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New Jersey Family Visit

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We left super early Thursday 10/10. Our flight was at 7 am and we were struggling to get out of house. We had to drive because construction going on in our alley means moving the car a lot, so we didn’t want to leave it here all weekend. 

We got to O’Hare with 30 min before boarding! I was worried our bags wouldn’t make it (they did). We got to the gate with about 20 minutes to spare. There were no places to get food in the United terminal besides a McDonald’s that had about 50 people waiting. United terminal is the worst! We got pre-made sandwiches but no coffee! I needed coffee!

We got on the plane and soon after the pilot told us we were delayed 30 minutes due to mechanics working on the engine. That delay turned into 1.5 hours but at least the plane was fixed, and the flight went well. I got some coffee on the flight.  

We got a Kia Soul to drive and we headed to Don’s mom’s house. We had lunch and hung out. Then we went to watch Raiden and Rayne’s martial arts class. After the class we went to Jonathan’s and the kids played. We ordered Indian and the kids had lasagna. We talked a lot and then went to our hotel around 8:30. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Paramus. It’s nice.

On Friday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and it was pretty good. Then we made our way to Liberty Park. Lucas has really wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, so we thought, why not? We have never seen the statue from the Jersey side. It was way less crowded—highly recommend! The $25 ferry included Ellis Island and Liberty Island. We skipped Ellis Island this time.  

Lucas was so excited and it was really cute. We looked in the museum which had the old torch. I don’t remember this museum. Lucas was able to answer questions and become a junior park ranger. 

We took a lot of pictures. It was a beautiful day. Lucas said “liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty”. We had lunch at Liberty Cafe. It wasn’t bad, pretty decent. Lucas talked to an impersonator; a man dressed up as one of the architects of the statue. Lucas asked him so many questions and talked to him. The best question was “are you open on Christmas?” the answer was “no but we are open the day before” 

Lucas picked out a little statue and he loves it. After Liberty Island we went to the Liberty Science Museum. Jonathan let us use his members pass so we got in for free. All Lucas wanted to do was dig in the giant sand area for dinosaur bones. I would love to go back to and see more of the museum.

After that we went to Lola’s for a bit before going to meet Khris and Jess out for dinner. We met Khris and Jess near their house. It was a pizza place called Gentle Giant Brewing, and it was pretty good.

On Sunday we went to Chit Chat Diner with Lola. It was good. Then we went over to Jonathan’s. Lucas, Raiden and Rayne played. 

Next, we all went to a pumpkin patch called Abma’s. Some of Raiden’s friends also came. We took a hayride and picked pumpkins. We bought some apples, strawberries, and cookies at the store and then we went to the petting zoo.  

On the way back we picked up a cake to celebrate Lola’s and Lucas’s October birthdays. Wighanda also has an October birthday. Everyone came over to Jonathan’s. The kids ran around. Some of them were not so nice to Lucas at times. But overall, they were all playing.

Lucas was so surprised we got a cake for him and sang. Jonathan made some delicious chicken and food. We did a few fireworks, and we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas.

It was another nice visit with family.  

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travel day

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We woke up, had breakfast and finished packing. We left the house at 9:15. I thought our flight was at 1:10 but that was the boarding time! The real flight time was 1:45, so we were pretty early. We wanted extra time for parking because last time all lots were full.  

So we made it with plenty of time. We decided to leave the stroller behind since we didn’t need it for anything other than the airport. So far Lucas is doing great walking. 

We had lunch at burrito beach then we went to our gate. Lucas practiced drawing his letters for a long time. Then I showed him the surprise transformers book we got him. It has little figurines. 

We learned our flight was delayed due to waiting for the captain, who was coming from another flight. 

The flight was over an hour delayed. Lucas fell asleep before we took off. I don’t know how he slept because a family who sat across from us had 2 screaming kids. One was maybe a little younger than Lucas and he was just plain loud. The other was probably 4-5 months and he would just let out these loud screams. Lucas woke up with about 20 minutes left of the flight. 

Then the baby really started screaming, screamed the whole descent. Thank God this was only a 2 hour flight. 

We could see NYC as we landed. It looked cool. Lucas looked slightly distressed during the landing but he was worried about his movie Cars which had stopped, not the actual landing.  

Lucas did great walking thru the airport to our rental car. We have a Ford Escape, which I believe is what we had last time we flew into Newark. Spacious car, but I don’t love things about it. However, we were able to connect our phones to the screen and use the GPS this time so maybe this car isn’t so bad!

Then we went to Don’s mom’s apartment. We had dinner and hung out for a bit. Lucas found a box of old binoculars and Lola gave them to him. That is funny because on the drive over he said “oh no, I think I forgot something. My binoculars!” 

We got to the hotel Home2 around 9 pm and Lucas did not want to go to bed. After bath and bribery he finally fell asleep around 10:30. He started coughing about 20 minutes into sleep. The coughing was pretty bad and at one point around 12:15 he puked. Luckily, he only got the pillow and a small portion of the sheet. I felt so bad for him and I really hope his cough gets better soon. 

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Zoo day

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Lucas woke up at 6:45 today even though we went to bed late. We went over to Lola’s around 9:30 for breakfast.

It was a beautiful day so we decided to go to the Bergen County Zoo. We had been there last time we visited but we thought it sounded fun. We had fun seeing the animals, riding the carousel, and eating ice cream.

After the zoo we went back to Lola’s to nap. I noticed your cough and congestion were getting worse around this time but you seemed ok after nap.

We went over to Jonathan’s around 4. Jonathan was going to grill. He had invited over some of Raiden’s friends and parents. Khris, Jess, and Lola also were there. You had fun playing outside and with Optimus Prime. You had more ice cream and helped Khris build a fire.

We got home late and Lucas seemed ok but he had a really rough night with coughing.

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Last day in NJ

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Despite not having a nap yesterday and going to bed a little late, Lucas was still up at 6 am this morning. During the morning we packed because we are leaving today. Lucas pretended he was doing work in the “basement”, which was the closet in the hotel room. He kept running in and out of the closet. We tried to get breakfast at the hotel but it was too slow, so we went to a Dunkin Donuts near Newark Airport. On the way to the airport Lucas repeated everything the GPS (Karen) said. That was pretty funny. When we got on the flight Lucas asked for the “heart pretzels”, which are the in flight pretzels. He fell asleep before take off and it was a good flight. Overall, Lucas did amazing traveling on this trip and we are ready to go somewhere else!

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Family party!

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Lucas woke up again around 7 and he was especially crazy. He didn’t want to listen to anything. I got him to calm down and we were downstairs watching Cars while Don showered. I got a phone call from Don, which I thought was weird since we were in the same house, and he said Khris had called to tell him he tested positive for covid. Khris and Jess had just gotten back from Aruba, so they probably picked it up there.

After a few minutes of a little freaking out and trying to figure out what to do because were having a get together at Jonathan’s house today we calmed down and texted Jonathan the situation. We hadn’t been around Khris and Jess much so hopefully we would not get it. We took a covid test to see what our status was. We were both negative and Jonathan and Wiganda were ok with us coming to the party.

We were very sad that Khris and Jess could not come to the party, but still happy we could see some people. We also decided we would get a hotel near Newark Airport, so we could limit our exposure and allow Khris and Jess to move about freely in their home.

Then we packed up and got some Starbucks and headed to Jonathan’s. Don and I left Lucas with Jonathan, Wiganda, and his cousins while we went to pick up the Filipino food we had pre-ordered. We kind of snuck out and when Lucas realized we were gone he was not happy and would not stop crying.

The party was successful. Lots of people were able to show up—Jimmy, Leanne, Glen, Leslie, Anthony, Seba, Miguel, Tracy, Micheal, Teresa, Ari, & Kallan. The food was awesome, but we had so much. The kids got in the pool, jungle gym, and trampoline. The jungle gym had a pole on it that Lucas kept wanting to go down like he was firefighter. We would help him do it, but one time I was across the yard and saw him start to do it himself. I ran over to him but he ended up falling part of the way down. It was so scary but he was ok.

Lucas wasn’t able to nap at all during the day. Every time we tried something would distract him. I felt so bad for him because he was so tired.

After everyone left, Wiganda got the scooters and bikes out. Lucas got a second wind and wanted to scooter. Estelle’s friends stopped by and we went on a scooter walk. I was tired and I could tell Lucas was so tired. We decided around 6 that we needed to leave to go to our hotel. Lucas fell asleep immediately in the car and he was so grouchy when we had to bring him up to the room. He laid on the bed and ate snacks and then we got him in his tent.