I had to include these photos. We were quite travel weary when we got back to the Burbank airport. Ben ended up riding in the stroller with Sawyer. And you can see the mountain of luggage we hauled around with us. It was a great trip. We are glad we were able to go. It is always wonderful to see family, friends and our beautiful Unites States of America.
We were very happy to arrive at Grandma Dana and Grandpa Danny's house in Nebraska. We stayed there for the rest of our trip and it was very relaxing. We went to a wonderful children's museum in Omaha. They had a room full of ball pit balls and all different types of contraptions and machines to manipulate them. Ben could have spent the entire day there. They also had an exhibit on how things are made from the Mr. Rogers series. There was a play grocery store which the little boys loved.
Elmwood, the town of 600 people were my mom and Danny live, has a wonderful park that all the boys loved. We made a few trips down there. The weather was really nice while we were there so it was fun to be outside. The park has a ton of different structures. I think there is one for every child in town :-)
Another fun trip was the Lewis and Clark museum on the ?River in Nebraska City. It is very interactive and fun. It was also beautiful and we took a hike through the woods there. It went on and on. We thought we might be on the real Lewis and Clark trail;-) Finally we came out to a beautiful view of the river.
Other highlights of our trip were: of course for Ben, shooting the bee bee (sp?) gun. (Ben talks about it all the time and looks forward to it. He has become quite good), a birthday party for all the boys (thanks Mom and Danny), eating out (which is always an adventure with the little boys and normally involves a rather large tip to cover the clean up crew), Danny's caramel corn, ribs and pancakes (he's quite the cook), carving pumpkins for Halloween, and shopping with Mom (which is much shorter and faster now due to the boys). We had a great time. Thank you.
In October we went on an "adventurous" trip which included us visiting 5 states and many more airports. It was a great trip. On Wed. the 10th we flew to Massachusetts to visit our good friends the Birds. These are the boys that Ben considers to be his brothers. Our flight arrived at 1 am Thurs. and Jean, being a wonderful friend, was there to meet us. Unfortunately, NONE of our luggage arrived (including car seats and pack and plays) this made for a long and crazy night. Our luggage caught up with us the next day. On Thursday, we drove to No. Massachusetts to see what we could of the leaves changing colors (we were a little early for the full color change) We stopped at the Yankee Candle Factory and Ben had fun making candles with Austin and Logan. We ended the day at Wolfies., a local restaurant with wonderful food. Other highlights were: Jason got to visit the recycling plant that Adam works at, Ben played a fun game of football on the front lawn with the neighborhood boys, the little boys perfected the art of climbing stairs and loved the attention of all the boys, Jason wrestled again with the big boys (Kyle and Cod) while I paced and said,"you'd better stop you're going to get hurt" etc., Jean and I got a little shopping in and a lunch stop at the only Mexican restaurant out there. We had a great time with the Birds and were very sad to leave on Friday when we headed to New Jersey to see Jason's sister's family, the Howards. (p.s. Many thanks to Kyle for giving up his room.)
Back in New Jersey, we headed out to a beautiful park by Jeff and Shannon's. In the Winter the pond freezes over they ice skate there. The boys had a fun time play with sticks and soccer. After we went out for an authentic Italian meal at Forte. We wanted a New Jersey experience and we were not disappointed. The food was really good and we saw some of the local Italian culture (including velour warm up suits and a parking lot full of Cadillacs - which apparantly only tourists like us and the Mafia drive ;-) It was a really fun stay. Ben and Preston had a great time. They have become great playmates. Many thanks to Shannon and Jeff for such great hospitality (and Guitar Hero!).
On Sunday, we packed up and headed to Pennsylvania for a quick trip to see our good friends J.B. and Susi Jones. We met them when we lived in Davis, Ca. It had been a few years since we had seen them and we were very excited. Pennsylvania is a beautiful state and it was a wonderful drive. We spent Sunday just catching up. They just had their fifth child and J.B. is in the process of finalized his thesis for his Phd., which is very exciting. It was wonderful to be with our old friends and Ben enjoyed making new friends. Seth and Ben are similar in age and had a great time. Monday morning we packed up to head back to New Jersey for one last nigt with the Howards before heading to Nebraska. On our way out we decided to head further east because we wanted to see some of the Amish people and their buggies. We came upon the quaint town of Mifflinburg which is aka Buggy Town. They have a buggy museum there. The town was so early American feeling we really enjoyed. We saw several Mennonite ladies out and at the grocery store. We alson came upon the "Buggy Only" parking at the grocery. The man who owns one of the buggies shown was very nice. He let Ben pet and feed the horse. His family has green houses and grow and sell mums. A second buggy came along which was a version of the buggy pick up. We really enjoyed our bried trip to Pennsylvania and hope to be able to return. Next time we want to go further east and see some of the Amish settlements. It is fascinating to see such a blend of the old world and new.
We left the Birds Friday afternoon intending to arrive at the Shannon and Jeff's, the Howards, by 7 p.m. We followed the Hertz Neverlost dirctions and did not look at a map. The trip ended up taking us over 7 hours. The GPS took us thru New York City to get to New Jersey. We did not figure this out until we were stuck in stopped traffic in the Bronx. We finally had to stop at McDonalds for a diaper break and to replenish our bottled water supply. The hold up was the Washington bridge. We were very happy when we finally made it to New Jersey! The next day we went back to the city to see the sites. Our first stop was the Statten Island ferry so we could get a view of the Statue of Liberty and the City. The boys loved the boat ride. Other highlights: Battery Park was having a Culturefest and we also saw the Eternal Flame monument to honor those who died on 9/11 at the world trade center, we saw ----- Pub where George Washington said farawell to his troops after the Revolutionary War (there is a museum there we hope to return and see), we went to a great street full of restaurants called Stone St. for dinner, Jeff took us on a wild ride through Time Square (Jason did a great job following in our car, even cutting off a New York City taxi driver), and we went to the Magnolia Bakery in the Village which is famous for their cupcakes (this included Shannon and I carrying bags of cupcake, drinks, me holding Sawyer and us herding the boys while answering the cell phone and walking several blocks in New York City back to the car where Jason, Jeff and Max were waiting in our questionable parked cars. A passerby even commented on our multi-tasking). It was a very fun day and the little boys were troopers. They were appeased with many bottles and crackers, which they love. After we got back to the Howard's and got the kids to bed we induldged in the very addicting Guitar Hero.