The Awesome

First came the decision that we wanted to go out and meet Sara and Jacob somewhere while they were vacationing in PA.  Then the question was where.  Well, Google maps misled me to believe that Niagara Falls was closer to us than driving clear the heck out to Erie, PA.  Not that that was really the issue.  Come on!  It’s Niagara Falls!!  The epic family vacation!!! That apparently everyone in the world has been to except for me and Jeremy.  Nevermind.  Grand Canyon: Check.  Niagara Falls: Check.  Mount Rushmore: Maybe, maybe not someday.

It was spectacular and all those things that people would say about such a thing as Niagara Falls.  The drive was quite long with a lot of pointless lane closures for nonexistent construction.  It was very scenic, though.  We played a little “I spy,” but I really have to say TGF movies in the car.

The first night there, we met Sara and Jacob at the Anchor Bar, which claims to be the home of the first buffalo wings.  We sampled some of the wings there and then drove to Duff’s Famous Wings, which were supposed to be better.  They were.  Then we hurried to catch the last bit of the fireworks display over the falls.

Our first view of the falls was not so impressive.  I worried that it was true that you could not get a good view from the American side after all.  The next day we went and saw it from every angle possible without crossing the border, and I was not one bit disappointed.  The best views of the falls overall were from the Maid of the Mist boat tour.  Later we were immersed in the falls when we went to the Cave of the Winds.  Everyone enjoyed the Cave of the Winds the best.  I found it just a little bit scary.  Walking toward it really felt like walking toward a hurricane.  But I enjoyed it the best, too.

We were going to part ways with Sara and Jacob to go camping while they returned to Jacob’s parents, but we were spontaneously invited to go back with them.  We chose to do that rather than camp.  That way we were able to stay long enough to do everything that we wanted to.  We went to Duff’s again that evening to try some more of their wings.  They were that good.  I also got a Roast Beef on Weck, which I heard was a local specialty.  It was a very good variation of a roast beef sandwich.

It was fun to go to the Ashley home in Erie.  It was very late when we finally arrived.  We found Jacob’s parents very hospitable.  Jeremy and the Ashleys stayed up pretty late watching tv.  I could not keep my eyes open a moment longer and am pleased to say that I was able to resist Jeremy’s power of persuasion by going to bed.  We had a long drive the next day.

The next day we chilled in our pj’s all morning eating cereal (or candy, in Jeremy’s case).  Jacob showed us the beach at Lake Erie before we left, completely satisfied.

Jeremy had to go to DC for work, so we decided to make a family trip out of it.  It was about a 4 hour drive.  I was very surprised when we first arrived in the city because there are no very tall buildings.  Most of DC looks like the downtown of any city.  Of course in the national mall, each building could probably be confused for the White House. (more…)

We went to the Statue of Liberty for Memorial Day.  I have heard many people say that the SOL is not the most fun in the world for kids.  I think my kids would probably agree with that.  Of course they only wanted to stay home and play video games.  We tried to persuade Silas to go by telling him that we were going to see a giant robot lady.  He agreed as long as it was a giant zombie robot lady.

We parked too far away.  So we walked and walked.  We stood in a very long, slow moving line.  At the end of that line was the pier, where we waited even longer for a ferry.  With better preparation and timing, I could see it going better than it did.  Nevertheless, none of it was my kids’ cup of tea.

We wandered around the museum on Ellis island.  Because there’s nothing in it that is geared toward young children, we mostly had to chase after them and try to keep them with us.  We only skimmed over the exhibits and missed many of them entirely.  Jeremy and I both agreed that what we saw was very interesting and we would love to go again without the kids or perhaps with the kids when they are older.

There was quite a long wait for the ferry to Liberty Island.  We talked about staying on the ferry and going back to New Jersey so that we would not have to wait for another ferry if we got off.  But we figured after so much ado, we better see the statue.

The line for the ferry to get off the island went on and on.  We got in the back of the line and then got on very promptly.  Our timing was perfect that time.  Every other time we were always at the front of the line, waiting forever.  Lesson learned.

Yeah, so last weekend we were those parents that dragged their kids to see some boring thing when they would rather be playing video games.  Wa-ha-ha.  It was all part of our evil plan.

After working on it a couple hours here and there, I finally began working on the basement relentlessly for about two weeks in order to finally finish the stupid thing. The carpet was installed the day before my mom and grandma came on April 30^th. This way we were able to move quite a bit of furniture in order to move the tv room to the basement and the guest room from upstairs to the former tv room on the main level.

All of that was obviously a great deal of work and stress, which abruptly ended when my mom and grandma came. We had a restful day the next day after they arrived and on Saturday we drove into Manhattan to watch Mary Poppins on Broadway. It was our first time ever driving into the city and since it was late Saturday morning, the traffic was very light. I was very irrationally afraid of the Lincoln tunnel and the streets of NYC, as it turns out. Milo protested going to the theatre and threatened to behave poorly if he did not receive large sums of candy. He and Silas both behaved very well and enjoyed the show quite a bit. Large sums of candy were received, but would probably not be required to persuade them to come with us to another show in the future.

My mom and grandma went on their own on a tour of New York, so I was able to take Milo to school and keep our normal routine. On Tuesday I excused him from school and we all went to the American Museum of Natural History. We all enjoyed it and saw many things that I think none of us have seen before and learned some things we never knew before. The kids especially like it. Silas liked the dinosaurs the best, of course. I was very surprised that Milo said he liked the exhibits of the Native Americans the best. We were unable to see everything. It is probably too big of a museum to fully explore in one day.

My mom drove in New York that day. This time we drove 3 miles through the heart of New York and even merged into the Holland tunnel during the worst part of rush hour. Besides taking a very long time, it was not nearly as stressful as I thought it would be. I am mostly afraid of all the pedestrians, but I dunno, maybe I would give driving in New York a try, myself, someday. We even found reasonably priced parking at only $26 for the day, if we are willing to do a bit of walking. Only about $41 if we are unwilling to do much walking. It’s just the parking on the street that costs $40 per hour. We get better at maneuvering the city each time we go there.

I was pleased that my kids were as big of fans of my Grandma Miller as I was as a kid. She is very liberal with treats and toys and fun things for kids and she has a very good sense of humor.

My mom played board games and video games with Milo and Silas, which is an easy way to gain their favor. She also brought crafts to do with them. Milo can be occupied for hours with some paper and a glue stick. Silas less so, but he ate many of the popsicles that they made. They also painted some t-shirts that Milo showed off to his friends the next day and Silas had to wear his sunglasses all day with his new shirt to make himself look even cooler.

They were both very sad when their grandmas left. Emo was also very sad that Grandma Miller left. My grandma is fond of little dogs and was very nice to her. Emo cried and cut herself a little that night.

The beginning of this month we flew out to southern California.  It was only 2 or 3 weeks after we got back from our last trip to Utah.  Jeremy had to take off work and I had to get Milo excused from school.  The reason we took this highly illogical vacation was that Jeremy’s whole entire family was going (except for Leif’s family, who were missed).  We believe that this will probably never happen again.  Although it would be cool if it did.

In order to save money and maximize family time, we decided to all stay in a house rental for the week.  All of us included Jeremy, Milo, Silas, Kirsti, Ken, Tyler, Alisha, Caleb, Elli, Abbi, Jesse, Lisa, Kaylee, Hannah, Jonathan, John, Miriam, Hunter, Elizabeth, Hyrum, Justin, Adrienne, Jeff, Laura, Jordan, Chelsee, Sophie, and myself; 14 adults and 14 children. Mom and Dad Rowley wisely decided that they should stay in a hotel next to Disneyland.  Entirely for geographical reasons, I’m sure. (more…)

I think we are all a little homesick after our last trip.  We had babysitters.  Our kids had cousins.  Jeremy had people who enjoyed playing board games with him.  We had a dang fun time.

We got some family pictures taken.  I suppose that I will post those when I have them.  This is a picture that I took while we were there.  I like to take pictures of people without bothering to get their attention.  If professional photographers used my techniques, their pictures would look like this too.

In a touristy moment I took this picture of our venue, the state capitol building.  I had never been there before.  It’s a kinda cool thing to go see.

On Silas’ birthday we went tubing at Soldier Hollow with Jason, Rachel, Drew, Simone and Jadon.

When we got together with 2-4 of our friends, we played board games.  When the group was larger we had to pull out games like killer oompi, animal signs, and screaming viking.

Animal signs clockwise: crab/Lee, cat/Ethan, kangaroo/my mom, iguana/Sara, elephant/Jacob

From left to right: bear/Simone, monkey/Andrew, rat/Rat, ornithoptic oordloo/Jason

Jeremy got his quota of guy love for the year.  I suspect that fulfilled the recommended allowance for the other guys there as well.

Ethan, Rachel and I were the final three in our screaming viking tournament.

When one of Jeremy’s brothers was dating his now wife, he brought her along to one of these game playing festivities.  Consequently, when she was later asked about her first impression of our family, she said “evil.”  Interesting conclusion.  I don’t think we even played killer oompi that day…

Anyways, hope everyone is as bummed as we are that we aren’t there anymore!  We had a great time.

Traveling is a pain.  I think our journey from Jersey to Utah at Christmas was particularly painful.  It began when we arrived at the parking lot where I had made a reservation.  First we got lost for a little while trying to find the place.  Then they decided that they wouldn’t park us because the office was locked (or the computer was down, or some other reason that didn’t have enough to do with being unable to park our car and shuttle us to the airport.)  So we burned rubber outta there to go to the airport economy lot, which is actually not close to the airport at all.  It was full when we got there, so we were sent to the airport’s daily lot that was  right by the airport. (more…)