Jersey Shore

This is a life car on display at the lighthouses. You climb in there with 7-8 other adults and ride a cable to shore after wrecking your ship on the coast. I cannot imagine how horrible it is inside this thing. I guess it is better than dying but I am not really sure.

Do you see Maeve in the background about to walk into the water? Can you tell how cold it is outside. Too bad I did not turn sooner and yell "STOP!!"
We visited the twin lighthouses. We climbed to the top of one of them which just confirmed to me that I have a serious fear of heights.
Yes I let my children climb on top of a cannon.
On our last full day in New Jersey we went to the shore. I love the beach and how relaxing watching and hearing the waves is. Unfortunately we were only there five minutes before Maeve decided she wanted to see how cold the water was and walked into the water up to her thighs. Since it was just above freezing outside you can imagine how cold the water was. She had to go to the van for the rest of the time and Grandma and I took turns sitting with her. You can find whole shells on the east but we never could find anything but tiny little broken pieces on the west coast. Why is that?

NYC Day 2

We went back to NYC another day. Uncle Dean offered to drive us around so we could just hop out of the car and see what we wanted to see without worrying about parking. I did not think driving in the city was that bad but of course I was not behind the wheel. We drove past the American Museum of Natural History, the LDS temple, and Rockefeller Center. We took the girls with us on this trip (and Roman of course-- Sorry Jude you never got to go to NYC-- maybe if you did not always try to run away in public :). We went to FAO Schwarz so the girls could play on the giant piano. They had this ridiculous Barbie foosball table that retailed for $25,000. Crazy. We ran into the Purl Soho. It is an amazing craft store, with a very creative blog that I follow. The store was so fun but everything was way out of my price range. It was great to finally see it though. And lastly we went to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty. There are men in the park that try to sell you purses in secret. They carry them around in these big totes that are covered in fabric and whisper to you to come look. Apparently they are not suppose to be selling them but I don't think they are really fooling anyone. NYC was really fun. I did see one single mom with four kids (all about my kids age) who rode the PATH with us the first day and when we got off, hailed a taxi and loaded all her kids in. It was pretty amazing. Other than that I only saw nannies with one child each. :) I cannot imagine living there right now but it did make me sad we did not have an adventure like that before we had children. But I cannot say I would have done things differently ten years ago. I am glad I had children when I did . Besides we will be 50 when our children are grown so we can have adventures then.

NYC Met

Ever since we did artist studies during the years we homeschooled Adelle, she has been very interested in many of the great artist throughout history. She is particularly found of Pablo Picasso. I think she said that was because she liked his abstract ideas. She did a big report on him last year for her gifted and talented class. After walking through Central Park we gave her the option of going to the Natural History Museum or the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She chose the Met because they had original Picasso's she wanted to see. It was amazing. There were rooms full of paintings by Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Cezanne, Pissaro, etc. Basically several original works by all of the artist I know. We spent several hours there. Joel could have spent several days. It was like a candy story to him. Adelle enjoyed it as well but liked to move more quickly through the exhibits so I chased her while Joel strolled.

NYC

We visited Times Square. Adelle was excited to see where the ball drops on New Year's Eve.

Adelle thought we needed our picture taken there as well!

We rode the PATH from Jersey City into NYC one day with just Roman and Adelle. She loved the subway. It was much cleaner and safer feeling than I thought it would be.

Roman had a good time being carried in the Ergo all day.

This is where we got on the PATH train to take us to World Trade Center/Ground Zero where we got on the subway. It was fun to see the Empire State building. Especially when driving toward it we were listening to the last Percy Jackson book where the bad guys are attacking the city and trying to go up the Empire State building to get to Olympus.

New Jersey

We drove with Grandma Donna to see her mother, Grandma Jenneth, in New Jersey for spring break. The children and I had never met her. The kids had never been east of St. Louis. Uncle Dean was visiting from Florida so we got to spend time with him too. He drove us around NYC one day but that is for another post. Grandma Jenneth is the kindest, most sweet woman. It was sad to leave her. I wish she did not live to far away. Her home is old and big, a kid's dream. So many things to see and places to play. We played hide and seek a few times. I had the best hiding places that when the kids finally were brave enough to find me I jumped out and scared them to death. It was hylerious. I should feel bad for making the girls cry, from fright, but I don't.

We also got to meet Uncle David and Aunt Heather. David use to play in a band and is still amazing on the guitar. He played tons of Beatles songs while Adelle sang along. She was in heaven. They were super fun to hang out with. He has an awesome New Jersey accent and was really funny. I wish we lived closer and could spend more time with them.