A Little Family Vacation

Our plane arrived in Newark late Monday night--we stayed at the hotel by the airport and finally climbed into bed at 2:00 a.m. We were all so tired. Jackson and Emily fell asleep the minute their heads hit the pillow. Thank goodness Logan and Laurie were already asleep. It was a little crazy with all of our luggage and carseats, but we made it to the hotel room just fine.

The next morning we drove by Ryan's office, our new house, and our new neighborhood! It still hasn't hit me that this is now home sweet home! We aren't able to officially move into our house until July 8th, so we went on a little family vacation to pass the time. We left Tuesday afternoon for upstate New York. It was a long drive and made us grateful for the plane ride and the fact that we didn't have to drive across the country! We wouldn't have made it!

We stayed in Rochester and spent Wednesday visiting the church history sites. My favorite was the Sacred Grove. We spent quite a bit of time there just sitting on the benches along the trail and enjoying the peace and feeling the spirit. Jackson wanted to spend a little time alone in the grove--if you look closely in the slideshow, you can see him praying in the distance in one of the pictures. I have always wanted to bring my family to this special place. I am so grateful for the gospel and the Prophet Joseph Smith. It was an incredible experience.

We had a fun, but very different, fourth of July. We traded in the traditional community parade for a walk around Times Square and up 5th Avenue. Instead of a family barbecue we ate at Ellen's Stardust Diner--where up and coming Broadway hopefuls performed while we ate lunch! It was a great day and our kids did surprisingly well walking around the city. Their favorite stops were the American Girl Doll Store, the NBA store, and the huge ToysRUs.

That night we walked down to the East River to see the big Macy's firework show. We walked out right on the highway by the river, but there were so many people, we decided to go back and watch the fireworks instead from the closest street. There were still a lot of people, but at least we had a little more breathing room! We were pretty disappointed though when the show started and we discovered they were right behind the only building blocking our view of the river! We quickly walked uptown a block or two and saw half of the fireworks and half of the show--we left early to beat the crowds on our walk back to the hotel. I guess we aren't true New Yorkers! All in all, we had a fun day and a fourth of July we will always remember!