The trip we took in July

As you may well know, we took a cross country road trip in July. The catalyst for this trip was to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant, in which my brother and his family were cast members. Since Palmyra is just a 5-hour hop, skip and jump away from Connecticut, where Nils grew up and where his sister lives still, we thought it best to revisit the old stomping grounds while we were in the vicinity. While in New York, we stayed with the wonderful Lockes, whom we met via the interwebs all those years ago. They are the nicest people ever, and put up with our crazy crew with much kindness.

We took tens of thousands of pictures. After 10 days of picture taking, Addie was physically incapable of smiling for anymore pictures. I can't possibly post them here, but if you really want to see some of them, here is a link!

http://flickr.com/gp/82175265@N00/6y83Tg/

Trip highlights:

In CT:

• Stayed with the magnificent Saren and Randy, who were amazing hosts and put up with us for almost a week longer than expected, thanks to our van issues.
• Visited Nils' hometown of Winsted. We saw all of his schools, old house and old haunts, and ate at Kent Pizza- a Winsted classic.
• Visited the little house where Nils and I lived when we lived in Colebrook, CT, which is code for "in the middle of the woods". Going back, I couldn't believe we lived there. 
• Went to Hamonasset Beach, on the Long Island Sound and had a fabulous day.
• Went to NYC for a day, where we saw the Statue of Liberty, Central Park and Times Square, all in the span of 6 hours. We rode the subway and the kids got a great little taste of NYC.

In Rochester:

• Went to Niagara Falls and rode the Maid of the Mist.
• Went to a baseball game in Batavia, where it was Mormon Night.
• Went to the Strong Children's Museum.
• Went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant and Sacred Grove.

We had a wonderful time visiting all of these fun places and seeing people we love. However, the one thing that our kids will not shut up about is FRIENDLY'S! Friendly's is a restaurant with greasy food and yummy ice cream, and it is only in the East. We wanted to take the kids there, because it is nostalgic. We had no idea that it would be the highlight of their trip. Aani has said hundreds of times since we've been home that next year for her birthday, she wants to drive to Friendly's. We'll be driving along and suddenly she or Addie will moan, "I miss Friendly's!" 

We went there twice while we were there- once to expose the children, and once on the night before we left, you know, for old time's sake.

This is my favorite picture of the whole trip. They were so happy to be at Friendly's.

I have titled this picture, "Drowning our Sorrows." This was immediately after we picked up our van, and had just paid the mechanic $3,700. It was a 12-scoop sundae with six toppings. We didn't even come close to finishing it.

It's bigger than my head. Mmmm, peanut butter cups.

As a side note, driving for 36 hours is totally doable. All you need is approximately 50 DVDs, lots of candy and snacks, and an iPad or two... or three. Stopping every 2 hours for bathroom breaks is advisable. Also, we packed a cooler and only stopped twice (each way) for meals- everything else we ate from the cooler, and had breakfast at the hotels we stayed at. The kids were so good and really seemed to not mind the 12-hour days of driving.