The Statue of Liberty!

Statue of Liberty!

When my Mom and Tami came to visit they wanted to go see the Statue of Liberty so we planned a trip! We are only about 4 hours away so it was a great trip! It was truly amazing to be there and see the statue, what an experience. We were so excited when we were driving up to look across and see the statue and realize we were seeing the real thing! We hadn't really planned to go there but when my Mom wanted to go we were excited. We went to the train station to get on the ferry to the islands, inside the train station they had a flag hanging that was one of the only flags recovered from Ground Zero when the Trade Towers fell, it was very sobering to see that. We got on the ferry and the kids loved that, it was really fun! There are two islands, Ellis Island which has the immigration facilities on it and then Liberty Island with the Statue of Liberty on it. We went straight to Liberty Island because we didn't have enough time to do both islands before the last ferry left to go back. But the ferry did stop over at Ellis Island so we got to see it, we just didn't go in and tour it. Then we went to Liberty Island and it was so beautiful! We even got passes to climb up through the stone pedestal! There were 156 steps, it was quite a good climb for everyone! The kids did great, they loved it! We weren't allowed to go up into the statue but when we were in the pedestal we could see up into the statue, it was really cool! There was a small museum before the climb and the kids loved seeing the replicas of the face and foot to see the real size. Seeing the Statue of Liberty was on my Mom's "bucket list" so it was neat to share that with her! My Mom told us a story about her mother's brother that had been away at the war over in France and he lost many friends and saw the horrors of war. When he came home he came through the harbor with the Statue of Liberty and when he saw the Statue of Liberty he was so grateful for our freedom and to be home! He was very humbled and grateful and knew that he was in the land of the free. It was awesome to have my mom share that story with us as we saw the statue and realize what a blessing our freedom is! I loved seeing the statue and I'm so grateful we had the opportunity to go there! As we caught the last ferry back to New Jersey the lights came on in the torch and around the statue and it was so beautiful! We had a fabulous experience there!

Seneca State Park and Lake

The numbers are in!!

Okay, so most of you know how camera happy I am but what happens when you put my sister Tami and I together for two weeks?!?!?! I just edited and downloaded both of our pictures to Costco to put on discs and together we took 1,200 pictures in two weeks!! I can't believe it! Thank goodness for digital, we only have to use some of those and just keep the rest safely on our computer for screen savers! John has informed me that my pictures have now taken up the rest of the space on our hard drive--oops! But he said we will just get another external hard drive so I can keep taking my pictures, he's so nice! :) In our defense though, we were on a mission to see as much as we could while Tami and my Mom were here and boy, did we do a good job. My mom was such a trouper to keep up with all we had planned! We went to Wash DC many times, went on lots of leaf drives, shopped and ate in Amish country and journeyed into New York City and The Statue of Liberty! All "once in a lifetime" locations, don't you think? So of course we had to take pictures to commemorate such great places! Well, we did! Don't worry, my slide shows will only show a fraction of those 1200 pictures! :)

Sugarloaf Mountain in the Fall

Sugarloaf Mtn--Civil War site

We went up to Sugarloaf Mountain which is about a 1/2 hour drive from here and the countryside is just beautiful driving there. We drove by George Washington's farm too! We went up during the first week my mom was here and the leaves were fabulous!!! I have to put some scenery pictures in just to show how pretty it was! The full force of fall only lasted about a week or two but my mom was here for it and that was what we were hoping for! Sugarloaf Mtn. is a Civil War site and was a signaling place, there is a tower at the top of the mountain that they would signal from with flags. The tower is still there and is really cool to think of the history there. We climbed to the top of the tower and you can see clear across the countryside so it's no wonder it was a good signaling place! You can drive most of the way to the top of the mountain and we got some really good fall pictures. On the way down from the mountain we passed by two Civil War mansions, they aren't very big for mansions nowdays but they are pretty. We had a great day!

Happy Birthday to me!!

Well, I am 37 years old today! Now John and I are the same age for 6 months! It's been a good day so far, John called this morning from Tennessee where he is until friday and my mom called too! My major accomplishment so far today was that I mopped my floor!!! That really is a big deal for me and it was so dirty that it is wonderfully clean now! I've been so busy having company here and doing things that my housework is a little behind. But now Joey is taking a little nap so I think I will blog and put some pictures on here!

All Gone

Well, all of the adults have left this house except me, so now I must hang out with the kiddo's! John left Sunday for a business trip and he'll be gone until Friday. (He's missing my birthday too!) My mom and Tami have been here for two weeks and I took them to the airport yesterday in Baltimore so now it is just me! I got the kids off to school today happy and on time and they even ate all their breakfast! Sometimes I see what they actually eat in the morning and I hope they have early lunch because I know they will be hungry soon. But try as I might I can't get them to eat more if they aren't hungry. So we pack good, big lunches! :) Joey and I have just been hanging out this morning. I've been editing all the photos we took and getting them downloaded to Costco so my sister can go pick up the CD's of them at her Costco in Idaho. It works out pretty good that way! After photos I will feed Joey again and it will be his nap time, maybe I"ll mop the floor during nap time? Hmmm, I'll have to think about that one! Today is after school clubs, Johnny is in flag football on tuesday and HAM radio on thursday, he loves it! Julia is learning knitting for her after school club and since they don't have Kindergarten after school clubs we have one of Rodney's friends come over after school to play and they have their own Kindergarten after school play club! It works out well. Then tonight is Scouts for Johnny, it's his first night to go to 11 year old scouts so that should be fun. So that is going to be my day! Hopefully tomorrow I can start putting up pictures of our trips we've been doing!

The Monuments

This past Saturday we had a great touring day! We made the trip into DC with everyone and got on a tour bus that took us to each monument and let us off and then we caught the next bus whenever we were done looking. It is the best way to do all the monuments with the kids! It was still a long day but we had so much fun! The weather was great and our kids are good little troupers! They had fun running all the marble stairs and riding the bus. Arlington Cemetary was amazing with the fall colors and the reverent atmosphere. We were there for the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and that was such a reverent experience. Luckily all the Sacrament meetings paid off and we made it through without any noises from my kids! That doesn't count Joey though, John had the foresight to take Joey on a walk far away from ear shot of the ceremony! There were lots of dignitaries coming into Washington that day because with the new Presidency a lot of offices are changing leadership so we saw about 10 helicopters go over bringing in people. Every time a helicopter flew over the kids started asking if it was Marine One since we saw that the other day! Unfortunately none of the helicopters had the President in it. Our touring day ended when the sun started going down so we got to see some of the monuments with their evening lights on and that was beautiful. We ended the day at Union Station and they had a chocolate shop so we bought the kids some chocolate--it had been our bribery all day to be nice to each other! (I'm all for bribery!)I am getting better at driving in and out of town and I even know when the GPS is making a mistake and how to correct it! :)

Touring with Aunt Tami!

The Presidential Motorcade

We are getting so many good pictures this week! We've downloaded them but I've got to get them posted. We are actually quite busy by the time we get up and tour all day and then get home in time to get the kids off the bus--- then it's homework, chore, and dinner time! Today we went into Wash DC again and Tami went to go see the White House and get pictures by it. (My mom and I went into Northern Virginia to look at the leaves!) John told us that President Bush was meeting with Sen. Obama today at the White House so security was heightened and there were lots of cops around. Tami was in front of the White House and someone had accidently left their thermos and the security guards started yelling for everyone to get down and telling people to get their stuff and to identify whose thermos it was. Tami was just shocked to be in the middle of a bomb scare! A few people dropped to the ground but Tami was still trying to figure out what to do with her baby in the stroller! It took a few minutes for the guy to come get his thermos and they yelled at him about leaving stuff there. So then Tami went to cross the street without knowing it was blockaded off at the ends and got told by another security guard that she had to go completely around through the park instead of just crossing the street. So she had kind of a rough day emotionally. We were coming to pick her up in the car and all of a sudden we were stopped and the street in front of us was blocked off. We noticed that all the streets were blocked off several blocks down. So we waited and waited and finally found out that a motorcade with Sen. Obama was coming through! So we turned off the car and got out with cameras and walked to the front of the lane and after about a half hour the motorcade came through! It was pretty exciting. We didn't vote for him but since he's going to be our President we are praying for him. After all that we found Tami and started home, we even made it home before the bus dropped the kids off! Tomorrow we are going into Lancaster,PA to see the Amish country and shop in their little stores and eat some Amish food!

Marine One!

My Mom and sister Tami came to visit! We have been going into Washington DC ALOT!!! I have also been driving there...I wasn't planning on driving into DC very much but who else was going to drive us anywhere during the day? So me and the GPS have gotten there and back several times this week! So we were driving out of town by Arlington and flying over the Potomac river was two huge helicopters. My sister recognized them as the President's helicopter! (her husband informed us it was Marine One and not Airforce One!) We were so excited! We didn't get any pictures because it happened so fast but it was really neat. We are having a great time, the fall colors are fantastic and my mom is in dreamland with the leaves! We have driven around looking at leaves a lot as we go places and going into DC is amazing to see the architecture and realize the history we are seeing. They are here for two weeks so we are having lots of fun!

Halloween

We had a great time at our church halloween party! John was away on a business meeting in South Carolina so it was quite the feat to get all 4 kids' costumes done and to the party on time! Joey was Baby Einstein and we ratted his hair up really big and sprayed it gray, he looked just like Einstein! Johnny complemented Joey's costume by being a model of an atom, with hula hoops! Julia was Stary-u, a Pokemon figure and Rodney was a Power Ranger of course! (blue this year) We played some games in the gym and then they had a parade and then went trick or treating around the classrooms. The kids had a fun time with their friends and I love handing out candy! I finally let Joey have a sucker this past week and now he is like every other kid and wants candy whenever he sees it! I was afraid he would choke on the suckers but we were in line at the bank and the teller offered him one and since he was being fussy I decided to try it. He is 2 1/2 after all, he didn't choke and was completely sitcky! So Halloween was wonderful for Joey, the cousins fed him so much candy that he wouldn't eat normal food! So then I had to ban him from candy just so I could get him to eat something that had nutritional value. We went up to NY state to visit John's family for Halloween weekend and that was fun to be with everyone. I lost my camera so I don't have any other pictures of Halloween but now I am borrowing one so I can still get pictures until mine is found! I was going to be a "smarty pants" and tape smarties candies to my pants but I was so busy getting costumes ready that I just went as The Mom!