Postcards from the edge of SANITY!

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 36

2011-06-30T23:01:00.110-05:00

We had a super long, super busy day today. The kids and I got up and headed to Central Park once again. Our first stop was the Central Park Zoo. One of the first things we saw upon entering the zoo were these really cool eagle sculptures. Both of the girls thought they needed their pictures taken with them. After admiring the entryway we spent a leisurely two hours just exploring the zoo. We saw snow leopards and sea lions, but our favorite exhibit was the polar bear exhibit. That bear was a swimming fiend! He just went back and forth, back and forth for at least thirty minutes!

The girls liked sitting under the eagle's wings.

She looks like such a lady!

Reese's favorite animal!

That polar bear swam forever!

The gate at the Children's Zoo was amazing!

My little baby turtles!

The lily pad walkway was fun!

Now my turtles are all grown up...

My pretty girl.

A crazy looking rabbit sculpture.

My sweet girls.

It's time to leave!

After visiting the zoo we walked through the park for a while and happened upon a puppeteer. His name was Ronny Wasserstrom, and he had a Humpty Dumpty marionette the the kids loved! He was really good at involving the kids in his show, and they were literally laughing out loud at some of his antics.

Put your foot in!

"Watch this, Jack!"

Mama's sweet man...

The kids loved the scarecrow, too.

I love seeing them smile like that...

After loads of fun in the park we met David for supper at Ellen's Stardust Diner. What a hoot! The reason we went to this particular restaurant was because a 12-year-old girl on the subway suggested it to us with a glowing review. She said that she was excited because she was getting to go for her birthday later in the week. Since she was so excited, we thought our girls might enjoy the place, too.

Katie and Reese were totally enthralled the minute we stepped inside. We were seated immediately after we arrived. They placed us in the upstairs section near the stairs. The funny thing was that after we were seated the first person we saw was that same girl from the subway! Katie went over to say 'HI' as soon as we saw her with her family. What are the odds that we would be there on the same day at the same time? Crazy! We ordered our drinks and meals right away and then enjoyed the show while we waited. One of the waiters even came up and sang to Katie. He actually sat down in the seat with her! She was thrilled!

Katie's special song...

We got our meals and fed Jack some of our food. Since Jack is especially hard on dishes, we usually just put his food on the table in front of him. One of the waiters (not ours) noticed that he was eating off the table and told us it made him "uncomfortable to see that baby eating like that" and brought us a glass plate for Jack. It took about five minutes, but Jack crashed the plate on the tile floor and shattered it into a million pieces. Haha! We knew that might happen, and I did try to catch the plate, but oh well! I guess the young waiter might have learned a little bit about babies!

I didn't get our waiter's name, but he was attentive and nice, so we were happy! David ordered a Cobb salad, I had the meatloaf, Katie had cheeseburger sliders and Reese had mozerella triangles. The food was OK. Not great, not bad, just OK. I did feel it was a little overpriced, but I guess you're paying for the show, too. The wait staff sang tons of songs that we knew, and quite a few that we didn't. Katie requested the song "Popular" from Wicked: The Musical, but unfortunately we finished our meal and had to leave before they got to her song.

Reese watching the show and waiting for her food.

Katie LOVED the singing.

My family outside the Stardust Diner.

Fun times!

After dinner we headed out to Times Square to look around for a little while. If you remember, last year we went to Times Square and missed a ride on the Toys R Us ferris wheel by just a few minutes. I promised Reese at that time that if we ever came back we would ride that ferris wheel. We made it to Toys R Us and did just that! The kids were excited, and I actually got a picture of myself taken while I rode! That's an unusual occurrence! We also visited the Disney Store and played in there for a little while.

My family at Times Square

Katie in the Disney Store.

Jack and Mommy on the Toy Story ferris wheel car.

Katie riding the ferris wheel.

Reese on the ferris wheel.

David was pretty much done after visiting Toys R Us. He'd worked all day that day, and had to get up early the next day, so we headed home. It was a LONG day, but we had fun! Gotta get some sleep so we can head off toward Maine tomorrow!

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 35

2011-06-29T21:27:00.011-05:00

The girls and I decided some shopping was in order today. We went to Jersey Gardens Mall to check things out. This place is ghetto fabulous! I think I was the only modestly dressed mom there! Haha! In spite of the crowd, we found some awesome deals! Our main mission was to find Katie a dress for the 4th of July. We went to Gymboree, Justice, Old Navy, Gap and Tommy Hilfiger. Katie found the perfect dress at Tommy Hilfiger. I loved it, and she did, too.

This couch and caption was in one of the stores we visited.

Silly faces!

Reese found a train... Like usual!

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 34

2011-06-28T17:35:00.078-05:00

The kids and I decided to go into the city today and check out Central Park. It took us a while to get up and around, but we did catch the train and head over to explore. Our train dropped us at the American Museum of Natural History, so we decided to go in and explore.

There were so many cool things to see!

Reese loved the dinosaurs.

She loved the animals, too.

The time capsule outside the museum was interesting.

After seeing everything we could see in the museum we set out to discover Central Park. Reese and Katie climbed on the rocks, sailed the sailboats, and walked the trails.

My little explorer!

"Take my picture on this rock!" Again...

We went to visit the Bethesda Fountain and checked out the ponds and lakes. Everything was just beautiful! The girls each picked out a sculpture that they liked and had their picture taken with it.

One of the ponds in Central Park.

Reese liked the dove in this sculpture.

Katie liked the butterflies.

The girls picked the bumble bees for Jack.

The Bethesda Fountain was beautiful!

Reese walked through this arch and I managed to catch a picture. I thought is was so cool that I went back to the hotel and looked up the arch on Google. This is what I found.

Trefoil Arch
Map i
Located at 73rd Street, the Trefoil Arch is noted for its unique style and design.
This 16-foot arch was constructed in 1862 to provide a pathway from Conservatory Water to the Lake. Unlike the majority of bridges and arches in Central Park that were made from sandstone, the Trefoil Arch was built using brownstone. The arch's east and west sides each feature a different type of design. While the arch’s eastern side is gothic in style with a trefoil archway, its western side has a rounded arch. In addition, the eastern side has cast-iron railings and intricate quatrefoils on either side of the arch, while the western side simply features buttresses decorated in a floral pattern.

Reese walking under the Trefoil Arch.

We went to the Conservatory Water to check out the sailboats and see the pond. This is what we found out about the area:

The original plan for Central Park called for a formal flower garden and a large glass house, or conservatory, for tropical plants. An ornamental pond was constructed as a reflecting pool for the conservatory, but when the plan for a structure was abandoned, the water body became the popular model boat pond, inspired by those in Parisian parks.

From April through October, children and boat enthusiasts come to navigate radio and wind-powered vessels across the shimmering waters. It’s such a popular destination that writer E.B. White set the whimsical boat scene in his children’s classic, Stuart Little, here. It was recreated in the 1999 film of the same name.

We didn't rent any sailboats, but we did send a few back out onto the water and watch them sail around.

Reese set that boat back sailing!

They were waiting for it to get close enough to grab.

Katie got it back out there!

We went to one of the playgrounds in Central Park, too. The girls loved the spiderweb, and Jack thought the swings were great! We only played about an hour, but they talked about our time at the playground the rest of the night!

Queen of the mountain!

Little Man LOVED the swings!

My little mountain climber.

We met David at the Apple Store and played there for a bit, then we headed back to our hotel in Harrison, New Jersey. Jack was so tired by the time we got on the subway. He made our ride back to the hotel totally miserable!

Jack was SO done by the end of the day!

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 33

2011-06-27T21:27:00.036-05:00

We headed north today! We stopped at a rest area as soon as we crossed the Maryland border to hunt for a geocache, but unfortunately there wasn't one there. We did get to check out their little welcome center, but there wasn't much to see. We were very impressed by the seaport at Baltimore, though!

The kids at the Maryland visitors center.

Jack is showing off his two new teeth!

The Baltimore seaport.

Showing those teeth again!

We used our trusty Roadside America app again to find a really cool rest area in Delaware. It was supposed to be the "Rest Stop of the Future". This is what their website says about it.

The Rest Stop of the Future stands in the median of I-95 at one of its busiest spots (it anticipates 4.5 million visitors a year). Fifty years ago, a Rest Stop of the Future might have had a monorail or at least a life-size holographic greeter (maybe Delaware’s Miles the Monster) but we found that “future” is no longer defined with show-off technology. Instead, Delaware’s Rest Stop touts an “environmentally sensitive and sustainable design” that includes waterless urinals, wood from “renewable forests,” and the fact that most of the old rest stop was ground up and used to build the new rest stop.

We were impressed with the selection of restaurants, and I guess the bathrooms were OK. We were able to use a family restroom that had a kid sized toilet. Reese loved that! There was also a Best Buy vending machine where you could buy things like phones, Nintendo DSi games and all sorts of other electronics. I'd never seen one of those before.

We had some lunch at "Famous Famiglia Pizza" (it was just 'OK'), talked to Nana on the phone for a bit, then headed out to try to find a geocache at the rest area. We found it without too much trouble and were on our way.

The toll booth line was LONG!

One of the many bridges we crossed.

Finally in New Jersey!

We're almost there! Elizabeth is right next to Newark!

After a pretty long day we arrived in New Jersey. We took a few wrong turns, but finally made it to David's hotel in Harrison. After getting settled in at the hotel we went looking for a grocery store. The closest thing we found was a Wal Mart. It wasn't like a Super Wal Mart, it was more like the old stores I remember from the 1990's. We picked up a few things then headed back to get some rest. Gotta get ready to explore tomorrow!

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 32

2011-06-26T22:55:00.001-05:00

When we got up for breakfast David and Wendy had cooked blueberry waffles with the blueberries that we picked yesterday. Jack thought they were delicious, and Reese ate her fill, too! Katie told me they were "divine"! She ate a ton!

He's wearing as much as he ate!

Jack is thinking about pulling Reese's hair.

Katie was still SO sleepy, but she was eating like crazy!

After breakfast we left and went by Virginia Tech to check out their stadium. Since David spent the first four years of his career with Turner working on Lane Stadium he likes to go by and check on his "baby" when we're in town.

Katie thought the "bush" letters were so cool!

After leaving Blacksburg we checked our trusty Roadside America iPhone app and found that Foamhenge was right on our way. What better thing to do than to stop and see an exact replica of Stonehenge made out of foam?

Katie posing at the entrance.

Foamhenge was a very interesting stop along our way to Dulles. I don't really think David was impressed, but the kids and I thought it was cool! After stopping at Foamhenge we had a pretty uneventful trip to our hotel at Dulles.

Shortly after arriving in Dulles we went over to David's boss's house for dinner. It was so nice to get to visit with Dale and Mary, and the kids had a blast swimming in their pool! Dale and his family will be heading to Italy in a couple of weeks... I am so jealous! I hope they have a SUPER time, and hope I'll get to hear all about it someday! Maybe they can give me the down low on everything Ellie and I should see if/when we get to go for our 40th birthdays. We ate hamburgers and had some awesome fruit salad. Of course, Jack decided he just HAD to nurse right in the middle of dinner. Thanks, son. Really. I really hope we didn't offend anyone!

After a great night with the Kogers, we headed back to our hotel. We'll be sending David back to work in the morning then we'll be headed to his hotel in Newark, NJ.

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 31

2011-06-25T23:57:00.000-05:00

We spent the morning at 3 Birds Berry Farm just outside Blacksburg. They had a ton of blueberries and some of the biggest blackberries I've ever seen! What an awesome morning! Reese had a ball filling her bucket with berries, and Katie loved helping Daisy fill hers!

This berry picking is serious business!

Katie was such a great 'big sis' for Daisy.

What a pretty girl!

Katie is concentrating hard on getting the best berry!

She's so proud of herself!

This was a small one, but still beautiful!

After berry picking we cleaned up and went to lunch with one of David's former co-workers. Supper at the Chinn's house was fun, and their nephews came to play about 7pm. Katie had a ball bossing everyone around, and the kids all played hard! Jack was so wound up that night that it was almost impossible to get him to sleep! I think he beat both David and me half to death!

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 30

2011-06-24T22:51:00.003-05:00

We started the day fairly early (for us!) because we had to go to Roanoke to pick David up from the airport. We had to be there by 3pm, so we knew we had to get a relatively early start!

Getting the kids to post with Amanda for a group shot was almost impossible, but we did get a few pictures before we left...

Jack had a ball trying to eat Amanda's face!

They're all in the picture, but only Jack was looking at the camera!

We stopped at the Virginia welcome center to stretch our legs and find a geocache. Even though we lived in Blacksburg and traveled this stretch of road many times, we'd never tried to find the cache her. Today we were successful! It was a pretty easy one, and we got to check out the big Virginia seal.

They welcome US!

The big seal was pretty cool!

Photo op!

Katie looking for the cache.

After finding the geocache we piled back in the car and headed to Roanoke. We arrived pretty much on time after a slight detour because of road construction and an accident. We were only half an hour late! I just hate it when that happens. We were SO close to being right on time or a little early and then traffic stopped... We got off the interstate and went around the congestion, but it still threw us off.

We finally made it to the airport and picked David up. After that we went by Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Gag... I don't really like the restaurant, but David thinks it is just AWESOME. Oh well... The kids like it, too, so everyone was mostly happy!

On our way back to Blacksburg we saw that an Amber Alert had been issued for the area. We saw a truck that fit the description of the kidnapper's vehicle, but weren't able to catch up with it because of the bad traffic. I hope they caught the woman who took that baby...

We made it to David and Wendy Chinn's house and settled in for the evening. After dinner and playing with Daisy we crashed into bed. We'll be up early tomorrow for some more fun!

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 29

2011-06-23T18:34:00.002-05:00

We slept as late as we could, and consequently were a bit late getting down for breakfast. We still got plenty to eat, so that turned out OK. There was a merchant fair hosted by the Dandridge Chamber of Commerce so we went down and looked around. About 3pm we took the girls down to the swimming pool, then planned to get out of the hotel. It was 4pm, but we decided we wanted to explore what this little Tennessee town had to offer. We figured out that the Bush's Baked Beans plant and museum was nearby, as was a Revolutionary War cemetery, so we set out to explore a little bit!

It was a curvy, hilly road going out to the Bush's plant, but we went anyway. What a cool place! The museum and the general store were closed, but there WAS a geocache nearby!

Katie pretending to be a dog!

My kiddos!

Amanda and the kids!

Since there was a geocache so close to the Bush's Visitor Center we decided to teach Amanda all about the virtual treasure hunt. Katie found our cache in a guardrail. The parking was a little iffy on this skinny little road, so I didn't walk down to find the cache. I stayed near the car with Jack. Kudos to Amanda and Katie for the first find of the day!

Katie found the geocache!

Just like I figured, Amanda was hooked after the first cache! We explored all kinds of cool places. We found a small cemetery at the top of a little mountain. It was way off the beaten path, but a really interesting place to see. When we pulled to the top of the hill where the cemetery was located there was a lone coyote standing guard. He vanished when we drove by, but it was still neat to see him so close up. We found our geocache here, along with some pretty old headstones!

Amanda and I found a geocache at this really old cemetery.

After visiting the Taft Cemetery, we headed to the Fox cemetery. What a beautiful place! The view from there really epitomized what Eastern Tennessee is 'supposed' to look like. Rolling hills, amazing vistas... I just loved it! The Fox cemetery was amazing, as well. There was even a man buried there who had been scalped and killed by Indians! Really! It said so on his headstone!

Amanda surrounded by her husband's ancestors.

I thought this headstone was cool!

What an awful way to die!

We found another geocache at the Fox cemetery!

What a cool place! Beautiful!

It didn't take us long to find the geocache, but we did spend a lot of time here. It was just a really neat place. There were some incredibly old headstones, some cool trees and a BATHROOM! You gotta love finding a bathroom out in the middle of nowhere! It was clean, too! We spent the whole afternoon exploring the Tennessee hills, got ourselves lost a few times (the kids were convinced we'd never make it back to the hotel), and just really had a wonderful time together. I can't wait to do it again!

My godsister and me. Love her!

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 28

2011-06-22T21:19:00.001-05:00

We didn't make it out of Uncle Mike's house very early, and ended up having to go back because I forgot to take my Coke out of the freezer before we left. FINALLY around 1pm we were on the road. We swung through McDonald's for lunch then headed to Dandridge, Tennessee to meet up with my godsister, Amanda.

We passed through a little corner of Georgia on our way to Dandridge, but didn't stay there very long! I was surprised by how small the state sign was on this part of the interstate!

We hit Tennessee at Chattanooga, and wanted to go see Stone Mountain, but there was a thunderstorm in the area. I was afraid of getting struck by lightning, so we just decided to stay off the mountains.

We did stop at the visitor's center/rest stop just across the Tennessee state line. There was a little play area there with the cutest little mosaic type fish! The kids took a car break to play there and post for pictures.

It seemed to take a long time, but we finally made it to Dandridge around 6pm. Right after we got checked into our room a torrential downpour started! It was amazing! Amanda showed up shortly after us and we all settled in for a night of swimming, sandwiches and visiting.

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 27

2011-06-21T21:43:00.010-05:00

Our third day at Uncle Mike's house was spent playing at the pool. Michael had to study for a math exam, so the kids and I went by ourselves today. The kids love playing in the water, no matter what!

We left the pool because a thunderstorm was blowing in, and it wasn't long before it knocked all the power out. We spent the afternoon enjoying the peace of NO TV! The little kids took a nap and Katie spent most of her time playing on her phone. Michael came home shortly after the power went out, then I cooked supper after it came back on. I snuck out of the house without the kids for a quick trip to Wal-Mart after bedtime and stocked up on essentials. We'll be hitting the road again tomorrow!

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 26 - REESE'S BIRTHDAY!!!

2011-06-20T23:28:00.029-05:00

Today I want to wish a HUGE happy birthday to my daughter, Alyssa Reese. She is five years old today, and is a totally sassy, totally cute, totally lovable little girl! We decided to celebrate Reese's actual birthday with a dinnertime trip to Chuck E. Cheese's. She loves to go there and play the games, so what better gift? We ordered a pizza, loaded up on tokens and off we went! The restaurant actually had a dance-off for the kids, so Katie and Reese decided to join in the fray. At the end of the dance Chuck E. threw a bunch of tickets up in the air. Some kid actually BIT Katie trying to get to the tickets! It was crazy!

My pretty little birthday girl!

Michael may be permanently scarred from this foray into child rearing!

I think she played every game in the place!

How is it possible that she's already five years old?

A rare moment of sisterly cooperation.

Jack had a ball at Chuck E. Cheese's!

"Don't worry, I have it all under control..."

Wheee! No hands!

Ride 'em Cowgirl!

Katie is such a huge helper!

Jack liked riding the copter mobile with Katie.

Awww! Jack and Uncle Mike.

We had a pretty good time playing at the "Mouse House", and overall I think Reese was pretty pleased with her birthday. Here's to many, many more! I love you Reese!

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 25

2011-06-19T23:42:00.060-05:00

Sweet Home Alabama bound!

Unfortunately our trip to Louisiana was far too short. We had some traveling to do today, so we were up and at 'em before noon. Today we were headed about six hours northeast to Uncle Michael's house in Birmingham, Alabama. Today was also Father's Day, so we searched for some way to make it special to David, too.

We drove through Mississippi (again) pretty quickly and actually found a geocache at the Alabama welcome center. The girls thought the welcome center just across the state line was pretty cool!

Our second pass through Mississippi!

We were all excited when we started seeing signs for Birmingham. At least that means we're getting closer to our destination!

Not quite there, but we're making progress!

We finally made it to Uncle Michael's house around 6:30pm. We were all starving, so it didn't take us long to head out for dinner. David decided that he wanted to have ribs, so we headed over to Jim 'N Nick's BBQ. The last time we were in Birmingham we ate there and were all very pleased with our meals. This time, not so much... Apparently they got slammed since it was Father's Day and were woefully underprepared. First, they were out of ribs. The only reason David chose the restaurant was because he wanted ribs. Strike one! Next, I ordered one of their Bar-B-Que bakers. They were out of baked potatoes, too. Strike two! David managed to find a pulled pork platter that would work with his diet, but when he ordered the vegetable he wanted they were out of it, too! Strike three! In addition to being out of most of the dishes we ordered, our waitress had to leave halfway through our meal. It wasn't really an issue for us, but it was strange! David was very obviously annoyed, and I felt awful that his Father's Day turned out so bad! Maybe we can make it up to him on his birthday.....

On a better note, the girls were VERY excited to see Uncle Mike! He is such a sweetheart! He volunteered to take David to the airport at 5am tomorrow, and even gave us his queen sized bed to sleep in this week. Now you know why we love him! :)

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 24

2011-06-18T23:34:00.001-05:00

We got up and got ready to go see some friends this morning at the Moran family farm just a few miles north of Hammond. Katie was very excited because her old friend, Ryan Rumsey was supposed to be there! Ryan lived with us for a while right after David and I got married, then again after we moved to Blacksburg. He and Katie became best buddies, and she has missed him!

Of course, the Moran family outdid themselves once again on the food! John made some chicken wings that, while a bit hot for a weenie like me, were very tasty! We had a ton of other appetizers and main dishes, and they were all delicious! I am so grateful that John's parents are willing to be hosts to us when we are in town. It makes it so much easier for us to see everyone!

Ryan DID show up, and Katie was VERY excited to see him!

In addition to playing with Ryan, the kids explored Mrs. Mary's garden and ran all over the yard. I don't think these kiddos could get enough of the great outdoors! Av picked an eggplant, Katie tasted a fresh peach, Reese checked the tree for MORE peaches, Ai just checked out everything!

It was so good to be able to catch up with old friends and spend some time with them. Hopefully we'll be able to do it again really soon!

Ai, Av, Serena and Jack

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 23

2011-06-17T22:10:00.075-05:00

We got up this morning after a restless night. I think Katie slept pretty well on the couch, but since I slept with Jack AND Reese, I felt like I'd been hit by a truck! We did manage to get up and ready by 11am, then met Queenie for lunch at Ward's, a local hamburger joint. This review on Metromix tells you all you need to know about the restaurant:

Ward's is a country burger and breakfast franchise that began in Hattiesurg. The Ward brothers, two twins, opened their restaurant with no idea it would become what it is today. Not a choice if you're in need of healthy fare or have an active afternoon planned. The famous chili sits a top their famous "Big One" or "Lil One" (dressed with lettuce, onions, mustard, mayo) and has a truly original and unforgettable flavor. Try without chili as well for a "lighter version." It must be accompanied by their famous homemade root beer or coke float with homemade ice cream, and fries. Their old fashioned red chili dogs are long and strong in flavor of course. They have a taco salad, including their chili, that's a popular choice too. The breakfast is also a frequented meal, with a famous sausage biscuit, bacon biscuit, country grits to name a few items.

I didn't have the root beer or the coke float, since I don't like either one, but I did have a Big One and drink a Coke in a frosted mug. Delicious! If you're ever in Southern Mississippi make sure to stop by for a bite to eat!

We got on the road for New Orleans at about 1pm. We had to pick David up at the airport at 3:15pm, so we were running right on time. The trip went by quickly, and before I knew it we were in New Orleans, EARLY! Yay for us!

Since we were so early I decided to stop by the New Orleans City Park. We got a glimpse of this park on our trip to New Orleans last year, and I was dying to go back! We stopped by the sculpture garden this time since we didn't have much time today. I got some awesome photos of the sculptures and of the kids, too.

David called when he landed at the airport and we loaded up so we could go get him. I expected it would take about ten minutes since we were only six miles away. Boy, was I wrong! While we were at the park the traffic backed up terribly! It took us over half an hour to get to the airport!

After picking David up we headed to Mikel and Serena's house in Hammond. We were really excited to get to see them! It's been a whole year! Av & Ai, their children, have grown so much! Av is going to first grade in the fall, and Ai is so big now! I babysat both of them when they lived in Arkansas, and I have missed them since they moved.

Mikel had a 'boys' night out planned for David and some of his other friends, so they left shortly after we arrived. Serena and I sat in the back yard with the kids and let them play in the pool. It was a nice, relaxing night. The boys got in really late, but we waited up for them. They had a great time out, and I'm sure the break from the daily grind was nice. As for my other 'boy', we just smooth wore him out...

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 22

2011-06-16T23:15:00.002-05:00

On the road again, I just can't wait to get on the road again, the life I love is making music with my friends, and I can't wait to get on the road again! On the road again, going places that I've never been, seeing things that I may never see again, I can't wait to get on the road again! Willie Nelson

Today we headed down to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. This should be the longest travel day of this part of our summer trip. I am quite sure that after seven hours in the car my kids will be DONE. We're going down south to visit Queenie, Papa and Uncle Luke. Queenie (Linda) is my godmother, and god-grandmother to my children. I have known her since I was born, and she is like a second mother to me.

We got started a little later than I wanted to start, but we did make pretty good time. We rolled through Memphis, then on to Jackson, Mississippi.

About seven hours after we left we were at Queenie's house! She made an incredible crab bisque for supper. My kids LOVED it! I was so surprised! Katie got to go for a walk with Uncle Luke, Reese got to snuggle with Papa Nort, and I got to spend some time talking with Queenie! It was a good visit, although WAY too short! Hopefully we will get to stay longer next time...

MILES TRAVELED TODAY: 410
HOURS IN THE CAR: 7

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 13 through Day 21

2011-06-15T21:45:00.001-05:00

We spent our first couple of days at home just trying to adjust to being back in the house, then we spend the next few days in a flurry of doctor visits and birthday party preparations. We went to the doctor four times (Jack twice, Katie once and me once), had an early birthday party for Reese (see previous post), and got to visit with Aunt Janice, Uncle John and Aunt Linda Faye when they came up to see Daddy. It was a fun week at home, but we plan to be back on the road tomorrow!

Reese turns FIVE... Well, almost...

2011-06-12T22:00:00.000-05:00

Mama's birthday girl!

The month of June started with a plea from my kids' Aunt Allison... "Please have a birthday party for Reese at HOME this year!!!" You see, we are always on the road when Reese's birthday rolls around. Every... Single... Year... Since my doctor's visit required that we be home on June 9th we decided to stay home through the weekend so we could have a big blowout party for Reese's 5th birthday. I was so happy we did because it was a great party, and I had one happy little girl!

Reese picked an ice cream theme, and then the ball started rolling! My friend, Ellie, and I worked all week to get this party into tip top shape. My daddy made a canopy stand for me, Ellie scooped mountains of ice cream, I taped labels on water bottles, David built a sandbox. It was definitely a team effort, and I cannot begin to thank everyone enough for their help.

One of our first projects was making the cake. I haven't made a cake in YEARS. I made one for Katie's first birthday party and swore I would never bake again. It was that hard for me! Well, Reese really wanted a rainbow cake, so I decided to try my hand at baking again. I would never have worked up the nerve to attempt it, but Ellie encouraged me and basically did most of the cake for me. That's why it came out so great! Thanks Ellie! You're a rockstar!!!

We also set up a sundae bar so the guests could add their own toppings to their ice cream. We had cherries, pineapple, chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, coconut, a million sprinkles, whipped cream, you name it! If it is good on ice cream, we probably had it! As I said before, my daddy made a canopy stand for me, so we used an old tablecloth and made the cutest little 'ice cream stand' type canopy. We set up two tables at each end of the toppings table. One was for lemonade and water, and the other was for cones and the ice cream!

TIP: Scoop ice cream into cupcake liners before the party
and put them in the deep freeze. Voila! Self serve ice cream!

After we ate ice cream and before we had cake we played a few outdoor games and let the kids play on the trampoline and in the sandbox. We played "Stomp the Balloon", and Nathan was our big winner. He was so proud of himself, and I managed to catch a great picture of him!

David did a great job building the sandbox!

Alyssa Reese and her good friend, Alyssa!

The fun and games outdoors slowed down a bit, so we went inside to have birthday cake and let our big girl open gifts. She was so excited to have her friends there to celebrate with her, and was doubly excited when we cut the cake and it was the EXACT cake she picked out. I was so happy that she was just thrilled!

When Reese started opening gifts it was obvious that her friends and family knew her well! She got TONS of the character cars from the 'Cars' movie by Disney. That was exactly what she wanted!

Overall we had a wonderful day and Reese felt very loved. We are all so blessed to have such good friends and such an awesome family!

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 11 & 12

2011-06-07T22:38:00.001-05:00

David got on his flight out of Houston and was already in New York City by the time we got on the road today. We traveled about four hours from Houston and were ready to stop. We spent the night at a Homewood Suites in Longview, Texas, and had a great overnight stay! The hotel offered dinner, so we were able to eat on the cheap, which was awesome! We were totally disappointed by the pool, though. They had a great outdoor pool, but we weren't able to swim because they had just treated it with some pretty strong chemicals. The girls threw a fit, but there honestly wasn't much I could do about it. Instead of swimming we went up and watched a little television then went to bed. I think we were all a little bit excited about getting to be home the next night.

We got up pretty late the next morning, but still managed to make it down for the hotel breakfast buffet. While we were eating breakfast, Dr. Wilkins' office called and said that they had an appointment open up for Jack that afternoon if we wanted to come in. Of course, we definitely wanted to get our little man in. He's been fighting a rotten ear infection for over a month, and has been through three rounds of antibiotics with no real change. I wanted Dr. Wilkins to check him out again before we left to go to New York. We were making excellent time until we made it to Arkansas. There was a horrible accident on I-30 just outside Arkadelphia. Apparently a big rig hit a truck and they both caught on fire. The medical helicopter flew in and landed right on the interstate.

We were diverted around the accident and were on our way pretty quickly. We all said a little prayer for the people involved. It is so scary to see something like that when we know that it could have been us... Thanks to God for the travel mercies he's given us. We've been through some tight scrapes, but have always been safe on the road. Hope the people involved in this accident came out OK, too.

I don't know how, but we made it to Jack's doctor's appointment with time to spare. Dr. Wilkins told me what I expected to hear. Jack still had fluid in his ears, so the doc decided to give him two antibiotic shots. He had to take one today and will have to go back tomorrow or the next day for the other shot. I just hate those shots. They hurt like fire! Poor little man just cried and cried. It was so sad...

After Jack's appointment with the doctor we headed out to Nana's house. Papaw had promised to cook us some catfish, so of course we were there! It was good to see them after being gone so long.

The rest of the week passed by in a flurry of doctor's appointments for Jack, Katie and myself, and getting ready for Reese's birthday party. Her birthday isn't until June 20th, but since we'll be on the road that day we decided to have a birthday party for her on the 12th. She is so excited! I will post separately about her party...

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 10

2011-06-05T22:12:00.007-05:00

We left Uncle Armand's house late Saturday night and headed down to Beeville so that we could get up early Sunday and go visit Grandma. We went to the nursing home, but she was sleeping when we got there so we went outside and called Grandpa Max. He met us and we all joined him for lunch at a little Mexican restaurant just down the road. We had a super lunch and visited quite a while. Several people in the restaurant stopped to admire Jack and play with him while we ate. As we were walking out, one woman called me over and asked me if she could touch Jack. Of course, we let her, and she just cooed and fawned over him. Who wouldn't? Haha! We think he's pretty cute, too!

When we got back to the nursing home Grandma was up and eating lunch. We visited with her for a little while, but I think having us there just wore her out. She didn't really know who we were until Max told her, which was kind of sad for us, but she seemed happy to have visitors.

We left Beeville after our visit to head to Houston for the night. It was a pretty uneventful trip, but we did see a cool dinosaur in Wharton, Texas. The girls thought it was great, so we got out for some pictures. This dinosaur was the same type as Cinny in Oklahoma, but looked totally different.

We also stopped at the Tee Pee Motel just outside Wharton. We were all sad that we had to rush on to Houston so that David could catch a flight the next day. We really wanted to stay there! Maybe the next time we're in Texas we'll make it a point to stop by and spend a night or two.

We spent the night in Houston so that David could catch an early flight out to New York. Other than the two stops we made in Wharton the day was pretty much uneventful. We were happy to see Grandma and Grandpa, and that was the highlight of our day.

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 8 & 9

2011-06-04T18:31:00.064-05:00

Jack and Uncle Armand

After spending last night in Sweetwater, TX, we finally headed on down to Uncle Armand's house in Poteet. The kids have been SO excited to see Uncle Armand and Aunt Bev, and couldn't wait to get there. Last year they rode the horses, and were looking forward to doing the same this time.

We arrived late in the afternoon, and Armand already had the grill warmed up for us. He cooked some wild boar and veggies and it was delicious! While we were waiting for supper to get done the kids hula-hooped, played in the dirt and got to just act like kids! Armand's grandson, Cody, was there, so Katie had someone to play with (he was the same age as her). Reese was just happy to see some dirt, and Jack was thrilled to be out of his car seat.

Reese helped Uncle Armand water the plants and "help out".

The next morning the kids were up bright and early asking to go ride the horses. It didn't take too long and they were all set to go!

We had an awesome time at Armand's house. I am pretty sure that Katie would live here full time if we would let her! We hated to leave, but had to get down to Beeville to see Grandma. Thanks to Armand and Bev for being such great hosts and letting us come visit! We always love being there!

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 7

2011-06-02T22:32:00.051-05:00

Today we left Dumas, TX, to head to Sweetwater, TX. We decided to stop in Amarillo along the way, and I'm sure glad we did! We only did a couple of things in Amarillo, but they sure were fun!

The first place we stopped was The Big Texan. This restaurant does everything in a BIG way! We watched two men try (and fail) the Big Texan's Challenge. The men agreed to eat the 72oz steak with all the trimmings in less than an hour. If they can manage to do it, they get their dinner free. If they cannot do it, they have to pay $72 for their meal. Needless to say, both men lost the bet, and both had to pay for their dinner. The second guy, a little man who weighed in at around 160 pounds, looked positively green when he left the table! David decided to skip the 72oz steak, but we did have a pretty good lunch! Reese spent a lot of her time stacking up the butter tubs while we were waiting for our dinner. Maybe she's a construction engineer in the making!

After lunch we went outside to see the Texas shaped pool and some of the other oddities outside the restaurant. Some of them were pretty cheesy, but the kids thought they were fun!

Our next stop was at Cadillac Ranch. Cadillac Ranch is a piece of artwork/sculpture created in 1974 by an art group called Ant Farm. It consists of junk Cadillac automobiles representing a number of evolutions of the car line, most notably the birth and death of the tail fin. The span of years goes from 1949-1963. The Caddies are buried nose first in the ground at an angle corresponding to the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. My kids were excited to see it, and I was happy to take them!

Reese painted as much on herself as she did the cars!

When we got back in the car after visiting the Caddy graveyard I got the best reward of all. Reese said. "Mommy, you are the best mommy EVER! I loved painting today!" Awww... You gotta love that!

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 6

2011-06-01T23:45:00.022-05:00

Today we had to leave Lakin. We are headed to Beeville, Texas, to see David's grandmother, Socorra, who is not doing so well. We will be making a few stops on the way to Beeville, though! Remember when I said that David decided not to EVER travel more than five hours in the car with the kids again? Well, that messed up his plan of driving from Lakin to Poteet, Texas, in two days. He booked us a room in Dumas, Texas, and I am very grateful! We saw some cool things along the way since we weren't in such a rush to get to our destination.

We didn't get to stop at the park, but we did drive through the National Grassland!

This was our first trip through the Oklahoma Panhandle.

We stopped in Boise City, Oklahoma, to see "Cimmy". The kids thought that was the best part of the day!

There was a huge piece of petrified wood at the visitors center.

The main attraction! CIMMY!

Apparently Boise City was accidentally bombed by friendly fire back in the 1943. We looked all around for the bomb crater, and eventually found it at the courthouse square. Boy, were we surprised! The crater was no bigger than the wheel of my car! No wonder we missed it! Katie just had to get out and have her picture taken with the monument.

Overall we had a terrific day! I just love traveling at a leisurely pace and actually getting to SEE some of the things we are passing on the highway!

2011 summer Road Trip - Day 5

2011-05-31T22:50:00.000-05:00

Today we went to Garden City to check out the awesome zoo. The most amazing thing is that it is FREE! We looked at all of the animals, found a geocache and ate some fried chicken at the playground pavilion. It was so nice to spend some time with Bart, Melody, Jordan, Jenna and Jordan. It's hard to believe how grown up the kids are!

Katie sure loves her baby brother. He's crazy about her, too!

Reese likes anything to do with animals. She's our little dog whisperer!

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 4

2011-05-30T23:50:00.000-05:00

We slept in today. It was awesome! After everyone was up and around we let the kids go swimming. The wind was so awful! It was literally blowing the water out of the pool! The kids didn't care, and Jack looked cool sporting his sunscreen mohawk!

Later that afternoon we went to visit Melody's brother, Travis. He cooked an awesome meal for us, then we went and flew kites in the baseball field behind his house. Let me tell you, if you ever want to fly a kite, Kansas is the place to do it! My kids had such a great time! I don't think we've ever had enough wind in Arkansas (without a thunderstorm) to fly kites like this!

Reese LOVED flying her kite!

Katie was SO good at keeping her kite in the air!

Bart, Melody and David watching Jayden reel in the kite Katie put so far in the air.

Reese and Jace were fast friends.

David and Jack watching the show.

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 3

2011-05-29T22:16:00.002-05:00

We definitely paid the toll, in more ways than one! No more 8 hour days in the car!

This day was our LONG day! I try to never travel with the kids for more than five hours, but David was anxious to get to Lakin to see the Garcias. Since we wanted to do it in one day, we left Tulsa for Lakin, Kansas, around noon. Overall it was a good trip. I have to say, driving through Oklahoma and Kansas isn't the most scenic or exciting thing to do with your day. It's flat. It's dry. In a word, boring...

We were very impressed with Greenwood, Kansas. When we drove through there about four years ago the town was completely destroyed. A tornado had totally devastated almost the entire town. They have rebuilt, and it looks great! You can still see little reminders of the storm, like an empty house foundation, but, for the most part, the town looked great! I was so happy for them!

It took us until almost 8pm to get to Lakin, but the Garcias were happy to see us! David swore he would never again try to drive that far in one day with our kids. It was really hard to resist saying "I told you so", but I did! Believe me, I've never been so glad to see someone's front door in my life!

Mileage: 413
Total Mileage: 781

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 2

2011-05-28T23:59:00.002-05:00

Today was a really busy day! We got up and I went to see my friend, Karen, who recently had surgery. I didn't stay long, but I was really glad to see her. She looked great and seemed to be recovering well. After seeing Karen, the whole family, minus Katie, met my old friend, Amy, for lunch. I hadn't seen Amy in over seven years, so it was good to catch up!

We had intended to be at Rhonda's house to help prepare for the party by 2pm, but the fates conspired against us and we didn't make it until 4pm. We had a little snafu at the pharmacy. I won't go into details, but they were considering not refilling my antidepressants. NOT A GOOD IDEA! In the end we got them refilled, but it took a lot longer than I thought it would!

After picking Katie up from Grandma's house, we headed out to Rhonda's. We hung out and chatted, and thoroughly enjoyed the party! I am SO happy to see her married to such a great man. They seem to really love one another, and that makes my heart smile!

Since we wanted to get on out to Bart and Melody's house in Kansas, we went to Tulsa after the party. We found an amazing Groupon for the Hyatt Regency, so we snatched it up! After we got there I was surprised by the clientele at the hotel. The entryway was lined with kids (ages 15-21) dressed like thugs and prostitutes. They were mostly polite, but having to run the gauntlet to get to the front desk was a little unnerving. Fortunately, the room was pretty clean and we all slept OK.

Today's mileage : 135 miles
Total trip mileage: 368 miles

2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 1

2011-05-27T21:44:00.005-05:00

Almost to Grandma Smith's house!

Katie was supposed to go to school today, but had a doctor's appointment in Little Rock, so she missed. The doctor cancelled at the last minute, so that meant that we were free to begin our trip! We headed to Springdale to see Grandma and Grandpa Smith, my friend, Amy, and most importantly to go to Rhonda's wedding reception. David had flown in Thursday night to attend Katie's doctor's appointment, so he rode along with us.

We had a great visit with the Smiths, and Katie, of course, spent the night with them. David and I headed to our hotel, the Homewood Suites, in Fayetteville, AR. We grabbed a rotisserie chicken and some veggies and settled in for dinner with Reese and Jack. That was about it! We had to gear up for Day 2, which promised to be busy!

Katie is almost as tall as Grandpa!!!

Awwww... We love them!

Mileage: 233 miles

We're about to float away!

2011-05-02T17:28:00.003-05:00

Here comes the rain again... Is it ever going to end? We have widespread flooding I several parts of Arkansas and it seems there is no end in sight!

2010 Cooan Family Holiday Catalog

2010-12-10T19:30:00.003-06:00

Our Christmas letter:

Merry Christmas!

The 2010 Cooan Holiday Gift Catalog

Thank you for requesting this year’s Cooan Holiday Gift Catalog. Even though the economy is said to be declining, we have added to the product line in our catalog this year. Along with our regular best-selling items, please take note of the Jumping Jackaroo listed below. He is a wonderful addition to our lineup, and a definite favorite with the kids!

As always, remember to order by December 24, 2010, to ensure an on-time Christmas arrival!

Jumping Jackaroo - 4 Month Old Version: This little guy was in a big hurry to get to our warehouse and arrived a full month before schedule, on August 23rd! We should have had to pay extra shipping charges because he weighed so much! Over eight pounds! After a week of repairs due to breathing problems he was released for distribution and ready to go! He is currently approaching double his original weight and is a very well behaved addition to our lineup. We are still working out the kinks in his sleep mode, but hope to have him sleeping all night soon. Our Jackaroo comes with a full diaper bag, lots of smiles and a very tired mommy. He is sure to bring happiness to whomever he sees!

Rowdy Rambunctious Reese - 4.5 Year Old Version: She’s wild, she’s loud, but she’s also really cute! This year’s version of the Triple R comes with a pre-packed suitcase that’s always ready to go to Nana’s house and a wide toothed comb for getting the tangles out of “that beautiful hair”. Reese has a full repertoire of words and sentences, but two out of three times she will say, “Right? Right? Right?” She will continue to repeat herself until you answer her. Every. Single. Time… Optional accessory kit includes a Wii remote for hours of gaming fun and a nice, comfy carseat for those long road trips. She is a great little traveler, and loves to stay in hotels, A.K.A. “Daddy’s house”.

Kitschy Krazy Katie - 10 Year Old Version: There’s always something going on with this active little figure! Since her gymnastics obsession is so “last year”, this year’s model of K-K-Katie will come with new running shoes and a stop watch. She is the perfect companion for your next 5K run, and will keep you on track with your exercise program! Katie also enjoys taking care of Jumping Jackaroo. Just turn her loose, she is such a great little mama! This version comes with mostly A’s in the 4th grade, but struggles a little bit with social studies. She reads very well, and especially enjoys the Harry Potter books. This year’s package includes a totally funky wardrobe and a few questionable fashion choices.

Mama Shannon Traveling Machine: Whether you want a short weekend trip or a three month long getaway, Mama Shannon is the gadget for you! She comes pre-loaded with lots of information about a 50+ day long summer road trip that included visits to 17 of the United States and 2 Canadian provinces. All legs of the trip were driven with both Katie and Reese in the car, and while very pregnant! She especially loves seeing brand new places, and is already starting to download tons of information for Super Road Trip 2011. Mama Shannon is also training to run a 5K in March 2011 along with her sister, Alyssa, and Katie. We still have not been able to repair the housekeeping feature on this model, and believe that constant interaction with Jackaroo may be affecting her greatly. The house is still mostly unkempt and the laundry remains constantly piled up, but the baby is happy! Find out more about what she does at her blog, www.magazineprincess.blogspot.com, and make sure to leave a comment or two so she’ll know you’ve been there!

Daddy David United States Atlas: If you would like to have a better knowledge of airports, rental cars and hotels, look no further! The Daddy David United States Atlas will be your most handy tool! Our atlas has all kinds of knowledge about several areas of the US, particularly upstate New York. He can also navigate the Atlanta, Detroit, Albany or Little Rock airports with his eyes closed. We will be expanding our DDUSA to include Erie, Pennsylvania, sometime in early 2011, and who knows where else he may go! You can always count on DDUSA for trustworthy information about airport security, hotel breakfasts and long nights working on the computer. His work ethic is impeccable, and he is a truly hardworking man. He is newly versed in Skype, and manages to talk to Katie, Reese, Jack and Shannon several times per week via video. It’s so nice to actually see his face, and not just hear his voice.

Contact Information: Orders may be sent by snail mail, email or phone. If you are ever nearby, be sure to visit our outlet store!

Who's been where?

2010-12-10T00:59:00.000-06:00

I love this website! You just enter the states you've visited and it will generate a map showing where you have been. Check it out!

Shannon has visited 33 states (66%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

Katie has visited 24 states (48%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

Reese has visited 23 states (46%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

WOOOO PIG SOOIEEE!

2010-09-10T15:00:00.000-05:00

Jack's first week at home

2010-09-08T14:58:00.000-05:00

This week was just a blur for me, but I have some pictures of Jack to remember it by!

Queenie and Poppa come to visit!

2010-09-05T15:26:00.001-05:00

It didn't take long for the baby bug to bite Queenie and Poppa. They came up to spend an afternoon visiting, and of course, to see Jack.

The girls were (understandably) a little jealous, but were, for the most part, willing to let their little brother soak up most of the attention.

Mama's other babies

2010-09-01T15:37:00.000-05:00

Lest you think I have forgotten that I have two beautiful girls in the midst of all this baby boy talk, I wanted to post a couple of pictures of them, too.

Reese is just as silly and loving as ever. She thinks her little brother hung the moon, but gets bored with him pretty quickly!

Katie is TOTALLY excited to have a baby brother. She is very possessive of him, and is truly a little mama! I am so proud of her and how well she takes care of him for me when I need a break!

Jack's Welcome Wreath

2010-09-01T15:34:00.000-05:00

I worked long and hard to come up with a classy idea for Jack's hospital/front door wreath. I wanted something very boyish, but couldn't find a baby blue feather or maribou boa to save my life! I settled on making his wreath with white maribou, and using the sash from the bridesmaid's dress I wore in Alyssa's wedding. I thought it turned out pretty good! What do you think? I welcome your comments! The good, the bad and the ugly! But hopefully mostly good!

All my guys are sleepy!

2010-08-28T23:49:00.001-05:00

We went out to Nana and Papaw's house after we left the hospital. I caught a picture of all the guys snoozing! How typical is that?!?

We're going home!

2010-08-28T23:49:00.000-05:00

After almost a full week in the hospital it is finally time to go home. Jack is no longer jaundiced, and his IV has been taken out. He's nursing, but seems to be losing weight at a slightly alarming pace. We have plans to go see the lactation consultant at White County Hospital tomorrow, so that will help a lot, I'm sure. She's AWESOME!

My sweet little man!

2010-08-27T14:39:00.000-05:00

We are still in the hospital, but every day is getting better. I am so ready to get this little guy home!

Ear tags and IVs

2010-08-26T13:32:00.001-05:00

Ear tags or preauricular tags are one of many usually small congenital defects that might be seen on an infant or slightly older child. The tag is usually a small flap made primarily of skin that is slightly in front of the ear. Some babies have only one and this finding is not significant of anything necessarily. Other infants may have several ear tags and these could be associated with certain defects of which skin tags are a symptom or with conditions that cause unusual development of skin tags. Many times an ear tag is singular and will signify very little in an infant or child’s life. However, due to the potential that the tag might mean something else, including possible risk to hearing, the presence of one should be brought to the attention of a child’s doctor. Since the ear tags are skin colored they may not always be noticed at first.

Jack has a rather large ear tag on his left ear, and a small "bump" on his right ear. The doctor tells us that he will have to have surgery later in the year to remove the tags, but it is a relatively simple procedure, and fortunately, these tags don't affect his hearing at all. They ARE funny looking, but at least they're fixable!

Jack has also been "grunting" a lot, which means he may have a respiratory infection. The doctors have decided that prophylactic antibiotics are our best course of action. In order to administer the antibiotics, Jack has to have an IV. It's so pitiful looking! We went through the same exact thing when Katie was born. He was also jaundiced, so he had to wear little pads on the sides of his head to attach his eye shields. He looked so funny! I was upset that he was sick, but I felt like we were being taken care of, at least.

My sweet little man with his arm all bound up with his IV.

He had oval shaped white velcro patches on the sides of his head.

He wrapped his toes up in the cords that were attached to him.

Jack's Second Day

2010-08-25T11:31:00.000-05:00

Photos of Jack Archer

2010-08-25T11:02:00.002-05:00

Mr. Jack Archer Harpole Cooan - Freshly hatched!

Muscle Man!!!

He was a big boy to be a full month early!

Katie was such a proud big sister!

Reese was all smiles, too!

Katie was shielding his eyes from the bright lights.

Gross, yes, but he had a HUGE placenta!!! They are usually about a pound, not more than two pounds!

All cleaned up now...

I FINALLY got to hold him after everyone else had see him!

Me and my kids!

GranMary got to be there for Jack's birth, too. It was so cool!

Aunt Alyssa was there, too. She's smitten, can you tell?

Katie was in love from the very first second!

Reese thought he was pretty cool, too.

I love my little monkey man!

Jack has arrived!!!

2010-08-24T11:59:00.006-05:00

Well, today started out pretty normal. I had a doctor's appointment at 9am, and my good friend, Ellie, agreed to take me down to Little Rock so that Mary would be here to pick up Katie from school. We quickly got in to see Dr. M., and found that I was 90-100% effaced, 4cm dilated. He also told me that I could lighten up on the bed rest since I had reached the 36 week mark. Yay! I was so excited to be out of bed! The doc told me that the baby could come anytime, and that he was honestly surprised that I was still pregnant! He told me to call David and tell him that it was time for him to come home if he wanted to be here for the birth of the baby because Jack could make his appearance at any time! Well, this is how the REST of the day went:

Ellie and I went to Target right after the doctor's appointment. Other than the fact that I felt like the baby was about to fall out, I felt great! I was so excited to be off bed rest that I had to do something! We walked around for a while just shopping and chatting. I bought tons of snacks for the hospital. I think I got Peanut M&M's, Cheese Puff Balls, Skittles, you name it! I noticed a little bleeding when we were shopping and we decided that we'd better go sit down. I figured it was just from the doctor checking me, but decided to have a little rest, anyway.

What better place to rest than at Barnes and Noble? We went and looked at cupcake books and had a cup of hot chocolate. It was so nice to just be out of the house and visiting with Ellie! After just a bit the bleeding stopped, so we thought we were safe. It was lunch time, so we headed on down to Olive Garden, our typical cheap lunch hangout.

We were seated at Olive Garden rather quickly (maybe it was the 8 month pregnant woman waddling in or something) and got right down to the business of lunch. The soup, salad and bread sticks really hit the spot! I was so glad to just be out of my house! We had a great lunch and lots of great conversation. After lunch I hit the bathroom one more time (this would make bathroom trip # 23,308 of the day) and noticed I was bleeding again. I decided that I wanted to just swing by the hospital and make sure that driving an hour back to Searcy wasn't a mistake.

When we got to the hospital it was about 1:45pm. One of my old friends, Becky Wright, was my nurse. Things were starting off good! She had me get into a gown and hooked me up to a monitor so we could see if I was contracting at all. I was not in pain, but apparently we were having some good contractions! Dr. M. was in the hospital, so he was in my room within 5 minutes to check me out. He just grinned and said, "We're having a baby today! You're 7-8 centimeters dilated!" I was shocked! I couldn't believe I'd progressed that much since 10am without any pain! He then asked what we'd been doing, so I told him about Target, the bookstore and Olive Garden. His only comment was, "I know a lot of women who wish they could stand to be shopping at 7cm dilated! You weren't hurting?" We had a good laugh over it and got down to the business of preparing to have a baby!!!

I got on the phone and called David, Mom and Mary. Ellie called Rhonda and Karen for me to let them know what was happening. I am sure we called other people, too, but I don't remember! It wasn't long before the hospital room was filled with people and the hustle bustle began. I plugged in my headphones and turned on my Hypnobabies birthing tracks. I was so relaxed and the pain was less than that of menstrual cramps. What a treat! My mom and I were joking about the woman in the room next door. She was screaming her head off. My nurse actually had to leave to go help restrain her! We felt bad later when we found out that she had been suffering seizures and had to be put into a medically induced coma to save herself and have her baby. They almost died! It was awful, and I spent the rest of the day saying little prayers for that woman and her child. They ended up being fine, thank goodness!

It wasn't long before an anesthesiologist came in to do my epidural. I originally planned to not have one, but I chickened out. I had him put the port in, but not inject the drug. I wanted to go natural, but wanted a backup plan just in case! After we got the port in I just sat back, visited with everyone and talked to David on the phone. Even without medicine I still wasn't in pain. When the doctor next checked me I was 9cm! I was on the phone with David and when I told him that he didn't believe me! Dr. M. told me I was very good at "masking" my pain.

My room was so full of people, but it was so cool! My friend, Ellie, was there, along with my sister, Alyssa. My mother-in-law, Mary, brought both of my girls (ages 9 and 4), and, of course, Dr. M. was in and out. I lost my nurse to the screaming mom next door, but having my family and friends there was so much better! When my water broke they helped me stand up so we could clean up the bed. When it was time to push they were silently supportive. Katie was so awesome. She stayed right up by my head and talked to me until time to cut Jack's cord. She was the one who took care of that!

I was a little upset with how my actual birthing went. I felt like the doc was in much more of a hurry than me. He administered Pitocin, and I still don't know why. I am not very good about speaking up for myself. Oh, how I wish David had been there to do that! I didn't need to speed things up!!! Jack was sunny side up, so he had to be turned in the womb. My doc actually reached in and turned the baby. Let me tell you, THAT HURT! I was able to use my Hypnobabies to stay calm, and honestly, in hindsight, it wasn't too bad,

To cut things short, Jack Archer Harpole Cooan was born at 5:47pm on August 23, 2010. He was 8 pounds, 1 oz and 20 3/4 inches long. I was so excited that he was born on my cousin's birthday! Raleigh Jo, I hope he is just half as cute and sweet and sassy as you!!!

Jack was grunting when we was born, and ended up being on antibiotics for a week after birth. We spend the whole first week of his life in the hospital, but thankfully he didn't need the NICU. David arrived around midnight the night he was born. There is just no way to get from Albany, New York, to Little Rock, Arkansas, quickly.

In hindsight, there were a lot of things I would have changed about Jack's birth, but one of my favorite things was being surrounded by women who loved me during his birthing time. I had my mom, my sister, my friend, my daughters and my mother-in-law. They were all vitally important to my well being and my relaxation through some of the more scary parts of labor and delivery. Thanks ladies!!!

My next post will have pictures! Make sure to check it out!

Rough weekend...

2010-08-22T12:05:00.002-05:00

Well, Jack and I had a really rough weekend. The contractions hit really hard Friday night. I truly thought I was going to have a baby! I am totally exhausted today. I guess my body worked all night last night trying to get that baby out of there! I listened to my Hypnobabies tracks all night, and even though they helped, it was a crazy night!

David is planning to go back to work today. I just hate it. I KNOW that this baby is coming, but I've been saying that for a month, so he just doesn't believe me anymore... I hope he won't regret it!

36 weeks! Yay!

2010-08-20T11:56:00.000-05:00

I'm still pregnant!

Jack and I made it to 36 weeks! Yay! I would do the happy dance, but if I jump around too much he might just fall out! Dr. Marks tells me that I now have a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card, and that I can stop the nasty Brethine, but David and I have decided that I should continue the Brethine for one more week. We would REALLY like for little man to make it to September 1st!

Today is my cousin Lance's birthday. Even though it would be really cool to have Jack share a birthday with such a neat person, I think I'll try to wait it out!

On another note, I just want to send a HUGE thank you out to my mother in law, Mary. It has been SO nice to have her here to help out with the house and the kids. I don't know what I would do without her!

4th Grade OPEN HOUSE!

2010-08-17T11:52:00.000-05:00

I felt pretty good about the doctor's visit yesterday, so I decided to perform a jailbreak and go to Katie's open house at school last night. I just couldn't stand to not get to meet her teacher! After meeting her, I am sure that Katie is going to love Mrs. Burnet! She is young, but after having Ms. Bruxvoort last year, who was also very young, I am encouraged. Ms. Bruxvoort was an awesome teacher, and I am confident that Mrs. Burnet will be good for Katie, too. I honestly cannot believe that my oldest BABY is in fourth grade this year! How did she get so grown up?

2010-08-14T11:11:00.004-05:00

I got to watch the Perseid shower with Raleigh Jo and Katie last night. Reese refused to stay outside in the dark, but the rest of us enjoyed the show! It was really beautiful! We saw tons of meteors, even a couple of really big ones! I even obeyed my bed rest restrictions... I was flat on my back on a blanket in the back yard.

2010-08-02T22:44:00.000-05:00

Well, we went to the doctor today. I am now 80% effaced, but still only 1cm dilated! Dr. Marks keeps telling me he's surprised that I've made it this far. As of Friday I will be 34 weeks along! I am determined... I really want a September baby! It would complete our "family calendar" to have a baby born in September! Check this out:

January - Jason's birthday (my brother)
February - Mom's birthday
March - MY birthday!
April - Caleb's birthday (nephew #1)
May - Nathan's birthday (nephew #2)
June - Reese's birthday
July - David's birthday
August - Chris's birthday (my sister's husband)
September - No family birthdays here yet!!!!!
October - Katie's birthday, Alyssa's birthday (my sister)
November - Daddy's birthday, Allison's birthday (my brother's wife)
December - CHRISTMAS!

I guess technically we need a September and a December baby, but I count Jesus's birthday as one of our family birthdays, too!

I really want to fill up our calendar, so baby Jack, please stay in there until September 1st!

2010-07-26T09:47:00.002-05:00

You know, sometimes God works in totally obvious ways... David had a 6:15am flight booked to Albany, New York today. He accidentally set his alarm for 3:30PM, instead of 3:30AM, so he overslept and missed that flight. The 9:36AM flight was oversold, and 10:55AM flight was delayed and had a 5 hour layover in Atlanta. I told him God just thought he should go to my doctor's appointment with me at 1PM!

The doctor's news at our appointment was really no surprise. I am still dilated 1cm, but I am now 70% effaced. Dr. Marks was glad I hadn't dilated more, but was concerned about effacement. Right now he wants me to continue the Brethine and the bed rest. He hopes we'll make it to 34 weeks (August 6), but I am still shooting for September 1st! As much as I love my brother-in-law, Chris, I don't want the baby to come on his birthday (August 5). Little Jack needs to cook a little longer!

2010-07-25T21:35:00.002-05:00

I think I must be a control freak. David is trying so hard to be helpful by packing a hospital bag for me, but it's driving me crazy! He and I are polar opposites when it comes to, well, pretty much everything! I have a certain way that I pack my bags, clean the house, clothe the kids... He has a certain way that he does things, too, but they're just different than my ways. Why can't I just let it go?

David is leaving to go back to work in Albany before the sun comes up tomorrow. I have a doctor's appointment at 1pm tomorrow, and I secretly wish he could just blow off work and come with me. I know that's not an option, but I'm a little scared of what the doctor is going to say. What if I have to be admitted to the hospital to control these contractions? I would love to think that nothing has happened since my doctor's visit last Thursday, but I'm not really optimistic. I've had a LOT of contractions since then!

On a positive note, my friend Rhonda came to see me yesterday. It was so nice to see a new face! I can tell already that this bed rest thing is for the birds! One thing that has helped has been listening to my Hypnobabies scripts. I hope I have time to finish the course before I go into active labor! I am on week one right now, but I did manage to find an accelerated schedule for women who order the course too late to do the whole schedule. I think I'll try that. So far I have loved listening to the scripts! They are so relaxing that I just cannot stay awake! The website says that they work even if you're sleeping. Let's hope so!

2010-07-22T14:23:00.001-05:00

I went back to the doctor today, but the news was not good! I was still dilated 1 cm, but I had effaced another 20%, up to 60% effaced. Dr. Marks put me on total bed rest, which pretty much only allows trips to the bathroom. Ugh! I have to say, though, that my husband, Mr. Organized, has it all worked out. He has drawn up a schedule to arrange for someone to be with me 24/7. On the days that my mom is working, my 16 year old cousin, Raleigh Jo, will be staying here to help take care of the girls. I think that's going to be a lot of fun. I love that girl, and my kids do, too! On the other hand, I an not at all happy about being confined to the bed. I am a mover and a shaker, and I don't know what I am going to do with myself! Oh well, the goal is to stay pregnant until at least September 1st. My due date is September 17th, but both of my girls came 17 days early. Maybe my little man will, too!

Holy PRETERM LABOR Batman!!!

2010-07-19T23:11:00.003-05:00

Well, we made it home last night after a very long trip, and went to see Dr. Marks early this morning. I contracted through the night, so when he came in to talk to me I asked him to check me and let me know that the baby was OK. I was NOT prepared for the news he gave me! I was dilated 1cm, 40% effaced. Gotta stay off my feet and take Breathine 4-8x per day to stop contractions. I'm only 31 weeks!!! Eeeeekkk! Stay in baby boy! Stay in!!!!!

I thought after talking with the doc we'd go straight home, but today is David's birthday, too. We went to a movie and then to Doe's for steaks. By the time we got home I was exhausted. I know it wasn't an ideal birthday for David. I hate that...

I started the Brethine while we were in Little Rock, but the full effect of it didn't hit me until tonight. I literally feel like bugs are crawling all over me! It is INSANE! It is crazy to think I have nine more weeks of this...

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 50, 51, 52

2010-07-18T18:01:00.002-05:00

We spent our last day in New Orleans just being lazy. After we got up we headed to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to go see Queenie and Papa. David was supposed to fly into New Orleans and drive up with us, but work obligations kept him in New York. We were really excited to visit with my godmother (Queenie), and Nana came down to meet us at her house! The girls, especially Reese, were SOOOO excited! She actually stayed at Queenie's house with Nana both Friday and Saturday nights instead of staying at the hotel with us.

David arrived Saturday afternoon at the HUGE Hattiesburg-Laurel Regional Airport. Hahaha! I've never seen an airport so small! His flight was crazy! He had two connections, and got delayed in Atlanta. It turned out that he had to spend the night in Memphis. What a pain!

We visited with Queenie all weekend, and the guys (David, Norton and Luke) went to the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum at Camp Shelby. While the guys were gone we just sat around in Queenie's living room and chatted. Reese was playing and took a flying leap onto my big, pregnant tummy. OUCH! I sat there and contracted all day after that. We decided to go on home Sunday instead of Monday so I could see the doctor. I felt awful the whole way home. It was bad enough that I actually let David drive!

Our Road Trip MAP!

2010-07-18T09:33:00.002-05:00

more...

This map isn't 100% accurate since it measures "as the crow flies" instead of going by the roads, but as you can see, we covered a good part of the Eastern and Southern US this summer!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Days 46, 47, 48, 49

2010-07-15T16:33:00.005-05:00

We went all over New Orleans in these four days! I had a ball running around with my buddy, Ellie, her daughter, Hannah, and her niece, Carissa. It was an awesome trip!

We met up Monday afternoon and went to check into our hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn New Orleans/French Quarter. It was a really nice place! We got a room with a king sized bed and a sleeper sofa. I mistakenly assumed that the sleeper sofa would be a queen, but I was wrong! It was a twin! Thank goodness the teenage girls were willing to be flexible! My girls just slept on the couch cushions on the floor and were happy with that.

We saw so many cool things in New Orleans while we were there. We strolled all over the downtown area and checked out the kitchy gift shops. Reese was particularily fascinated with an apron that had boobs on it. She thought it was SO cool, and cracked us up playing with it! Check out this video:

We also went to the New Orleans City Park. Honestly, I was amazed! It was 104 degrees the day we decided to go, so that kind of took away from the experience, but I would love to go back! It was a beautiful place! Serena and the kids came down and joined us on our adventure. We rode the streetcar from downtown out to the park, which was about a 30 minute ride. The kids liked that a lot. We walked up to the New Orleans Museum of Art hoping to find a bathroom and a little air conditioning in addition to a little culture, but it was closed. We were so disappointed! We were also interested in Story Land, but decided against that, too. We did go to one of the playgrounds and let the kids run wild, and also to the cafe to get ice cream. We had a very good time! Here are some of the pictures we took on our adventure:

Reese found a rock with the number four on it and claimed it as "hers" since she was four years old.

We also spent some time in the French Quarter. We visited the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum. I was a tad disappointed with that one, but we also went to Cafe Du Monde for beignets. Yummy!

We saw some WAY cool street performers at Jackson Square. The kids loved the "Silver Man", and the Transformers were awesome! Reese just had to touch the Silver Man to see if he was real (he wasn't).

We walked by the Lalaurie Mansion to see if we could spot any ghosts, and took tons of pictures to see if any orbs showed up, but nothing extraordinary happened. Dangit!

Visiting New Orleans with the Lamb family was an awesome trip. I would love to do it again sometime!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 45

2010-07-11T23:58:00.003-05:00

Sunday morning we all got up and got ready to go to the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans, Louisiana. The kids were excited to see all of the amazing things in the water. Our friends, the Lambs, met us there to join in the fun. They got to pet stingrays, and surprisingly, even Reese, who is generally very cautious, joined in the fun!

The kids played on every toy and looked at almost every exhibit. It was really a great day!

After seeing the aquarium we went out and looked at the Mississippi River. These were some of my favorite pictures of David and Reese. Wish his eyes were open in the closeup!

We had to get David to the airport by 4pm, then the girls and I went back up to Mikel & Serena's house for one more night. We were driving through a blinding rainstorm when David called me. His flight was cancelled... We were almost back to Hammond, an hour away from the airport. He ended up just getting a hotel room in New Orleans so that he could leave first thing in the morning. I hated that we weren't with him, but I REALLY didn't want to drive back down there again, only to get up at 4am to get him to the airport!

We're all excited about tomorrow. We are headed to downtown New Orleans for a few days in a hotel with the Lamb family! I can't wait!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 43 & 44

2010-07-09T19:49:00.007-05:00

We left Meridian for New Orleans early this afternoon. We had a bit of a humorous start to the day, though. When I went out to start loading up the car I realized that Katie had stuck her bubble game all over the back passenger door of my car. This, coupled with the 100 degree plus temperatures made quite a mess. I told her to go out and clean it up, only to be met with a screaming, crying fit. Since she was not willing to be reasonable, I took off my flip-flop and promptly swatted her butt a couple of times. She screamed like I'd killed her. I looked up and my cousin, Chris, was running up the driveway. Apparently he'd heard all of Katie's screaming and thought we'd run over her with the car or something. Scared him half to death! When he figured out what had happened he just told her that she'd better listen to her mama!

After the drama of the gum encrusted door, the day was pretty smooth. We went to New Orleans to pick David up at the airport. After we got him, we headed to Hammond to see our friends Mikel and Serena M. They used to live in Searcy, but moved down to Hammond in February of this year. We have missed them terribly, and were excited to see them!

When we got to their house the kids were SO excited! We used to play with A & A, their kids, all the time. They immediately went outside to play on the cars.

Saturday we decided to take the M family to meet our friends, John and Wendra. John's family has a farm about twenty minutes north of Hammond, and they were planning to cook a big lunch and just hang out that afternoon. We loaded up all the kids and went up there to see them. It was such an awesome, laid back day! We all ate really good, and got to see Wendra and John's daughter, Willa, and John's parents, too. We let the kids play outside in the rain, and Wendra took them and let them pick blueberries. They just loved that!

After spending the whole day out at the farm, we headed back to Hammond. We went out to dinner that night at Don's Seafood. Yummy! I had the crabmeat au gratin. It's my favorite, and one of the few things I miss about living in Louisiana!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Days 40, 41, 42

2010-07-06T19:49:00.003-05:00

We headed down to Mississippi today! My aunt Janice was waiting for us to come see her in Meridian, Mississippi. When we got there around 6pm several of my cousins were either there or on their way to come see us. My Aunt Janice and Uncle John have seven children, so I have lots of cousins from their family! It was so good to sit around and share a meal with so much family! I hadn't seen so many of them in such a long time!

We did lots of cool stuff while we were in Mississippi. Aunt Janice and I took the kids to Red Lobster for lunch, then we met her daughter, Sheri, at the movie theater and took the kids to see Toy Story 3. It was a great movie! The end of it was pretty sad, and I actually teared up a little, but we loved it! After the movie we found a geocache in the Bonita Lakes Mall parking lot, then went over to Sam's Club to pick up dinner and look for another geocache. We never found that one! It was hidden well! We also went bowling. Aunt Janice bowls on a league a couple of times a week, so we joined her at the bowling alley and played a few games ourselves. It was fun!

The kids had a great time telling ghost stories with Aunt Janice and playing with Uncle John. We got to go to our cousin, Glenn's, house and swim in his pool. The girls TOTALLY loved that!

Our time with family was far too short, but New Orleans was calling our names!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 39

2010-07-05T19:44:00.000-05:00

Today is my mom and daddy's 41st wedding anniversary! Happy Anniversary you guys!

We slept in today and then headed down toward the Atlanta airport so that David could prepare for going back to work tomorrow. Since we were headed south, we decided to stop and visit with David's brother, Barry, and his wife, Deborah. We stopped along the way and picked up a couple of watermelons, then we went to visit! We had a good time talking with them, and got to see Deborah's mom, Joanne, and Deborah's son, Holden. It was so nice to visit, but we did head out for the airport after a short while.

We stayed at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel Atlanta Airport. It was a nice hotel, and they treated us great! David had to get up early to catch his flight, so we went down for bed pretty early.

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 38

2010-07-04T23:30:00.006-05:00

It's Independence Day! Yay! We discussed driving out to the lake to see some fireworks, but in the end decided to make our own good time at home. The girls wanted to go to a waterpark, but we decided to stay at Billy's house and have a water park "redneck style". It turned out to be a ton of fun! The guys took two big tarps and put them on the ground on a hill in Billy's front yard. They then covered the tarps with dishwashing liquid and water and let the girls GO! There are no words needed... Just look at the pics!

Of course, it's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt! I heard Billy say, "Mom, you need to come see this!". Well, when I saw what he was talking about I knew we'd be spending the rest of the afternoon in the emergency room. Katie slipped on Billy's front porch and loaded her foot up with splinters. I pulled out one that was over two inches long, but knew there was no way I'd ever get the rest out. We ended up at Northside Hospital and had the best and most efficient emergency room treatment we'd ever seen. The doctor numbed Katie's foot and then pulled over 25 splinters out. It was CRAZY! He had a white piece of gauze that he was putting the splinters on as he pulled them out. It was almost black with wood! Katie cried a little when they gave her the shots (there were several), but was a champ while he was working on her.

Needless to say, the rest of the night was pretty low key. Katie's foot had a hundred holes in it, and she complained a little about it hurting, but she was fine. We did shoot off some more fireworks before bed.

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 37

2010-07-03T23:01:00.004-05:00

Saturday morning we got up and got around so that we could go to the mall and do some shopping. We didn't really need anything, but we did want to see our niece, Alex! She was in Georgia, down from Wisconsin, to visit her grandmother, and had plans to hook up with her dad (Billy) that afternoon. Billy left before us so he could go pick her up, then we met them at the mall. The girls rode the carousel in the food court. It was a beautiful carousel, but my pictures were SO blurry!

After just a little shopping we were all starving, so we went to Fuddrucker's for lunch. Burgers aren't really my thing, but everyone else seemed to enjoy them. After lunch Alex had to get back home, so they took off. David, the kids and I went across to Motherhood Maternity to buy a brace for my back. Jack has been giving me terrible backaches, so we thought some extra support might help.

After our shopping trip we stopped at a fireworks stand and got a few things, then went for ice cream. It was WONDERFUL! It was really hot outside, and the ice cream really hit the spot! By the time we got home, both Billy and Michael were there.

Dinner that night was food fixed on the grill by David, our resident chef. He cooked some wonderful pork chops! Dinner was laid back and fabulous.

China bit Reese one more time, and after that Michael chased her out of the house. THANK YOU! Finally someone who isn't totally enamoured by the dang dog!

We played with some sparklers in the front yard for a while, then headed back in to settle down.

We also figured out that Reese LOVED Uncle Billy's shaved head. She just kept rubbing it and rubbing it. It was too funny!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 36

2010-07-02T22:25:00.005-05:00

Even though we stayed up far too late last night, Michael still had to go to work Friday morning. We didn't get up nearly as early as him, but we did have to get up and get around so we could pick David up at the airport.

After getting David in the car we headed out for Atlanta. David's brother, Billy, lives in Suwanee, Georgia, and we had plans to spend the Independence Day weekend with him. Michael was supposed to join us at Billy's house, too, but he couldn't leave for Georgia until after work.

We stopped just past the Georgia state line at a rest area to once again search for a geocache. We had a good idea of where the cache was hidden, but had a hard time catching the area free of "muggles". Here is the definition of a muggle in geocaching terms:

Muggle:
A non-geocacher. Based on "Muggle" from the Harry Potter series, which is a non-magical person. Usually this term is used after a non geocacher looks puzzled after befriending a geocacher searching for a cache, or when a non-geocacher accidentally finds a cache. Geomuggles are mostly harmless.

When we finally got a space between muggles Katie went in for the find! Warning: Spoiler pictures ahead!

Katie also saw a beautiful purple and blue butterfly at the rest area. She couldn't get it to land on her arm, but had a good time looking at it.

After a nice little break at the rest area we headed on to Billy's house. Since we were going to beat him home from work, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some stuff for dinner. I was pleased to see special parking just for me!

We had to look around a little bit to find Billy's house. Apparently the last time David was in the area there wasn't a huge subdivision between the main highway and Billy's house. We actually met his brother at the entrance to the subdivision and followed him in. Other than Billy's dog, China, biting Reese a couple of times the night was pretty quiet. Believe me, I was ready to KILL a dog by the end of the night. It really ticked me off that she kept snapping at Reese every time she moved or got loud, but no one besides me seemed to think it was innappropriate. Apparently dogs hold high esteem in the Cooan family...

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 35

2010-07-01T21:59:00.004-05:00

We headed out this morning for the first day of our trip through the South. Our first night, tonight, will be spent with David's brother, Michael. One thing we noticed when we were crossing the I-55 bridge into Memphis is that they moved the Tennessee state line sign! It used to be on the bridge hanging about halfway across the Mississippi River. The Arkansas sign is still on the bridge, but the Tennessee sign is on land on the Memphis side of the bridge, right before the exit for downtown Memphis.

We stopped in Tupelo, Mississippi, hoping to find an easy geocache. Alas, we didn't find a cache, but we did get to see the pretty little main drag in Tupelo. We didn't try to fit in a trip to Elvis' boyhood home or anything like that, but I would like to go back someday and explore the town a little more someday.

After leaving Tupelo, we headed on into Alabama. We saw a sign for "Reese Road", which was pretty cool. Reese loved seeing her name on an overpass. At least it wasn't her name written in spray paint with her phone number alongside! Haha!

We arrived at Uncle Mike's house around 5pm. He was home from work and the kids were super excited to see him. As loud as they were all playing I'm surprised we didn't get noise complaints from his neighbors! We settled in for a pizza dinner and just hung out all night. It was nice!

We get to head into Atlanta after picking David up at the airport tomorrow. Should be fun!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34

2010-06-30T21:00:00.001-05:00

Home sweet home! We're here for a week to catch up on laundry and go to my OB appointment to check on baby Jack. I am now 29 weeks along! After that we'll be off to tour several of the Southern states!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 28

2010-06-24T17:58:00.004-05:00

We headed into the home stretch today, but not before seeing some pretty cool things along the way! Before we left Effingham we stopped to drop off a travel bug in a local geocache and picked up a new one to move on it's way. We also found a little matchbox car van with "Stinky's Diaper Service" written on the side. We traded for it, since Reese's nickname is Stinky. I thought it was cute!

We also stopped at the The Cross in Effingham, Illinois. This is what Roadside America has to say about the cross:

" 'Cross at the Crossroads' was built for broadly noble religious reasons -- and to out-size every other big cross out there, especially the giant cross in Groom, Texas, which was both its inspiration and its toughest competition.

198 feet tall and 113 feet wide, forged out of over 180 tons of steel anchored in untold fathoms of cement, the cross can withstand winds hurled by evilest of forces at up to 145 mph. Its stark, slab-sided design conveys the corporate utility of a logo -- no distracting crucifixion blandishments, just the plainest symbol of Christianity."

We took several photos of the kids at the cross. It was amazing just how big that thing was!

After leaving the Cross, we hit the road in earnest on our way home. After crossing the Missouri state line we started to get HUNGRY!

We stopped for dinner at Lambert's Cafe, The Only Home of Throwed Rolls, in Sikeston, Missouri. Lambert's Cafe is such a fun place to eat. The atmosphere is all about fun. There are license plates, pictures, and business cards attached all over the walls. They are most famously known for their "throwed rolls". The waiters and waitresses will walk up and down the aisles with a cart of rolls that they will throw across the restaurant at you. The food is outstanding. A lot of the food is family style. The wait staff will walk by with tomatoes and macaroni, fried potatoes and fried okra and scoop some on your plates. If you run out of something you ordered whether it be shrimp, pork chops, or something else they will get you more. They are also known for their delicious hubcaps, which are large cinnamon rolls. Dinner was fabulous, and the girls thought it was hilarious to get food thrown at them! We would definitely stop again! There were also several great photo ops out in front of the restaurant. Check out some of these pics:

We started the rest of the trek home after dinner and ran into a little more rain. It was late when we got in, but we were home! It was good to be home to sleep in my own bed for a few nights!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 27

2010-06-23T17:57:00.004-05:00

We started on our way home from Ohio today for a short break from the road. We were all sad to say goodbye to GranMary and Papa Les, but I think we were all itching to get back on the pavement, too! David went back to work in Albany, so it was just us girls on the road this time!

When we hit the Indiana border it was raining like CRAZY! In fact, we saw quite a bit of rain on our travels today.

It's obvious that we are now experienced (and messy!) roadtrippers! Look at my car!!!

It didn't take long for Reese to crash out once we got rolling. She did a lot of playing at GranMary's house, and it wore her out! She fell asleep with her Twinkie in her hand! Haha!

Katie just acted like her goofy, funny self on the trip, of course...

We were all glad to see the Illinois state line. We knew the end of our long day of road tripping was close to an end.

We stayed in Effingham, Illinois, for the night. We were all pretty tired, so Nana decided to spring for dinner in the hotel. It was really good! We had steaks and baked potatoes, and the kids had some macaroni and cheese. It was a pretty quiet night.

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 26

2010-06-22T19:46:00.005-05:00

We spent today just exploring the Sauder Village with GranMary and Nana. Katie went swimming with her cousin, Richelle, so Reese was the only kid who went along. We had a great time looking at all of the old things in the village, but I think our trip to the ice cream shop was the best part! It was so hot outside! Reese really enjoyed riding in the horse drawn buggy and on the train, too.

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 25

2010-06-21T23:36:00.004-05:00

Since Reese wasn't at home for her birthday GranMary threw her an awesome party! All of the cousins who could be there came to celebrate with us. We had cake, an indestructible pinata and lots of fun!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 24

2010-06-20T20:52:00.004-05:00

Today is my baby girl's 4th birthday! I can't believe she's grown up so fast! It never fails that we are vacationing when her birthday rolls around, so this year I decided to do something better than just a cupcake in a hotel room. Last night on our way home from dinner we stopped at Wal-Mart and picked up one of those helium tanks for birthday balloons. I got up earlier than the kids and sat in the hotel room bathroom to blow up the balloons. I was terrified that I would wake them up before I was ready, especially after I popped a few balloons while blowing them up, but thankfully my kids are extra heavy sleepers.

The first thing Reese said when she woke up and saw all of the balloons was, "Mama, can I have a balloon?". When I told her they were all for her because it was her birthday she was so excited! She just kept saying, "Thank you Mama! Thank you for my balloons!". It was so sweet! We also had some Hostess cupcakes, but since we didn't have a lighter or a match to light the birthday candles it was kind of a let down.

Since we had to leave Niagara Falls today, and there was NO way we could get 30 balloons into the car, the girls went down to the hotel lobby and handed the balloons out to everyone they saw. People seemed hesitant to take the balloons at first, but when they realized the kids weren't SELLING them they didn't have any trouble getting rid of them.

Our car was packed to the top for our ride to Ohio. Reese was literally jammed into the third row with all of the luggage and stuff, but she didn't seem to mind.

It seemed to take forever, but we did finally make it to Detroit and the United States border. We were not prepared for the line at the border crossing, but it did move fairly fast.

The view of Detroit from the bridge.

I have never been so glad to see a sign for Ohio!

It took us all day, but we did make it to GranMary's house safe and sound. Now it's time to rest up for Reese's birthday party tomorrow!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 23

2010-06-19T23:13:00.008-05:00

Today was the day we got to see Niagara Falls! Mary purchased a guided trip for our whole family, which was awesome! We rode an air conditioned bus all over the place and saw several of the best attractions without having to worry about tickets, parking or any other decisions. I loved it! The kids were excited to get on the bus and get gone!

Our first stop on the tour was the Skylon Tower. We were able to get some great views of the falls from there!

After leaving the Skylon Tower we headed over to The Journey Behind the Falls exhibit and the Fury of the Falls 3D ride. Reese was not impressed with either one... She was afraid of the noise of the falls, and when the floor started shaking and the water started spraying on the Fury ride she was terrified! If I had known how the ride would be I never would have taken her on it. It was kind of scary! The Journey Behind the Falls was neat to see, but I wasn't all that impressed, either.

The area around these two attractions was very impressive, though. I loved the idea of a 'People Mover' and I got some good pictures of the girls in front of the falls.

Reese kept running around saying "Take my picture with this sign!".

We had lunch at a visitor's center type place and then went to the Floral Clock. The Floral Clock is 40 feet wide, with a planted area 38 feet wide, making it one of the largest such clocks in the world. Each year, the face of the clock is filled with 15,000 to 20,000 carpet plants and colorful annuals, planted in unique, intricate designs. It was pretty and I was glad we got to see it. It's funny, I actually took more pictures at the visitor's center than I did at the clock!

We headed downstream to see the Niagara Whirlpool. Reese was more interested in playing with the chains on the trash cans than she was with looking at the water.

Our last tour attraction of the day was a ride on the Maid of the Mist. It was amazing! The boat actually went right up to the falls. It was hard to see anything because of the water blowing around, but it was powerful, to say the least. We all loved it!

Our tour bus dropped us off back at our hotel around 2pm. We received a free ticket to the Niagara Falls movie at the IMAX theater just down from our hotel. We went to the movie. It was OK, but a little cheesy!

David, Mom and I really wanted to take the girls to the Butterfly Conservatory, so we headed towards Niagara on the Lake. Mary and Les decided to skip that attraction and go have some coffee. We got to the conservatory just as it was about to close. They gave us about twenty minutes to explore, and the girls both loved it.

After the Butterfly Conservatory kicked us out we drove up to Niagara on the Lake to look around. It was a beautiful little place and the lake was amazing! We looked around for something to eat, but couldn't make a decision. We ended up meeting David's parents at Jack Astor's for some bar & grill type food then went to Wal Mart for a birthday surprise for Reese. Her 4th birthday is tomorrow!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 22

2010-06-18T18:36:00.005-05:00

It was our plan to be up, packed and on our way to Niagara Falls by 10am. Unfortunately, that didn't happen! David was supposed to be off work by then so that he could ride to Niagara with us, but those plans fell through. He had a crisis at work that required his attention, so mom, the girls and I were on our own. I was upset at first, but got over it. It's easier to travel without a man in the car, anyway!

We set off before noon and had a pretty good trip. We stopped and found a couple of geocaches along our route and got stuck in a TERRIBLE traffic jam in Buffalo, New York. I got a laugh out of Katie while we were stuck. After letting several cars cut in front of me I sped up a little and closed the gap between me and the car in front of me. Katie looked over to our left and saw an older man in a nice sports car. I didn't see that he wanted to cut in, so I stayed where I was. A minute later Katie said, "Mommy, why is that man waving at you with only one finger?". Apparently I ticked him off! Hahaha!

We got to our hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada and met up with David's parents. We had made plans to meet them in Niagara for a total family weekend. David wasn't due to arrive at the Buffalo, NY, airport until 11pm, so we headed to dinner at the Italian restaurant in our hotel. It was good! I had bacon wrapped scallops. Yummy! After dinner we headed over to the falls to watch the fireworks. They were great! The girls were amazed by both the falls and the fireworks, and I was, too! My pictures are terrible, but you get the idea!

David's plane was supposed to arrive in Buffalo at 11pm. Of course, he was delayed. That seems to be the story of his life! I was all set to go get him at 11pm, but when his delay pushed his arrival time back to 2am I changed my mind. I decided that he could dang well pay for a cab... David's mom had booked a tour for the whole family that was scheduled to leave at 8am. There was no way I was taking my tired, pregnant tail all the way to Buffalo (an hours drive away) to pick him up and then getting up at 6:30am to get everyone ready to take the tour. He ended up arriving at the hotel sometime around 3am. I vaguely remember him coming in the room, but that's about it!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 21

2010-06-17T18:34:00.004-05:00

We did absolutely nothing today! Nothing at all! We stayed in the room at David's hotel in Saratoga Springs and were just lazy. I managed to get a few loads of laundry done, but that's about it! We ordered pizza for supper and had it delivered to the room so that we wouldn't have to go out of the building. It was nice!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 20

2010-06-16T12:36:00.007-05:00

Today was our last day in New York City. We slept in, AGAIN, and missed our fabulous hotel breakfast. None of us really cared. We were worn out! We finally got around, got ready and got our bags packed so that we could store them at the front desk while we explored the city a little bit more.

For breakfast we chose a pub that was next door to our hotel. It was definitely overpriced, but the food was good. Katie ordered sliders (mini hamburgers) and was totally impressed that they were served on a block of wood!

Reese wanted us to take a picture of her macaroni and cheese, too.

We decided that today was the day to see the World Trade Center Tribute museum. We made it over there easily and were humbled, amazed and saddened by the artifacts we saw there. Believe it or not, the girls actually seemed to recognize the solemnity of the place and actually behaved quite well. We took our time and saw everything we wanted to see. I think both Mom and I cried, but I don't know how you could visit this place and not get upset. They are still working at the WTC site. It's just one big construction zone. There are cranes everywhere!

The girls thought this statue that was dug out of the rubble and finally replaced at Liberty Park was really cool.

We also visited St. Paul's church near the WTC site. Immediately after the attack in New York this little church became a sanctuary for thousands of volunteers, policemen, firemen and others. The church served as a shelter for nine months for rescuers who not only prayed and grieved but ate and slept there as well. Banners made by schoolchildren from around the nation hang from the chapel's rafters. It was amazing to wander around inside the chapel and see the exhibits from 9/11. The cemetery was incredible, too. There were gravestones that dated back to the 1700's.

After visiting the WTC museum and St. Paul's we went back to our hotel and picked up our bags for the trek back to the Amtrak station. I was exhausted, and mom ended up pulling our luggage. I offered to help, but she wouldn't let me! We finally made it to the correct subway and managed to jump into the last car. It was awful! The car was SO crowded it was standing room only. We crammed ourselves against the back wall. I actually made Reese sit down on the nasty floor because she kept stumbling around. I was contracting hard enough that I couldn't stand up straight, much less hang on to her. We finally made it to the Amtrak station and found out where we needed to be to catch our train. We got on and headed back to Albany right on time. It was so nice to sit in the comfy train seats!

Our train arrived pretty much on time and we only had to wait a little while for David to get there to pick us up. We were all exhausted and didn't have any trouble going to sleep that night!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 19

2010-06-15T23:50:00.015-05:00

Needless to say, we slept in today! Yesterday just wore us all out. We missed breakfast at the hotel, so we decided to go for lunch at the Flamingo Restaurant. Once again, it was surprisingly good! After lunch we headed into Manhattan. Our goal was to go see the Empire State Building and possibly check out Central Park and whatever else we could fit into the day. We made it to the ESB quite easily and bought our tickets, then headed to the top. Or so we thought... We managed to get into the second or third group taking the elevators up and thought we had beaten the wait. The wait was actually on the 81st (I think!) floor! We stood in line for almost an hour on that floor. The architecture of the building was impressive, and the rooms we meandered through were beautiful. Reese got on a kick of asking me to take her picture with every new velvet rope we came to. That was pretty funny!

After standing in line for quite a while it was pretty exciting to see King Kong come out of one of the rooms. I tried to get my girls to take a picture with him, but Reese was scared and Katie just wanted to jump line and get ahead of all the folks who had left their spots to get photos with a man in a big monkey suit. We made it to the elevators that would deposit us on the roof shortly after that.

I must say, the views from the top of the ESB were magnificent! You could see all of Manhattan and quite a bit of the New Jersey shoreline, too. It was incredibly crowded at the top, so there was a lot of jockeying for position, but we got to see what we came to see. I got very angry at one point and only my good manners kept me from getting really ugly. As I said before, it was very crowded. The walls on the observation deck are all different heights and most people were aiming for the lower walls so that they could take their pictures against the backdrop of the city. Reese was actually able to look over the walls in some of the lower spots, so that's where we headed, too. She's too heavy for me to lift her up to look out. Well, apparently another tourist, who was very short but still a LOT taller than my three year old, thought he should be allowed exclusive access to the shorter wall. He knocked Reese down not once, but THREE times trying to make his way to the short wall. The first time he did it I assumed it was an accident. The second time I was annoyed. The THIRD time I was TICKED OFF! Any grown man should have more respect for children than THAT! Luckily, he moved on to another side of the building and I was able to take Reese's picture while she was actually standing up. As you can see in most of the photos, Reese was not at all impressed with the Empire State Building. She spend most of her time there asking when we could leave.

We probably spent less than an hour on the roof of the ESB, but that was enough to see everything around us. We took our pictures then headed back down and out into the city. Our next stop was to be Central Park and FAO Schwarz. Thankfully the two were close together, so our travel time on the subway was minimal. We walked past one of the entrances to Central Park on our way to FAO Schwarz and saw a group of young men getting ready to perform a tumbling routine. We stopped to watch, and this is what we saw:

Impressive, to say the least! Mom took an awesome video, too, but I haven't been able to get it to upload to blogger. I'll keep trying! We saw some mimes dressed like the Statue of Liberty, so we had to get a picture with them, too. It cost me a tip ($1.75 was all I had on me!), but I got a cute pic of Katie. Reese refused to stand with the mime. She was terrified of it!

After visiting the mime we headed over to FAO Schwarz. This place was heaven for a kid! The girls loved the FAO Schweetz section of the store, and the big piano was a hit, too. There were so many different things to see and do! Neither of the girls wanted to take their picture with the red suited guard at the front door, but we got lots of other pics and video once we were inside.

After spending FAR too much money on candy in the toy store, we went back outside to get a bite to eat and to explore Central Park for a bit. We bought hotdogs from a street vendor and sat down on some park benches to eat and people watch. After eating we decided that a ride on a Central Park horse and buggy was a well deserved treat for our tired feet. Our horse's name was Snow White, and the girls thought that was so cool! The driver even let them feed her a carrot! Even though it was quite expensive, and our driver kept trying to hustle us into a longer ride, it was worth it for a bit of a rest! That ride was pretty much all we saw of Central Park. We were too tired for much more walking!

By the time we took our carriage ride my phone was almost dead. Since there was an Apple store right across the street we decided to go in and check it out and see if we could charge my phone. The Apple store itself was really cool. The only thing that showed from the street was a glass cube with a glass elevator in the middle, but when you got off the elevator we were in Apple heaven!

We found a table full of kids computers and were able to hook my phone up to a charging dock. While it was charging the girls played on the new Mac computers. Let me tell you, they were SOLD! There were so many cool things to do! I've been wanting a Mac for a while, and now I have backup! We played for a while in the store, and when it was time to leave we got a big surprise. Reese threw a hissy, kicking FIT when it was time to go. I swear, I think people thought we were trying to kidnap her! She was having such a great time playing the games on the computers that she could have stayed all night! It was almost dark when we got streetside again, so we decided to try visiting Times Square. We found the subway we needed and arrived to see the most spectacular McDonalds ever! It was all lit up, just like everything else in the area. It took us a few minutes to get our bearings, then a few more minutes to walk to the actual Times Square. It was amazing! I don't know if the pictures I took will do it justice! We saw Mickey Mouse and Elmo. We saw a Toys R Us with a huge ferris wheel inside. We saw the Hershey's store! It was all amazing! The girls, especially Reese, were bound and determined to ride the ferris wheel, but by the time we got down there they had closed it. Reese threw another crazy fit when we had to leave, but she got over it pretty quickly. With a promise of ice cream, she was OK. Little did we know how hard it would be for us to find ice cream in Times Square! We finally settled for dessert at Applebee's and everyone was happy again.

After our yummy desserts we went back to our hotel and crashed. We were worn out! It was an awesome day in New York City!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 18

2010-06-14T23:52:00.001-05:00

New York, New York

The Rundown: Even though we went to bed a little late, the combination of being excited and Nana's snoring woke me up at 5:30am. I got up and spent a peaceful hour watching the Hudson River roll by. It is really beautiful! That early in the morning there weren't any boats disturbing the water. It was so peaceful! After a little while I got my shower and got ready, which got everyone else moving, too. We went down and had breakfast at the hotel then talked to the concierge about the best way for us to get to the Statue of Liberty for a tour. Little was I to know, she was the devil in disguise! Keep in mind, I am seven months pregnant. VERY obviously pregnant. I have a three year old daughter, a nine year old daughter and my mom, who is fifty nine. The concierge was very helpful, and told me that the shortest way to get to Lady Liberty was to take a bit of a walk, catch a local ferry, then go to the larger ferry that would take us to the statue. Well, that BIT of a walk was TWO MILES!!! Mom and I, thinking the walk would be more like two or three blocks, wore flip flops. Big mistake! Mom's feet were shredded by the time we got there. My back felt like it was going to just quit working. It was awful! The kids were grumpy and tired, too, and we hadn't even made it to the statue!

Our first stop was at Ellis Island, which was pretty amazing. We strolled through the hallways that welcomed so many people to the USA. If only those walls could talk! We watched a thirty minute film that told us a bit about the immigration process at Ellis Island and even Katie found it interesting. Reese fell asleep, but no one was surprised at that! We got our first real taste of rude behavior immediately after that film. I bent over to pick up the stroller and the next thing I knew the older teenage boy sitting next to me was climbing over me in an effort to get out of the theater. Not only did HE climb over me, but the whole rest of his family, too! It was crazy! The whole other end of the aisle was empty. They could've easily gone that way, but he chose to climb over not only me, but mom (with Reese asleep in her lap) and Katie, too! It was so rude...

After the movie we decided that there really wasn't anything else for us to see at Ellis Island, so we got in line to catch the ferry to Lady Liberty's home.

We did eventually make it to see the famous landmark, and I was strangely disappointed. Somehow she was shorter than I expected! Mom said the same thing! We managed to find a ranger station that was willing to supply mom with some band-aids for her feet and we set off to explore. We were both surprised by the number of foreign languages we heard spoken around us. I guess I just expected most of the visitors to this US national landmark to be English speaking Americans. I know that was terribly silly of me, but that was my preconceived notion. I know that we heard French, Italian, several different Asian languages and some I didn't recognize at all! It was amazing!

We paid a crudely high amount of money for some burgers and hot dogs for lunch, but figured it was worth the money to keep the kids happy. We truly didn't expect it to take us three hours to actually get from our hotel to the Statue of Liberty. We honestly thought we'd be able to get over there, see everything, and get back to the city for lunch. Since our "little walk" took us so long, we ended up eating bad burgers and paying a lot for them, too. Ugh...

We hunted for a couple of geocaches while we were on the island, but it was so cloudy that the GPS on my iPhone wouldn't work very well. We did find a cache on the way home from the ferry station, so that was fun! Katie and I just love treasure hunting!

On the way home from Liberty Island we figured out that after we rode the small ferry back to Jersey City we could catch the light rail to a station within a block of our hotel. I wanted to scream! We could've ridden the light rail to get TO the ferry, too! If only our lovely concierge had told us THAT! We did make it back to the hotel in one piece, and I think that if our helpful concierge had been at her desk my mom would've ripped her to shreds!

After resting a bit and putting on our tennis shoes we set out on a quest for dinner. Katie wanted pizza (again), so we decided to try out the famous restaurant, Lombardi's. It took us a while, and a bit more walking to get there. My iPhone GPS is useless among all the tall buildings, so we had to depend on our paper map to get us to the correct subway station. We made it there by 10pm and had a FABULOUS pizza! We ordered one cheese and pepperoni pizza for the kids and one pizza with sweet red peppers, meatballs, mushrooms and cheese for mom and me. It was delicious and FAST! I would definitely recommend Lombardi's to anyone visiting NYC.

It was late when we headed back to the hotel, but we made it. We were all so exhausted that we just crashed when we got in. All in all, it was a good but busy and tiring day.

High Points of the Day:
Katie: Finding that geocache!
Reese: Riding on the ferry to Liberty Island.
Shannon: Seeing the Statue of Liberty, Lombardi's Pizza

Low Points of the Day:
Katie: Walking, and walking, and walking...
Reese: Not getting ice cream at dinner.
Shannon: Being exhausted from walking all day.

Photos of the Day:

On the ferry headed to see the Statue of Liberty!

The girls being silly at Ellis Island.

A view of Manhattan behind my favorite girls!

Reese cheesing it up in front of Lady Liberty.

The grand Lady herself!

Miles: 5

Total miles: 2759

I'm still working on getting receipts together. Will post later!