Back Home and Satisfied

Were back home from our trip to New York and a wonderful time was had. My kids got to see and play with their cousins and we got to spend some time with my sister, nieces and nephews. I was surprised that my wife actually had a good time because she’s really not very fond of NY’s busy hustle and bustle lifestyle. I myself love New York and would probably want to live in the city if I didn’t have kids. I think Robyn liked the trip because she had the chance to shop and we didn’t have time to go to Manhattan this time around. I have always found it quite fascinating how you can find all these great deals in NY. My wife bought a beautiful gown and top for a wedding we have coming up and yes it was expensive but considering the stuff that she bought it was pretty reasonable. I bought myself a pair of socks, or the equivalent to a pair of socks, I’m just not the shopping type anymore. I bought two suits last week and the whole adventure from picking it, trying it on, having it measured for tailoring and checkout took me 15 minutes. I just don’t have the patience I used to have. I guess you can say that I’m a salesperson’s favorite customer because I don’t ask a lot of questions and I’m quick.

So, as for the DVD player in the car, the kids enjoyed watching their movies. We let them each pick 4-5 movies to watch for the trip there and back. It was, for the most part pretty quiet in the minivan, another thing that I swore I would never own but glad that we have. The DVD player introduced us to a new problem; both Elle and James were fighting over which movie to watch first, his or hers. It was nuts, but better than if we didn’t have the DVD. So what did we learn? Mommy and daddy will go out and buy a few movies that neither one has seen and WE will choose which one will be watched. Now the tricky part is to find movies that they haven’t seen yet; we belong to the Disney Movie Club so we have just about every Disney/Pixar movie that has ever existed. Does anyone want to buy our library for $8,500? I think we lost the Nemo DVD, which is pretty funny since the movie is called “Finding Nemo”. Little Peanut did a terrific job in my opinion, she basically cried only when she was hungry so we had to stop a couple extra times on the way there and back.

On our way back home we took the scenic route and stopped in the small town where my mother-in-law grew up. The kids had a good time playing in the playground behind the little red school house where their grandmother went to school. They also got to see her old house and the building that housed the general store, which is no longer there, that their great grandfather used to own. This was typical small (small) town USA. Being there was like a breath of fresh air and reminded me of the simple things in life that we sometimes forget about with our daily hectic schedules in the city. This town had absolutely nothing in it as far as entertainment goes. If you live there, you are basically forced to spend quality time with your family and neighbors and go for walks around the town stopping at every house to talk to your friends.

I think the nicest thing about this trip was that my mother came along with us. She really enjoyed spending time and money with her grandchildren. To say that my mother was thrilled is an understatement; she was beaming the whole time. She only lives 25 minutes away from us but she doesn’t really have a lot of time to see the kids because she hasn’t retired yet, so this was a big deal for her.

All in all this was a successful trip, but the jury is still out on this DVD player in the car. And to some of my critics, the kids did not watch the whole time like you all said they wouldn't and when there was something outside to see we pointed it out to them, so it really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

Cheers.