Day Seven...........Party Time!

Jordan Avery turned 7 while Granny and Jaden were here with us. We can't believe she is 7!!!!!! She's loosing her teeth left and right, she loves the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana, and she can't survive the day without telling all of us what to do. We are very proud of her :)

When we asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday this year, she said three things:
1. Pool party
2. Strawberry shortcake
3. Manicure and pedicure

So the last day Jaden and mom were with us, we packed up and went to the pool to celebrate her birthday.

She invited all of her closest friends, and fortunately most of them were able to come.

They had lots of fun swimming, splashing, squirting water guns and laughing.

Jaron was engrossed in his sea animals set that he got the day before at the aquarium. He did get in and swim for a while :)


Jaden and Emily had a great time with the water guns!!

Jordan had fun giggling with two of her friends, Ameera and Katherine.


There's Ameera and Katherine with Jordan, and let's not forget Jaden's foot!

Emily and her brother Gabriel enjoyed the snacks. Her older brothers, Christopher and Mani, were really busy fighting some watergun war.

Snehal is one of our neighbors. She is a little younger than Jordan, but they play together some. Her family is very, very sweet.

Licking the whipped cream off the candle.........the strawberry shortcake was really good.

The following week, I took Jordan to get her first manicure and pedicure. I forgot to take a picture :( She picked the cutest shade of green, and the lady painted a pretty flower on her big toes and ring finger nails. It was soooooooo cute! She was so proud!!!!!!

We had a great time celebrating our special girl's birthday. She brings so much joy to our lives. We are also so very glad that Granny and Jaden got to be with us to celebrate, too. We can't wait till they get to come back again!!

Day Six................The Big Apple

This was by far our fullest day. We got on the train here around 9am and headed for Brooklyn. Here's mom and the kiddos waiting on the subway in Manhattan to take us over to Brooklyn.

We got to Brooklyn in time for the noon worship service at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Mom is in the choir at Monterey Baptist in Lubbock and loves it. They have done some songs by the Brooklyn Tabernacle. They were AWESOME!! They always are :)

I wonder if mom knows they are a Grammy-winning choir????

After the Brooklyn Tab, which the kids complained about the whole time, we stopped and had a quick lunch at Super Taco. Then we hopped back on the subway and headed out to Coney Island. Mom fit in really well with all of the regular New Yorkers, she read everytime she got on the train :)

It was 19 subway stops from Brooklyn out to the aquarium on Coney Island. One of the stops was Ave. P, the street mom lives on in Lubbock!!!!!!

At the aquarium we saw all kinds of sea animals, and Jaron gave us a running commentary of whether or not they were mammals, the kinds of things they ate as well as a thousand other things I can't remember right now. It was fun. We all got a little tired and grumpy, but after the sea lion show, we felt better. Osborne was very cute and very funny!!

Jaden and Jordan watching a fur seal........it swam back and forth in front of them, almost like he was showing off. Funny how Jaden's swinging at it with the umbrella like it's a baseball!!

The friendly seal again........he would even make eye contact with us!


The aquarium is right on the beach........here's a Motley Crue out by the Atlantic Ocean!!!


This was Father's Day........we would not have even been able to navigate around the city if Chris hadn't been with us. He is the best husband, father, uncle and son-in-law I know!!!!!!


Once we were done at the aquarium, we went back to Brooklyn, to a place we discovered on my last birthday. Actually Rachael Ray told us about it :) The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory has a fabulous view of Manhattan, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. The Empire State building is right there behind Mom.

The Manhattan skyline......

The Brooklyn Bridge...........


BB again.............for some reason I did not get a picture of mom with the Statue of Liberty, it really bothers me!

After our time spent in Brooklyn we went to Times Square. We had a short detour at a deli for some food and refuge from a some what short rain storm. Then we discovered our two favorite shows are on the billboard :)

It's hard to see because of the lighting, but mom and Jaden are in this picture. She is holding the umbrella over her.

Here is mom gazing at the bright lights above.

And this is mom;s favorite restaurant :) Whenever meal time came around, her suggestion was always McDonald's. How appropriate that there was a restaurant right on Broadway!!!!

Me and mom in Times Square

Chris took this picture of one end of Times Square.

And Chris and the kids in front of the billboard. A great way to end the evening!!! We walked across the street and got a few cheap Times Square souveniers and then headed back home. It was a loooooooooooong day, but totally worth it. We drug those kids all over creation!!!! They were remarkably well-behaved. None of them had a melt-down at all. They rarely complained about walking and seemed to have a great time. It was a wonderful time. We were tired, but it was a good-tired!!!!!!!! We rode the NJ train back home and CRASHED!

Day Five...........The City of Brotherly Love

The Saturday that mom and Jaden were here visiting had rain in the forecast ALL DAY.....I was irritated because initially I had wanted to go into the city and take the kids to the Central Park Zoo. So we decided to do something a little different. We still loaded up on umbrellas, rain jackets and panchos and braved the rain, but we headed the other direction to Philly. And fortunately the weather cooperated for the most part. It only started raining on us when we were done with our sightseeing and heading back to get our car.

Our first stop was the Liberty Bell. I have heard many mixed reactions over the viewing of the Liberty Bell. Some say it is inspirational, some say it is boring because you just walk by it, look at it, then leave. I am on the side of the inspirational. There is a wonderful exhibit of some of the places the Bell has been over the years and the times it has seen. Once again, if it could just talk, I am sure it would have thousands and thousands of amazing stories to tell. The wall in the exhibit hall said, "One of the world's symbols of liberty." That is why it is so inspirational....and should be to every American, at least. The Liberty Bell saw some amazing things come to pass. The two that were most moving to me were the abolishment of slavery and the Civil Rights movement. And I think it wonderful that the Liberty Bell has this Scripture etched on it: "Proclaim liberty throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof." Leviticus 25:10. Try as they may, no one will ever be able to remove these words from the Bell, nor can they ignore the message.


Outside Independence Hall...we couldn't get tickets to go inside :( We were too late!
Independence Hall........I am sure the kids and I, and hopefully Chris will venture back at some point this summer to go inside. The tickets are free!!
Me and one of my most favorite kids in the whole wide world!!!! We were on the Phlash trolley going to our next stop. Mom got caught in the door as we were getting off, right after this picture was taken. She won't mind me telling the story...we all laughed about it when it was over! The bus driver closed the door too fast and it caught the toe of Mom's shoe and her bag in the door...she walked around for the rest of the week with a big black mark across her white shoes!! It was really funny!!!!!!!

We took a detour through China Town. There wasn't much to see, just a bunch of restaurants and shops. But it was still an experience!

This was a cool view of the Ben Franklin bridge while we were in China Town. The bridge connects Philadelphia to Camden, NJ. Incidentally, Camden has one of the highest crime rates in the country......yikes!

This is just a random picture of the kids infront of a Philly fire station....just kinda cool.

Our last stop was the Philadelphia Museum of Art.......better known, I am sure, for the steps Rocky Balboa climbed!

Chris and Jaden doing the "Rocky".

Just imagine the Rocky song playing while Chris is doing this!


The Rocky Statue....the kids had no idea why this was so important!


Washington Monument....across from the art museum.

Again, the kids didn't really understand the imprtance, they all just wanted to have their picture taken by the big buffalo.

Shortly after this picture was taken, the sky opened up and dumped a bunch of rain on us. But we didn't care. We got to tour one of the oldest cities in the United States and stand where some really famous people stood. So, so glad Mom and Jaden were there to do it with us!