Planes, Trains, Automobiles & Taxies

I was 13 weeks pregnant and Josie was 17 months old, so we figured it was time to for her to take her first airplane ride. Josie and I flew to Pennsylvania where we met up with Grandmother, Grandfather, Aunt Nicole and Cousins Elizabeth and Gabriella.  Josie and I arrived a couple of hours before them, so our mission was to get ALL of our luggage, pick up the rental van, eat lunch, and than pick up everyone else at the airport.

Success, having a cream cheese and jelly sandwich in the van at the airport cell phone waiting lot!

Finally, we all made to Uncle Ricky, Aunt Carol and Ema's house.  That was after we had to go back to the car rental place to add Grandfather as a driver.  That took a couple tries, since I drooped him off at the wrong car rental place the first time lol.  All the girls had a blast running around the yard and playing at a nearby playground.

A flock of geese.

In PH Grandmother and Grandfather had their own room and the rest of us girls shared a room.  Needless to say it was very interesting and we all had lots of fun having our sleepovers.  Eventhough we had pillows lining both beds, the first night Gabriella fell out of bed and the following night Josie fell out.  They were both fine and didn't even really wake up.  But early, early, in the morning once one of them was up they all were.  Our day's usually started about 6:30 AM, every day....ugh!





Our first full day in Philly we decided to take the girls to Sesame Place.  We all had so much fun and the kids were ALL able to go on a bunch of the rides, even one year old Gabriella.  Our day started by sending Elizabeth and Josie down the enclosed superslide.  No adults were allowed on the slide so I took the girls to the top and Aunt Nicole waited at the bottom.

Elizabeth we first.  Notice the huge smile!  Than it was Josie's turn.  She got about half way down, stopped, turned around and started crawling back up the slide untill she heard Aunt Nicole calling her from below.  Josie did much better the second time.

Elizabeth went on the big swing ride, while we all watched below.

With Halloween around the corner there were several trick-or-treat mazes.  We started in the Count Dracula's maze.

Then we went on Burt and Ernie's bed to do some jumping.  Josie didn't think this was to fun, but the other girls had a blast.

After that we went on the hot air ballowen ride.  Eventhough we couldn't all sit togeather everyone had fun.

Next we headed on over to Abagail's maze.

Someone liked to cheat, by crawling under the panels.  But that someone had loved the big pumpkin at the end where you got your bananas.  At the very end of the maze we got to take a picture with Abby.  You can see how much everyone liked this!!!

We figured after all that hard work it was time for a snack.  So we shared some pringles.

We decided that wasn't enough so we had some cotton candy too.  This was Josie's first time eating cotton candy and she loved it!

After our sugar rush Aunt Nicole and Elizabeth went on the roller coaster and I took the other girls out to car for a little snooze while we waited for them.

After such a fun day. You can see they didn't even stay awake to make it out of the main gate.  Notice the missing wheel on Josie's stroller...somehow that got lost in the airplane.  Needless to say it was very interesting pushing them around, so we decided we needed to buy a new one before we headed to the NY City.

The next day we took the girls to Downtown Philly.  We were able to see the Liberty Bell and the Ben Franklin Monument.  As you can see it was pretty funny trying to take pictures of all the girls at the park. But we did have fun playing on the trees and eatting lunch.  Notice we still have the green stroller lol.





Our tour guide pointing us in the right direction.

After we got back to Aunt Carol and Uncle Rickey's, Ema came with us to a really cool park.

We finally made the three hour drive to Hudson, NY where we went straight to the pumpkin patch/market.  The girls had fun eating home made cider donuts, drinking homemade cider, playing in the pumpkin patch and apple orchid.

We all still had enough energy to play in Great Grandpa's yard!!!

The next day we went to another local farm with a petting zoo.  They had fun, but lets just say the animal pens were not clean and we had to clean the kids up and change their clothes after.

The following day it was time to take the gals on a two hour train ride to New York City.  The ride there went well....the ride home was a different story lol.

On the subway heading to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty.  Notice how windy it was and how rough the water was.  So we decided not to wait 2hrs to take the ferry to the island.  Although if you look close you can see the statue in the background.

Taking a water break.

Then we all hopped in a taxie and the Brooklyin Bridge and Empire State building on our way to Rockafeller to do a liile bit of ice skating.  Josie loved the taixe ride since she did not have to sit in a car seat and the cab driver let her hang out the window.

We finally made it so Elizabeth and Josie could do some ice skating.  Yup, they even had skates for Josie!!

A funny car next to us on our next cab ride to Central Park where we took a horse and buggy ride.

Before you knew it, it was time to head back to Penn Station to catch our 7PM train ride home.  Yup, it was a 2hr ride and none of the kids slept....

The next day we all went to Aunt Pat and Uncle Butch's house where we were able to visit with some of our cousins and go to another park and out to lunch.

That evening it was time to go to the VFW Hall back in Hudson, since Friday night is Great Grandpa's night to bartend.  After, we still had some time to play at his house before we had to call it a night.

Our plane ride home

Some videos