DC and NY

Well, DC, NY and now Vermont is gonna be one post because I'm soooo tired!!!  

DC was a whirlwind.....and NY was amazing.  I really could live there.  Even now, with kids, I 'd totally live there.  I just love that city and always have.  I'm bummed I was only there for one night and one day - but it's so expensive, we couldn't do any more than that!   The kids loved it, though; we arrived in a rainstorm and metmy cousin, Lauren at the Top of the Rock - which was awesome, even in the rain.  I have always wanted pics of NY buildings on a cloudy day....and now I have plenty!  It was great - afterwards we rode the subway to Lauren and Nathan's adorable Greenwich Village apt. and had pizza, sorbet, ice cream, and wine!  What a great night....wish it could have lasted longer.  We hopped back onto the subway and headed back to the Upper East side where our hotel was.  I don't think I can explain how excited the kids were to ride subways.  (and taxi's!)  The kids crashed and the next day we hit the ground running, literally - all the way to FAO Schwartz (it was really hard getting them out of there), American Girl Place and the Nat'l History Museum.  That place is insane - so big; so much to see....the kids were exhausted by the time we left.  We hit another pizza place on our way back to the hotel (by way of Grand Central because Reece really wanted to check it out).  Then the driving started - the LONG drive.

It wouldn't have been so bad had it not been raining - again.  We cannot get around this rain!  Andrew got us here in 6 hours and we crashed!  

Today we went out to Shelburne Museum here in Vermont - really cool.  It's a huge museum; lots of old buildings, dating back to the 1800's, all rich in history....really awesome.  

I'll post some pics later about that - it's been great catching up with family (Andrew's mother and brother & his family live here, so we are spending time with them.....and tomorrow Andrew's older brother, Chris and his family are coming in for breakfast!)  Lots to do, lots of catching up, etc....

Gotta get some rest!!

Heading to NYC

We are 165 miles outside of NYC as we speak - on the 95 North.  Left DC at about noon - after seeing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution!  Woohoo!  Crazy, crazy, crazy....very tired - but also wired.  DC was awesome - but FAST.  We got to the city at 4pm and raced over to the Washington Monument to see if we could go up.  Andrew was trying to find parking - which took forever!  The kids and I were able to get up - there were no more tickets for that day, but a really nice guy let us up anyway.  At first I thought he was trying to scam us!  He told me, "I can take care of you guys, just have a seat and I'll make sure you go up".....and me, being a hardened Los Angelian, thought he was trying to scam us out of money - or just flat out lying to us!  But he was genuinely nice and after I realized that, I thanked him of course, but I did feel horrible for thinking the worst!  It was a nice reminder that I needed stop being quite so cautious!  It's hard because when you're with your kids, you just want to make sure they're safe and not being taken advantage of.  Anyway,  we got up were able to see DC from the monument, which was amazing.

We then scooted down and hit the Natural History Museum, the American History Museum (ruby red slippers and Kermit!!!) and the Air and Space Museum - in 3 hours flat.  By the time we got out of there, we were starving and of course, all the little kiosks serving hotdogs were closed so we hiked 2 more miles (at least!) searching for acceptable food for these picky eaters.  Finally, we found something - tex mex - and we were off again to see the White House and Lincoln Memorial lit up at night.  The kids were so tired - but we're on a time schedule, so on we pushed.  They crashed when we finally arrived at the hotel.  

All in all, we're doing ok.  Seth has a little bit of a cold - and Reece's tummy was bothering him last night, but we're all good - it's gonna rain the whole time we're in NY, but that's ok.  Love NY in the rain!

Will try to post pics soon.....just too busy and tired!  I'm posting them on FB more because they're easier to upload (faster).