We Meet Baby Liam!

My awesome Sister-in -law is from New Jersey.  Her family lives about 40 minutes from where our hotel was.  It just so happened that she and Liam were in town on a visit.  It worked out that we were able to meet at her parents home for a wonderful evening.  Boy did they spoil us.  They were so generous and hospitable, with a beautiful dinner and a surprise for later, it was fabulous!

 One of the best parts was the kids meeting their new cousin Liam.

It was Love at first sight!

 Cora's a pro with baby boys after her brothers!

 Uncle Matt!

Liam napped with his uncle for quite awhile.

 until we pulled him away for some group photos.

Here are all the Overton grandkids

 Jack was fascinated with Liam.

He kept saying how cute he was, Look mom cute toes, look mom cute leg, look mom cute hands.

It was incredibly cute, I tell ya!

 CUTE!

All of us together.

Thinking of my brother, Liam's dad, serving a deployment in Afghanistan.

So proud of him!!

and so glad we got to spend the evening with Nicole, Liam and her wonderful family!

 Here is the surprise!

This day was the 13th of October, the boys birthday is the 14th, and Nicole and her wonderful family had planned a little birthday party for the boys, complete with an ice cream cake and cupcakes.

There were even presents.

Now, how thoughtful was that?!!

Incredibly!

The boys were so excited!!

Thanks Aunt Nicole (and family)

for the awesome party, the stomp rocket (which is still a top favorite!) and our awesome shirts which are now called our birthday shirts!

What a great way to end our trip to New York!!

NEW YORK, NEW YORK!!

Matt had a four day weekend for Columbus day in October (of course), but the girls had NO days off (of course), so we compromised!  We took the girls out of school on Monday and the Friday before we left as soon as the got off the bus for a fun weekend trip to NEW YORK CITY!

We are only a little over 5 1/2 hours away, so it was an easy trip for us.

I am the only one that has really been to NYC, and even then it was just for one afternoon when I was in Jersey for my brother's wedding.  Matt and the girls have never really been, so we thought, what the heck, let's go!!  This was just for one weekend, so we barely scratched the surface of what NYC has to offer.  We hope to go back at least one more time, hopefully more, but this was a great introductory trip!

 First stop: American Museum of Natural History!

 Some of my Humanity

 This is a huge museum, massive, so we breezed through most and stopped in detail with just a few exhibits.  I love this picture, it looks like the dino is going to eat Hunter (I think).

 My awesome cuz met us at the museum and had lunch with us, but then we parted ways.  Why don't I have any pictures with her?  What was I thinking??  Next time!

So after lunch we walked NYC, because that is what you do in NYC!

We walked down through parts of Central Park, 

and saw the "Enchanted" movie bridge.

 We walked through Times Square

which was having a mad series of concerts like on every corner.

It was a serious Madhouse, but we were surprised at how kind and considerate everyone was as passed through with our mini parade.

 We made it over to the American Girl Place.

I think the girls were in Heaven...5 stories of shopping floors to look through!

We spent some time in the Rockefeller Center Square.

Oh how the kids wanted to ice skate, but...

 we settled for some acrobatics instead.

 on our Night walk of NYC we passed the New York Public Library.

The kids thought this was the coolest library they had ever seen.

Hannah told us that it looked like something straight from Europe.

 We ended the night at the Empire State Building,

and took a ride to the top of course!

 My picture

You can kind of see the Statue of Liberty off in the distance if you look close.

Matt's picture

I think he was going for the modern, abstract, art look, you know I have to tease him!

 I like this abstract of Anya!

 There she is, The Statue of Liberty

Our story:

This trip ended up being executed right during the government shutdown fiscal crisis.  This was not the issue when we planned the trip, had we known we would have made other arrangements for sure!  So, government shutdown means, all national monuments, parks and sights are closed as well.  Anything that has to do with the government that is not mission essential was shut down temporarily, to include the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Yes, these two top NYC tourist attractions were CLOSED!  We couldn't change the dates of our trips because we had made arrangements that were non-refundable, so we went with plan B.  We decided to take the Staten Island Ferry, for Free, and see New York Harbor, which also gives a lovely view of the Statue as well.  The funny thing was, New York decided to pick up the tab of running the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island until the Fed. government got their ducks in a row.  Of course, they didn't decide this until the morning we were going to visit the Lady.  So frustrating!  Tickets were so unattainable that we just stuck with plan B!  My awesome Cuz and my Cuz in law (her hubby) met us at the ferry and went on the fun journey with us.  After we went down to right outside the village on Bleeker and had some awesome NY pizza.  So yum!

I should also mention that that morning we had walked past Ground Zero and the small church beside it.  What a moving experience to walk along that site with church bells ringing in the distance.  We had a great morning and afternoon in NYC, but now it is time to say farewell until next time.

A Little Getaway part 2: The Beach!

Our family LOVES the beach!  

We are definite beach bums and we try to hit a beach whenever we are close to one!

Virginia beach has always been a favorite of ours for over 10 years now.  I think the first time we went was when Anya was two and Hannah was just a baby, maybe 2 months old.

Sadly there have been many changes to the area since we first started going.  There was a small Army base along Virginia beach called Fort Story.  We used to stay there at the Cape Henry Inn for pretty cheap beachfront.  Then we would hang out at the military beach, which was hardly ever crowded, even in peak summer.  Well, last year Fort Story started to shut down and Cape Henry Inn is no longer there...so sad!  We didn't even check to see if the beach was still going or not, but opted to just go to the main beach.  It wasn't too busy because it was mid-September, but still a gorgeous warm day!

 My boys have no fear with the water...here is Jack.  He would lay and wait for the waves to wash over him.  Crazy kid!

 Anya got in on the action too...

 So did Cora...

 Hunter liked it as well...

 Here comes a wave...

 and Rolled in the water...

 whew, that was wet and fun...

Lets go again!

What better way to end a day at the beach then relaxing, buried in the soft warm sand!

Until next season beach, have a great winter!

A Little Getaway: Busch Garden's

The Busch enterprise is pretty generous with the military.  They own and operate Sea World parks, Busch Gardens parks, and Sesame Street Place.  Every year they let the military member and his family into a park for free or heavily discounted.  It just so happens that we got to go to Busch Gardens Williamsburg for free this year.  Yes, sign us up!

 They had decorated the park for Halloween all ready.  Each land or area had a different theme.  Some themes were a bit more "horror movie" like then we appreciated, but others were incredibly cool.  Like these garlands of lighted jack o lanterns.  So awesome!  I want to try to do this someday for a porch, it was incredibly cool at night with everything lit up.

 First ride of the day, Jack refused to go, but Hunter had a blast and even rode again.

 Tea cups, everyone's favorite!

There is another little boy in there with dad somewhere too...

 The boys loved this Dumbo like ride with airplanes.  Seriously, they rode it like 5 times while we waited for Dad and big sister to go on a coaster ride.

This was the big accomplishment for Dad and Anya this trip.  They have talked about the Griffon since we came to bush gardens last in 2010.  Anya said no way then, and it got too late for Matt to try after he decided he would go for it.  So for the past three years whenever we talk about living in Virginia, the Griffon and conquering come into the conversation.

 What's the big deal you say.  Well for starters it is not a huge coaster car.  It only has four or five rows, but then the rows are not just two people wide, it is like 8 people wide.  So all but two people hang over the edge of the track. Then there is this drop...it is one of the longest and steepest drops I have ever seen on a coaster.  I think it is more then a 90 degree...so you feel like you are free falling for a bit there.

Yikes!

But they did it!!

Here is another spooky land.  This one was infested by spiders...webs and spiders everywhere!!

It was a fun day!

O'LE HALLOWS EVE

IT'S HALLOWEEN!

Let the Haunting and Treating begin!

 Sadly, Thing 1 and Thing 2 were retired this year for at least a few years more most likely.  As much as it pained me to do!  I had a hard time figuring out what the twins would be this year, it will probably really be the last year I get to pick for them.  Then it hit me!  A knight and a Dragon.  I thought they were pretty cute, and they loved their costumes, which were dress up they lover wearing anyway.

So Jack was the Dragon and Hunter was our fearless knight.

Disclaimer: no one was slain.

 Anya kept me on my toys as usual. 

She is Raven, a super hero from Teen Titans cartoons.

I had fun putting her costume together this year because they were things I felt like I could actually do, plus she helped with most of it!

We sprayed her hair purple...can you tell?

 My sweet Cora is a Cowgirl.

She always takes it easy on her mom's creativity, and she always turns out cute!

 Hannah upped her game this year, she is not only a Hogwarts student, but Hermione herself.

 My group of scary goblins!

 Milling about, waiting for treating to start...

Finally, it's 6pm.

Rushing over to the first house to trick or treat!

 The boys waisted no time, as soon as their bags were given back to them after cleaning up, they were dumped right onto the floor!

Look at that loot!!

 It's time to eat some tasty treats and view our Halloween movie.

I have to say that having one of your treaters wearing braces is pretty awesome.  Matt and I scored some pretty excellent booty since she couldn't partake.  I will have to keep that in mind for future years...

Happy Halloween!