors as it closed.
We found a shady place to sit for a moment at the park. The kids played on rocks and Hallie left some skin of her knees there, we moved over to the Museum of Natural History. It is free for the last hour. Tanner was going nuts trying to see it all and spouting random odd facts. Shana, Devree and myself… ok all of the girls, had had it. Our feet were tired. We sat at the front and let Tanner and Danny run a muck through the museum. We said our goodbyes to the Hamblin’s and found a fun little restaurant in a posh area of NYC. We were thankful to sit for a few minutes before we hauled the kids back through the subway system, caught a train back to New Jersey, found our car and drove back to our hotel. We went stroller free, but Hallie fell asleep on the subway so poor Danny had to carry her the entire trip back. She stayed asleep through all of the transfers, and in the car and slept the entire night once we got her back to the hotel. We were all wishing we could join her.

Not five minutes off of the train we were walking close to the WTC and a homeless man was headed straight for us. He stopped at my little Aubrey and grabbed her arm, he patted her on the head and made kissing actions toward her face, he told her that she was the most beautiful thing in the city. I could tell he meant no harm, he was honestly in awe of little Aubrey. She took it well. It was a great day, but absolutely exhausting.

 

Escalators coming out of the PATH train

First view of the WTC coming out of the train station

 I encouraged the kids to take pictures of interesting things in the city, this… however is not what I had in mind–smile.

 

 

 

Aubrey buying sunglasses in Chinatown, Hallie eating a Chinese pastry

 Emma and her pastry

 

Spotting Devree and Shana in Chinatown

 LUNCH!

 Hallie warming up with her chopsticks, she later broke one of soup spoons–they were nice about it.

Aw, now there is a cute Tanner smile

 

 WTC Memorial

WTC Pool Memorial

 

 Headed for Central Park

 

Central Park

 

 The girls and their fans, best $2 ever spent

 Museum of Natural History, Alyssa still had some energy

 

 Frustrated Tanner, “faster people, too much to see not enough time”.

Tanner wanted to see the worlds largest collection of shrunken heads, we didn’t make it, but we did find this (next time bud!)

And… we are DONE

Catching the Subway back

Train

I’ll finish the trip in a separate post, this one is getting a little long.

I came down after a brief Sunday nap to start some dinner. What I found was delightful. I was afraid to go out to take pictures, disturbing them may have changed their behavior. My pictures were all taken from inside the house.
Alyssa is very artistic. She constructed the little hut and then sat amongst the trees drawing.

Aubrey and Tanner playing Chess

Hallie applying lip gloss to her toes… hmmm… not sure what her talent is yet–smile.

Alyssa lost her first tooth this morning, it was just as exciting as when Emma lost her first, amazing how I can feel excitement for each child even if I’ve been through it before with other children. I’ve been threatening for days to call the dentist to pull this tooth, she’s been a bit freaked out by it but this morning it surprised her and fell out on it’s own. The other tooth is already growing in, I foresee another child in braces in the future. She wrote a letter to the tooth fairy asking if she could keep her tooth. Out of curiosity I asked her why she wanted to keep it, with Alyssa you never know what kind of an answer you might get, she rarely disappoints. She wants to keep all of her teeth in a jar so that she can show it to boys and they will think it’s cool.
Tooth losing is a bitter sweet milestone, it means they are growing up, but they almost instantly lose all baby-ness in the process.

 

 

 

 

School is out and life is moving along too quickly. We are enjoying the sunshine and fireflies! Sunsets and Popsicles, girls camp, scout camp, youth conference. We are headed to New Jersey and Manhattan in a couple of weeks, and before I’m ready, this wonderful time will be coming to an end as well and school will be upon us. I watched Tanner complete his first year in middle school, he came out with all A’s and near perfect scores on 4 of the 5 Tera Nova tests. Emma finished middle school and will be moving on to high school (sob). Alyssa is going to start Kindergarten and Hallie will be my last little friend at home. We couldn’t be prouder. Emma had a great year, also pulling straight A’s and is volunteering at the local library. She will be in marching band this coming fall and that will add to our schedule. Aubrey ended one of her best years yet at school and also pulled a near perfect score in Math for her Tera Nova tests. Her teacher was amazing, and we will miss him. But for now, I’m going to sit back, relax and just take summer one day at a time.

Spring brought many surprises in our yard. According to our neighbors, the people who lived here were very private people, their children were long raised and gone and they spent a lot of their time working in the yard. We were pleased to see so many plants come up this spring and continue to be surprised as the seasons progress. One of the best finds is the Lily of the Valley that covers all of the flower beds in the back. When it blooms, it looks unreal, so tiny and perfectly formed are the flowers. The great maple tree in the front is surrounded by lilac bushes, and has become a little hideout for the children, they sit in there and play all sorts of fairy games and their imaginations run wild. The Magnolia bushes are everywhere and the smell is amazing, as are the blooms. The only major change we made to the yard was the overgrown bushes in the front yard. They hid the front porch, which is such a nice feature of the home. After we got them pulled out we weren’t sure what to put in there, so for this year some nice yellow marigolds, maybe next year we will put in something a little more permanent after some time to think.

My little Hallie is full of such spunk, we adore her. She gets annoyed by all of us trying to do so much for her and just wants to be a big girl. For her birthday she wanted a pink sleeping bag, a camping chair, a water bottle and a green cake. Not exactly the little princess party I had planned in my mind. We invited some friends over for a BBQ and had a great time running in the sprinklers and throwing water balloons. She got exactly what she wanted for her birthday. Our good friends and neighbors had a Pink Hello Kitty sleeping bag that their girls had outgrown, so that was covered. We provided the rest of the gifts and she was happy as can be. The weekend before her birthday we went camping in Amish Country, and we gave her the camping chair then. As for a cake, I baked a Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake (thanks pioneer woman) and put green sprinkles on it to cover the request of a green cake.

I sat down right after Easter to update the blog, Danny had updated my WordPress and it was no longer working right. I had to quit for the day but never returned knowing that it would take time to learn the new changes. Today the house is clean and picked up and the girls are nicely playing downstairs, Tanner is off to Basketball camp with his good friend Nate and Emma is reading a book. I have NO excuse not to sit down and make this work.
I think I left off on posting the girls in their Easter dresses. Tanner got the BEST tie for Easter, sparing no expense (he is my only boy after all) I picked out an awesome tie. Of course he ended up getting sick and didn’t get to wear it on Easter Sunday, and to rub more salt in the wounds I went back to pick him up a few more ties (yes I liked it that much). I found that after Easter they had been clearanced–Boo. On an upside, not many boys wear ties, so I was able to pick him up 4 more ties (for the same price as I paid for one) at a smokin’ good deal! I have yet to catch him with a camera in one of these stellar ties 🙁

My new stainless steel appliances, hope that dishwasher is up to par 😉
Before:

After:

Poor kiddo, she had a big flute concert and practice the night she got her braces on. I didn’t realize that braces could cause so many issues with her flute playing. She had just made first chair and had worked hard for that accomplishment. She couldn’t make a sound come out of the flute. I was very sympathetic and called her flute tutor. After a few tears and much frustration, I told her she might have to step down from being first chair and making symphonic band. She stood up and walked out of my room, slamming my door. She went down to the basement and was quite angry. I took a nap (isn’t that what all good mom’s do?). 30 minutes later she slammed my door back open and proceeded to play all of her songs for me, turned and said “Emma O’Barr doesn’t step down,” shut my door and left. She hasn’t had problem since. I learned that with Emma, sympathy is not a good motivator.

Danny ordered me a new (refurbished) lens. He surprised me with it… I DO have the best husband. So today I had to get out and play, play, play. I thought all was lost at lunch time when a freak of a storm blew through. Ohio puts on a good weather show. Thunder, lightening, and heavy rain. By the time Danny arrived home from work, it was dry and ready for a walk. We live right by the Marina and we love to walk down there and play on the beach, fish and swim. I took my camera with the hopes of finding something interesting to photograph. Usually it’s my kids, but I spotted a Great Blue Heron. I looked over my shoulder and took stock of the kids. Emma and Tanner were riding their scooters around the marina buildings talking about the books they are writing, bouncing ideas off of each other. I remember trying to write a book as a kid, hope they are more successful then I was.  Aubrey, Alyssa and Hallie were deeply engrossed in some sort of a sand creation, so I took off on a hike to get closer to the bird.

Sandy Alyssa Toes

Hallie and Aubrey

Carefully placing the shells

My three trouble makers

Off to find my bird. At first he was a little hesitant with me there, but I sat still and waited. It was worth the wait. The bird suddenly went into a pose that reminded me of a cat ready to strike. He stuck out his neck and froze.

In the blink of an eye he struck

I started snapping pictures as fast as I could

He came up with his prize. Pretty cool, I kept snapping. If you look close he actually pierces the fish with his open beak.

He frees it off of his beak and then picks the dead fish back up.

Then down it goes. I LOVE having my camera back!

Off he flies, after some research it’s nesting season, so maybe to his nest to feed a baby.

We walked back home. (rode various scooters/bikes/stroller)

A few flowers in the front yard.

We made some pizza and the kids are all building Lego’s together before bed. It has been the perfect day. I love a good storm and a fun walk. Now I need to find a class on Photo Shop. How I have missed my camera.

Oh and just for fun a really zoomed in picture of the stabbed fish on the Blue Herons beak, just too cool not to see even if it is a bit fuzzy.