So I'm going to post some pics of our trip. For those who facebook, I'm sorry some of these are repeats...but there are some new ones thrown into the mix as well. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth blogging when I can just post the pics on facebook and be done with it, but some of you I know for a fact are big time bloggers and not facebookers and this is your only window to my life, and others actually care to hear the words behind the pictures, so this is for you too. And for me. I like having a record of my life's happenings.
Aside from Jake letting out a few embarrassing yells, the long plane ride over wasn't too bad. The kids were occupied with games and Scott and I had our own electronic devices to play with the whole way over.
Minor complaint: You can't sleep on a plane with a baby in your arms. Oh well.
We got there at 11pm East coast time. Just in time for bed. Crystal was fine sleeping in her own room, but Seth, who was afraid to sleep in a strange room by himself, made himself a bed on our floor in our room out of extra bed pillows and a sheet.
We were only there one day and then we got back in the car for a two hour drive to Long Beach Island. We head out there almost every year, or every other year to enjoy the beach with the family. The kids look forward to it. Crystal even says she prefers the beach over Disneyland.
Goodbye House!! ( I decided to take a picture of it on the way out, because it occurred to me that I don't have a picture of my in-laws home, and if I don't get one soon, I may never get one since they're putting it up on the market)
I had these to keep me company on the trip. They are like crack for me. They are also part of the reason I gained three pounds on this trip (a pound a week) Some may say that isn't much, but when you're short like me, every pound counts. Anyway, here is my kryptonite, in case you were wondering. I could probably eat a whole container on my own.
The kids fell asleep in the back of the car.
The walk from the beach house to the beach is really long, the community does that on purpose to make it more inconvienient for tourists to go up there for the day and then back. The whole town tries to keep the tourists out, so it's nice and secluded, which is great, but if you hate walking that heading to the beach every morning may not be your favorite. I like the exercise, so I'm cool with it as long as I keep Jakey in the baby carrier
Kite flying on the beach. The kids LOVE angry birds. This made Seth's day. Our friend, Ed, who also comes out every year bought it and shared it with our family.
We always do the same stuff when we're out on the beach; tanning, reading, chatting, and getting in the water, but it's always a blast. The kids loved jumping over waves with their dad. Seth was crazy brave, without someone watching him, he would just run straight into the crashing waves without a second's thought for his life. We had to keep an eye on him, which was occasionally stressful, but it was great to see the kids have so much fun, and it was great to hang out with friends and family.
The kids were SOO excited to hang out with their cousins, Regan, Jensen, and Lila. In spite of the noise, which us parents learn to tune out (sorry to the childless ones who couldn't, hahaha) it was fun to see them all play together and have fun.
If you're a parent and have to bring kids to the beach, Scott and I highly recommend a beach tent:
Every year when we go out with Nick and Margie to the beach, we share the beach house with their friends, who have also become our friends thanks to these summer trips. When we're done going to the beach during the daytime, we would come back to the house and eat together, play games, watch movies, and go miniature golfing. We look forward to seeing them again every time we come out.
The beach house was pretty small when you pack it with as many people as we did. One day out of the week it rained and we had to stay in all day, but for the most part we got out as much as possible to avoid crawling all over each other. As fun as it is with everyone to hang out with, it's nice to have some space too.
One morning I came out of the bedroom and Scott was just chillin with our nephew Jensen, and Jakey. I love how great my husband is with kids...it always makes me fall in love with him all over again.
More chillin at the Beach house
Not exactly 4 star sleeping accommodations for some of the group. Luckily the people with kids had dibs on the actual bedrooms. Sorry suckas.
We had a great time on the Island this year. The kids made memories that will last a long time. That's worth everything.
Regan and Seth are the same age, so they were able to bond a lot, play superhero games, and be loud together.
The toddlers, Lila (Todd and Megan's daughter) and Jensen (Rob and Stephanie's), were so cute! Everyone had fun watching them play and holding them on their laps. Both were surprisingly well behaved for being out on the beach and away from home. They are also the two blondies of the kid group. Both are fair with really blond hair.
We have a miniture golf night every year while we're there too. I only got a few pictures because Seth had to go number two halfway through the process and because I was terrified of him having a poop accident in the middle of the golf course I had to pick him up and run through the rest of the golf course, all the way to the bathroom. By the time we were finished, so was everyone else basically. Oh well.
My kids love their uncle Brian. They love to play and laugh with him, and he loves to make them laugh, and especially loves being called "Uncle." The title is very important to him, and he always corrects them if they accidentally call him just Brian without putting "Uncle" in front of his name. He had them laughing so hard they were out of breath on the drive up.
Here are some of the few pics I was actually able to take:
Next morning at the beach we were all out having fun and Todd pulls out a Tupperware of last nights leftover pasta and a fork and starts eating it. Everyone who wasn't an Itri made a ton of Italian jokes. I had to take a picture. Unfortunately, when Todd went back to the beach house, he forgot to bring his empty Tupperware back and we were attacked by seagulls. Memories like this make me love my East Coast family. We often joke that the Itri's could have their own, really successful reality show.
Another adorable moment: Uncle Brian helping Seth jump over waves
We buried the kids up to their necks in the sand.
At first they thought it was pretty cool:
Then it started to get uncomfortable....
Soon claustrophobia began to set in...
Which caused a full on panic. This might make me a bad parent, but I laugh every single time I look at this picture.
Also, a special highlight of the beach vacation which will stick in our memories is that Rob and Stephanie announced that they were PREGNANT with baby number THREE!!! Ahhhhh!!!!! Hurray!! Now I will have someone who understands my gripes in the world of three. Hahaha.
After a week at the beach, we went back to Philly. The view coming in from the bridge is beautiful:
On the way into the city, it was necessary to have some Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches. The food network along with a lot of other media always says that the best cheesesteak sandwiches are a debate between Pat's vs. Geno's cheesesteaks. They are directly across the street from each other, and they both have huge lines going down the street with people who are faithful fans to the sandwich place of their choice. Scott, me, Dan, and Kelsey decided to share half of each with our spouses and vote for ourselves which one is actually better. Since the lines are long, Scott and Kelsey hopped out of the car to get places in line while Dan parked the car with me and the kiddies:
Ordering a sandwich...soup nazi style:
The two Cheesesteaks, Geno's on the Left and Pat's on the right.
Later that night, we met up at an awesome little ma and pa diner called Nifty Fiftys. The great thing about the East Coast is that you get more original food, and less food chain's.
Here we are at the diner:
Speaking of great food, we had a fantastic dinner at Rob and Stephanies apartment on the Sunday night of that week. We were excited to see their new place in person, which looked even better than in pictures, and it was fun to hang out . We also played the game "loaded questions" which gave us some great laughs and probably caused us to know a little too much information about each other.
As much as I love restaurant food, there's nothing like a home cooked meal. Nothing.
Another fun activity we had was our own ITRI WIFE GIRLS NIGHT, which was fun and fantastic, and we got to take a break from kids and husbands. It's nice to just be a girl sometimes, even nicer when you're with gals you get along with, and who understand the dynamics of your family group better than anyone else.
Goodbye kids! Have fun with Daddy tonight, Mommy's going out to play for a change!
Commence girl time!
Another thing we did that I'd always wanted to do on the East Coast is go into the Amish territory and peek into their lifestyle's a little bit. I don't know why but the Amish fascinate me. Whenever there's a special or a documentary on the Amish lifestyle on television I always have to stop and watch. The name of the town was called Intercourse, PA. Naturally me with my twelve year old maturity level, found that little fact full of win.
The country really is beautiful out there, I was dissapointed at how many tourists, just like me were there though. Not exactly out in the middle of nowhere with the Amish, but at least I got a peek.
One of my favorites was a little place there called "Kitchen Kettle" where they let you sample all kinds of hand made dips, sauces, salsa's, and pickles. I could have stayed there all day sampling their food.
It was really hot that day. Everyone found themselves sitting down to rest. The bench was in a round shape which resulted in this fun picture of tired Itri's.
It was hot enough that week that we ended up hitting the swimming pool quite a bit.
It was nice to have other relatives with small kids so that we could let them play together and entertain each other while hanging out. Stephanie had the idea to take all the kids to the Smith Memorial Playground/House. It's a mansion built just for kids, full of playgrounds and toys. The kids loved it. Scott and I had never been, and we were impressed with all the fun things for the kids to do there. Best of all, it was free. There was a heat wave going on that day, over 100 degrees in fact, but on the up side, there were not a ton of people there, making it more of a personal experience for the kiddies to enjoy.
After that since we were in downtown Philly, we went to the Philadelphia Art Museum to run up the Rocky steps and take a picture next to the Rocky statue.
Scott wouldn't put his arms in the air no matter how much I begged him to. That's what happens when you marry your opposite. Yes we compliment each other, but it makes fun pictures incomplete. Still a great moment for me though.
My favorite though, was taking this next picture at the top of the Rocky Steps. Why? Because it had been a little under 8 years since the last time we went, and we were newly engaged at the time. All twitterpated and excited to be married. Who knew that 8 years we'd be back, and still in love. In this day and age, that is a treasure. I love my husband.
2012:
2004:
I know I'm a sap, but seeing these "then and now" pics makes me really thankful for my marriage, and for a husband whom I am still extremely in love with.
After that all us Itri's with kids, met up with the non-kids Itri's to go to the Reading Terminal Market to look at the good specialty food for sale, and to try the famous "DiNicks Roast Beef Sandwich" which has been featured on several shows on the food network. It did not dissapoint.
Next on the list was the beach. Again. This time we tried the beach near Atlantic City. It was just for a day. We liked Long Beach Island better. Unfortunately, I only took two pictures while we were there. One of Jake playing in a beach chair, and the other of Seth, who fell asleep while playing in the sand.
That same night we went to the Ocean City Boardwalk. Scott went here frequently as a child with his siblings and family. He was able to tell me some of his childhood memories while we were there, which was fantastic because he hardly remembers anything from his childhood. Just like he had great memories there, my kids also LOVED this place. They loved the things to see, the food we ate, and of course the amusement park rides. It was awesome, and a highlight for us as a family. The kids said this place was their favorite by far.
Crystal kept saying "There's so many cool things to look at here!!! I love this place!!"
The amusement park rides were their favorite. The first thing they did was try the merry go round.
Dumbo ripoff, roller cars
Crystal was actually tall enough to try a few big person rides. She was really nervous, but learned to hide in her dads side when it got too scary. The ride (Music Express) looked fast. I was impressed.
Seth was barely tall enough for the Troika ride, which has a lot of really fast spinning, and is also considered a thrill ride. I went on it with him. The pics didn't turn out that great but the experience was great for him. He would scream in terror and then laugh because it made him scream, then chant "This ride is CRAZY!" Then laugh again. He made me laugh really hard while I was on this with him.
Watching my kids faces while they were on these rides made my day. The memories were worth every penny.
Note: My other favorite thing we did as a family that I don't have any pictures of, was catching fireflies behind the house at dusk. Luckily, fireflies are the dumbest, easiest bugs in the world to catch, so even Seth and his four year old fingers could catch them easily. We collected them all in a jar and let them keep them for an hour or two before having the kids let them go so they wouldn't die. I wish I had pictures, but I don't.
On our second to last night in Philly, we all went as a family to Maggiano's Restuarant, which was hand's down, the best Italian food I've ever had at any restaurant. Even Todd, who served his mission in Italy and is very (rightfully) picky about the way Italian food should taste was impressed.
Our last night in the East coast was nice and relaxed. We started off the day going to the places with the East Coast food we loved the most, Italian Hoagies for lucnch with a soft pretzel, and a cheesesteak for dinner. While we were out here this trip Dan successfully converted me to asking for cheese whiz in my cheesesteak instead of American or Provolone like I have in the past. You will only find the option of ordering your sandwich with "wiz" on the East coast an even though I knew it was an East coast thing, I never had any desire whatsoever to order "fake" cheese with my sandwich. However after trying it, I must say, it brings out the flavor much more and makes the sandwich jucier. For now on, I will order my cheesesteaks with "wiz".
We were able to go to Rob and Stephanie's house for dessert that night, which was nice to be in a quieter environment with them and hang out. It was nice to sit and talk about ourselves and life and the family, and to compare stories of life with small kids. We're way excited that they are coming out to Utah for the first time in a long time in August to be with us to welcome Kyle come home from his mission. Everyone will all be together for the first time in over two years, it will be wonderful.
Here are all the kids (minus Jake who was napping) taking one last picture together in the East Coast saying goodbye.
The plane ride back was something I was not looking forward to. We had to get up at 5:30am for the 5 hour flight with three small kids. Not my favorite idea. However, things actually miraculously went pretty well. The kids slept for the first hour of the flight. Even Jake slept for a half hour when we were taking off. Nobody peed their pants and I had a really good nursing cover with Scott sitting in front of me so I could nurse privately. I didn't have to change any diapers, and there was no screaming. Jake got a little whiney towards the end but I was amazed that for the first time in what felt like forever, things went smoothly. Proof that God sometimes gives us tender mercies I guess. Haha.
Scott and I loved this vacation. We loved hanging out with family and we loved doing stuff together. Like any and all vacation there were a few hiccups, that's just vacations. (I read an article recently that said a true test of any relationship is to go on vacation with them and see how you handle the stress.) However, I consider the vacation a huge success. (Even though I didn't get my Broadway show. *shakes head in dissapointment* )Three weeks is a long time for the kids to be away from home and they did great. We made memories that will last forever, and we were able to bond with family. I would do it again next year in a heartbeat.
2 comments:
great post! even though I was there for most of it I LOVED reading your narration! We had soooo much fun with you guys. we are lonely again. I got used to checking in and seeing what the plan was and meeting up with you guys. Thanks for clarifying my pregnancy, explaining my largeness in all the pictures. not that your friends really care that I'm fat. I just wish it was a bump instead of all over extra weight. eventually I will get there, hopefully. thanks for all the great memories! see you guys soon!!
Love all the pictures!! Looks like such a fun trip! You look great Lisa!!
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