The Statue of Liberty

We didn't want to waste anytime this morning, so we were headed out the door by 9:30am!

We had to walk about twelve blocks to get to our bus, but we were very excited once we did! The kids loved looking at the map!

Markus started squealing and yelling "Look, Mommy, look!" The moment he saw the statue (before we were even on the boat!). They were both so excited!!

Honestly it was a lot smaller than I expected, although very cool! The kids cried when it was time to leave!

I left my hat at the hotel, so I had to buy a souvenir :D

After quite a long bus tour back (in which we saw SO much!), we were thrilled to get to Times Square. It was crazy, but so cool! Plus there as a giant air conditioned Starbucks! It was quite a delicious refuge from the heat!

After we got our drinks, we grabbed some pizza and walked the several blocks back to our hotel! Such a great day!

After sweating all day, we needed a shower. The kids relished the idea and played for almost an hour!

Then we watched some tv, before resting for another amazing adventure!

NYC, Look Out!!

Our day started at 3:30 am, when I got up to shower and Markus was so excited he popped out of bed!

Joli thankfully slept until about twenty minutes before I was ready to go. Sweet, sweet child!!

I completely underestimated how heavy everything would be, and that Markus would be so tired/excited that he would be able to hold his bag or walk by himself. I felt like a pack mule!

Once we were on the plane everyone was super happy. So happy in fact that Markus just couldn't sit still and we fought the entire time we were taxiing out to the runway and waiting to take off, because he wanted to take off his seatbelt!

It was such a fascinating thing to him that he could unbuckle and buckle himself, I might just see if I can find him one to play with!

They were happy, happy, happy to check  every thing out that they could see.

Going over the Colorado Rockies was beautiful!!

The next 3&1/2 hours was someone torture. Markus does not do well confined to a 6x2 space, especially when he's super tired/excited and spinning out of control. About a half hour before we landed he said he wanted to go home. Then literally four minutes before we landed he fell asleep, and I had to try and hold him up in his seat while we landed, which he slept through!

Joli was getting pretty bouncy as we waited to get off the plane.

Because we were going through a huge airport that I've never been in, I decided to put Markus in the pack back. He was super pissed, it was incredibly hot, and I also had to carry three bags while I searched for our bus.

It took awhile for our bus to come because there wasn't enough room on the first one, so I had to sit on the curb with two tired, hot, sweaty, hungry, and thirsty children. I got into an altercation with someone who screamed at Markus and pulled him back because they thought he was too close to the curb (I was standing right there, he wasn't doing anything wrong, there were no cars, and DON'T TOUCH MY KID WHO WAS NOT SCREAMING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN SIX HOURS!!!!)

Once we were on the bus Markus immediately had to pee, then wavered back and forth between about to melt into a horrible mess at my feet and "look mommy, look!". Joli was super sweet. She was just as tired, hot, and hungry, but sat next to me quietly and even tried to calm her brother when he was upset. Once we checked in to our hotel room, we walked around the corner to Burgers and Cupcakes, where we got our food to go. Came back and had a picnic on the floor in the air conditioner, watched some tv, and were all in bed before 8pm! It was a completely exhausting day, but tomorrow we will be well rested and ready for another adventure!

One Last Beach Day :(

Shane, Abby, Syrus and Lilly are getting ready for a grand new adventure in Wisconsin, so we decided to have one last beach day with our friends. We had such an amazing day!

 The kids found so many crazy treasures, mostly dead creatures! They thought it was awesome!

 Markus, of course, wants to go to the beach and play with the faucet.

 After awhile Markus finally ventured off to play with kids.

 All he wants is to be included, and he tries so hard, poor little guy.

 Shane and Sadie showed up and we decided we'd all like to walk along the beach.

 Markus and Sadie just love each other.

 Markus was absolutely thrilled that someone left a small spiderman bucket on the beach.

 Then the kids made more discoveries.

The girls all had such a great time playing together, and lucky we had some great lifegaurds :)

 Markus was starting to get tired, but we were past the point of no return on a nap, so he just laid on the blanket.

 Sadie dug a big hole to lay in, and then Markus commandeered it.

It was such a lovely day. We were so sad to have to say good-bye to our friends. It seems completely unreal that they won't be here for fabulous beach days. We will just have to take a trip to Wisconsin I guess... Love you guys!