Easter

Spring stuck around a lot longer this year and so Easter was a tad rainy.  Luckily the days leading up to Easter were still nice and sunny.  Our ward had a 5k and Easter egg hunt.  First the primary kids raced.  This was the first time Jack has raced.  Pretty entertaining to watch.  He was starting to get sick that day, but he still ran his little legs hard.  All the kids got medals.  Then it was the ward 5k.  We (and by we, I mean strictly Logan) pushed the kids in the stroller.  We ran it with friends and it was lots of fun.  I am a big fan of 5ks.  Once we got back it was it the egg hunt.  It's amazing how quickly those are over.  The Virginia Law Families also had an egg hunt at the law school in Spies Garden.  And finally, we did the usual traditions as a family, dyed eggs and had our own egg hunt.  Charlotte was a fan of carrying a basket around and filling it with eggs.    

King Benjamin (aka Bishop Schill) spoke to us before the races.  This is one of  Jack's favorite stories from the scriptures and he was pretty excited to see King Benjamin.

Hearkening King Benjamin's words.

Refueling after the race.

Logan giving Jack a pep talk before Jack's big run.

Jack and Liam beaming over their medals.

After the 5k.

The primary getting ready for the egg hunt.

The VLF egg hunt at Spies Garden on campus.

Dying eggs.  Jack loved this this year.  He was very possessive of his eggs.   He liked to take them out of the fridge and look at them.  One day he took them out and they got left out for a long time.  He then wanted to go outside and play with them.  Later when he came in he told me he ate a bunch.  Gross.

Our family egg hunt.

Jack got an umbrella.  He loves his umbrella.

Grandma Alice sent an Easter package for the kids.  They get so excited when we get stuff in the mail.  Now every time Jack wants something he tells me Grandma Alice is sending it in the mail.  He thinks it's just going to magically appear.

New York, New York!

Early Thursday morning we left Rochester and headed to New York City.  We made a quick stop in Scranton Pennsylvania in honor of the Office and to eat lunch.  As we drove through the Lincoln Tunnel  all I could think about was the movie Elf and it made me laugh.  Driving in New York in the giant Tahoe was pretty crazy but not nearly as terrible as I had expected.  Thank heavens for my wonderful husband who can handle stuff like that without breaking a sweat.  We parked our giant SUV in the craziest parking garage you had ever seen.  And then we headed to our crazy expensive and tiny hotel, the Algonquin.  We were reunited with the Mellors and we all headed out to see some sights and get some dinner at a nearby cafe.  We put the kids to bed and then Whitney and I ran out to do a little shopping (it's NY so it felt appropriate).  After that, Whitney was so kind to hang out in our room while Logan and I went back out for some more sight seeing without kids.  We checked out Grand Central Terminal and Times Square.  We were all pretty beat and the next morning we slept in a bit, then grabbed brunch at a nearby Cafe.  Then we just walked and walked, checking out as many sights as our children would allow us to.  We saw some Times Square stuff, M&M factory, FAO Schwarz toy store, The Rockefeller Center, NBC Store,  Central Park, and a few other sites here and there.  Although we were a tad limited by having strollers and children to slow us down, I thought we all did quite a remarkable job and our kids handled it well.  I loved New York and would love to go back without kids (no offense children) sometime soon!

 It was about a five hour drive from Rochester so we broke up the drive by stopping for lunch in Scranton Pennsylvania and had lunch at the Steamtown Mall.  Ah the Office, a classic.

The crazy parking garage.  Ok this picture doesn't make it look so crazy but those cars are packed in there like sardines.  You drive in and unload and they park it for you.  And it was a million dollars to park there, even more for us because we have a SUV.  But luckily our hotel partially validated parking so it was only a half a million.

.  Checking out the hotel.  Jack loves hotels and the lucky boy has stayed in many of them due to our cross country road trips.  

Tiny and expensive.

Rockefeller Center.  We ate lunch here.

Logan and Brett.

The NBC store.

The M&M factory.

We decided to get a small snack of M&Ms.  I let Jack help me.  The first dispenser only shot out a couple of M&Ms when we pulled the lever down.  He wanted some purple M&Ms (purple is his favorite color).  I wasn't watching as closely assuming it would do the same as the first.  I turned my head for minute and looked back to see our bag almost full.  Twenty dollars later there we were with an extremely over priced bag of M&Ms.  Ouch.

Grand Central Terminal.

The hotel cat, Matilda.  I wanted to take her home in my bag. 

Carriage rides were everywhere at Central Park.  It reminded me of Seinfeld.

I feel like this statue was on Elf?  Now I am probably just making things up.

Central Park.  Me and Whitney.

And this in a nut shell was what it was like having kids in the City. "We really love your baby, but we cannot accommodate your stroller".  It was a challenge trying to find places to eat with things like highchairs and toddler friendly options.

Sometimes we had to find secret entrances to get in and out of buildings instead of using the swivel doors.  We felt like we were going through Platform nine and three quarters from Harry Potter here.

I love cupcakes.  Seriously love.  So we stopped at Magnolia Bakery for some famous cupcakes.  I almost cried when I ate them.  They were terrible!  It was weird.  Next time we will hit up Crumbs.  But then again, nothing can hold a candle to my delicious Capenellos Crazy Cakes here in CVille.

FAO Schwarz, founded in 1862, it's the oldest toy store in the US.  

Jack is way into Disney Cars.  He has been asking for a coveted car character named Acer and they just happened to have it here.  We have searched everywhere and have never been able to find him.  So we bought it and like idiots, we opened it and gave it to him to keep him entertained in the stroller.  Well of course once we sat down for lunch at the Rockefeller Center we realized Acer was gone.  I frantically scanned the hallways looking for Acer knowing we could never get another one.  We told Jack he was gone and he cried ( and so did Logan and I deep inside).  Finally when we headed home and were folding up the stroller, there was Acer tucked in a crevasse   It was a NY miracle.  Stupid toys.

Can I tell you how excited I was to come here.  Big is one of my all time favorite movies.  Zoltar told me my fortune.  Unfortunately he didn't tell me I would grow big, nor do I want to get any bigger than I am.

The Big piano.  I should have practiced Chopsticks before we came.  

Finally we headed back to CVille.  Can't wait to go back.