Apple Picking

We headed to Becker Farms for playgroup today. It was so much fun, the kids LOVED it! I had never been apple picking before either, so I enjoyed it just as much. If Mike could have came it would have been a lot easier though. Obviously an apple orchard isn't very stroller friendly, and it turned out to be quite warm today (and being so pregnant made it darn hot for me). If he was with us I think we would have stayed much longer than the 2 hours we did. We didn't even make it to the playground, equipped with a fire truck, and the llamas... next time for sure!

The first thing we saw was this pumpkin patch, and the kids would have been happy with just that.

Jason and his friends!

Jason, Taylor, and Henry

Lexie had a blast! She loved these pumpkins too!

Jason got to "drive" a real tractor

Most of the kids lined up and sat here without any prompting (to eat their suckers). How cute are they!?

Look at my little Lexie with all of the big kids!

Apple Picking...

...more apple picking

That's Jason and Taylor way down there. Jason followed Taylor and his mom Natalie the whole time. I didn't see much of him, since our stroller wasn't as fast as they were!

Lexie LOVED these animals. There were goats, and chickens, and even a horse.

Goat ;-)

Here they are waving and talking to the goats... they didn't want to feed them though.

Lexie waving to the goats. She squeeled in delight talking to them too.

Here they are watching a poor little goat that got his head caught. The poor goat kept yelling for help, and some other goats were trying to pull, and ram him out of there to no avail.

Lady chasing the chickens! So cute!

Lexie and Laura are the same age

The Ham

The slow cooker!

Love Her <3

CPA Exam #3 (BEC)

Mike took the 3rd of 4 exams last month, and PASSED! So far he is 3 for 3, and has only one more left that he plans to take in November! I can't wait for him to be done!! Great job Stinky!

Big Girl

My little Lexie finally discovered that she can walk while pushing her toys around the house... That stroller from Grandma for Christmas is finally getting some use!!! Lexie is way different than Jason, in that she figured out how to turn around when she gets stuck right away. When Jason learned to walk, he needed help to turn around for a long time. Everytime he'd hit a wall he'd yell for help. He was walking with his toys 5 months earlier than his little sister though, maybe that has something to do with it. Anyway that's not the only thing Lexie learned today... she also climbed up the stairs at the playground all by herself! My sweet baby girl is getting too big way too fast!

The Empire State Building & Greenwich Village

NEW YORK CITY!!! We took our second family vacation this year, and it was our second trip to NYC! In all, we had a great time. On the way there, we made a wrong turn after we got onto the island, but it worked out just fine, and we took another route, and didn't even really lose any time. The kids were great. Lexie wanted to be held by Daddy all of the time, and couldn't always get down and crawl when she wanted (but we expected that). The kids slept most of the way there, and it was a pleasant 6 hour drive. The way back however, took longer. We got lost in New Jersey for awhile, and the kids took turns having to use the bathroom, or needing a diaper change frequently, and Lexie cried a lot of the way. We were all happy to get home to our own beds. Last year Jason got a book about NYC, and we wanted to stop at each place in the book- we made it to most of them, and it made the trip much more enjoyable for Jason. He was so excited to see the things he read about. We took too many pictures, so I broke up this post into 4 seperate ones.

Our hotel was perfect. We chose it because it had a fridge, and a decent price for parking. It was right near the ESB, and within walking distance to Times Square, and had a subway station on it's block. The first room they gave us was unbearable though. It smelled of smoke terribly, and the AC only had a fan setting. Thankfully Mike asked if there was anything they could do, even air freshener(since they were full). They ended up giving us a different room that had no smell, and a cooler layout, with 2 airconditioners that worked, and two TV's. It was great!

After we parked we had breakfast at Captain's Cafe. It was fast and delicious, and a good price.

Jason and I at breakfast.

After breakfast we headed to the Empire State Building (one of the sites from Jason's book). It was nice, and we were glad that we printed our tickets in advance, and brought our stroller. Online it said you weren't allowed a stroller, but having it seemed to give us special treatment, and we got through lines much faster. There were so many workers in this building. They communicated through ear pieces, so when we were directed to a special elevator, we were quickly intercepted at the next level and directed where to go.

Quite the view!

It got pretty windy up here!

Love this guy... I can't wait 'til we can take a trip alone together!

Just us :-)

We hopped on the subway for the first time, and headed to Greenwich Village for lunch. I loved this place. I think we first saw it on the travel channel or something, a long time ago. Everything had peanut butter on it! We go the Elvis- a fried PB, honey, and banana sandwich. We also got a sampler platter, with all of their flavors of PB with veggies, and breads to dip.

Me again!

All of us!

Jason spotted this car in Greenwich, and decided we should get one. There was another kid with his Dad toward the back of the car. I couldn't believe the Dad let the kid touch it!

This city really wore this girl out!

Jason too! I should mention, this was only naptime, hence no PJs.

Midtown & Uptown

Day 2... We all woke up early and walked over toward times square, and other midtown sites. We got to cross off a lot on Jason's book list. Everytime we got to a site that was in his book- he just loved it. It was so nice to be out early. It was cooler out, and there weren't any crowds. Our camera temoporarily stopped working half way through day two, so some pictures are from a disposable, and thus didn't turn out as nicely.

These "Library Lions" were in his book, and he loved running back and forth between them, and climbing the stairs. He is such a little Ham!

Mike and Jay~

Little Lexie and I... she just wanted Daddy!

Times Square (also in Jason's book). Mike and Jason are sitting at that table, Jason is in the red stroller!

One of the pages of Jason's book is of the "fluttering flags" at the UN... when he saw these at Rockefeller Center he was SUPER excited to run up and pose. We sat here for a little while while Lexie crawled around, and Jason played with his lttle trains on the ground.

St Patrick's Cathedral

Toys R Us was pretty cool! I think it was 3 stories tall, and was actually stroller friendly. Jason and Mike rode on this giant ferris wheel, inside the store. The kids each got to pick out one toy. Jason picked a lego kit that builds dump trucks, and Lexie got a black and white stuffed kitten (Jason picked it for her).

This T-Rex was pretty cool, and it moved and made noises. Jason was a little uneasy shopping near it.

Buzz Lightyear made of Legos!!! Two of Jason's favorite things!

Grand Central Terminal... it was definately grand inside!

The day before we left, some national TV show listed Magnolia bakery as having the best cupcakes in the country... They were fine, but definately not the best I've had, and for $3.00 per cupcake, they were a one time thing ;-)

Jason couldn't wait to get into a taxi (another thing from his NYC book)! Finally, at the end of day 2, we hopped in one and headed uptown for dinner.

Before dinner, we stopped at FAO Schwarz. I liked Toys R Us better, but it was cool to go into a place that had $200 teddy bears sitting at floor level, with kids and babies sworming! It was very busy in here.

Serendipity's frozen hot chocolate. We weren't very impressed with this restaurant, that we were told was a must. The staff wasn't very friendly, and the food was okay, but nothing special. I do wish we would have tried a different dessert. The others looked great, and the famous frozen hot chocolate was just like chocolate milk with ice chips in it. We were very glad that we made a reservation since the wait for others was 2 hours.

Downtown

Day 3... Since we all woke up around 6 am, we found time to squeeze in a stop downtown- Mike's favorite. The subway system was very easy to use, and there was a stop right next to our hotel, so we hopped on, and went before check out.

Lexie and I in the subway tunnel. Strollers are difficult to manuver down here, with all of the turnstyles and all, but we managed just fine.

My little lady!

Mike and Jason about to board a train! Jason was looking forward to riding on a train in a tunnel... and we did it a lot!

Downtown... the New York Stock Exchange!

Obviously Wall St.

George Washington monument... where he was sworn in as president.

George Washington monument again~

A Trump tower.

The Bull! I'm so glad we made it down here, because Mike really wanted an updated photo here with both kids.

Lexie really liked it up there.

All of us



I don't know why I always hold my belly in every pic... maybe to remember that I was pregnant, but I'm glad I didn't here!

Battery Park is right near Wall St, so we headed over, and saw the ferries, and tourist boats on their way to the Statue of Liberty. I love walking by all of the little stands where people sell souvineers, and pictures, and their drawing skills and what not. The Statue is right over Mike's right shoulder, very tiny though. Of course the statue was in Jason's book too.