Spring Break Roadtrip

This week I was lucky enough to travel to most of the places I have ever called home - Virginia, Delaware, Connecticut and West Virginia.  As I put on facebook - it was 7 days, 9 states, 30 hours of travel time and 17 family members visited.  It was awesome!

On our way to DC we swung through Lexington, Virginia and saw our first home and did a fun surprise drop in on some friends.  Haley didn't have any memories, so it was fun to show her where she was born and where I would walk for hours with her in her stroller.  Then we headed to DC to visit my sister Jan and her family and their new house in Alexandria.

We rode the metro and saw some sites:
 My kids were glued to their cousin's many fun electronic devices!  Haley loved having a sleepover with Abby each night.  I heard lots of giggles and memories being made.
 Then we headed up good 'ole 95 and swung by our second home in Delaware.  As expected Grant had zero memories of it, but Haley did.

We said farewell and headed further north to Mimi and Papa's in Connecticut.  We had a blast mini bowling,
 checking out the Yale Peabody museum,

 and Lighthouse Park on the coast of New Haven.  Of coarse we also ate at Pepe's Pizzeria in New Haven too.  Grant represented his daddy well by eating 5 (small) pieces!

I must have had too much fun to take anymore pictures - but we also got to meet the newest cousin Lillian and see Aunt Michelle!  She is such a cutie!  I'll have to steal some photos from Papa. 

Another highlight was the kid-friendly Seder that Mimi did for Passover.  She had a toy for each of the plagues (including flying mini marshmallow for the hail!) and we got to eat Matzo Ball Soup, Potato Lakes, Matzabri, and Matzo with Cheroset.  I'm also pretty sure I just misspelled half of that.  It was a great way to teach the kids about their heritage, and thanks Mimi for all the effort and yummy cooking!  We had such a wonderful time hanging out with Aunt Jenny and Aunt Debra and the family.  Well worth the long drive!!

On our way home we stayed the night at my parent's house in West Virginia and also got to see my sister Cara and her family that were in town for their spring break and Easter.  The kids got lots more cousin time and then we headed back home Easter morning.

I have to say I was nervous about driving all that way alone with the kids and my tendancy to fall asleep driving.  But with my health in check I was blessed to not feel tired at ALL during any of the 4 days of driving.  That has never happened before, even before kids.  Thank you iron pills!  I also have to give the kids MAJOR props because they did great the whole entire trip.  I'm sure it helps that they are a little older.  Let's just say if this trip is any indicator - I'm super excited for our camp across the USA adventure this summer!!

Thanks everyone for hosting us!  It was a wonderful week!

Comments

Amy said…
SO awesome! Good for you for driving so far. I really liked seeing all of the pictures!
April 9, 2012 at 9:18 PM
Jennifer's Kitchen said…
That sounds like a really cool trip!! I love that you got to do a kid-friendly Seder! I didn't know that was their heritage. That is awesome. (Having lived in Israel 2 years, you know.) I am so glad you got to see so much family, so many cousins & etc. What great memories. How VERY fun.
April 10, 2012 at 3:57 PM
Anonymous said…
That is an amazing spring break road trip! Loved the pictures. And how nice that you got to do a Seder. We sure loved seeing you and the kids.
April 11, 2012 at 8:38 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Life is Expensive

Image
This black friday I had my hopes set on this: But what I got instead was this: Cool, right?  Well - yes, and no.  I do really, really love our new Toyota Rav4, but was geared up to spend around $800 this week, not so much the more than $800 a new car costs.  I should also mention that I have been saving for the past 3 months for my big tv purchase and had finally saved $750 this week when our money pit Buick Rendezvous finally decided enough was enough and decided it only wanted to drive to Clarksburg West Virginia, not Morgantown...another hour down the road.  So needless to say there will be no big fancy tv in my house this Christmas season, (boo hoo hoo) but hey - I can live without a tv, but I can't live without a car. As sad as I am at the loss of my near tv purchase (and all of my financial savings!) I am grateful this Thanksgiving week for many things.  Here are just a few things I've learned this week: 1.  Never buy a Buick....NEVER!...
Read more

Dr. Noehren is Now FUNDED....a Little!!!!!!!!!!!

I know I seem to blog a lot about Brian's work stuff - but I just get so excited and want to share.  Plus, I figure it is our family blog, and Brian's not one to mention this stuff on his own so here goes another post that you can skip if you could care less! At any rate - today Brian got his first grant!!!  Oh happy day.  He has been included on other people's grants and gotten some as a grad student - but this is his first official grant that he is the primary investigator on.  The glorious sponsor's of the grant are his professional foundation - the American Physical Therapy Association.  I love them.   I really do.  They gave us 3 grants during grad school that saved us $30K in student loans.  They are one of the few organizations that when in a position to do so, I will donate lots of money to.  And now this.  Man, they are cool. So, as a rookie researcher they typically give you 2 years to set up your lab and ge...
Read more

Easter Visit

Image
This Easter we invited my parents down and had a blast!  We headed off to Keenland for the spring races in town on the only sunny day of the week.  It was a ton of fun!  For some reason horse racing here is regal and fancy - not scuzzy and seedy like it can be other places.  Girls in pretty sundresses, men in sport coats and ties.  I would have never thought of going to the horse races when we lived in Delaware, but here it is a real destination!     One of the "worker" horses that parades the race horses around.  ...and their off!!  Beautiful Haley  Here are the two die hard horse betters watching their horse lose at the last mintue.   We colored eggs.  We went to church with our new Easter dresses,  and found where the very large manly bunny (named Brian) hid the Easter baskets and eggs this year. Grant not-so-patiently waited for almost a month for his mini pillow pet.  He even...
Read more