Party of Five

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

NYC and New Jersey

We just returned from a FANTASTIC weekend in New Jersey

and New York City!

This trip was made possible by three special groups of people:

1. My WONDERFUL sister, Ann, had extra airline miles that were going to expire, so she shared them with us. We were able to fly to New Jersey for FREE.

THANK YOU, Ann!

2. Our DEAR FRIENDS, Kim and Chad, live in New Jersey, and we were blessed by their hospitality. We stayed in their beautiful home and created many special memories over the weekend.

THANK YOU, Kim and Chad!

3. My GENEROUS parents who stayed back in Florida with our little munchkins. Our getaway weekend was free from worry knowing that our littlest loves were in good hands...GREAT hands!

THANK YOU, Mom and Dad!

We spent all of Thursday in New York City.

One of our first stops was to see The Today Show being filmed in Rockefeller Center. You can faintly see Kathy Lee and Hoda behind the screen.

We went on a mad search for a salt bagel.
Who knew they were such a rare commodity?!

LOVE in NYC!

Central Park Zoo

I don't think we'll ever visit a new city without also visiting its zoo.

Chillin' in Central Park

It was amazing to find such a beautiful park (6.2 miles long)
in the heart of such a booming city!

This is one of the new towers being built to replace the Trade Center towers.

This video shows the 9/11 Memorial

"Remembering Absence" is the name of the 9/11 Memorial area, and there are two enormous fountains that are on the exact footprint of where the Twin Towers used to stand. It was incredibly powerful seeing the 2,997 names that surrounded the fountains. If you're ever in NYC, you need to visit this site!

A glimpse of the Statue of Liberty

We didn't make it to the ferry in time to ride over to Ellis Island,
but we were able to see the Statue of Liberty from afar.

Battery Park

The BUZZ of Grand Central Station

Dessert...ahhh...sweet dessert! :)

My cousin, Danny, lives in NYC. He joined us for dinner, and it was wonderful connecting with family in the midst of such a busy place.

Phil and Danny enjoyed some gourmet oysters.

In the middle of Times Square = CRAZY!

The majority of our trip was spent in New Jersey...with the DeJagers!

We went hiking with Kim and Kassidy.

Phil's highlight of the hike, and perhaps the entire trip,
was seeing some snakes during our hike.

As you can imagine, Phil doesn't have a normal person's response to snakes. He gets right in their space and pokes, prods, and photographs while the rest of us stand back.

The "Hi-Point" of our hike provided a beautiful view of New Jersey

and New York City from a distance.

We had New York style pizza at a tasty place called Grimaldi's.

We spent Saturday evening in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Carlo's Bakery, from The Cake Boss, is in Hoboken...

but we didn't want to wait in the extremely long line, so we got ice cream instead.

This is a view of NYC from Hoboken.

We had a wonderful weekend...one of our all-time favorite getaways.

Thank you to all of the people who made it possible.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Isaac is 22-Months-Old TODAY!

I just can't wrap my brain around the fact that Isaac is

22-months-old today!

He is happy, healthy, and energetic.

In so many ways, he wants to be like his big sister. When she goes swimming, he wants to go swimming. When she laughs, he laughs. When she screams, he screams. When she begs to paint, he insists on being right there next to her.

He may have ended up with more paint on his body than on the paper, but at least he got to do what "Sissy" was doing."

For the most part, he is pretty chill (as this picture would have you to believe). He patiently rides along as we go back and forth to Clare's school for drop off and pick up every day. He run errands with me. His world revolves around the schedule of everyone else's world.

He is a FANTASTIC napper.

I can count on a 2-3 hour nap every day, and he literally dives into bed.

I've always loved watching my little ones sleep.

Like Clare (and most kids) at this age, Isaac LOVES Elmo...

although he pronounces it "Melmo."

We spent Labor Day at Busch Gardens, and he wanted to do all of the rides.

He is active...on the go...and fearless.

Isaac was the September Cookie Club Winner at Publix, and he was awarded with a 10" cookie that said, "Congrats Isaac!" He may have only eaten 5% of the big cookie which goes to show how excited the rest of the family was for that big win. :)

For an interesting point of reference, this is Clare at 22-months.

When Clare was Isaac's age, I was already 20-weeks pregnant with Isaac.

I have to continually remind myself that that Clare and Isaac are different people...with different stages of development and different personalities. I love having a little girl and a little boy, but I must confess that I am seemingly clueless when it comes to raising a rough-and-tumble little man. I want to nurture his spirit while developing his character, and I am still learning how to do that.

I wish that I could tap into the wisdom of my in-laws because they raised four boys...who all became wonderful men. Thankfully, one of those wonderful men is the amazing father to my littlest love, and he brings such a different perspective into this adventure called parenthood. My prayer is that our little Isaac will one day be like his Daddy, his Grandpa Hillary, and his Papa Durham. What an amazing man that would (and I trust WILL) be!