The following weekend we had planned to spend a long Easter weekend with Ashley and Justin, but Friday afternoon came and went. Lincoln had spent a few days at home that week because he wasn't feeling well and Ayla was running a temperature and had a sore throat too. We decided to postpone the trip until the following weekend. A weekend of rest and recuperating was exactly what we all needed. We also had a surprise visit from Grampy Tim and Grammy Kelly Sunday. We had fun hanging outside with them and enjoying the sunshine.
We headed to Pennsylvania Wednesday night after Trevor got out of work. Around 2:00 AM we finally reached the Perrine's. It was a LONG drive, but we were happy we were able to make the trip happen. Corinne, Trevor and Justin enjoyed a very cool tour of the Maritn guitar factory, while Ashley and I took the younger kids to the Crayola Factory. Ayla and Sophie loved all the crafts they got to do and loved being able to spend some of their own money in the gift shop.
We all spent a day in New York City and enjoyed ourselves despite the rain. We went to the Natural Museum of History and were overwhelmed at how huge the place was. We walked through Central Park and marveled at all the toys in FAO Schwarz. Corinne was intrigued by a performer working his magic finger lights. She bought the lights and is figuring out how to entertain us with them. Sophie loved the huge Hello Kitty section and found some Hello Kitty tape and a notepad to buy. Ayla, loved everything, but decided to save her money.
The kids loved going on their first ferry and subway ride. Corinne asked Ashley, "Do people actually live here?" It was neat to see her look of amazement at all the city sights. Sophie called the cabs, "the cars with hats on". Ayla liked the horse-drawn buggies.
At the beginning of the day, Trevor had mentioned how it would be cool to see someone we knew in NYC. On the ferry ride back to New Jersey, Trevor got a text telling him to look at the ferry behind him. We turned around to see Jeff Slocum waving frantically in the window!
We were able to spend time with the Ringhoff's and Mr. and Mrs. P, which was unfortunately too short. Ashley and Justin were great hosts and we'd love to go back and visit for longer. We headed back on Sunday and got ready for reality after a week of vacation.
Ayla has started softball and Corinne is participating in the race walk, pole vault and 400m relay events in track. More updates to come at the end of May on sports and fun science projects they're working on!
