The first stop on our trip was NYC. I was the only one who had been there before out of all 6 of us. I was excited to show everyone the NYC that I loved and everyone else was excited to finally see the famous city.  We stayed in a RV park just outside the city in New Jersey. We got there late and Ben wanted to go in that night. We left the kids with my parents and headed in. It was a fabulous date night. We walked a ton, hit up time square and ate ice cream.

The next morning we all rode the train in. We got off at the World Trade Center Memorial. It was raining and misty so we couldn’t see much.

Day #2 in NYC

The next morning on our way out of town we HAD to stop off in Hoboken, New Jersey and visit the original Cake Boss bakery.

Next stop….more states and a visit in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Our epic trip this year consisted of traveling in a motorhome and visiting every state in the north east. My parents came with us and we had a great time making lots of memories.

This is the baby we drove around for two weeks. It was good to us until it got hot enough to need the air conditioner at which point we discovered it did not work! We only had two days left of the trip by then and so we toughed it out during the day and at night the company paid for a hotel (with a swimming pool I might add).

Kyle pretending to drive

Hallie pretending to be the co-pilot.

Ben’s elders quorum decided to do a skeet shoot in May and we wanted to tag along and make a camping trip out of it. A few families from church went with us and we had a blast. We couldn’t have asked for better friends to camp with.

A month or so ago Ben and I were able to take a trip without the kids to Williamsburg, Virginia. (Thanks to our wonderful friends for watching our kids!) We have a nice set up in Williamsburg where we listen to a time share pitch say no and get everything for free plus a $100 gift card. We think it works out nicely. lol We were able to relax, sleep in, go swimming, watch T.V., and visit Jamestown which is just a few miles away. We had a fabulous 2 days!

Jamestown is where the story of Pocahontas takes place. It was so fun to explore history. One of our favorite things to do in fact.

 

Our church did a family pinewood derby this year and the kids were happy to participate. I bought already made cars where you paint them then screw on the wheels and voila you have a pinewood derby car. Only one car per family was allowed to race so we had planned to race Hallie and Kyle’s against each other. However, on the day of the race Ky’s car got lost so Hallie’s car was the lucky one. When we got to the church each family had to name their car. Hallie named our car “Hallie”. Original I know! We lost every race and Hallie was really disappointed but after Ben’s explanation that her car was more of a fighter car (it was a hummer) rather than a racer she seemed pacified. Every family got an award. Our award: “The fastest looking car”. lol Pretty sure the awards were given out randomly but still the kids were happy.

Ben and I had the chance to visit Thomas Jefferson’s home Monticello about a month ago. We loved it and we wish we could live there. It is seriously so gorgeous! It was a great place for Jefferson to contemplate life and our government’s role in it. I love learning about our founding fathers. I am so grateful for the system they set up for us to live in a free country with a government set up with checks and balances. I’m sure they are going crazy in heaven watching all the corruption in our government now and how freely we give up our freedoms in our effort to be safe. But that is a whole blog post I won’t be writing. 🙂

I think Jefferson and Ben are similar in a lot of ways. Ben loves to read and invent. It would be Ben’s dream to have a home like this where he is constantly improving things making them better and better. Jefferson hated being involved in government but knew it was his duty. Sounds like Ben.

We had a wonderful day and wish we could have stayed longer.

We had a lovely Easter this year. Nana the Easter bunny did not disappoint and I even got involved in buying the gifts this year. lol  We had a great dinner with our friends the Miller’s on Easter Eve and we spent Easter morning playing with our toys and then going to church. Spending the majority of the day at Church on Easter was very fitting. I am grateful for Jesus Christ who suffered in gethsemane and on the cross for my sins and then was resurrected so that I can be too.  What a glorious truth to celebrate on Easter!

On March 16th I ran my second half marathon. It was the Washington D.C. Rock N’ Roll half and of course I ran it with my bestie Kami Eng. I really couldn’t have a better running partner- she rocks!! Things were interesting this time around. We got lost trying to find our V.I.P parking that my friend Mary scored for us. When we finally found it we had to run to the metro so we could get to the start line. (The parking was at the finish line.) When we got to the metro we realized we didn’t have money to pay for the metro tickets so we ran back to the parking lot to get some cash. After all that running we flagged down a car hopped in and got a ride to the metro station. When we got to the starting line the bag check was ridiculously long. Then it was time to hit the potty. Suffice it to say we started about 50 min late. But that was okay, right? Wrong. That meant we spent the ENTIRE race passing people and weaving between people. It really slowed us down! We also stopped at one point for me to get a rock out of my shoe and Kami to use the bathroom. The race really was too crowded. I will never do this particular race again. I believe they said 30,000 people ran this race. It was too small of a course to have that many people running. Really the neighborhood streets of D.C. are not that wide! Kami and I had set the goal of beating our last half marathon time of 1 hr 59 min. We were on track to blow it by 7 min while we were training. With all of the weaving and stopping for people at the race it was slow going. As we got to the 12 mile mark we checked our watches and knew that we weren’t going to blow our past time but we wanted to at least get our 1:59. That meant sprinting!!! Literally! That last 1.1 mile was our fastest. Which sucks because really if you can go your fastest on the last mile then you obviously held back during the race. Anyway we came in at 2 hours flat. We were happy to be done but sad we missed our last time by seconds. For days I kept thinking about all the ways we could have saved time, but alas it was over and at least I had Kami by my side the whole time.

 

Until next time….

Thanks to my mom the kids had a great St. Patricks day. She sent us a wonderful package from over the rainbow. 🙂

Our winter here in Virginia wasn’t too bad this year. I say that and laugh a little because winter is such a trail for me. My mood is directly linked to the weather and so winter is really hard to push through. However, I will say that if it is going to be cold is might as well snow! Hallie and Kyle waited anxiously for snow for months and finally got enough to play in. Because it snowed so little we didn’t have all the right gear. We made due with some clever fixes. Hallie said snow is one of her favorite things to eat and she wishes we could live where it snows everyday but….she hates wearing coats because they are annoying and get in the way. lol

Hallie is just like Ben when it comes to the cold. She can handle it. Kyle is like me…he wusses out after only a little bit. hahah