Birthday Surprise

I'm sitting here thinking it's a Sunday night, but really it's a Monday night. Three day weekends are the best, aren't they? We had a great weekend. Friday and Saturday were low-key which was needed after a really busy week at work for both of us. By Sunday we were ready for a little adventure so we took a day trip to New York City. Parking is free in NY on Sunday so we always try to go on Sundays. Normally we have to work the next day, so it was a pretty great feeling last night when we were driving home knowing that we still had one more day off! We tried a new ramen place called Yokoya, walked around SOHO, took the kids to a park, and got some ice cream. It was 75 and overcast. We got our New York fix and headed home in the early evening. I'm not sure if we'll be back in September or October because we have a couple of other trips planned, but we will definitely be back in November for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! Can't wait!!! -- the parade is on our bucket list! :)

Right before we take the Holland Tunnel into Manhattan there is a turn-off for Liberty State Park on the New Jersey side. When Hannah and Jeremiah were in town we pulled off and got a great view of the Statue of Liberty. Madeline is always wanting to get a good look at it when we're in New York so this time we decided to pull off so that she could see it. She was pretty happy to see it so clearly, but then she asked if we could row a boat over to get closer. Haha!! We need to actually take the ferry over one of these days. 

Luke devouring the ramen!

Today was 80 and sunny so we knew we wanted to spend time outside. We ended up at a beautiful park about 15 minutes from our apartment called Norristown Farm Park (you might remember this park from a previous post) -- it is gorgeous! The park surrounds an active farm. It's full of rolling hills, forest, walking trails, picnic areas, and a creek. We love it. We brought charcoal and stuff to grill. The kids loved playing with chalk and throwing the ball around. Our really nice weather weekends are on their way out now so I'm glad we took advantage of it while we still have it. 

Backtracking to last weekend, I went back to Arizona to surprise my dad for his birthday. Luke came with me since he still flies for free (only for 6 more months...yikes!) Hannah and Jeremiah also traveled in and were part of the surprise. The surprise was only about 3 weeks in making, but I almost let the cat out of the back on a few occasions. We flew in on a Thursday and that evening my mom had planned a get together at the house for Brian, Terrisa, the kids, Emily, and Grant. She created a scavenger hunt for my dad and we were the last of five clues. I'm smiling as I type this -- it was so fun to surprise him! On Friday night (my dad's actual birthday), we all went out to a nice dinner at a steakhouse in Gilbert. Luke seemed to really enjoy the trip and probably the extra attention without his big sis in town. On past trips, he has been super clingy to me, but this time he jumped right in and was his friendly little self. Meanwhile, back here in PA, I don't think Madeline even noticed that we were gone. George made their weekend really special for her. They had a couple of movie nights, he took her to Chuck E. Cheese, the park, her favorite restaurant, and out to froyo.

I wanted to share the video from when we surprised my dad, but I'm unable to download it from my mom's Facebook. I'll see if she can email it to me and I'll upload it tomorrow.

We had to make a connection both to and from Phoenix. Both times Luke was good on the first flight and terrible on the second.