New Jersey 2012

Usually John does the posting to our blog. But, since John didn't get to come on our trip becasue he did not have much vacation time. I wanted to add a little so my memory does not fail me when Hope questions me at a later date :) We went to New Jersey because Sarah wanted to have her very own pair of crutches from the hospital...lucky for her they were giving them out to everyone that tore their ACL that day! While we were there Hope and I got to see the ocean (Atlantic) for the first time and even put our feet in the water...Hope also got to see the inside of a casino (Bally's) at the wonderful age of 3 (no she did not get to spend any of my nickels...and no I did not get to spend any of my nickels either since she was along for the ride). She liked the escalator more than the slot machines anyways. We walked on the Atlantic city boardwalk. Way cooler than I expected it to be. We also spent lots of time playing at a playground not far from Sarah's house where Hope got to meet lots of new friends. On the first trip to the park she mostly only played with Jon and I (Sarah would not go on the slide cause she was whining about her knee hurting) but by the end of our visit she was introducing herself to the other kids and jumping in to play with them right away. But I am pretty sure Hopes favorite part of the trip was the fact that Sarah and Jon had 9 million cartoon channels that they were so good about letting her watch 23 hours of the day! She also came home with this fun new trick of throwing pillows and stuffed animals at my head at random moments throughout the day. The car trip was about 7 hours to Jersey and Hope was almost scary good for the ride...she sent the time listening to silly songs and nursery rhymes on cd (amazingly I didn't actually drive the jeep into an electric pole after listening to that for 7 hours but don't think I didn't consider it a time or two)...when she was not listening to cd's she watched her dvd player and colored pictures...even better Barney and Strawberry Shortcake (if only I could have drove with earplugs safely ;) ) Other that the strawberry milk that she spilled all over the back seat of the jeep less than 2 hours into our trip it was a great visit to the east coast and since we now know how to get to Sarah’s house she should be expecting us back soon...even if she does think my cooking skills are the worst she has ever seen and my "organization" obsession annoys her to no end!