Day Trip to New York

I've been wanting to take the kids up to NYC for awhile now, just to be in the city and do some random fun things we wouldn't have the opportunity to do down here in the good ol' First State. We went yesterday, and it was AMAZING.

Of the many things that were perfect for us: we found free parking right on Central Park West, only a 10 minute walk away from the Children's Museum of Manhattan and right across from the American Museum of Natural History. FREE. PARKING! My day was already made!

Not only that, but the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Light breezes and balmy, upper-70s and low -80s temperatures just made me love being outside. We walked around Central Park, went up to the Belvedere Castle and saw Turtle Pond and some of the Shakespeare Garden and just soaked up the atmosphere.

NOT ONLY THAT, but on the way to the Children's Museum (we ended up doing that instead of the Natural History Museum--next time!) we passed by a completely vegan restaurant and decided to eat there after the museum. Seriously? There aren't THAT many vegan restaurants out there and there definitely aren't any around here! But we passed one on our way! And the food was amazing. I loved it, and really hope we go back there.

And now for the pictures. WE HAD SO MUCH FUN! I immediately wanted to plan another NYC trip, maybe at Christmas time to see the lights and Rockefeller Square and I don't even know what. And maybe visit my cousin in Brooklyn.

I Might Be Back!

I'm gearing up to do some catch up blogging and to give you more of a scoop on our happenings the last, oh, four months or so. It's been quite the hiatus. It's been good for me to take one more thing off of my plate--taking and uploading pictures, thinking up blog posts to write, actually composing and attaching pictures to posts--but I have really missed the kind of chronicling that's gone on on here. And I've missed feeling motivated and interested in taking pictures--I haven't been taking many pictures because I haven't been blogging, and I really notice a synergy between writing up what has been going on and having good photos to illustrate those stories and taking more pictures.

Summer is more than half way over, and as I get ready for fall, I'm planning to work blogging back into my regular routine(s), although I am not sure yet of how MUCH blogging I'll do. I'm hoping it will at least be a couple times a week that I share photos or news, especially because I AM hoping to keep this blog as a kind of photo album for us moving forward, turning it into a blog book for every calendar year.

With that, let me go ahead and start adding some pictures. Here's my favorite one of the kids. They are wearing their "matching" sports ball pajamas. I think RUS's were hand-me-downs from Surf and Cali, while R received hers from Santa this past Christmas.

Rosemary is FIVE!

There are no words to explain how wild it is to have a five-year-old. Rosemary's fifth birthday was a Car Wash themed party, complete with car-wash hand-made by J and Grampy, plus plenty of sponges and buckets and baby pools for all kinds of car washing fun. It was a BLAST.

Memorial Weekend Trip to Ohio

For Memorial Weekend Surf and Cali had a wedding to attend in Ohio, so they called around to see if any of the rest of us could head up that same weekend. Sure enough, we were able to wrangle an almost-complete family reunion out of it. So J and I packed up the kids and headed to Ohio as soon as the semester ended in order to meet up with Surf, Cali, Li'l T, L, A&M, G, Trucker, and our newest nephew that I don't think I've named on here yet but will call C, Geg, and my parents.

On top of that, A&M had C baptized at my parents' church (a lot of the cousins have actually been baptized there, it's almost tradition now to bring the babies to Ohio to be baptized).

AND, on top of that! Cali's parents happened to also have a wedding (they live in Florida) and Cali has a bunch of family in Ohio too, so my parents had a baptism party at which they invited Cali's family to visit, and it was really, really nice to get to see our extended families--my aunt, uncle, and cousin who drove up for the day, as well as M's parents who drove up for the baptism, and Cali's parents who happened to also be travelling nearby.

This was the first time we'd met L and he is a complete CHARMER! R was absolutely enthralled by him and cried and cried when we left and had to say goodbye, because she was going to miss him so much.

Trucker continues to melt my heart as the biggest imp in the family and that's saying a lot because there is quite a lot of impish behavior among these kids!

Here's Li'l T and RUS chowing down on goodies from the market.

Grandpa with RUS, Trucker, and R during the baptism picnic.

Cali's mother with L, who, at 8 months, was just starting to eat table food. I think this was his first taste of watermelon!

 My parents. LOVE THEM.

My mom and my uncle W and aunt C. This was another huge treat--getting to see members of my family that I see far too rarely.

A with two of his boys. I love this picture!

 M, her mother, and Cali with C and L just after the baptism.

Surf and Li'l T, who really did not want me to take his picture (he was actually hiding behind the hat most of the time!)

Florida!!!

I had the opportunity to visit my friend D in Florida, and it was so luxurious and decadent, exactly the vacation I needed as I moved out of the weekly routines of the semester and into a summer schedule.

I wasn't planning for it to be a vacation--she was due with her second baby any day and I wanted to be there when the baby was born and to help in any way I could once he arrived. Unfortunately he didn't come until late into the night on the same day I had to leave to come back to Delaware. I was really disappointed to miss meeting him, but there will be other opportunities.

Because I went by myself, and J stayed home and watched the kids, my few days in Florida were really an indulgent vacation for me. I stayed with D and her son at their condo just across the street from the beach and complete with pool. I did plenty of swimming in the pool and on the beach, gathered a bunch of shells to bring home for the kids, and got to spend one day at the Tampa Zoo during their $5 Sunday special.

Some of you will laugh, but I put this picture on here because there are always all kinds of things that people reference that you just can't really picture until you've actually seen them. This is one of those things: Spanish moss. It hangs from trees all over the area and I found it to be the most fascinating thing. 

Best picture I managed to get of D's son A, who is only a few months older than RUS. He is the sweetest--and most impish!--boy and it was so much fun spending time with him. He knows how to do things with an iPhone that I haven't even figured out yet!!

These last two pictures are photographic proof of how hard it is to get an almost-three-year-old to smile in pictures!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

As always, J and the kids spoiled me on Mother's Day. J made my favorite chocolate chocolate chip pancakes and he and the kids completely surprised me with this ginormous card hanging over our kitchen doorway in the morning!