We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to bring you snow!

The Friday morning of our drive through the Blue Ridge we woke up in the little cabin in Laurel Springs to Addison climbing up to the loft where Ray & I were sleeping.

"It snowed! It snowed!"

She desperately wanted to see snow on our trip. I was pretty sure she was just confusing frost on the ground with snow. I humored her & looked out the window.

Snow!

It was a very slim layer, but, still snow.

The kids quickly added some layers to their pajamas & went outside.

The girls were thrilled but Clay was less than impressed with the cold.

Ray build them a little handheld snowman. So adorable!

We packed up around lunch & left to drive more of the parkway. I was sure that all of the snow would melt quickly but it was so cold that it continued to stay in more shaded areas! It was so neat to see Fall leaves on the parkway one day & snow the next.

Pennsylvania

On Sunday we left Jen & Gabe & drove the 1.5 hours to see Ernie & Ruth.

The kids were very happy to play with each other.

Monday morning Ruth & I took our youngest out on a shopping excursion. Breakfast at Panera, coffee & shopping at Target & a quick stop at Trader Joe's.

When we arrived home the kids were having a glorious time playing outside.

I really love Ruths' home. It's one of my all-time favorites. I really love the coffee nook she's created since the last time I was there.

On Tuesday morning our family went to Milburn Orchards. We love this little place! They have so many fun things & it's so fun going to a big pumpkin patch, so different from the ones around our house.

The kids played in a hay maze, a corn maze, "spider web" (a big rope play ground), "gopher tunnels" (awesome huge tubes underneath a hill). We also visited all of the cute farm animals.

I may've eaten three apple cider doughnuts.

The girls really loved playing with each other. They spent quite a bit of time outside "treasure hunting." These were their hunting clothes.

We stayed with them until Tuesday & left for the rest of our trip after dinner.

Manhattan and More

Last Friday morning we left Jen & Gabes & drove to take the (free) Staten Island ferry over 

to Manhattan. 

It took us to the financial district where we indulged in goodies from Au Bon Pain, visited the site of the World Trade Center & watched the girls fawn over costume jewelry. The nice guy on the left gave them each a ring (which Kate dropped in the water on our ferry ride back).

Tourist central, aka Times Square. 

Walking to Rockefeller Center. 

We walked a bit around the city & surprised the kids by taking them to FAO Schwartz. Of course they had to play on the giant piano from "Big." I loved that movie when I was a kid! 

After the kids played on it Ray showed them the clip from the movie on his phone. 

Clay didn't seem to impressed by his subway ride back to the ferry.

Before getting back on the ferry we grabbed a quick dinner at Chipotle-cheap & easy to eat gluten free!

After leaving the city we drove to Cranford, NJ  

to stay with our friends, Matt & Heather for the night. We hadn't seen them in over five years & we stayed up talking until 3am!

Matt & Heather have 3 girls & our kids had a blast playing with 

each other! 

Their little town is so cute & I love that you can walk to so many places. They also had a scarecrow contest going on & there were all different kinds of scarecrows around the town. It reminded me of being in Stars Hollow on Gilmore Girls!

We walked to a great coffee shop, Rock'n Joes, 

before walking to the train station & going into the city. 

We took the subway over to Central Park. We were all hungry & conveniently enough Sabra hummus was at the park & giving away little tubs of hummus & pretzels.

After spending some time in the park we decided we wanted burgers. Two of the girls are gluten free so we walked over to five guys where we knew it would be safe for them to eat. 

After five guys we walked to Dylan's candy shop. I had promised the kids a few weeks ago that we would go & they didn't forget! 

The bottom floor was uncomfortably packed so we went upstairs to the sweet shop. We even scored one of the cupcake booths to sit at! 

Ready to indulge in some goodies! 

We had fun trying yummy beverages & chocolate fondue! 

Time to leave NYC

Our girls were naturals on the subway. 

We made it back to Cranford a little after 8 & stopped at Rock'n Joes - another 4 shots of espresso for me!

Isn't my drink pretty?

We hung out at their house a little longer & the kids ate dinner.

We also enjoyed another viewing of, "What does the fox say?"

We left Matt & Heather & drove back to Jen & Gabe. We got to their house around midnight & went to church with them the next morning. After church we ate lunch together & then left for the next leg of our trip! 

Philly

We arrived at Jen & Gabes' in time for pizza dinner last night, just like the old days. We always used to have pizza together on Wednesday night after bible study. Except in the old days they only had one child & Jen & I were both pregnant. Now there are 8 kids between us! 

They let their kids stay home from school this morning & everyone had fun playing together. 

Around noon we all hopped on a train to go into Philadelphia. 

6 of the 8 kids

Clay LOVES trains & was totally in his element on his first train ride. 

We ate lunch in terminal market before walking around the city.

Checking out the foundation of George Washington's home. 

Jen had called this morning to see if the liberty bell & such were open yet but she was told it was closed due to the government shutdown.  By the time we got to the city it was open again! It had just opened up at noon today. 

All of us (minus Gabe taking the picture) at the 

grave of Benjamin Franklin. 

The home of Betsy Ross. 

 

We also walked to Penns landing before hopping on a bus back to the train station. 

The kids were great the whole time & such troopers walking all over the city, it was such fun!

Vacation Beginnings

Last night we left for our annual fall trip. Ray originally wanted to leave at 2; we left at 8:45. My flight home from the wedding arrived at midnight on Monday, I went to bed at 2am & was back up at 6am. We had to drop Ray off at work & then spend our day at CC. After Picking up Ray we went home to finish packing. 

We drove through the night with a little stop to sleep in the van. For breakfast we had a cereal 

picnic just over the border in Virginia. 

We came across a lot of cotton fields on our drive. 

As 

 we were driving we made a spur of the moment decision to stop at Arlington national cemetery. In our traveling clothes/pajamas & all.

It was really neat watching the changing of the guard at the tomb of the Unknown soldier. I loved how quiet & respectful the large crowd was during the ceremony.

Ray has a great uncle, Silvester Piccione, buried at the cemetery & we visited his gravesite.

b

We're now on the final part of our drive today & will be staying with jen & gabe in the Philadelphia area tonight!