spring break

For the kids' Spring Break, some of Scott's family got together in Pennsylvania and NYC for a few days.  We were able to hang out with the Hubers and the Matt & Cassy family minus Matt (who had to stay behind and work).  Scott and I had hoped that Jed would fall asleep on the drive up Sunday afternoon, but alas he did not.  Instead, he found things to entertain himself, like the package of napkins in the back seat:

By the time we arrived at the house in Blakeslee, PA, Jed was pretty tired and quickly became overwhelmed by all the people running around.  We put him down as soon as the cars were unloaded and we'd fed him dinner, and he screamed for a long time before finally falling asleep.  The next couple nights were progressively better.

We had planned on doing some hiking on Monday, but it snowed.  So we piled everyone in the cars and drove around town, looking for something to do.  The boulder field ended up being closed, bowling was outvoted, and the tourist train was too expensive.  Scott and Jed returned home so Jed could take a nap, and the rest of us set off in search of an ice cream shop.  After we all got back, we hung out inside for a while - Jed climbing up and down the stairs, the boys playing pool in the basement, the girls practicing Irish Step, and the girls and I playing Bananagrams. In the afternoon we went on a walk down to the frozen lake:

When Jed's nose looked like it was about to fall off, a few of us took him back to the house to warm up. After dinner (a delicious enchilada casserole by Cassy), the kids watched a movie and then went to bed.  Scott, Leslie and I stayed up for a while talking, and when we finally headed to bed we discovered that 3-year-old Christian had locked Leslie out of their bedroom (so he could turn the light on and we wouldn't know) and promptly fallen asleep on the floor in front of the door.  After repeated attempts to wake him by knocking and whispering loudly (Jed was just on the other side of the wall and we didn't want to wake him), we finally gave up and removed the door knob from the door, popped the lock, and screwed the knob back on.

On Tuesday, we packed up and headed to NYC. We had planned on seeing a museum or the zoo near Matt and Cassy's house, but we hit traffic and arrived in Queens too late - just in time to go out for dinner.  We went to Sizzler, which Rachel proclaimed to be "SO delicious".  The kids' favourite part, I think, was getting balloons at the end.

Wednesday we started at the Museum of Modern Art.  Seriously, some of the stuff that people call art:

The one in the top left is called "Found Object in a Frying Pan" (as in, the artist wasn't specifically looking for the lion head specifically but saw it somewhere and picked it up, then placed it in the frying pan and called it art).  I really, really don't get it.  The one on the right is a convertible couch.  Ugly, for sure, but even ugly things can be considered artistic.  This, however, is not.

This last one is my favourite - the image on the left is the "art", and the image on the right is the placard that went with it.  This guy is apparently so ingenious that he merely needs to articulate an idea with words, and pow!!!  The art is created.  In fact, his ideas are so powerful that he doesn't even need to build the art. Just displaying the words is enough - whomever he sells the art to can decide if they feel like building the piece or not - and the responsibility to appreciate it rests with the viewer.

After MOMA we got lunch from a street truck and ate in Central Park.  Then we wandered down to the zoo, followed by the petting zoo.

Scott, Jed and I left around 4:00 - much to the chagrin of my nieces and nephews, who spent about 20 minutes jumping in front of the stroller trying to prevent us from leaving - in order to beat traffic.  We had an uneventful drive home, and were glad to be sleeping in our own beds that night.