Our Hall of Famer!

Cole sporting his
new duds from his
day at the ball park.

Last of Jo & Mom’s Travels

Geocaching at Old Furnace State Park
What an awesome park this is! Just down the road from the East Coast Family home is this very large park with trails, ponds, streams and wild life and a few geocaches to find.
How did we do?

A car gps just didn’t get us close enough to the hidden treasures. Real Frogs = 1 (which peed all over Jo), Scarlet Tanager bird = 1 (beautiful bird), Mosquitoes = to many to count (we all got bit), Caches = 0 (but the hiking was awesome and the views were gorgeous) and Spending time with Mandy = Priceless!

NEWPORT, RI
Trish, Paul, Jo and I spent a late afternoon strolling the Cliff Walk and catching the sunset over the bay.
Jo and I on the Cliff Walkway.

What a GREAT evening sunset!

The moon promptly came out so I played with a couple shots with Jo and Trish.
Always so warm and beautiful.

Dinner outside on a pier.
Trish & Paul, Jo and I.
I ordered my first lobster after looking at the price (wrong price might I add). It was a challenge to eat but OH MY GOSH was it incredible meal. Jo ordered Mac n Cheese and proceeded to eat my lobster once she cleaned her plate. The claws were so hard that I had to have Paul crack them.
When the bill came I realized my error in the lobster price and gulped hard as I realized I would no longer be eating for the rest of my trip! Ok, wasn’t that bad and so worth the experience!

SIX FLAGS!
Do I really need to explain to you how much I LOVED this place? Ooops, I mean we took the kids there for the day to play.

Rides
Trish took Jo on the swings and this was not only a big deal for Jo as she loves the swings but Trish hates them and yet took her. (great photo by the way Trish and thanks for not dropping my camera while you swung around and around)
While they were on the swings the rest of us were on the Batman roller coaster! Another GREAT photo Trish!
(I have my hands up! Zoomed in on the photo because this park was really about me… I mean the kids)

Act out a Super Hero
Mandy as Flash, Mom as Superman & Jo as Wonder Woman.

Park Characters
Bugs!

Mr. Six!

The Wiggles
The park has a whole area of The Wiggles but Jo didn’t want to even go into this area as she felt she is too old for them now. But when Jo saw the characters walking around the park she got so excited and was almost giggly to get her photo with them. Must have brought out happy memories for her when she was young. Ha Ha

Shaggy & Scooby

The kids just kept torturing me with these photos. (Did I say this park was about me? I didn’t think so)

Henna Tattoos.
Mandy and Jo showing off their henna tattoos.

Marvin the Martin
Marvin was not out in the park this day because he was going to be in the parade that night. So of course I had to take a picture of Marvin as he would be my giggly moment of childhood memories. Oh, who am I kidding…childhood, young adult, middle age (am I there yet, crap) and probably until I die age. Love Ya, Marvin!

And we end this trip as we started!
Thanks for the blanket Trish and Mandy, it came in handy on the flights home!
Jo and I had such a wonderful time! We were so busy with travel, sights and family it made the trip awesome!

NEW YORK

Rode the train to NY for one day and did a TON of walking. We landed in Grand Central station and took the subway all over town.
First stop, The Lady
Jo wanted (like Cole did) to go out to the Statue. This will happen when we visit as a full family or I might have to tell the kids some thing like my folks told us growing up. We are saving this trip for you to take your own family when your grown up . HaHa

Bull
Who does not want a photo with the Bull on Wall Street? At least Jo didn't want to hold the golden jewels or stick her head...well...some adults find interesting photo opportunities with this Bull.

Waiting
Andrew, Grandma Beryl, Trish & Mandy waiting for us to finish with the Bull photos.

Ground Zero
Last year I believe they were at ground level, now they are on the third floor. Not bad.

Central Park
Andrew, Jo and Mandy

Carousel
Jo, Trish, Gma Beryl and Mandy on the second oldest working carousel in America. Andrew also rode but was on one of the horses in front of me.

The reason Jo went to Central Park
Balto! Jo only wanted to see this statue in NY. She sat on him, hugged him and just smiled and smiled. Vacation is complete now.

Trish surprised the four of us with a ride though the park on a carriage pulled by a horse named Prince.
It was a nice rest for our feet and was just darn fun! Found out that this was on Beryl's bucket list too so she was able to check that off! THANKS Trish.

Trump Tower
Andrew said he wanted to push over one of Trump's towers so I told him to do so. This was the shot!

Time Square
Hershey world, M&M world, lights and sounds! It was just fun to walk and watch and listen. Jo loved it other than having to hold some ones hand the whole time. Mandy was the chosen hand most of the time.

Dinner and Juniors
A perfect way to end our day in NY. Eating a great meal and topping it off sharing three different types of cheese cakes.

Day trip to Boston

Drove drove drove to Boston to buy a loaf of bread, trot trot right back again to lay down our sleepy heads.
Sky View, a 360 top view of Boston.
It was a beautiful day out so we were able to see quite a lot.

Then we did a walk about along the Freedom Trail.
Statue of Samuel Adams
(Jo is the one standing in front)

Jo and Mandy in front of The Old State House
Bostons oldest public building built in 1713.
Where patriots debated the future of American self-government and set in motion the American Revolution.

This stuff is AWESOME!

Self portrait
The Boston Freedom Trail

Mary Goose

Boston Common
Standing on The Freedom Trail in front of the current State House.

Home again!

Jo is finding lots of frogs and enjoying picking them up. This little one was found on the front walk way to the house. She has picked some up that have been as large as her hands. She has also found that most frogs pee when being picked up, as in the last one actually got her with it.

We are having full days, late nights (which means we both are probably still on Oregon time, haha). It's very HOT and humid every day which is opposite from last year.

What a GREAT city Boston is. So much history to see and feel.

Seattle

Here are some photos of our trip to Seattle, mostly taken by the kids. The photos on my cell are not loading, but if I ever access them I'll get them posted.

East Coast Trip

Mandy’s Graduation trip!
Three flights and four airports, it was a very long day but we had a good time and Jo enjoyed the plane.
Window seats the whole way and most of the time she wanted the shade closed so she could do this.
Yes, she slept most of the trip out arriving at 11pm, went straight to bed when we got to the house and slept till noon the next day. Found out that she had strep the following morning and all the sleeping made sense. She was a tough kid not complaining at all really and still smiling and having a good time. We spent a couple hours in a clinic to get meds for her and this morning she is smiling with her eyes too. I think we have a full functioning kid now!
GRADS
Here Mandy sits in the front row as she was in the top 10 of her class. WOW!
The sun was shining on all of them as they received their diplomas. The choir performed a couple songs as well so we all enjoy watching Mandy perform / sing as this is one of the areas of school she really enjoyed.
Trish, Mandy, Andrew and Paul
Jo and Mandy
HAPPY GRADUATION MANDY!