Meeting Melanie!

Most of you probably know by now, but I am an Aunt again! My new neice is Melanie Haven Pitt born on March 18th 2010-right before our vacation! It was hard to be so far away as Katie became a new mother, but it turned out to be best that way! (The story of Melanie's birth and Katie's courageous delivery is depicted well in Katie's blog. If you have time, go check out her blog-it rocks!) We had the chance to take a day trip down and spend the day with the Pitts. I was impressed by my tiny niece! Melanie is so photogenic and loves to snuggle with you! Katie and Brian seem like naturals to me. At her baby shower, we had folks go around and say why they think Katie and Brian would be good parents. I mentioned that they are big kids themselves so they will have plenty of energy for little Mel! They make a good team and I just can't wait to see the 3 of them grow together!

Day 8 (Philly!) and the last leg of the trip!

I think Jason saved this little escape to reward me for all of the Dinosaur exposure! The Betsy Ross house, Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell were our sightseeing ventures for our brief visit to Philedelphia. Most of you know that I am a "Bicentennial Baby" and you know how much I respect the maker of our first flag! Can you guess what my favorite thing was in Philly? We went there first. The house is filled with facts about Betsy's life. She had lost 2 husbands by the time she was 30! She not only made flags and uniforms, but she also made artillary and ammunition and sold it to the army! What a tough girl! We toured the house and actually got to meet old Betsy herself! I think she was a little surprised at our excitement and all the pictures! She made Wil a star out of paper with the same technique used to make the first flag. And then we went the gift shop! Jason had to force me out of there! We had a bagel with Philadelphia cream cheese which Wil immediately spit out! This happened just yards away from the Liberty Bell! Next we toured Independence Hall. The history lesson made us appreciate our Founding Fathers. After the tour we felt that ever present itch for dinosaurs! While the kids slumbered outside the "Gates of Hell" (This is a Rodin sculpture at the Rodin museum) we posed with "The Thinker." The kids woke up just in time for the Academy of Natural Sciences which housed the ferocious prehistoric beasts that we have all come to love! This was the most kid-friendly museum and Wil and Elsie climbed all over T-Rex and Triceratops and rested in a huge footprints. Ater all the discoveries and two poopy diapers changed, we headed out! We made it to North Carolina and had a brief stop at Santee State Park in South Carolina before we made it back to Home Sweet Home!

Day 6-7 Beantown!

We finally made it into Boston! I have to admit I was most excited about this leg of the trip! I have daydreamed so many times of seeing the town and staying with Erin and Marisa in their trendy apartment! The coolest thing about Boston to me is all the history related to that city! Because we only had two days and one night, we decided to do the Beantown trolley. This got us around town and provided us with a little history of the city too. It worked well because it was a very cold and windy day to be on foot and outside! A harbor tour was included and that was a good place for the kids to run and crawl around. My favorite was seeing "Old Ironsides." We planned on getting to the girls' apartment right as they were getting home from work, so we found Bunker Hill and took a stroll around. It was good to get "home" and get into our cozy clothes to celebrate! Erin cooked spaghetti for us and we had a little wine and a little champagne! We topped off the evening on top of the building! The view from the roof of the apartment is spectacular! I had the best time with some of my dearest friends and I thanked God for them as I drifted off to sleep that night! The next day we took the trolley again to the New England Aquarium. We are aquarium junkies and both agreed that this one was awesome! The penguins and harbor seals were original and we watched Wil and Elsie's first movie-a 3-D IMAX underwater movie. We missed the last trolley ride out for the day so we walked back to the apartment and were surprised at how close we actually were! We enjoyed walking downtown and catching the street preformers. It was sad to leave, but we had to start making our way south again. All vacations must end! Our goal tonight was to stay outside of Philadelphia and enjoy a brief layover tomorrow.

Day 4-5 -Museum of NH and sightseeing in NY

Day 4 was our 7th anniversary and my 34th birthday! It doesn't get any more romantic than spending 6 hours at the Museum of Natural History! First off-dinosaurs-skads of them! Wil had fun running around on that exhibit and Jason held Elsie and laughed as I chased Wil! We did the mammals and got to the hall of minerals just before closing. Afterwards, Marisa, Dan and Nick had dinner plans for us at a Mexican restaurant known for its cheap margaritas! Ris and I shared a bottle of champagne and we set out into the rain to hail a cab to the restaurant! It was nice to have a hot meal and to actually watch the kids eat out of a high chair-not a car seat or stroller! I wish we had remembered the camera because it was one of the nicest birthdays I can remember and I think Jason agrees it was a pretty cool anniversary too! The next day, Ris caught a train and was off to DC for work. We got all packed up and bundled up-it was turning windy and cool-and headed out for a leisurely day sightseeing. We toured my favorite-St. Patrick's Cathedral. The kids were very quiet and respectful and I said a quick prayer for my sister, Katie and her new family. I also thanked God for sending me such a wonderful family too! We walked up Times Square and Rockafellar Square. We also spent a good amount of time at one of Jason's favorite spots-the Strand. This is a huge used book store and you can load up on nice books for cheap! The kids enjoyed the children section and we all got books that we have had our eyes on! Next it was Zabaars-this is an awesome gourmet food grocery store where we have a tendency to go hog wild! We are talking 16 barrels of olives from around the world, international pastries (including Jason's favorite-turkish halvah!)tea and fresh roasted coffee beans - all this is downstairs! We didn't have time to move upstairs to the cooking utensils! This is the only time I can think of that Jason gets excited about grocery shopping! The last venture was stopping at Rays for pizza! We ate, changed the kids into PJ's and loaded up to head out for Boston! We stayed right outside of Foxboro and drove by the Patriots' stadium on our way into Boston!

Part 3-The Big Apple

We got up as early as we could and headed into New York with intentions of seeing the Statue of Liberty and then Empire State Building. Even waiting in line for Lady Liberty was entertaining with the street preformers. We took the ferry over to see the statue and then strolled the grounds. The kids liked playing around the base. Wil played in the drainage ditch while Elsie was curious about the goose poop! We got them out of that area and went to the sidewalk. Thats where Wil found a grate and he had the best time stomping on it and looking down at the huge illumination lamps. I told Jason to keep him doing it, because as long as he played there, we had a beautiful backdrop Lower Manhattan! Afterward, we rode the bull, rode the subway and ended up at Empire State Building just in time for Wil to dose off into a nap! Elsie was wide awake and she eventually woke Wil up too! Elsie made me nervous when she pulled on the restraining bars so I held her close! Wil just wanted to look down at the cars until a pigeon landed nearby! As I looked around the giftshop, Jason showed Wil a picture of King Kong climbing Empire. I think this made an impression on him because as we headed out of the lobby he was shouting at the top of his lungs, "I see King Kong!" We met Marisa at the Warwick hotel. She allowed us to stay with her because she was at work in NYC for a few days and her hotel was conveniently located midtown. It was a very nice room and I considered it a special treat to be sleeping over with Ris again! We took a cab to go have dinner with her brother, Nick at his apartment. Dan made us all chili and we had fun childproofing their apartment! There's nothing like good friends to make you feel at home in NY!

Part 2-Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, DC

Day

2 found us in Washington DC at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. In case you are not aware, Wil kind of has a thing for dinosaurs right now. I believe he got his fix at the Smithsonian that day! He was so cute going around identifying the prehistoric beasts! We started with Dinosaurs and eventually made it to Mammals and Gemstones. Jason and I both enjoyed seeing Wil's excitement. Elsie just enjoyed the extra nap through all the good stuff! After the Smithsonian, our goal was to get to New Jersey. New York tomorrow!

Family Vacation-Part 1-Georgia Aquarium

It's been a while since we have blogged and a lot has happened! Namely a pretty awesome family vacation! You know how we are, we kind of take a lot of pictures! So I am breaking the trip up into sections based on what we saw that day. My office was closed for a week and we have always meant to get up to see Marisa and Erin in Boston, so we went for it! It worked good to break up the trip so the kids wouldn't be permanantly glued to the car seats. Our first layover was at the Georgia Aquarium. Wil always enjoys a trip to see the belugas and whale sharks. He can identify so much! Elsie was a lot of fun on this trip too! Last we were here she was tiny and I had to keep taking a break for feeding her or diapering her! She was so much more aware of things this time. Both kids behaved very well, with the exception of Elsie trying to steal some kids pacy! We had fun with the fish and they both were asleep for a good nap as we headed up north to Washington DC!