Our first stop was Rochester, which I didn't end up with any pictures from, but we had a good time seeing a few people. We'll have to do a longer trip at some point, but the kids liked hearing about places we went when we lived there. After Rochester we headed to Albany to spend Thanksgiving with my side of the family.
Here's the crew that was there.
The kids had fun blowing out candles
Hannah, Evie, Lily and Aunt Rachel
They had fun building with the blocks and watching some TV
Nathan might have enjoyed playing with the blocks too :-)
We also went to the park!
Lily and Evie enjoyed walking to the park together. When Lily first saw her cousins she was in awe of how big they were, it was adorable!
The park by my aunt and uncle's house had just been completely replaced and had some super fun things
Kaleb hanging on the spider web
This circle was at a slight angle and was super hard to walk and balance on standing up.
Evie was able to get it around once walking, but laying down was fun too!
Here's Hannah trying to walk on it
Aunt Rachel and Uncle Magnus got the boys some really cool hats and swords from their trip to Europe.
Aunt Rachel brough her dogs to the park which was fun as well!
After Albany we went to New Milford, CT where we used to live. We went to our old church on Sunday and it was so good to see people and surprise them :-) After church we went over to friends for lunch. They live right by our old house so we swung through our old neighborhood as well. After we ate we went to the beach we'd go to during the summer and walk across during the winter. They have a new playground there and the kids had so much fun playing with their friends there.
Playing by the docks, happy to be at their old stomping grounds!
Hanging out with old friends is so much fun!
Having fun on the zip line!
After Connecticut we headed down to NJ where we met up with Nathan's side of the family. We had a memorial service for Nathan's grandmother who passed away a few months ago and got to meet more of his extended family. We met a great uncle and aunt who were very excited to find out we were in full time ministry and very encouraging.
But, before we did the memorial events we went to the Statue of Liberty! Which my kids thought was totally not cool :-) The day didn't go as smoothly as we had hoped, but we did make it to the Statue and back.
We missed the ferry by less than five minutes so we had to wait an hour for the next one to come. The kids were pretty tired, so they decided to lay down for a few minutes.
We got to hang out with Grandma while we were waiting
And take fun pictures with NY City in the background :-)
Or maybe not so fun, depending on who you are!
Evie was slightly terrified of the ferry ride at first, so she stayed below deck with Grandma.
The other kids were up top with Dad.
We made it to the Island safe and sound :-)
And here is the Statue of Liberty!
We did not get to climb to the top of the statue, but we were able to go up to the pedestal 176 steps and look out from there.
A nice view of NYC.
A moment of stillness! The boys enjoyed running around and playing hide and seek.
We got to see the original torch
And how big the feet and
face are :-)
Riding back to the main land
We made it back to the main land a ferry ride sooner than Grandma so we went to a HUGE playground that was right near the ferry.
Here's the playground, you can't even see half of it in this picture!
Damen enjoying the monkey bars
Evie having fun runny around and exploring
Hannah went runny after a bird to try and catch it. It was a good thing the park was empty to I didn't have to worry about the kids being in all different directions!
The other big goal of the trip was to get donuts! Nathan succeeded finding some very good looking ones in NJ. He may have put a slight scratch in a car that was parked over the driveway on the way out, but after working that out with the neighbor he succeeded in getting the donuts and I think it was worth the trouble.
Waiting to enjoy the donuts!
We went back through Rochester on the way home, but it was a quick sleep and leave stop pretty much. Although we did get to see one more friend. After leaving Rochester to head for Michigan we stopped in Grand Island NY to do a quick stop and see friends there. Nathan had forgotten the donuts in NJ, so when we made it back in Michigan we stopped at a donut shop we knew of in Port Huron that a friend goes to regularly when she is visiting family. The kids were pretty excited about having donuts for dinner. They looked super good and the kids and Nathan enjoyed them. We made it back late only seeing one deer on the road and enjoyed a few days of peace at home before Nathan had to return to work.
