February trip to NYC

Because of all the snow, we were going crazy with cabin fever before Feb. break even began.  I wanted to do something cool for Feb. break, but it seemed like everything kind of fell apart with all of the snow.  Monday morning I was running with my friend Clairon and told her how I had planned to go to NYC with the kids, but wasn't sure it would be safe by myself.  She was super kind and offered to take Kate for the day so I would only have kids over 5.  It was great!  I wasn't sure we would have any fun, but it was lots of fun.  And it was great not to have a stroller or any of the other baby gear (or to have to carry anyone).

 

This picture is driving to the cloisters.  This sewage truck was double parked and we had to wait for it to finish so we could get down the street in our big van.  I must brag about my driving in the big city with the big van.  I'm actually not too bad and I even ended up driving right through manhattan a little later in the week too because John really wanted to see the Empire State Building. 

 

Our plan for the day was to drive to the cloisters, park the car, ride the subway to the 911 memorial, eat lunch and then return to the cloisters to visit.  That's pretty much what we did and it was a really great memorable time for my family.

 The subway ride.  The kids kind of felt like they were on an amusement ride and of course insisted on standing up and holding the rail.  I'm sure the regulars thought we were a little ridiculous. 

 In front of one of the tower fountains.  It is amazing how big the fountains are and was really touching to look at them.  Each name is engraved/cut out of the metal in the handrail around the fountain. 

 Nathan on the subway.  Sorry this picture is out of order. 

 The giant building they are building to replace the twin towers.  It will be the tallest building in NYC when it is done.  It's pretty tall already. 

 Pizza after visiting the memorial. 

 Nathan, Michelle, John and Samantha in front of the survivor tree.  I think this was one of the only trees left after the collapse of the towers?  Not sure what the story exactly was, I can't remember if the tree was in this courtyard or if it was somewhere else and they moved it.

Michelle eating pizza.  This pizza was really good and a great price for lunch in NYC.  After lunch we hopped back on the subway and toured the cloisters.  My kids did a pretty good job there.  I thought we would only last for a few minutes, but we stayed until closing and they really enjoyed the little scavenger hunt on the brochure.  I really apreciated the unicorn tapestries.  Michelle had a good time looking at them with me.  Now I want to take them back to visit the MET and central park and lots of other fun stuff in the city.  It was a great time! 

Joseph Smith Memorial

So clear back in October, we had the priveledge of going to the Joseph Smith Memorial in Sharon, VT.  It has been on my bucket list for awhile, so when someone from the ward was organizing a camping trip to camp Joseph next door, we just had to join.  It wasn't the most convenient weekend for us.  Joseph's good friend and neighbor Max was having his bar mitzvah that weekend and we had promised we would be there.  It started in the morning so silly me thought it would be over by noon and we could be on our way to Vermont and set up camp before dinner.  In actuality, the bar Mitzvah lasted until 5:00 pm.  We pulled the kids out at about 3:00 because we had to get on the road.  The bar mitzvah was so much fun!  I've never been to one before so it was a great cultural experience and I was proud to say that Joey and John were great dancers.  They loved playing the games the dj set up and helped lift the chair in the traditional chair dance.  I was surprized they could lift so much weight.  It was pretty awesome. 

 

On to the trip.  We drove to Sharon and got to camp when it was dark and freezing.  We loaded our stuff into a handcart and dropped it off into two cabins: one for the boys and one for the girls.  It was unseasonably cold and we all wore our coats and gloves and hats to make sure we were warm enough.  In order to stay warm kate and I slept in the same bed and Michelle and Samantha shared a bed as well.  Unfortunately, Michelle and Samantha were on the top bunk and Michelle fell off in the middle of the night.  Luckily she wasn't hurt and went back to sleep easily.  We enjoyed a nice breakfast in the morning.  Because we were so far away from the closest ward (it was their stake conference) we decided to just have our own sacrament meeting and went to enjoy the sites.  The guides were really interesting and we were able to look around and learn a lot.  Unfortunately it was raining so we didn't get to take the golf cart tour around the entire site, but got to see the monument and a couple of new church movies.  Even though it was a little rushed am really glad we were able to go up there and see this church history site.  There was definately a lot to see and the camp site was great!