14 hours in NYC

In general, this blog is about my kids, but they haven't done anything super exciting lately, and I have, so today it's about me :) So, I have always wanted to go to NYC, but had never been there, until now! Dave was very involved in putting together an event for customers to use their miles to purchase a super extravagant 5 course meal with Chef Charlie Palmer in Grand Central Station, and we were able to attend!! It was a whirlwind trip, but it was a lot of fun! So arriving at Ohare, we found that our flight to La Guardia had been canceled due to high winds from the hurricane, so we scrambled to find another flight, which ended up being one to Newark at about the same time. Well, there were high winds there, too, so we were delayed. A lot. And even once we actually took off, we had to hang out, circling the sky for a while. It took forever! But we finally landed, jumped on the train to Penn Station, hopped in a cab to Grand Central, and made it late but in time for the end of the first course. Once we were there, it was fabulous!!!!! The food was AMAZING, it was so fun to get to know a lot of really great people, and the setting was beautiful!


Grand Central Station is huge and absolutely gorgeous. It was the only NYC "attraction" that we saw so we will definitely be heading back. But, hey, I can finally say that I've been to New York!


Charlie Palmer was the nicest guy, so friendly and personable. I had barely met him, but by the end of the night he felt like an old friend. I felt totally comfortable asking him to pose with me for a picture, which is normally very hard for me.

After dinner, we were tired and it was pretty late, plus we had all our stuff with us, so we didn't do any sight-seeing. Just jumped in a cab, which got lost on the way to the hotel :) Then we were up bright and early to fly home the next morning. 14 hours! Whew! But it was a lot of fun and a great night away from my lovely kids :)

Halloween!

Happy Halloween! From Cinderella, Michael, and Frank

We couldn't get Jax to do any MJ moves or sing or anything... but Cinderella would give us a song, and Frankenstein would groan at us, and every stranger we passed while trick or treating :)

Araleigh got to attend 2 Halloween parties - the 1st at school, where they took the kids trick or treating around to all the classrooms!!! and at her friend, Alex's house with all her friends from church. Lucky girl!

The annual candy train :)

Araleigh was happy to join in this tradition also! She did this all herself!

Philadelphia

I have wanted to go to Philadelphia ever since my dad went on a trip there and came home with a sweatshirt that read "Philadelphia" on the front and "aihpledalihP" on the back :) The boys had a few days off from school last week, so we took a quick trip out to the keystone state! The boys love the "National Treasure" movies, and have been really interested in seeing Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. It was really fun to be able to show it to them! It was really an amazing place! It was so neat to see the actual rooms where our country really began. There was really a neat feeling there. To walk in the same place as the founders of our country was just an awesome experience. The kids loved the tours, and learned so many great things! The buildings were beautiful!

Our first stop was downtown Philly, and the Liberty Bell. There was a museum that gave all the history of the bell, as well as other events and people during that time. We learned a lot, and Traeden enjoyed asking the tour guide lots of questions. (tour guides love Traeden, because he is not afraid to ask questions and tour guides love to share their knowledge!) Next we went to the Portrait Museum, where there are hundreds of paintings of all the well-know men and women from that time.

We then took a tour of Independence Hall. This is the court room. The fence is the box where defendants would stand while on trial.

The Declaration Room. Wow. The Declaration and the Constitution were signed in this room. Pretty cool.

Congress Hall. This is where the senate used to meet. It is such a beautiful building!

The main congress meeting room in Congress Hall.

On our second day there we headed to Valley Forge. The kids were able to soak up a little more history, and have a lot of fun with their (our) cousins, McKenzie and Peyton!

They were happy to be outside, even though it kept trying to rain on us. Luckily it held off for a little while.

I didn't pose her. She loved standing with her hands like that on the cannon and yelling "FIRE!!!" She is so stinkin cute.

These are the log cabins that the troops built and stayed in for a winter.

The kids had to try it out, get the full experience. They decided they like their own beds better.

We had to let them run a little. They just kept going. They had so much fun! Isn't this a beautiful place this time of year? Wow!

George Washington actually lived in this house. That is amazing to me. I love history stuff, and its kind of fun to try to imagine what went on in this home over 200 years ago. It gets me! To think I have been in a place where George Washington lived, slept, ate dinner with his wife! It's awesome to me!

This monument was built in honor of the soldiers that lived and died here.

What a great trip! We definitely plan on going back, since there is still so much that we didn't see! GIANT thanks to Tim and Toni for letting us stay! What a fun weekend!

It's about time!

Our kids are really slow at losing teeth, which really frustrates them. But Jaxon FINALLY lost his first tooth! His new one is already growing in behind it, yay for braces :) But he was pretty excited to finally get a visit from the tooth fairy, after all these years of watching his friends and brother recieve money under their pillows :)

Fun with the Olsens!

A few weeks ago, we were excited to welcome our good friends, the Olsens, to come see us for a weekend! Jeremy was Jaxon's best buddy in Ohio, and the girls were the most awesome dance students for me and babysitters for my kids! Plus Alinda and Rich just plain rock :) It was so fun to have them here and play in the city together! We had a great time, and packed in a lot of fun stuff!

First, of course, we had to take a ride on the subway. The boys felt very privileged to sit in the very front of the train.

First stop, Shedd Aquarium, where we were able to view a sneak peak of a dress rehearsal of the new dolphin show! That was a great bonus! We love that place!

Then we took the water taxi over to Navy Pier. Araleigh loves "her girls" :)

The kids all had a great time in the Fun House at Navy Pier! I love this picture! Those boys are so cute!

Then we headed up to Michigan Ave for a little souvenir shopping and a trip to the Hershey factory. They wore these hats for the rest of the night!

Thanks, Olsen clan, for visiting, we love you and had a great time!

Camping

Our first camping trip alone as a family! We learned a lot of lessons to make it a lot easier next time!!!

Lesson 1 - reserve a site in advance! Now this wasn't totally our fault - like everything else in our life, it was kind of a last-minute thing! We didn't know for sure that we were going until that morning, and since it was Labor Day weekend, the place was pretty full! We ended up not having our own site, but sharing a large grassy area usually reserved for youth groups! It was fine, just a little difficult to find a spot!

Lesson 2 - leave earlier! We didn't get out of the house until after 4 pm and hit some awesome Chicago traffic - apparently we weren't the only ones heading north on Labor Day weekend. Weird, huh? It took us well over 2 hours to get there, and by the time we got to the site, found a spot, and began setting up, it was already getting dark! It is not easy to pitch a tent and start a fire in the dark, but we did it!

Lesson 3 - don't forget the chairs. It would have been nice to have something to sit on while roasting those marshmallows...

Lesson 4 - bring water to wash hands and brush teeth with.

Lesson 5 - don't pitch tent down-wind of the outhouses. No wonder that spot was still available...

Lesson 6 - time to buy some air mattresses! Those foam pads just don't cut it anymore! We must be getting old!

Hopefully if any of you are planning to take your first family camping trip, you can use this very good advice!!! But it was a very fun trip! Araleigh was so cute in the tent, she just kept exclaiming "I love camping, mom!!!" The kids had such a blast, putting up the tent, collecting firewood, cooking hot dogs and making smores over the fire, telling ghost stories in the tent!!! (side note for Julie- guess what I ordered from the kids' book orders!!!! Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark!!! and More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark!!!!! Does that take you back, or what????!) It was so fun to just watch the kids get excited and have fun!

The next morning we woke up with a family bike ride on the beautiful trail!

This picture was taken just moments before Jax took a nasty spill which shook him up so bad he actually went into shock and we were afraid he had a head injury!!! He kept repeating himself over and over, and couldn't remember what had happened and why his face and leg hurt so much! He scared us for a while there, but thankfully he was fine! It's sad to see how happy he was, knowing what was about to happen to our poor little guy :(

1st Day of School

The beginning of school is a very exciting time, so I have to post these cute pics of the kids' 1st day of school:

Traeden, 4th grade

Jaxon, 2nd grade

Araleigh, preschool (in a high school)

...and for me, freedom from kids 7 hours a week!!! Since I am just not busy enough, I finally made the jump to begin college for the first time in my life - very scary but cool and exciting too! I am finally doing something for myself! I am super stressed and don't have enough time in a day to manage a household and do homework, but I guess the house will have to suffer for a little while.

Mt Rushmore

We decided to take the kids on one last quick trip before we all started school, so we flew out to Mt Rushmore!!! The kids were really excited to see it. It was a beautiful day, and perfect weather.

There is a trail with different markers that tell you facts about each president and also the history of the construction of the monument, so it was nice to do something a little educational as well as fun while enjoying the outdoors. Rapid City is actually a nice little area, with a lot of fun little touristy spots and cute shops. There are a lot of gold mines and caverns as well, which we will hit next time :) All the hotels have indoor pools and water slides too which is a nice bonus! Over all, it was a very fun trip - but if you go, bring lots of mosquito repellent because I have never seen mosquitos like those in South Dakota!!!


We could not get a single serious picture out of the kids at this point in the trail. Stinkers.

This is where a huge boulder fell and created a cool cave. Jax wants you to believe the boulder was about to collapse on him, I think...

You can see up Washington's nose from inside the cave!

Finally, something fun to do!!! Traeden could hardly contain himself on that mountain any longer - until finally we were at the point where you are allowed to go off the trail and CLIMB!!! We call him spidey...

The view from the top. The rest of us walked around this small cliff, instead of climbing up it.

Awww...a kodak moment :)

Araleigh wanted to join the boys but it proved to be a little challenging in flip flops!

Okay, yes, I totally made them pose for this one, but it's still cute, right???

Now this one I did not pose!!! Our little prima ballerina climbed on that rock and started dancing and posing all on her own!!! Absolutely no prompting necessary for this one! I love the knee pop :)

Day 2, we found a geology museum with free admission - yay! - so we headed over to check out some ancient bones and rocks :)

Araleigh liked the eggs, probably because she could imagine little baby dinosaurs inside...

There was something special about this one...the largest of its kind? The most complete? Found only in this area? Something special... I wish I could remember... maybe the kids know...Wait - it's the only real fossil - all the rest of the bone fossils were replicas. Maybe that's it...

Then on to the rocks, minerals, and metals. The boys were very impressed with the gold nugget collection, and spent a lot of time trying to imagine what these were worth and what they would buy if they had them for themselves!

We like the name of this one :)