Whirlwind Trip Home to the USA

Every year we come home to the US and every year I say that I won't over schedule.  Every year I totally fail in this capacity and as a result, by the time we leave I can barely keep my eyes open from exhaustion.  It's always worth it though.  It always feels so good to be back home.  And this year feels even better. For some reason, despite my inability to under-schedule myself, I'm not feeling so manic or overwhelmed with all that needs to be done and people to see.  I think I just finally know, it will all get done.  And if it doesn't... well, it doesn't.  Perhaps life in Barcelona rubbed off on me after all.

We made it home directly from our cruise vacation which made for an incredibly long day when you added in getting off the boat by 7 (which meant up around 5:30AM), then a 2 hour bus ride to the airport, 3 hours wait in the airport before our flight and then the 2 flights themselves.  But the cruise was yet another distraction to the disarray of our lives right now.  It was so nice being away for 2 weeks that it made us forget about the sadness of leaving Barcelona.  And now, being home in the US, it just reinforces those feelings of distraction and right now, distraction is good.  We're going to have so much going on in August and September that we might as well enjoy some good times while we can.

Since we were home for 5 weeks which is a lot of stuff to cover, I'll keep this short but sweet - a snapshot of our time.

• I made 3 trips to NY - two of them were to Brooklyn for the boys, one to Albany for me to visit my two best college friends.  Unfortunately I wasn't so great about taking pictures of the three trips.

Liam and his friend, Henry... picked up right where they left off!

• We spent some time in our neighborhood with our friends, though never enough time and we still missed a bunch of people.  There are times when it feels like we never left and other times when I feel like we are on the outside looking in.

Liam has become quite the swimmer (and jumper) this year!

Aidan and his BFF Nate

Double cannonball

All the boys - Aidan, Nate, Aaron and Liam

Liam, Aidan, Nate, Aaron

Aidan and Lindsey - this is what happens every single year - they won't even stand next to each other til the very end of the trip - this was day 1.  I think they are secretly in love ;)

The gang...

• I got to visit with some of my Barcelona peeps that live stateside again (though sadly did not get to visit everyone).
• I went through our storage unit with the help of my mom and dad and packed up things that were going to storage and those that were coming to Amsterdam (now I question where all of that is going to go!).

Josh's fishy pants... sadly they did not make it on the trip to the Netherlands

The shipping container - brought right to the house (last time it was a moving truck and they made the change over to the container).

Only a little bit of what I had to go through...

My 16' POD that had to be sorted through... good times.

• We met up with various members of family for dinners, bbqs and to just hang out.

BBQ at Kyle and Kelly's which included a visit from the ice cream truck!!!

Some of the crew at Kyle an Kelly's

Liam and his new buddy Mike at Uncle Richard and Aunt Janice's house

All American treat - s'mores

Liam about to go on the slide for the first time - take a good look at his face (he loved it in the end).

Will he end up in the pool??  

Liam and his buddy Duke

Aunt Janice, me, Liam, Aidan, Meghan, Sarah and Uncle Richard

• I had brunch with a bunch of my sorority sisters thanks to Tonia's coordination - many of them I hadn't seen in years!

After brunch trip back to Babson for a picture in front of our tower.

Tonia, Kate and myself

• The kids went to summer camp in Maine for 3 weeks - more on that in another entry.

The boys as they arrived at Camp Wekeela - the same camp Josh went to as a kid.

• The kids each spent time with Josh's parents on the Cape (while the other was in NY) plus our time driving to and from Maine (you can tell when you don't get enough time in with those you want when you have to count driving time together as quality time).

Aidan and Granny

Aidan and Papa - I didn't get any pictures of them with Liam :(

• We spent time with my parents - more than we usually get (though as with my in-laws, it's never enough) and just enjoyed our mellow time with them.  

Nana, Aidan, Papa and Liam

• We spent a lot of time at Target, much to Aidan's delight (he asked to go at 4:15AM the first morning and I had to explain to him that even in the US, regular stores are not open that early.)
• Spent an ungodly amount of time at the Apple store trying to get my computer fixed.  I think if I hadn't spent so much time there I could have seen every single person on my list.  
• I got to spend a bunch of time with my BFF - including going to the Red Sox / Yankees game (admittedly we left in the 5th inning out of boredom but since the tix were free we felt ok about doing that.  

As with each year, I find myself fine tuning my list - trying to spend more time with those I "want" to and less with those that I "have" to spend time with.  But even with that fine tuning, I still find that I don't get nearly enough time as I'd like with those people and then there are people I'm not able to see at all which means at least 2 years between visits.  Thank goodness for Skype (I'm terrible with it though), Facebook and VOIP for me to be able to stay in touch.

However, after 5 weeks of being on the go constantly, exhaustion has caught up and the desire for us to be back together as a cohesive family unit and so it's time for us to head back to Europe.  We're ready but can't wait to come back again next year!!

Besos,
Julie

The Move... the US Portion

I'm still plugging away at my cruise entries, but lots has been happening since we left Barcelona - most of which has all been happening in the background.  And while I've been home in the US, I've been taking care of one of my favorite things (insert sarcasm here) - moving.  Again.

When we originally moved to Barcelona, we left most of our belongings behind (I don't know that Josh would agree as we still had 110 boxes).  After all, it was just for 2 years.  We still did a huge purge of our stuff before we left figuring we didn't want to come back to a lot of the junk we had accumulated over the years.  We left all of our furniture behind with the exception of my office chair and the kids toy storage unit.  Beyond that everything stayed.

The original plan had been for everything to stay in the house.  We moved all the personal items to the basement and the furniture stayed where it was.  We had a sudo-friend living in the house and it was just him so leaving it all behind was fine.  Again, it was for 2 years.

But just past 1 year, we had to formally evict our friend from the house.  And we had new tenants that would move in that didn't need all our furniture.  So off to storage it all went, in a POD (which is quite cool since they deliver the storage unit to your house and then pick it up when you are done).  I was lucky to have a great group of friends who helped me load it up and get it ready for storage.  It made for a stressful "vacation" home having to move everything but it needed to get done one way or another.

Now a few years later, just when we thought we were coming back home, we found that instead we are moving to Amsterdam.  And so I told Josh... "I want my stuff".  Now there is nothing wrong with Ikea.  It's actually quite a great place.  But I've got nice solid wood bedroom sets and furniture that I want that's sitting in storage doing nothing.  Photo albums, including all our wedding pictures.  Dishes and serving ware that are there too.  Winter clothes that we didn't need in Barcelona (which admittedly after 4 years in storage are no longer really in fashion and I got rid of those too).  Lamps.  My desk.  Oh I miss my nice desk.  And much more.

While Josh wasn't thrilled at the idea of bringing this stuff over, he was accommodating.  I think it had something to do with me being willing to move to yet another country for his career.  But it had to be within reason since it's likely we will have to pay to ship it back eventually.  Plus, our house in the Netherlands is smaller than the house we had in Attleboro and the homes are built for smaller furniture unlike our bulky US stuff.  And there is no storage in this house - no garage, no attic, no basement.  So again, within reason.

And so the POD was delivered to my parents house for me to start the purging process again.  Just to recap, we still have a shipment of goods going from Barcelona to Amsterdam as well.  So let the purging process begin.  There was a (sad) method to my madness - going on the left, staying on the right, to be determined in the middle.  I emptied the POD of everything except for furniture since the movers would be just packing that up and putting it into the container anyways so why move it twice.

I did a little bit every day and my mom helped me to sort thru a bunch of bins as well, making the time go by so much faster and feeling like I actually got some things done.  Eventually I felt like I was done - there was nothing left in the middle.  But then I talked to Josh and re-evaluated my "done" and went thru the keep pile yet again.  Several carloads have gone to charity and more than I expected of the boxes are staying.  In the end, it came down to about 30 boxes and then furniture that was heading to Amsterdam.  Not so bad I say!!!

Divide and conquer

Josh's fishy pants that are sadly NOT going to be making it to Amsterdam (but I've kindly not tossed them either)

Organized chaos

Of my 3 bins of photo albums, I've reduced it down to this... I'll admit I'm proud of that accomplishment!

Since I wasn't expecting to have to have a lot staying, I decided I no longer needed the 16' POD.  I called them to see if I could do a smaller one since I had a lot less stuff.  To reduce down to a 12' was going to cost me DOUBLE what I was currently paying.  So I decided the time had come to do a standard non-moving storage unit.

I found a few places and my dad and I packed up the truck with boxes after reserving one in Easton, near their house.  We got there and the guy was actually really great and said that he didn't recommend their place if we had furniture because they get too much condensation but that he would call the guy in Raynham and see if he had any climate control units available.  Long story short, the guy did and it's costing me just as much as the original POD for smaller space but I never felt good about the lack of climate control with our things, such as photo albums, so in the end it will hopefully work out better. My dad and I made 3 trips to the storage unit that day (thanks Dad!) to get the boxes that were easy (sort of) to move out of the garage.  

In the meantime we were still waiting on the movers to come on Aug 5.  They were supposed to come July 31 but I got bumped.  Rather annoying since I just wanted to get it all done and over with.  But now it's done and they came yesterday to pick up those things.  With everything basically prepacked and ready to go, they were done by noon and all that was left was some furniture (including a very heavy sleep number bed) and a few small items to go into storage.  My dad and I spent the afternoon hanging out in the garage on the furniture working and reading... totally trashy but it was fun bonding time too.

Unlike our move to Barcelona, this time the container arrived at the house (last time it was a moving truck that then reloaded to a container) so the next time we see it will be in Amsterdam.

POD is now empty and has been removed from the driveway - my dad was incredibly happy to get his garage bay back again :)

Tonight I was lucky to have my dad, aunt, uncle and my cousin's boyfriend help me to move the rest of the stuff into storage.  For once I forgot to take pictures.  But somehow we managed to get 3 couches, an ottoman, 3 mattresses and a few boxes and cushions all into 2 trucks - I'm not quite sure how we did it, but we did.  And now everything is safely ensconced in my climate controlled storage unit, somehow with space to spare.  So we're down to a 10x10 unit plus what's in our attic and a few pieces of furniture in our house in Attleboro.  I feel like we have a little bit of stuff everywhere which is kind of weird but in reality, it's the way it's been for the last 4 years too.  

So now I feel incredibly relieved (and tired) to know that the US portion of the move is done.  Next up is the Amsterdam side.  Josh signs on our house on the 14th and the movers with our Barcelona things come on the 15th.  Kids and I arrive on the 17th and they start school on the 18th.  We don't expect the things from the US to get there until mid to end of September so it will be air mattresses for a little while.  But it's all a part of the experience, right???  

We're almost there... 9 months of waiting and we're counting down the weeks now.  

Besos,

Julie

Falling Into Place

It's all coming together.  And admittedly, it's going a lot smoother than when we came to Barcelona.We were newbies then.  We had no idea what to do to "make things happen".  But now, now we're pros. This is just par for the course.  New bank account.  Check.  Social security appointment.  Check. House hunting lined up.  Check.  And the list goes on and on.  We've got lots going on but Josh and I, after 20 years, have become a well oiled machine.  We know each other's strengths and weaknesses and we play the game accordingly.  The pieces are all falling into place, some neater than others, but progress is most definitely being seen.

We had our pre-walkthru with our landlord the other day.  A pre walk thru you say?  Why yes. Because here in the land of Spain, things are not done the way we do things in the US.  And after being burned once and screwed out of lots of money, we've learned our lesson and are being pre-emptive this time around.

We are working on returning the car.  It's been a process and a half.  And while having a car was worth the headache, it's definitely been a pain in the ass trying to return it.  They definitely don't make it easy (or cheap) to cancel a lease.

We are winding up details here in Barcelona.  Things like canceling gym memberships, final playdates, lunches and dinners with friends, arranging for repairs to be made on the apartment (because there is no such thing as general wear and tear - it must be returned in exactly the same condition if not better) and so much more.

We have our house hunting trip to Amsterdam set up for next week.  Things are looking good as we've narrowed down the area we will live in, are working with a realtor and have about a half dozen places to look at to start.  The hope is that we will find a home we fall in love with and that we'll stay in for the indefinite future.

In the meantime we are also working abroad to get things together for the US portion of our move. And while things can never go as simply or smoothly as we would hope, it's all coming together on that end too.  Albeit, it's all costly though.  There are days when I wonder why we keep our house in the States since it's become a significant money pit and we aren't seeing any return on our investment, though Josh says it's not about our immediate return but our future one.  I get it but at the same time we are throwing a lot of money at a house we may never live in again.  But we just keep moving on and add it to the list of things to take care of or pay for in order to take care of and move on to the next item.

But there are still repairs that need to be coordinated for the immediate future (before I get home), during my time at home and then after our current tenants move out in September and our new, not yet found tenants, move in.  Things like painting the interior of the house - much needed updating there. Replacing carpets.  Repairing our falling down fence and power washing and staining our deck. In the longer term we need to replace old appliances though that also seems to be coming more into the immediate future.  Oh and let's not forget that our furnace died in April and had to be replaced.  And now, let's add termites to the list.  Ah and we don't yet have new tenants for the fall, so need to start looking into that in the next month or two as well.

Our POD (storage unit) was delivered to my parents yesterday.  When I get home next month, my parents and I will unload it, go thru it and determine what gets sold, donated or will get moved overseas to Amsterdam.  We'll also have to go thru my house in Attleboro and do the same (though on that end, I think it will take much less time since 80% of our stuff is in the storage unit) because the movers will be coming at the end of July.  Yes, that's one other thing we've been working on behind the scenes is bidding for and arranging for movers for the US portion of the move.

So now we have the majority of the details (ie, have movers selected) for the Barcelona and US parts of the move.  We know that we will return the car around the 20th of the month (also the last day of school), the movers will come on the 26/27th, cleaners on the 28th, final inspection and bank appointment (there is a special bank account set up with our 4 months of deposit that the landlord has to sign papers to release) on the 30th and we fly out on the 1st to our cruise of the Baltics.

Oh yeah, the cruise.  We've also been putting together the final details for that.  Though I'll be honest, I don't have the strength in me to put much effort in there.  We'll do an excursion in Russia because it's the only way for us to get a visa to enter the country.  But beyond that, I think we are just going to wing it on our own.  We've been doing that for 4 1/2 years on all our travel, why should the cruise be any different.  But there are still lots of details that go with a cruise that I'm not familiar with (having only done one before in my life) - special luggage tags, arranging transportation (apparently this cruise is like the only one that the boat is a good 2 hours from the airport) to the ship, picking dinner times, doing the online checkin and lots of other useless, miscellaneous stuff.  I think this is why we don't cruise.  But it's going to be fun and it will be our last hurrah for leaving Barcelona and a hello to our new beginnings in Northern Europe.  It will give us a taste of the travel we will hopefully do from Amsterdam now that we will be that much closer to those locations.

From the cruise, the kids and I head straight back to the US.  Literally, that same day.  Josh will head back to Amsterdam, though honestly I don't know if he has a flight booked yet.  Let's add that one more detail to the very long list of things to confirm.  We're working on our calendar for our trip home. Because of the issues with the school year starting sooner, we had to cut our trip short by a few days but we're still doing our best to see everyone.  I'm not going crazy this year like in previous years, quite honestly, it takes the pleasure out of coming home when I'm totally out straight and I've got enough on my plate right now.  So if people want to see me, they'll have to ask.  Sounds kind of snobby and selfish, but I just don't have the physical or mental capacity right now to go crazy with my schedule right now.  Hopefully I'll see everyone on my list but those I miss, I apologize now and please, come visit us in Amsterdam :)

While we are home, the kids will spend 3 weeks in summer camp in Maine.  That's the 3 weeks when aside from working (because let's not forget that I still work full time too so doing this balancing act of kids, husband living in another country 5 days a week, moving, etc while still working), I'll be sorting thru the storage unit, selling off old stuff, visiting with friends and family and just trying to keep my shit together.  During the 2 weeks the kids aren't in camp, we'll make not one but 2 trips to NYC, visit with family in different parts of the state and visit with their friends from home.  Plus get their stuff ready for camp (as much of it was shipped ahead from the camp supplier, but still need to go shopping for some of the supplies they will need, iron on labels on to all their clothes they are taking and pack it all up to be shipped out to camp within 5 days of arriving in the US).

In the meantime, once Josh hits the ground in Amsterdam in mid July, the movers from Spain should be there. Actually our stuff will go into storage for a few weeks in between the cruise and the move.  So he will arrange for the movers to get to Amsterdam and unload the Spain portion of our goods.  He'll get settled and find his way around the area of our new home so that when the kids and I land on August 17, he'll be able to show us pretty much everything we need to know and to take care of our immediate needs as the kids start school the following day.  No, no rest for the weary.

There are a ridiculous amount of pieces to this puzzle that need to fit together just right to make all these things happen, but we are close.  And they are falling into place.  This is where I excel, where I shine. All these months of waiting and anticipation of what's to come next now can be implemented.  It's not easy, nor is it necessarily fun, but we need to remember that often times we need to rise to the occasion in order to make things come to fruition.  If we don't do it, who will?

We still have a long road ahead of us and not a lot of time to make it all happen.  But like I said, after months of waiting, things are moving at warp speed.  The next few months are going to be crazy, chaotic but also another amazing part of this adventure into a life less ordinary.  We're getting excited about this next adventure and are looking forward to closing out this amazing chapter and starting the next one!

Besos,
Julie

Flights Booked Home... Now What?

After months of searching for reasonably priced flights, I finally gave in around March and booked our flight home.  It was painful to say the least, primarily because I know I could have gotten them cheaper had I done it earlier like I normally do.  But given we didn't know our future living plans, we had just been waiting and I could wait no more.  I try not to mention money often on this blog but let's just say that what I paid was close to double the highest I've ever paid to fly home and almost triple what I paid last year.  Yes, painful.  But it had to be done and aside from the fact that we've already paid for summer camp for the kids in Maine, I couldn't deny the kids a trip home nor did I want to deny myself a trip!!

And I certainly didn't expect to have to change those flights.  But as I mentioned before, the kids' new school starts much earlier than we anticipated and rather than start off our new lives in a new country on the wrong foot, we've had to change the flights to reflect their new school's first day.  It means cutting our trip home short by a few days and having to re-arrange some plans we already had on our calendar.  And now it means that our trip will be more travel intensive than we planned initially.  But it will be worth it.

So now the flights are booked and re-booked... now what?  Well, now the scheduling begins.  Every single year I tell myself, I will not overschedule.  Every year I completely and totally fail at this.  I'm going to try it again this year.  I'm actually going to schedule in free time just so I don't schedule every single moment like I normally do.  Truly I go home every year and am miserable.  No, I'm not miserable about seeing everyone - that part I love.  It's the fact that every single moment is taken up and it's stressful and overwhelming.  Oh and don't forget that I also have to work in between everything. Out the door around 8AM each morning with plans each morning, afternoon and evening and then work when I get home around 10PM.  And I become totally manic and it's not pretty... at all.  My friends last year even commented "do you know your eyes are bulging out of your head?".  Yeah, I'm not surprised.

We still have 6 weeks to go before we are on American soil and I'm already stressed and overwhelmed. Is this an American trait in me or is this just because there is so much to see and do in such a short period of time?  I'm trying in vain not to put too much on the calendar.  And to really spend more time with family which I feel always gets shortchanged in the chaos of our schedules.

And this year, we need to add a move into the mix.  Now that we are moving to Amsterdam we have decided we will bring our things with us that were left behind 4 years ago when our journey was only supposed to be for 2 years.  Four and a half years later, we want those things - wedding photos, memorabilia, our nice furniture (sorry IKEA but I'm just done with you) and more.  But not everything can come, so it means going thru our storage unit and separating out "Amsterdam", "sell" and "donate". More things to add to my list of things to do.  At least with that, I'll get some quality time with my mom and dad sorting things out in their garage ;)

This year the kids will be in summer camp for 3 weeks in Maine.  It's their first year going and I'm excited for them - it will be a whole new experience in independence, nature, making new friends and having wonderful adventures.  I think they will love it.  Though now that our trip was cut short by a few days, I feel badly short changing them with time for their friends and family which now will be for 2 weeks instead of our usual 3.  And so my focus on those first 2 weeks will be 100% on them and their needs.  That includes 2 trips to NYC - one for each of them.  Trips to the Cape to visit with family. And trips to visit friends in our neighborhood.

So as our move is slowly coming together and our countdown to leaving Barcelona is on.  In addition to preparing for our move, finishing up school and getting organized for our new adventure, I'm also planning out the details of our summer.  It's fun, it's exciting, and it's overwhelming.  One thing is for sure though, the kids and I can't wait to be home.  Despite the chaos of it all, we love being there.  I think it makes us appreciate the precious time we have with everyone when we don't get nearly enough of it.  The anticipation of our trip gets us through that very long flight home.

And with Nana and Papa meeting us at the airport upon our arrival, armed with pizza and my favorite salad, coming home is always a happy reunion.  And while we are always quite exhausted after the long journey, just being back on American soil gives us the second wind we need to take in everything around us and it reminds us of how much we miss home.  No matter where we live over the coming years or where we have been, home will always be just that... home.  And in 6 weeks we'll back and can't wait to see everyone!!

Besos,
Julie

Another Mini Babson Reunion

I love it when schedules all come together and things just work.  While our time in Boston was busy to say the least, everything just fell into place and we got to see so many of our wonderful friends and family.  And during our last weekend that included yet another mini Babson reunion at our friends Kyle and Kelly's house.  Because this year we made it to their annual bbq!!

It's been a while since we last made it to their annual fest - Josh went last year because he happened to be home in August, but the kids and I haven't been home in August in a few years, often going home right after school gets out in June.  

So I was very excited to take the kids to see some of our college friends, many of whom the kids had either never met or hadn't seen in years.  It took them a little bit to warm up but eventually our friends Jamie and Jenn arrived with their son, Jack, whom Aidan hadn't seen in probably 4 years - a big change at their age (and Jack is 2 years older than Aidan to begin with!).  They totally hit it off and had a great time.  

The boys spent a good chunk of their time in the bouncy house that Kyle and Kelly rented for the occasion.  God love them!  Those big kids were all pretty rough.  I had to extricate Liam out several times after having been kicked in the head and throat several times.  He kept claiming I was punishing him but in actuality, I was trying to prevent an ER trip with him!  

I got to spend time catching up with old friends and for me, it had been years since I had seen some of them as well.  Sarge, Ted, Giddy, Spinney, Sachs, Melissa, Jamie, Jenn, Ken and of course, Kyle and Kelly - to name a few.  It was so great seeing all of them!  I wish we had had more time to talk longer!!

The Babo gang all together!

Thank you Kyle and Kelly for hosting yet another fantastic event!!  Can't wait to see you again next year (if not sooner!)

Besos,

Julie

Road Trip - Connecticut and New York City!

As we prepared our schedule this year to go back to Boston, we had a slight change to our usual plans.  This year, since one of Aidan's best friend's lives in New York and Liam's best friend was moving there, we decided to add a roadtrip to NYC into the mix.  I found it amazing that my kids have been all over Europe and yet, haven't been to NYC, a mere 4 hour drive from Attleboro.  But now we had reason to come visit and I think that it will become an annual tradition as both kids loved the city (Aidan actually wants to move there).

This was a great teaching opportunity for the kids as well.  For quite some time, Aidan was a bit confused over whether he could have friends in more than one place.  He seemed to think he had to give up his friends in Attleboro to have ones in Barcelona.  It's only been this year that he has understood it's ok and a great thing, to have friends all over.  And here was a moment where he could see that just because his friends moved doesn't mean they aren't still friends.

And bonus, we got to spend some time with our friends in Connecticut as we would be staying with them while taking the train into New York each day.  We arrived in Connecticut on a Monday evening with the plan to spend some time with our friends, the Yeatons and then on Tuesday we would head in to NYC to meet up with Aidan's best bud, Django and Liam's best friend, Henry.

Waiting for the train to take us to NYC

Showing our Boston pride - watch out Yankees ;)

We took the train from Bridgeport down to Grand Central.  Aidan was immediately smitten with Grand Central and asked if we knew we were going to be in an airport - it was just so huge!  We met up with Django and his mom Laura at Grand Central and had to make a revision to our original game plan because we weren't planning on a total deluge of rain that day.  Not the way we had intended to spend our first day in New York City!

The reunion between Aidan and Django after a year was so sweet.  They gave each other a huge hug and just fell right back into their usual groove.  Aidan had been anxious about whether or not they would still be close after so long but there is no doubt, friends forever!

So happy to be together again!!

Because it was raining so hard, we planned to meet up with Henry and his mom Shellee and sister, Stella, at the Natural History Museum.  However, it looked as though every single person in NYC was also doing the same thing.  I have to say that I like the one in London better though.  We got thru the line pretty quickly and secured tickets for everyone but it took close to an hour to track down Henry, Shellee and Stella.  It felt a bit chaotic trying to get everyone organized, but once we were all together, everything just fell into place for the rest of the day.

Henry and Liam - best friends reunited!

Aidan and Django

Being explorers

Check out this HUGE frog!

The look on Aidan's face is priceless!

Holding cockroaches... yes cockroaches... yuck!

Dinosaur exhibit

Beyond cute!

We spent a few hours at the Natural History Museum and since it was easy, ate lunch their too.  However, after the museum, the skies were lightening up and we decided to head over to Central Park which was nearby and see if the kids could run off some energy... and... Aidan was determined to find the building that Disney's "Jessie" was based on.  

We didn't find the Jessie building but Shellee did point out the Ghostbusters one to the boys and they were thrilled having seen the movie.  After a little exploring, Aidan and Django headed back to Brooklyn to stay over at Django's for the night and the rest of us did a bit more exploring in Central Park and then headed to dinner as we walked towards Grand Central for Liam and I to head back to Connecticut for the night.

Turtles

Liam and Henry in Central Park

Up on a HUGE rock that I could not scale (and they knew it!)!

Love this picture of the two of them!

Ghostbusters building

Snowcone?  Never heard of it, but I don't just like it, I LOVE it!!  Ahhhh, deprived American kid!

Smaller than our climbers in BCN but I'm cool with that and he feels triumphant!

Liam only got to see Henry one day but had such a great time.  Liam is social and plays great with others.  However, with Henry Liam plays exceptional, not just well and we will miss seeing Henry all the time but look forward to visiting him again in NYC next year and hopefully when we move back at some point, they will all come up to Boston to visit us too!!

With only 2 full days to spend in the city, Liam and I headed back in the next day with the intention of going to Central Park Zoo and perhaps the Childrens Museum.  My city senses were off and we headed the wrong way down 5th - what was I thinking?  So we made our way back uptown towards 65th.  Liam was a total trooper the whole day and you can tell he is a city kid - he walked no less than 50 city blocks that day and it wasn't til the last 4 that he threw up the white flag.  Not a complaint the entire day!

We happened across FAO Schwartz on our walk towards Central Park so of course, we had to stop in.  So not impressed.  Sorry, but I wasn't.  The Toys R Us in Attleboro had significantly more selection than this famous toy store.  Regardless, Liam still managed to find a few trinkets for him and his brother (whom we were meeting up with later in the day).  It was great getting some quality time with just Liam as we don't get that very often and I think it was a big reason for the lack of complaining on his end that day.

"What the heck" do you mean we went the wrong way???  Liam's "what the heck" face...

In front of FAO Schwartz

A Minion, yet no minion toys...

Central Park Zoo was a huge disappointment to both myself and to Liam.  We both wished we had gone to the Childrens Museum instead.  I think we were both hoping that it would be bigger.  Our zoo in both Attleboro and Barcelona are significantly more impressive!!  We had fun regardless!  And then we spent a little time in the park just enjoying nature and running around, Liam in his General Grievous mask.

Getting up close and personal with the seals

Giving me a goofy face

Famous Central Park Zoo clock

Ah yes, the mask - Liam got it in FAO Schwartz and like his King's cape in London, pretty much refused to take it off the rest of the day.  Thank goodness Aidan wasn't with us until dinner because he would have been downright mortified.  Liam thought it was the coolest thing since sliced bread!

Playing in Central Park

At Rockefeller Center with and without his General Grievous mask

Liam and I met up with Aidan, Django and Laura for dinner right across from Grand Central and caught up on all the events of the day.  Aidan got to do some fun touristy stuff (awaiting pictures!) and more importantly got to spend some quality time with Django.

Aidan and Django throwing rocks in the East River

Dinner was good and in typical American style, fast, but the kids finished before the adults and we told them they could play right near us as we were on a street that was blocked off from traffic.  They went across the sidewalk and were hanging out on the "sill" of a building, jumping on and off the wall area.  A security guard yelled at them and said they can't do that.  Then they were playing paddle ball in the blocked off street, not 5 feet from where we were.  Nope, can't do that either and a different security guard yelled at them and asked where their parents were (less than 5 feet away of course!) and that they aren't allowed to play that here (um, in a public street, really???).  Ahhhh back to the land of rules.  And paranoia…

Speaking of paranoia.  Being in a huge city like NY brings back the helicopter parent in me.  I needed Liam to hold my hand pretty much at all times.  I'm paranoid someone is going to snatch him right off the sidewalk next to me.  This is such a strange feeling now that I've lived in a city for almost 4 years and never worry about these things.  It does not make me feel warm and fuzzy about our eventual return.  In Central Park I was a mess when I couldn't see him for less than 5 seconds at one point, totally hovering over him.

Anyways, back to Aidan and Django, they had such a great time and it was heartbreaking to separate them knowing it would likely be a full year before we would see them again.  Aidan asked me if when we move back to the US if we could visit every weekend since it's close - I told him it's close but not that close - perhaps we could do a once a quarter thing which I would be totally cool with doing.

Just a side note but on the trip back to CT from NY that night, the train we were in was a peak train with extra cars.  Because of this, we had to move back a few cars in order to have doors that opened on the platform.  I counted one and a half cars before it looked to me before we couldn't move back any more.  However, the conductor told me I still had to go to the next car.  I opened the door and no joke, the sides were wide open to the elements.  Like a mother cat, I grabbed each child by the scruff of the neck and tossed them to the other side.  Nothing like traveling at significant speeds and crossing train cars in the open.  James Bond, we are not!

I loved that I had my evenings with my friend Kath for those few days we spent in the CT/NYC area.  It wasn't nearly enough but it was quite, adult time when the kids were sleeping.  Originally when I made the plans to be in NYC, I figured the kids and I would stay in town, but in the end, I'm glad it worked out the way it did and it was so great to be able to catch up with my friends each night!

So now the kids are hooked on New York City, both loved it.  I guess that means we'll be going back again next year!  Good thing there is a lot left for us to see!

Besos,
Julie