We are home from a fabulous week in New York City. I really should be unpacking or making a grocery list since we have NO food in the house, but instead I am blogging so I don't forget some of the great moments we had on our first family vacation this year! (Is it depressing that our first vacation as an entire family for 2008 didn't happen until the very end of November?)
We packed up our car and drove off on the Friday before the Thanksgiving weekend. We stopped in Baltimore on Friday night and stayed with one of my great friends from college and her husband and two kids. We got in pretty late that night so we all headed straight to bed, but we had a fun few hours on Saturday morning to catch up before we got back on the road around lunch time. Thanks for having us, Kerry and Dave. And we ARE expecting you to follow through with the plans to come to Charlotte in the spring! Patrick is already polishing up his tennis racket! Here are a couple pictures of us with Kerry and her children. (Kerry, don't hate me for putting up pictures of you in your PJ's-- you still look beautiful!)
We arrived in NYC on Saturday night and stayed through the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Here are some highlights from the trip:
--Lots of family time
--Going to Central Park multiple times to play with friends, ride the carousel, climb the big rocks, and chase pigeons
--Watching the people ice skating at Rockefeller Center
--Going on a date with Patrick to see The Lion King on Broadway which we absolutely loved
--Lots of walking in Manhattan (which usually meant a nap for Berkeley)
--A prime view of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (I'm going to do a whole post on this one tomorrow)
--Eating Thanksgiving dinner with a panoramic view of the city (the picture definitely doesn't do it justice)
--and having a sleepover with cousins!
Thank you to everyone we got to see in NYC for an amazing week. We are especially grateful for Grandma Jan and Grandpa Paul for letting us crash in your amazing new apartment and for showing us such a great time that our girls were bawling as we pulled away from the curb!
The drive home was definitely the lowlight of the week. There was a ridiculous amount of traffic caused by loads of holiday travelers, construction, and accidents from the rainy conditions. We drove from NYC to Washington D.C. on Saturday and arrived much later than we planned. A trip that should have taken 4 1/2 hours took us 8 1/2 hours! Thankfully, we got to stay with some of our sweet friends from our newlywed days in Provo, so it was worth the trip! We stayed over night at their new house and even got to hear them speak in church the next day before we got on the road again. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I got of our stop there. I think we may need to get Emery her own Bumbo seat!
We finished our trip home yesterday, arriving back in Charlotte just before the clock struck 10:00 pm! We had planned on getting home closer to 6:00 pm, but of course, the trip that should have taken 6 1/2 hours took us ELEVEN! It was a crazy two days at the end of our vacation, but it's hard to complain too much after the wonderful week we had!
The SAD news of the day is that because Thanksgiving was so late this year, it is now December 1st and I don't have any Christmas decorations up yet! I need to GET BUSY!
7 comments:
my comment just got deleted. i hate that. here it is again!
is that berks with her hair in a ponytail? i love it! very impressive. looks like you had a very fun thanksgiving break. i love those pics of emery. she looks like kendall to me. glad you finally made it home and made it home safely!
what a fun trip, i didn't hear about the parade! so so sad it took you so long to get home. thanks for stopping. i'll mail your shoes this week!
Emery is SO cute! In the Thanksgiving spirit, what a blessing that Patrick's workload is light enough that you could take a full week vacation! And get a Broadway date with him to boot!! WOW!
OK- so I will try not to be hurt that you didn't stay with us when passing throught DC! You stayed with "college" friends??? Girl, we go back way farther than that! What is up with not coming here????!!!!! You know you had to make up for not coming up before! We have plenty of room!
Mer- this sounds so fun!! Kurt and I want to do this sometime with the whole family before we move away from Boston. Can't wait to read more about it!
sounds like a blast up in NYC. i wish my plans to fly out there would have worked out.
Meredith it looks like you had Thanksgiving dinner with our good friends the Crittendens! I grew up in CT and was good friends with their daughters and they have been close friends of my parents for years. We just love them! What an amazing NY trip- there is really no better time than the holidays to visit NY. It's magic! Hope we'll see you this weekend at the famous white elephant!
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