Yesterday Ellie and I were in her room cleaning and packing up for the trip home today. She tackled me with a hug and this is the conversation that followed.

Me: I love you Ellie.

Ellie: I love you Mom.

Me: Guess what Ellie? Someday you are going to be big and not want to snuggle with me.

Ellie: WHAT! (said with her famous head cocked, scrunched up nose look)

Me: Yep.

Ellie: No! I will always want to snuggle you. Even when your dead. I'll dig you up and snuggle with you.

Me: I hope so.

Catch up!

Since we leave on Sunday I figured I needed to try and catch up on the blog of our time here in New Jersey.

The kids showing off their gumball machines that they got in the mail from Aunt Lindsay.

The small roofed building in the background is the bathroom building on the beach. That's how close we are.

More park time.

McKay and Ellie showing off their climbing skills inside of the "Cool Kids Club". That is what they named this little building at the park

McKay and Ellie are the oldest kids out here so they sometimes really enjoy being the ring leaders. On this day they had all the 2 year olds going down the twirly slide together in a train. You could hear the scream and laughter from across the park.

Clara, Kelty, Cody, and Tanner all dividing up the goldfish.

Ellie and McKay had a little bit too much fun at Forever 21.

Ellie as Madame Mim from the Sword and the Stone.

I am happy to announce that the back of Clara's hair can now fit into pigtails. The front will be a long time coming. It's funny that she has the same mullet hair growth that Ellie did.

I love this action shot of Ellie and Ellie Peach. I don't know what they are running from, but I know they are having a fun time doing it.

Clara scooping out the caramel brownies.

On this rainy day we made the trek to the Freehold Mall. Inside it has a two level carousel. The kids loved going for a ride.

Ellie Peach

Clara

Cody

McKay

All in all we have had a great time here. McKay could have done with a friend close to his age but he has been a trooper putting up with all the little ones. Ellie has loved playing with Ellie Peach everyday. Clara is just happy where ever she is. We have enjoyed our summer on the beach but we are ready to go home.

Raspberry Picking

About 20 minutes from our apartment there is a wonderful fruit farm that offer U-pick on all sorts of different fruit. There is also a great food market. On this day we went there for the raspberries.

It was pretty hot so the kids didn't last that long picking. That left me to pick my pound of raspberries, which takes a lot more effort than you would think.

The raspberries were delicious though. A lot of them just ended up in our mouth as we were picking but the ones that made it home ended up in a great dessert.

New York Yankees New Stadium

During the summer our manager will give incentives for working hard and achieving your goals. One of the last incentives that several of the guys were able to take advantage of was going to a Yankees game in the new stadium. So on Sunday June 26th we went and watched the Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics 7 -5 . It was really cool to see the new stadium, it was huge. Of course we had nose bleed seats that where three rows from the very top. There was a total of 20 guys that went, but we all had a great time.

This was our view of the stadium. We could see everything. It was really nice to, we where in the shade the entire time which was nice, so I guess nose bleed seats are ok sometimes.

Some of the guys that we went with in the office. Taylor is the one next to me and Steve who is the lead tech is the crazy looking one behind us.

After the game we all where able to get some more pictures. Justin, Ryan and Taylor just hanging out after the game.

I think I have to!

He would be the COOLEST kid in the first grade!

The City that never sleeps - NYC

I love this city for a couple of reasons, first is because I spent two years of my life serving these great people and the second reason is that I love the atmosphere of the city life. Everyone is always doing something and it is the city that never sleeps, literally. I keep telling Mandy that I could live here, but it would be hard with three kids. Don't worry grandparents it's not going to happen, but if the right opportunity came around, you just never know.

One Saturday night we went downtown all dressed up ready to go clubbing. We had heard about a couple of clubs that were pretty cool. The first club that we were going to go to was closed for some reason. So we drove around looking for some more clubs. We found another cool club dropped the girls off, and had to go and park the cars about 1/2 mile away of course unless you want to pay $65 dollars to have your parked in a parking structure. This picture is right outside of Club One, it was so fun! Right after we left the club, there was a bar fight that ended up in the street. We all watched guys and girls hitting, kicking and pulling hair. NYC police was trying to drive in to break it up, but because of all the taxis that wouldn't move the fight had to stop on its own. It was crazy. In the picture from left to right is Spencer Carlson, Me, Ryan Starks, Justin Bankhead, Taylor Dame and Jared Kalama.

After the bar fight, we decided to get something to eat. There was this pizza roach coach van parked down the street. We were all really hungry, and needed a break from clubbing for a minute. The ladies all dressed up to. Simi is Jared's fiancee and then you have Mandy and Courtney Bankhead.

Nothing like a NY pie! It was really good pizza from a guy that was making pizza in a small van on the side of the road. After we ate pizza, Mandy and Courtney wanted to go home, at this point is was about 4am. Luckily we drove two cars. So we told the girls where we had parked the car, gave them cash for a cab ride to the car, but the car was not where we told them it was. It was one street over. So Mandy and Courtney walked up and down the street we told them where the car was for about 20 minutes bare foot. Their shoes were really hurting them. They finally found the car one more street over, and headed home.

As for the rest of us, we weren't quite ready to go. So we went to another club for the rest of the night and into the morning. Ryan Starks is a smooth talker and got us in. We didn't leave the club until 6 am. When we walked out the sun was almost up. We didn't get home until 8 am. It was a really fun night, but I don't know how people can do that night after night. Next NY trip we are for sure just going to go site seeing or see a show.

The last few weeks

The first few weeks we were here I was so good about taking my camera with me everywhere. Being out here was so fun and new. Now I've just gotten lazy. Everyday we go to the beach, the swimming pool, and or a park. Not that those aren't fun things, but you can only take so many pictures of the kids digging in the sand.

On this day a few weeks back me and some of the fellow moms came up with a fun art project for the kids. Of course by the time we are ready to go the rain and wind had started, so we ended up in the foyer of one of the buildings. Until we got kicked out.

I think Clara's actually turned out the best.

Notice the kids designer art smocks?
All three paintings now hang as artwork in our apartment.

This pic is for my dad. He loves to play bocce out in the backyard. At our favorite "pirate ship" park they have a dedicated bocce court.

The kids making the most out of the park, pretending they are on a roller coaster.

We don't have a vacuum out here so I bought a cheap Swivel Sweeper. I actually quite like it, and the kids like it too. Clara loves to use it and McKay will actually come get it and vacuum up his room all by himself just because. This is definitely making the trip home.

More pictures from our favorite park. It is about 15 minutes away but the kids really like it so we typically go a few times a week. They even hold free concerts for kids every other Sunday. We happened upon it last Sunday and we are for sure planning on going back.

The park is right on the water. I think it is fresh water heading to the ocean because there are always ducks, geese and swans swimming in the water there.

4th of July

Since we were not in Provo for the Freedom Festival parade we decided to put on one of our own. The men had to work the 4th so all the moms got together and decorated our kids bikes and scooters to put on a little kids parade for the dads before they headed out for the day. It was very unorganized and chaotic. Once it started it only took about 30 seconds for all the kids to go down the sidewalk. It was still one of the highlights of the day for my kids.

After the parade the kids and I decided to go explore the festivities going on down on the boardwalk. Of course the kids wanted to get their faces painted. This is one thing I loved doing as a kid so I will usually let them do it. This time it was the worst $10 I ever spent. Nothing like the swirly flower face masks I used to love.

They still loved it though.

On the boardwalk there was plenty of food and handcrafts for sale. We choose to spend our time at the kids pirate comedian show. I'm surprised both my kids walked away with dry pants they loved it that much.

That night the whole APX group had a BBQ and then headed down to the beach for the fireworks. Evenings on the beach are one of my favorite times. I love watching the kids play in the sand and surf while the sky changes color in the background.

The firework display was surprisingly good. It was also fun to look down the shore line and see all the different fireworks in the distance. Afterwards we just took the short walk back to our apartment and snickered as we looked out at all the people stuck in traffic.