Labor Day Vacation

Saturday we headed away for the weekend. The original plan was to stay at a bed and breakfast near Lambertville, and go kayaking. Because of the hurricane that passed through the east coast last week, the waterways were very high and fast, so no kayaking was going on. So we had to find other activities in the area - the main goal of the weekend was relaxing family time.



45 minutes into a 2 hour drive, Rudy was fast asleep in the back. (He insisted he had to bring 5 of his friends with him, so they all napped, too.)


We arrived at our bed and breakfast and headed out to Lambertville and New Hope for dinner. This is the bridge that crosses the river. We walked across it to get from one town to the other.

Paul took this picture for Renee, apparently the quote underneath is a line from a song. Enjoy, Renee!

Rudy enjoyed walking through this yard and playing with and talking to all these windsocks.

We visited the train station in New Hope - not an actual commuter train, but one to ride for fun.

After dinner and walking around, we got dessert. We stopped at this store that sold flavored popcorn and gelato. Rudy picked out his gelato, then looked at the popcorn as if it were toppings for the gelato. I told him it was just popcorn, but the owner said she often puts popcorn as a topping, and she stuck a few pieces of caramel corn popcorn in his mint chocolate gelato. Rudy enjoyed it.

Heading back across the bridge.

On Sunday we went to Ringing Rocks State Park. This is just the beginning of the rocks.

Some of the rocks, when hit with a hammer or another rock, make a ringing sound, rather than a dull sound rocks usually make when hit. It was cool to climb around on the rocks and try to find ones that rang.

Before venturing all the way out on the rocks, we took a little walk down the path.

I wanted Rudy to pretend to hold this rock up on the other side, but there were spiders there, so that wasn't happening.

The waterfall at the end of the path. We didn't get any pictures, but the surface at the top of this waterfall was completely slanted, and created a very surreal feeling when you looked at it.

Back at the rocks.

From here, to the other side, is at least as long as a football field.

Checking to see which ones ring.

Yes, we climbed and climbed the rocks.

After going all the way across the rocks, we assumed that the path at the other end would probably lead out to the parking lot or at least back to the waterfall. That ended up not being the case. As far as we could tell, after taking a walk down the mountain some, the only way out was the way we came - back across the rocks. So we headed back - hot, tired and hungry at this point.

Finally we made it back to the path. And headed to our car for lunch.

After lunch the adventure continued. Our plan was to head south to Bowman's Tower in Washington Crossing Park. Since we were on the NJ side, and our end point was on the NJ side, we decided to stay on the NJ side, even though we had heard that some roads were closed because of flooding and bridges being out. So we followed the map and drove and encountered our first closed road. The detour signs weren't great, but we had a map, so we found ways around the detour. Only to encounter another road closed and another and another. Our map wasn't very extensive, and the other maps we had were too large to give much detail in our area. We drove for about 2 hours trying to find a way through. (All the while my car's temperature gauge would rise and then drop some, then rise and drop. AND we had no cell signal most of the time.) So we finally decided to completely back track to near Ringing Rocks, cross into PA and go that way. Only the roads, and our memory of the roads, didn't match the map and the street signs.

We finally stopped at a little creek to stretch our legs and figure out our next move. Rudy explored the edge of the water, while we stopped a nice couple to ask for help. They had a map in their vehicle and we told them we didn't care if they got us up where we started or down towards New Hope, we just needed to get somewhere. Turns out we were only a mile or so from a main road that took us down to New Hope. Between the hilly roads and the lack of side roads and alternate routes, this is definitely not an area I would want to live in!

So about 2 1/2 hours after leaving Ringing Rocks (what would have been about a 30 minute ride), we finally made it to New Hope where we got a snack at the train station and Paul and Rudy waited for their train ride.

Here they are leaving.

Scenes from the ride.

When they arrived back at the train station, Vincie, Andy and the boys were there. Since they don't live far from New Hope, they arranged to meet us.

We had dinner with them and ice cream and then headed back. Here sit the kids on a step at the restaurant. You know if we had told them to go and sit together, it never would have happened!

The next morning we headed for home, but not without some more excitement. At breakfast we were talking to the owner of the bed and breakfast and one of the guests, both of whom worked on cars. Paul told them about the trouble we'd had with my carand they agreed to look at it. It was decided that we could use some coolant, although it wasn't completely empty, and that maybe there was something wrong with one of the hoses to the radiator. They didn't have any anti-freeze, so they added some water, with the warning that when we got home we needed to take the car to our garage and have it flushed out since it was just water in there.

Driving home, the indicator rose again, and dropped less often. Then as we got on I-95, the engine light came on. We got off the exit coming up and went directly to a gas station where the garage was closed for the day. We purchased some coolant (and after a quick call to the owner of the b and b to make sure it was okay to add coolant to the water, added coolant in the radiator.) Then we sat and waited a few minutes for the engine to cool. Then we turned the key - and nothing. We tried again - and nothing.

At this point we were about an hour and a half from home. So I called my dad to see if he was around and if we needed him, could he come pick us up. Fortunately, he was free. Then I called AAA. They told me they'd probably have to tow us and did I have an idea where to go or want a recommendation. I said I'd take the recommednation, and it was the garage where our car was currently stalled. So instead of having AAA come out, we called my dad to come get us, arranged with the gas stsation attendants to leave the car and fill out the needed paperwork to have it looked at in the morning, and took a walk to find someplace for lunch while waiting for my dad.

Dad came and brought us home. Today we got the good news that the garage was able to do minor work on the radiator but in a while we would probably need to have it repaired - a much bigger cost, but not something we needed to do immediately.

As we waited for my dad, Paul and I kept saying, it could have been worse. We could have gotten stuck on the highway, or not been near a garage. Or had to have kept Rudy sitting in the car for the hours until my dad came, so we were thankful it happened the way it did, and that we made it home safely.

Riding and Sleeping

One weekend recently, a friend mentioned on facebook that she was out with her sons riding bikes. Rudy and I needed to get out, so I asked where she was going. They were riding around their school's parking lot. It was a great place to ride - no cars, lots of open space. So Rudy and I joined them for a while.

The other night I told Rudy we needed to get out and do something and I gave him several choices; he said he wanted to take his bike like he did the other night with the boys, but at HIS school. So we did. It was a great place. On the sidewalk he can ride completely around the entire complex. There are also several cul-de-sacs he can ride around. We will definitely be doing this more often!

A few recent sleeping pictures. He sure does love his toys!

The little ones right by his face are small sponge dinosaurs. They come in a capsule, you drop them in water and the dinosaurs emerge!

This toy even got its own pillow!

Hurricane Irene and other Natural Disasters

What a week it has been for us here. On Tuesday we experienced our first ever earthquake, fortunately without any damage. On Thursday we knew hurricane Irene was heading our way and spent several days preparing for her to come. I packed important documents, had a bag of food and water ready to go, filled water bottles and the tub with water and made sure we had batteries in all our lanterns and flashlights. I ran to the store on Friday and bought a radio.
Saturday morning we decided to head out before the storm started. We checked on my dad's house (he went up to Chris and Patti's house for the storm). Then went to eat lunch out, since we anticipated being stuck inside for a while.



After our last meal out, we took a walk down by the bay. The ducks, with a few ducklings, wandered around unfazed by the drizzling rain.

The water level was pretty low.

Here you can see the muddy bottom.

As we headed back tot he car, the rain got a lot heavier. We were drenched by the time we reached the car.

We spent most of Saturday just hanging around. The storm started slow, but it rained much of the day. Rudy went to sleep as usual, and fell asleep quickly. About half an hour after he fell asleep, our power went out. Then came back on. Then when out. Then came back on. Then went out for good. Paul and I gathered the lanterns, turned on the radio, and sat down to play cards. And then we heard the radio emergency alert- tornado warning for our town sometime in the next 20 minutes. We knew we had been on a tornado watch until 5 a.m., but we never expected to get an actual warning for our town. We got our things together, went upstairs and grabbed Rudy and a crib mattress, and headed to the basement. Rudy barely woke up to ask where we were going, then thankfully went back to sleep and slept pretty much through until morning. Paul and I decided we would just keep him in the basement for the night and so we would be staying there too. I had already said I wasn't really going to sleep, because the tornado warnings scared me. Shortly after our tornado warning expired, our power came back on and stayed on for the rest of the night.
Here is Paul set up in the basement, with Rudy fast asleep. This was actually during the power outage, you can see the lantern is lit. We are so thankful that we cleaned the basement a few weeks ago, or there would not have been enough room for the three of us to sit down there, let alone for Rudy to sleep!

Paul ended up sleeping on the couch right above the basement and I dozed off and on in the basement.
The worst of the hurricane was supposed to hit around 5 in the morning. But by morning, it seemed that the storm had passed by with no further damage. The rain continued for the morning, and the wind picked up and was very gusty for most of the afternoon, but the hurricane that was supposed to hit us really hard, fizzled out in the end, and we are very grateful!

This morning, out our front door, we could see some branches and leaves down but that was the extent of it.

When the rain stopped and the wind died down some, we took a walk. Rudy was thrilled to be outside and ran ahead of us the whole time.

While cleaning up the yard,we found a new friend for Rudy. He had fun for about five minutes playing with this inch worm, taking it inside and letting it crawl around a rug, and then taking it back outside and letting it go on a tree.

After such an exciting week, I am hoping for some very boring months, We've had about all the weather/natural disaster -related excitement that we can handle!

Parties, Parties, Everywhere

Last Saturday was spent going from one party to another. First we went to a skating party for Jade. Here is Mr. Dramatic falling on the floor before he even started skating.


It took him a while to feel confident on his skates, the wheels were looser than the last time he skated, so he was more likely to fall, but eventually he came to a point where he wouldn't hold my hand.

The best of a party - cake!

And, of course, hanging out with friends.

Finally getting the hang of it.

He wouldn't participate in the hokey pokey or the limbo, but he loved the chicken dance!

After Jade's party, we headed to a pool party to celebrate Paige's birthday. Our little fish spent almost every minute of the 4 or more hours we were there in the water.

He had fun playing games with Uncle Bill.

The birthday girl!

Rudy, Paige and I in the pool.

Nothin' better than hanging out in the hot tub with a Yoo-Hoo.

Rudy showing one little bit of compassion and interest as an older cousin, actually walked for a few seconds with Paige.

Renee's aunt's house, where the pool party was, always has lots of wildlife around. This year we saw a young deer that Rudy took a picture of.

Loving Legos

This weekend, while Paul was working and I was trying to get some cleaning done, Rudy kept himself busy with his Legos. He has both the smaller ones and the Duplo (seen here), but he doesn't use the Duplo as much. I came in the room as he was working on it and he told me he was creating a village. When he finished, he called me in to see the finished product.

The animals in the barn - Hogwarts. One of the cows is Harry Potter.



This is Hagrid's hut, Hagrid, and the hippogriff.

Hogwarts Express and the bank (Gringotts).

"The magic shop where you get animals."

At the Lego web site, you can sign your child up for a free Lego magazine. In the magazine each month are pictures of kids with their Lego creations. So he posed for this picture, and organized all the pieces, so we could send it in to the Lego magazine.

He sure is creative!