Last Sunday’s blog post feels like a lifetime ago. I suppose that’s what happens when you’re busy having fun in NY!
When we’re visiting, Steven, Sammy and Amaya sleep in my childhood bedroom which still looks the same as when I lived at home. As a treat to myself, on Monday and Thursday nights I slept in the room with the kids in my old twin bed. It’s the first time I’ve ever slept in the same room with them and I loved it. As a treat. Absolutely not to do all the time. 🙂
Steven, Amaya, Sammy.
On Monday morning we went to the little park. I’m sure it has a name other than “the little park” but that’s what we’ve been calling it since I was a kid so that’s the name that’s stuck. Everyone was able to join us, including Auntie, Uncle Josh and Eli.
Steven is our little adventurer. Sammy and Amaya don’t really want much to do with the swings but Steven laughed and laughed and laughed. In fact, the higher he went, the happier he was!
Amaya and I did work on it a bit. That lasted about 20 seconds.
But she fun going down the slide with Nana and a ton of fun exploring the park.
Hi Auntie!
Mr. Sam Man looooooves to be free. And he looooooves to take off running.
We loved our time at the at the park!
Here’s a Monday meal that was a typical scene for the week.
It was a beautiful afternoon and we wanted something a bit more low key than the beach so we headed down to Long Beach to walk along the boardwalk for a bit.
We went to Pops on the water for dinner which was successful up until the point Amaya had a meltdown. I don’t know if it was teething or exhaustion or just being a toddler but the food was served and she lost her mind. Poor girl was not a happy camper.
Before it all went downhill…
Giving her cow a drink of water.
Steven saw Amaya so he gave his train car a drink of water!
The meltdown begins.
The boys were tired on the way home, and fussy, so I gladly contorted myself in the car so they could hold my fingers.
Tuesday was a quiet morning at home. Amaya found a hat she liked and wore it as much as possible. She’s developing quite the sense of style!
We had helium balloons from CVS which are always a bit hit. Sammy call them “boon”s. Steven loves to bang them and has the cutest little sound effect when he does it.
We all had a big french toast lunch together!
Tuesday afternoon we went to the mall. The big stops were Build a Bear and the food court. This food court is pretty awesome. The food options are incredible and they have OXO high chairs for kids. We’d eat at the mall a lot if it was like this.
Sammy is exploring guacamole.
After a little bit of playtime on Wednesday, it was another beach day!
Bobo in cool kicks.
Amaya in her cool hat.
Sammy in the spot he spent most of the week. His mommy’s arms & lap.
It was a beautiful day for the beach!
Steven is such an adventurer. He just wandered off to see what there was to see.
We were fortunate to hijack someone’s picnic table for lunch! Those lobster chairs were one of our best investments!
Sammy even explored the sand a little bit. Just a little bit, but it’s a start. If he was around it more often, I think he’d continue to get more comfortable.
Meanwhile, Amaya and Chase shared some special cousin time.
Wednesday was also our first trip down to the ocean. No surprise, Steven loved it. Looooooved it. Amaya also had some fun in the water and wasn’t at all afraid of the waves coming up the shore. Sammy wanted nothing to do with it. 🙂 It was a really cool experience to take them down and see their reactions.
Sammy may not be master of the ocean but he is master of the spoon! Since we did Baby Led Weaning, my kids don’t have any experience being spoon fed. We gave Sammy some apple sauce and a spoon and he did an incredible job figuring it out.
On Thursday, we had some time at home before we had to head out. Steven got in some snuggles, Amaya read a bit of the morning paper, and everyone enjoyed story time with Savta! (Sammy called Savta “fa fa” all week. It was the cutest thing.)
The big adventure for the morning was baby yoga at my mom’s gym! Our family was the entire class, along with the instructor and her daughter. It was a really neat experience.
Steven working on tree pose.
Sensory/coordination exercises with fuzzy balls and our toes!
Quiet time at the end of class.
The whole gang!
On Thursday afternoon, my Aunt Dale and Uncle Arnie were kind enough to host my dad’s family for an afternoon bbq. The weather was absolutely perfect and we had so much fun seeing everyone!
I got to meet Cooper, the newest addition to the Goldstein clan! And the first baby Goldstein in the family!
Steven loved the flowers. He even picked some for Aunt Dale and Jamie to wear in their hair.
Amaya saw the flower in their hair and tried to get the same look. With a flower in her ear. I could not love her more.
Fortunately she got some help!
Amaya flirting with cousin Alex.
Amaya moved on from Alex to Sebastien. So much love!
It was such a great evening. I can’t wait to see everyone at Thanksgiving!
Friday was our last full day in NY and another beach day. Steven helped Nana get ready to go.
At the beach, we took some great photos to celebrate Nana’s BIRTHDAY!
The rest of the day was more time down at the ocean and more time playing in the sand. Amaya loves to play in the sand. She has such concentration when she’s working on her “project”. Steven still thinks the ocean is the best. Sammy was captivated by some seaweed that he found.
And that was our special, wonderful, fantastic trip to NY!! All I could have asked for was more time.
The flight back to MI was mostly uneventful except for Amaya throwing up in the car on the way to the airport. We had some rush clean up to do right there at the terminal. Here Papa is taking care of Amaya during clean up.
We had some VERY messy pb&j sandwiches while we waited to board. Never again as an on the go snack. Never. Again.
And there we were on the plane. The good news is that the benadryl worked! No puking! The bad news is that Steven, Sammy and Amaya cried and screamed for a good portion of the flight. At least now I know I can survive a flight with hysterical children.
I can’t say enough about the flight attendants and pilots for Delta. On both flights, they were a tremendous help getting everything off the plane. It made a huge difference for us!
The biggest part of the trip home was actually the end logistics. Jason and I had a wedding up north in Charlevoix, MI at 7pm on Saturday night. Originally we were going to drive the 4 hours there and back leaving shortly after I got home from the airport on Saturday, returning early Sunday. However, my boss was taking a private jet up there and offered us 2 seats on the plane. Scary, scary, scary. But it’s a 35 minute flight vs. a 4 hour drive so it was impossible to turn down. Very generously, he was willing to change the flight time from 11am to 1:30pm so we could make it. To make that happen, our sitter Anna came to the airport and picked up Steven, Sammy and Amaya and took them home. Megan drove my car back to our house. Jason picked me up at the airport and we drove straight to the private airport in Pontiac to make our flight.
The night before I was stressed out of my mind about these logistics but it all came together and we had a safe and easy trip to Charlevoix! I’ll tell you, this is the way to travel. No TSA. No security stops. Just park your car and get on the plane.
The wedding was beautiful and it was a really nice opportunity for Jason and me to spend some time together after a week apart.
As always, Anna sent us photo updates of Steven, Sammy and Amaya and, by about 1pm today, we were back home to, as Jason would say, our boogs.
I couldn’t have asked for a better week. My thanks and my love to everyone who was part of it and to everyone who helped make it happen. Team Cline loves you!