Our First Family Vacation

At the beginning of September, we took our first, and probably last for a while, Family Vacation. We went to New York City. Why "last for a while"? You see, traveling with an infant is a problem after they learn how to crawl and are no longer happy sitting on your lap. Traveling with a toddler is good as long as they are entertainable with a portable dvd player and you actually remember to bring dvds.

There are some advantages to traveling with both a toddler and an infant. And I'm not just talking about getting sympathy from other travelers. No, it turns out that the toddler can push the infant's stroller. And that's about the extend of the advantages.

Will pushing Alex on moving walkway

We didn't have a brainstorming session and decide to go to New York. Like many of our trips, this one was to attend a wedding. Dan's friend Tamara got married on Staten Island.

We just happened to run into Tamara downtown

We went over to the island on the weekend, but during our time in NYC the week prior, we rented an apartment in Harlem. We shared it with Dan's friend Rich, his wife, Amanda, and their 10 1/2 month old daughter, Nora.

Group Shot of Vacationers

(thanks to Deuce for the picture taking and the visit)

Notice Will is resisting. He resisted photos for just about the entire vacation. The only time he was happy taking pictures was when we met up with Grandma in Central Park.

Angela and Alex, Grandma and Will

in Central Park

Alex in Central Park

As Alex was only 8 months old at the time of our trip, we were a little surprised that the 3 kids played together. Primarily it was Alex and Nora crawling around after Will.

Natural History Museum

Rich Explains Ancient Egyptian Stuff to Nora

Alex sleeps after Dan's Explanation

As you may know, "llama" was one of Will's first words. Here, he gets to fulfill a lifelong dream of feeding a real llama at the New York Zoo in Central Park.




We rode the subway a lot. Usually it was pretty useful and convenient. However, sometimes it was kind of crazy and tiring.

Oh why are we on the subway!

One place that we visited after wandering around Chinatown and Little Italy was the Children's Museum of the Arts.

Will Builds "The Chrysler Building"

Of course we visited the Statue of Liberty.  This was an event that I had been explaining to Will for weeks.  I showed him YouTube videos about the Statue.  I explained that we could go inside and go all the way up to the top.  I pointed it out everytime we could see it from a high building, ferry, or the airplane.  Will was terribly disappointed when we told him that we couldn't actually go inside the Statue.  He kept explaining that we should go around to the back and go in the doors and go to the top.  

Someday I will implement closed captioning on kid videos

Kids Crawling around on Liberty Island

How did the actual wedding go? Well, in our efforts to move all of our stuff from Manhattan Island to Staten Island, plus a "we are really tired and can't communicate well" episode on my part, we managed to get to our Staten Island hotel with all of our stuff and all of our children about the time the wedding started.  After the quickest change into formal wear ever, Amanda and I continued our prep by putting makeup on in front of a hotel lobby decorative mirror while waiting for our cab.  We got to the wedding as it was finishing and went to the area for cocktail hour as the most prompt cocktail hour guests.  The cocktail hour room was next to the room where the wedding ceremony took place.   The guests without children who actually made it to the ceremony started filtering out the back doors through the receiving line.  After a few moments of thought, we entered the side doors, then walked through the receiving line too.  The bride's comment as we carried the tired kids through the receiving line, "The kids were great, I didn't hear them at all!"  So, if Tamara ever gets around to reading this blog... by the way... we didn't make it to your wedding ceremony and are very sorry.  :)  

After wandering through the receiving line, the jet-lagged kids decided that cocktail hour meant naptime.  Fortunately, Rich and Amanda's stroller was nearby and Nora had decided to party while the guys were asleep.  The stroller provided a place for Will to sleep and it also prevented people from walking on Alex.

Cocktail Hour at the Wedding

What about the reception?  Nora and Alex tried to dance.  With help since neither one could walk yet.  Will... it could have gone better for Will.  Let's just say he ended up wearing a pair of Nora's shorts by the end of the night and stealing Alex's socks. 

Babies Don't Really Need Socks

Overall the trip was a success.  We had the amazing experience of not getting sick of our travel buddies.  You know how if you go somewhere with people for more than 4 days, you start to get annoyed with them?  Oddly, even though we were there for a week, we still enjoyed Rich and Amanda's company at the end of our time there.  Even with 3 cranky kids between us.