We are back from our annual whirlwind visit to Kerry and Kate's home in Rosendale, NY. We have finished unpacking, but are still reveling in the memories. Typically, we stay in Atlanta for Thanksgiving day and then spend the long weekend in NY with the McCarthys. But this year, my friend Stephanie was getting married here in town on Saturday night, and not wanting to miss her beautiful wedding, we tweaked the trip a bit. We left on Wednesday (yes, we flew with two kids on the day before Thanksgiving) and came back on Saturday just in time to take the kids to my parents and get showered and changed for the wedding.
The first note-worthy report from the trip is that our children are now officially civilized travellers if this trip was any indication. Despite flying on the busiest travel day of the year, the trip went awfully smoothly. We arrived at the airport two hours before our flight, took the park and ride shuttle and proceeded to security with all of our stuff since I'm not into paying the airline to check my bag. I had read that none of the rest of the country is into paying for that particular "service" either, so I should expect looooong lines at security. However, we walked right up and barely had our shoes off before our bags were being x-rayed and we were being ushered through the metal detector thingee. We got to our gate (D1A - just in case you thought you couldn't be any further from ticketing than D1...they've added a D1A, apparently just for folks traveling with 2 kids on the busiest travel day of the year) and were nearly the first ones there, allowing us to snag a spot in a corner with a plug for the DVD player. The kids sat quietly on the floor with the new-to-them DVDs I rented from the blockbuster for $1 each for the week-best $5 ever spent-and watched until it was time to board. When we arrived in White Plains, the bags arrived promptly, we had no trouble locating the shuttle to our hotel, and despite the fact that we arrived there at 8:30 (which was our scheduled arrival time), we were in our room before 9pm. A-mazing!
The trip home was similarly civilized, and for that, I am eternally thankful.
While we were in Rosendale with the McCarthy clan, we had just a lovely visit. The preparations were underway by the time we arrived on Thursday morning from White Plains and, aside from a little understandable Turkey-day stress when you are feeding 15, it was a really nice, relaxing day to visit with family. And the meal was delish - as usual.
Friday morning we participated in our favorite new-ish Thanksgiving tradition - the breakfast buffet at Mohonk Mountain House, followed by some hiking and otherwise enjoying the grounds of this grand old hotel situated in the most beautiful setting you can imagine. This year we tried out an evergreen maze for the first time, but also made time to hike up to the lookout tower at the top of the mountain. Then, while Lil' P and I were hanging inside by one of the many fireplaces, Corin and Evan tried something else new--the rock scramble. Typically, the rock scramble is closed when we are there because it closes when the conditions are the least bit icy. This year, conditions were a bit less frigid than they usually are, so they were able to try to scramble. Although, when they finished, it somehow came to Corin's attention that children are supposed to be at least 8 to try the rock scramble. Good thing we didn't know that ahead of time, because it was Evan's favorite part of the trip this year.
Here are some photos to prove how gorgeous it is up there at Mohonk. (I secretly have a dream that we will spend a week there some summer and the kids will canoe, and swim, and bunny hop, and carry a watermelon to where the staff has its dance parties, and then at the end of the trip we'll go to the talent show where we'll sing a song about Kellerman's and someone will say "No one puts Pressley in a corner." But without all the extra-marital sex and unwanted pregnancies.)
The first note-worthy report from the trip is that our children are now officially civilized travellers if this trip was any indication. Despite flying on the busiest travel day of the year, the trip went awfully smoothly. We arrived at the airport two hours before our flight, took the park and ride shuttle and proceeded to security with all of our stuff since I'm not into paying the airline to check my bag. I had read that none of the rest of the country is into paying for that particular "service" either, so I should expect looooong lines at security. However, we walked right up and barely had our shoes off before our bags were being x-rayed and we were being ushered through the metal detector thingee. We got to our gate (D1A - just in case you thought you couldn't be any further from ticketing than D1...they've added a D1A, apparently just for folks traveling with 2 kids on the busiest travel day of the year) and were nearly the first ones there, allowing us to snag a spot in a corner with a plug for the DVD player. The kids sat quietly on the floor with the new-to-them DVDs I rented from the blockbuster for $1 each for the week-best $5 ever spent-and watched until it was time to board. When we arrived in White Plains, the bags arrived promptly, we had no trouble locating the shuttle to our hotel, and despite the fact that we arrived there at 8:30 (which was our scheduled arrival time), we were in our room before 9pm. A-mazing!
The trip home was similarly civilized, and for that, I am eternally thankful.
While we were in Rosendale with the McCarthy clan, we had just a lovely visit. The preparations were underway by the time we arrived on Thursday morning from White Plains and, aside from a little understandable Turkey-day stress when you are feeding 15, it was a really nice, relaxing day to visit with family. And the meal was delish - as usual.
Friday morning we participated in our favorite new-ish Thanksgiving tradition - the breakfast buffet at Mohonk Mountain House, followed by some hiking and otherwise enjoying the grounds of this grand old hotel situated in the most beautiful setting you can imagine. This year we tried out an evergreen maze for the first time, but also made time to hike up to the lookout tower at the top of the mountain. Then, while Lil' P and I were hanging inside by one of the many fireplaces, Corin and Evan tried something else new--the rock scramble. Typically, the rock scramble is closed when we are there because it closes when the conditions are the least bit icy. This year, conditions were a bit less frigid than they usually are, so they were able to try to scramble. Although, when they finished, it somehow came to Corin's attention that children are supposed to be at least 8 to try the rock scramble. Good thing we didn't know that ahead of time, because it was Evan's favorite part of the trip this year.
Here are some photos to prove how gorgeous it is up there at Mohonk. (I secretly have a dream that we will spend a week there some summer and the kids will canoe, and swim, and bunny hop, and carry a watermelon to where the staff has its dance parties, and then at the end of the trip we'll go to the talent show where we'll sing a song about Kellerman's and someone will say "No one puts Pressley in a corner." But without all the extra-marital sex and unwanted pregnancies.)
Now that my mom is all appalled that I said sex and unwanted pregnancies in an otherwise lovely and family-friendly post (Please at least tell me that most of you got the Dirty Dancing reference. It wasn't subtle. Forgive me. I'm a child of the 80s.), I'll shift gears and tell you that we also had a lovely post-Thanksgiving-Thanksgiving with my family on Sunday after we returned.
My mom did the hosting and almost all the cooking this year with the exception of the crock pot mac and cheese that my sister brought and the yeast rolls that I slaved over (read: picked up from O'Charley's). Everything was delicious and comforting, and we had a lovely time seeing my Granny for any real amount of time for one of the first times since all her health problems over the summer and seeing my cousin's daughter who has grown into just a lovely young woman since the last time I saw her. And, of course, there was the cousin lovin' and chaos that always ensues when my kids are together with their beloved Will and Abby. This year, the cousins found my old doll house up in the attic and insisted that my dad dig it out from behind all manner of boxes and bins so they could play with it for exactly 4-1/2 minutes before they decided they wanted to play outside and see the neighbor's dogs.
Granny with the kids:
Kids playing with my dollhouse in the attic: (It might be nearly time to bring that treasure trove of memories to find a spot in my own home. Though that will be easier said than done.)
I would love to tell you about Stephanie's wedding, but I fear I have likely lost your attention by now. So, I'll save that for another day.
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