Category: family

When you wake 3 babies and 7 grown-ups at 4 am to catch a shuttle at 5…

so you can get to the airport at 6:30 to stand in line until 8…

to catch the 9am flight back home…

there really should be an agreement of some sort…

that they will not, under any circumstances, delay the flight–

for two and a half hours.

But there isn’t.

So they did.

And the whole building found out the real meaning of the words, “sweet tempered babies” and “darn good sports.”

Till finally, finally they pointed us westward…

grateful that they got that wing screwed back on…

so that we could fly, and fly, and fly safely back…

to our little home…

in the mountains.

 

 

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Week 21 Food Storage Prompt: 10 lbs. Powdered Milk

Day 6

If we’re going to see it–it has to be today. Note the lady in the white T-shirt smiling sweetly at our little herd. Yeah, we got a lot of that.

Aren’t these mounted policemen the guys who chased Santa Claus through Central Park in that Elf movie? I bet that got them on the naughty list.

A shy bald kid at his favorite place on the face of the earth…

Nintendo World! Gee, I thought our front room was Nintendo world. My mistake.

The youngsters were thoroughly enthralled.

Most of them, anyway.

I really wanted to see where the Macy’s Parade takes place on Thanksgiving. Maybe I’m some kind of country chick or something, but I just couldn’t fathom an 8 story department store.

By the time we went up all the escalators–I was a believer.

This place had a McDonalds right in the middle of the store. Yogurt–yum!

Then on to the Empire State Building. We didn’t actually take the tour to the top—

but the ground level was really pretty.

Speaking of ground–apparently New York people spit a ton of gum on the ground. Ewww–ah.

Prepare now for the ultimate Subway experience. First you go in and down…

then sometimes you have to go back up. Hooray for big burly men.

See that gal in the green shirt waaaay up ahead? Well, she is our illustrious leader, guiding us to all things touristy–provided you can keep up.

I’ll admit, I expected the subways to be dark and dirty and full of scary gangs and half dead people. I know, too many movies–but the truth is–they were clean and well lit and full of regular folks…just like us. See? I can be taught!

Our destination was at the very last stop. That why the sign says, “Last Stop.” har har

We found this lush, shady park to sit in and rest our tired bones…

and stare out at the lovely Lady Liberty. This was my very first time seeing her.

We just sat and thought for a very long time. It seemed like the proper thing to do. That’s the bald kid and his mom in between the trees there.

It was really quite peaceful…sobering even. My mother’s family came here from Sweden and my father’s came from Scotland about a hundred years ago. They both saw this very same lovely sight.

We loved the boats…

and the chicken nuggets…

the sea birds…

and the mysteriously matching trees.

We discovered that they are building a memorial visitor’s center for the World Trade Center.

So, for now all we could do was stand back and take pictures of the Ground Zero horizon…

but it was enough.

Day 5

Maybe it would be helpful to tell you how we planned out this New York vacation in the first place. Jacob had us sit down one evening and write down two things that we would feel really disappointed if we missed seeing. Two things might not sound like much, but with 7 adults going to one city that could be a ton of “important” places to go.

Today, we mapped out where everyone’s “not to miss places” were and realized that most of them were on the same street—5th Avenue. So, we started walking, and pointing and snapping pictures.

Today, it was raining and we quickly found that everyone in the state of New York has an umbrella hidden somewhere on their person–except us. How do they do that?

An MTV salute to SpongeBob? Help me.

I really like this town.

One of my kids said, “We have those at home, mom.” Pretty sure they meant the bird.

Well, we don’t have anyplace like this where I come from. I didn’t even know such a place existed. Now, I ask you–how is a rational person supposed to behave?

I’m all a quiver.

Oh, we’re going in, all right.

Pretty sure that my Daney Boy would always catch this football. Yum!

Even the Hershey’s store can’t interfere with Chompy’s nap time. How would it be to just magically fall asleep whenever you’re tired?

Wait. Maybe I already do that.

Nevermind.

A store dedicated to the proposition that all M&Ms are created equal. I totally lost sight of nearly all my children and all their children in this place.

The bald kid and I sat in a corner and waited it out.

This thingy looked pretty important, so I took a picture.

It’s soup to me.

Oh-ho! So this is where the natives are getting those umbrellas. Very clever indeed. It did me no good though, because being hobbit-like in stature, I still couldn’t reach them.

Being book lovers, we needed to see the NY Public Library. This building holds over 15 million books. Sounds like our family room. What a cool place.

We sat outside the library to regroup and Jillian found a couple of birds that were happy to eat out of her hand. We don’t have them back home.

This incredible place is St.Patrick’s Cathedral. It has been here since 1879. It is actually much bigger than it looks on the outside.

Breathtaking on the inside.

While we were walking quietly around, admiring the beauty of this reverent place…

we looked over at sweet baby Beckham and without any prompting from anyone—

…he was so reverently—folding his arms. Babies “get” things better than we do sometimes.

To be continued…