Trip to New York

Now that we've sorted out bedtimes (HALLELUJAH!!) I'm finding that I have a bit more time in the evenings. This is wonderful because instead of putting kids to bed, finishing the dishes and then sending myself to bed, I'm finding that I have some time to do the things that I want after the kids go to bed.

Back at the beginning of April, we took a trip up to New York to visit my family. To put it bluntly, my dad is dying of cancer. Since January he's been living mostly in the hospital, and currently he is in a nursing home attempting rehab but as he is not making progress, it's unlikely he will be able to stay there for much longer--at least as a rehab patient. If you've never watched someone who is sick deteriorate over a period of time--it's horrible. I was shocked when I saw my dad in April, and it had only been 6 months since I had seen him. Now I think it's unlikely he will even survive another 6 months. I guess the benefit is that I've had some time to deal with this fact, although, I don't know if you can ever really be prepared to lose a parent. Thank goodness for my faith in the Atonement, the Priesthood, and Temples.

The trip was long (15 hours) and I was really nervous about driving with the kids, so we decided to leave in the early afternoon and drive all night. Clara had trouble during the daytime driving, and Lydia couldn't really sleep in her carseat so she had trouble at night. But we made it, in one piece, and it really wasn't that bad. When we have to do it again, that's probably how we'll go.

Here's a few photo collages that I made of our trip:

Grandpa meeting Clara for the first time:

We also stopped in and saw my Grandma (dad's mom) at the nursing home where she lives. My cousin's wife and their little girl were there too and it was so fun getting to see them! Then we stopped by Friendly's Restaurant on the way home. Friendly's was always such a treat growing up and the best part is the ice cream! Lydia enjoyed her monster sundae.

One of the days we were up there, we took a day trip to Palmyra which is the site of the restoration of our church. We really enjoyed walking around the visitor's centers, and especially through the Sacred Grove. It was a beautiful day. We also got to walk around the temple which was extra special because Ben and I were married there almost 5 years ago. We will celebrate our anniversary in July. Crazy!

We also spent some time just hanging out. Uncle Matthew really enjoyed holding Clara and Uncle Jacob even got in on the kid action, showing Lydia how to work the marble track :) We also spent a pleasant hour or so at the park where my mom showed Lydia the ins and outs of the sandbox. Lydia was sure hesitant to climb in because she didn't want to get dirty. She's funny like that.

Sooner that we would have liked, it was time to head home. Once again we left early afternoon and decided that we would make a stop at Hershey and take their free chocolate tour. It was a nice break, it was free, AND they gave you a free mini Hershey bar after the tour. Lydia loved riding around and seeing how they make chocolate. Yum! We also drove through some CRAZY fog. There were times that I couldn't even see the car in front of me and I couldn't help but think "I am going 65 miles an hour and if anything jumps out in front of me I will never stop in time!" Talk about travelling by faith ...

We arrived home around 9am the next morning and everyone was sleep deprived enough that we threw the kids in bed and everyone slept until noon!

I'm so glad we were able to make the trip. I don't know if my dad will get to see my children again in this life. One of the hardest things about losing my dad is thinking about my kids never really knowing my him. I've always wanted my kids to know their grandparents. But, we're extremely blessed to have Ben's parents so close and so involved with our children. I am definitely grateful for that. Truly nothing is more important than family.