Summer Vacation Day Ten

After the IDF conference was over, we took the metro out to the airport to rent a car. Stupid me chose the wrong car size for our family, even though the picture said it would accommodate 4 people and 2 suitcases. We were offered a 2 door fiat. Uh, yeah. So, we were gouged by the company and had to pay an extra $80 to upgrade. I was not thrilled about that.

Our plan was to drive to Brett's uncle's home. We love staying with Uncle Ken and his family. They have a beautiful family and they are the perfect hosts. I feel so comfortable in their home and I love them very much.

Sydney woke up Monday morning not feeling well. Poor kid felt rotten. Add diabetes on top of a sickness and you have a crappy combination. Our plan was to go into Washington DC to see the sights. We knew that the closer we got to the 4th of July, the busier the district would be. We couldn't go in with Syd feeling the way she did though.

We all ate breakfast and gave Syd some ibuprofen that Brett had gone to the store for. Within a couple of hours Sydney was acting better and feeling much better. We made the decision to go ahead and make our trek into DC where we would try to see much of what is there.

Brett's cousin works for Senator Hatch (R) - Utah. We were fortunate that because of her ties to the Capitol, we got behind the scenes treatment and we were able to see things that the general public is not allowed to see.

The view from the balcony at our nation's capitol.

Brigham Young

Lincoln Memorial

Washington Monument

Family pic in front of the Lincoln Memorial

Arlington Cemetery

Poor Sydney was back to feeling like crap by the end of the Capitol tour. We pushed her a bit to see anything else. I had to leave her meds back in Shannon's office so everything had worn off by the time we were moving on to see things. I feel horrible that she felt so bad. I am grateful for what we were able to see.

I guess we'll just have to return to DC so we can see the rest of it :)

Summer Vacation - Days Seven, Eight, and Nine

After a fun filled week in CT, and NY, we were now in Baltimore for the IDF (Immune Deficiency Foundation) conference - one of the main reasons we were back East in the first place. We were able to meet up with old friends and make new friends. We only attended one class as the rest of the classes did not apply to our family situation. I am grateful to the group of people who helped us make this trip.

The kids did a lot of swimming. In this picture, Ryan swam over with Sydney on his back and said "Super Goose and his cape" Of course I had to snap a picture :-).

Me with my dear friend Jill Heaps

The balcony view from the hotel. This room was a friend's room. Simply amazing.

Baltimore Harbor

The Aquarium at Baltimore Harbor

Me, Jill Heaps and Linda Iredale

Summer Vacation - Day Six - Capitol Hill

Day six came a bit too early for us. The plan was for us to meet our group at 6:45am to travel to Capitol Hill.

It was Advocacy Day for the Immune Deficiency Foundation and we had meetings scheduled with our Congressman's staff.

Since we got in so late the night before, I went down and got our instructions, and then picked up breakfast for the family so that the kids could sleep a bit longer.

Once on the busses, we settled in for the hour and a half drive to Capitol Hill. Ryan did a fantastic job representing our family and explaining why we were there.

Summer Vacation - Day Five - Wrapping up in New York CIty, and on To Baltimore

Day Five was our last day in New York. I have to say, on one hand I wish we had more time to spend there, but on the other hand I was ready to move beyond the fast pace of the city life.

Brett and Ryan were able to attend the Manhattan Temple, while Sydney and I hung back at the hotel and packed up the rest of our room and went and had breakfast together.

After the temple, we walked through Central Park (no pictures...duh!) and made our way to our final activity while in New York, "The Lion King".

I love theater, and I especially love Broadway Theater. After watching The Lion King, the kids were sad that they didn't come with me to Phantom. Too bad so sad for them.

Immediately following  our play, we went back to our hotel and gathered our luggage. We then took the subway back into Manhattan and walked a bazillion blocks to catch our bus to Baltimore. We were so rushed to make it to the bus on time. I'm really glad we hurried --as soon as we arrived, we learned that our bus was an hour and a half late. Awesome!

A note about our bus ride - The driver was crazy. I prayed the whole way to Baltimore that we would be safe. We were driving through a terrible thunder/lightening/rain storm, and he did NOT slow down for anything.

Aside from that, it was a pleasant ride and for $20 for the entire family, it was well worth the cost.

Summer Vacation - Day Four - More New York

On Day Four we woke up early and headed out for breakfast. The plan was to eat and then to make our way to the Staten Island Ferry so that the kids could see the Statue of Liberty.

Normally, we would have planned to go to Liberty Island to actually see the Statue of Liberty, but it was closed due to the damage the statue received from hurricane Sandy. As our luck would have it, the island opened up the week after we were there. Oh well.

As seen in the last post, I apparently can't figure out the HTML coding to make my pictures sit side-by-side, so you get to see them in a big long line.

After we returned back to Manhattan, we walked and saw the World Trade Center, Wall Street, FAO Schwartz, and Grand Central Station. We were all tired from all of the walking. The kids wanted to go back to Time Square to purchase the souvenirs that they had fallen in love with. While there, Brett noticed a board that showed that many of the local broadway plays were not sold out. Imagine my delight when we saw that there were still tickets to The Phantom of the Opera!!! The kids didn't want to go, and Brett had seen it twice already so he kindly bought a ticket for me and took the kids back to the hotel to swim while I went to the play. Now that was a highlight of New York City for me!

We ended our day at the Empire State Bldg. The kids were scared once at the top and I must say, that was the most expensive escalator ride I've ever taken in my life.

Summer Vacation - Day Three New York

Monday brought some new experiences for all of us. We checked out of our hotel and did some last minute things at the cemetery and then headed back into New York. Our first stop was Ossining, NY. Brett served his mission there and thought it would be fun to go back to the area to show the kids where he lived. Just outside of Ossining is Tarry Town, home of the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, made famous by Washington Irving in his short story about the Headless Horseman. The kids weren't too thrilled that we were going back to another cemetery. I teased them that I was going to walk around to see if I could find more relatives. They didn't think I was too funny.

We got out and took a picture by a bridge and then headed to get lunch. The kids were starving.

Sydney and the Headless Ryan

We made a rule for the trip that we could not eat at a 'chain' restaurant that could be found at home. We had a hard time finding such a place, but settled on a small Chinese restaurant in Tarry Town.

After lunch we hopped into the car and headed for Brooklyn, NY.  The plan was for me to check into our hotel while Brett and Ryan took the rental car back to the airport and then boarded the subway back to meet us. From there we would all get subway passes and venture into Manhattan to see a few things.

 When in Brooklyn, you must have Brooklyn Style Pizza

Our first Subway ride as a family. Funny thing happened at the subway - Brett could not get his pass to work. The lady at the booth was not impressed. Since Brett had purchased 2 passes already, he only needed 2 more for the rest of the family. Well, his wouldn't work and the lady said to him "Are you trying to use that pass for all of you?" Ha!

1st Subway Ride


Straight off the Subway on 42nd Ave we saw this Sketchers store. The guy out front was holding this shoe. It's as big as the kids are.

Time Square - The kids' favorite place

Toys R Us 

Time Square at night

Summer Vacation - A Detour to a Cemetery

On Sunday we decided to take the kids to the beach. The beach in CT is different than the one in CA where you drive up, get out, and walk to it. You actually have to have a pass to get in and it cannot be paid for at the gate, you must buy it at the civic center in town which is about 5 minutes away.

If you get to the beach before 5pm, you have to pay $6 per person plus parking. If you get to the beach after 5pm you only have to pay for parking. It was 4:40 when we arrived at the guard station. With a 5 minute drive to the civic center, and a 5 minute drive back we had a few minutes to kill before going back to the guard station after 5. We had passed an old church on the way to the beach that had a cemetery that was adjacent to it. I am a sucker for old cemeteries. They are fascinating to me and I love paying my respect to people who have come before me.

As we walked onto the cemetery grounds we saw a family name that matched a family name of our neighbors back in UT. The family name is Wogskch - not a name that you see every day. Brett told me to take a picture of the headstone and send it to our friends. I got out my phone and took a picture and sent a txt message to Amy. I didn't think anything more of it and did not see a response until we got to the beach.

My text message back said "Oh my gosh! They have to be related. There are no other Wogskch's! And they are all from New York and Connecticut."

Over the course of several minutes I learned that they knew that his grandparents were buried in CT somewhere, but they didn't know where. I committed to go back to the cemetery after we were done walking around the beach.

When we returned to the cemetery I took pictures of all of the headstones that were linked to this family marker. Turns out that these graves were of his great-grandfather and great-grandmother and her parents. There is not a marker for the grandmother so I promised to go back again on Monday to see if I could find a map to the cemetery that might help me find his grandmother.

Monday morning I was able go back again and go into the adjacent church and ask for a cemetery map and any information that they had to give me. What I found was so fascinating. Grandma was buried on top of Grandpa in a a double-depth grave. There was no marker for Grandma. I was able to acquire a copy of all of the burial certificates and the deeds to the plots of land that they had purchased for $18 each.

I feel very fortunate that we were able to find this information for our friends. It was a random stop at a random cemetery in Stamford, CT. I can't help but feel that someone else had a part in it all.

Summer Vacation - Day Two - Connecticut

We awoke early Sunday morning to get ready for the day. The plan was to go to church in New Caanan, CT - an area where Brett served his mission 19 years earlier. The church was about a half hour from the hotel so we needed to be ready so we could have breakfast and then have time to make it to the church building before the 9am meeting.

Connecticut is such a beautiful state. I keep telling Brett that we live on the wrong side of the country. It is so green there and the trees are lush and beautiful. The only problem is that the price tag of living in such a beautiful area is 10k a month in rent.

There were only a couple of families that Brett recognized the names of. It was fun to sit and watch as he tried remembering who was there when he lived there. We realized that even if he did remember names, the faces would be much different. Young mothers would now be empty nesters as their children are now grown. Everyone there was so kind. I was amazed at how many people introduced themselves to our family and welcomed us to the ward. We live in such a different place. I am guilty myself of not talking with anyone..ever.

After church we drove around the beautiful town of New Caanan. We found Brett's first home, and then recreated a few other pictures he had taken when he was there.

The home Brett lived in while in New Caanan

Later in the evening we took the kids to the beach to walk around in the sand and put our feet in the water a bit. The kids loved seeing all of the different shells and putting our feet in the sand. We let them choose a couple of shells to bring home, but otherwise just enjoyed spending time as a family.

Summer Vacation - Day One

This year we had the opportunity of taking our kids to the east coast for a family vacation. The kids experienced a lot of 'firsts' and we had a great time together as a family. 

Day one began with a flight out of the SLC Airport to the JFK Airport in New York City. This was technically the kids' first flight. (Ryan flew with me when he was 3 months old). We split our seats so that both kids could be by a window. We wanted them to both see the beauty of the world from the air. As we began our flight Ryan looked out the window and said "Wow, you can see the curvature of the earth from here." I had a pretty good laugh at that. Ryan has always said some pretty funny things. The flight was somewhat uneventful for Ryan and myself. Brett and Sydney on the other hand had all kinds of fun. Sydney was terrified of being so far in the air. She was fine looking out the window until she saw something white. She asked Brett what that white thing was and he told her it was a cloud. She immediately shut the window. She was not thrilled at all that we were up above the clouds.

About midway through the flight we experienced a bit of turbulence. Shortly after, Brett passed our seats with a bag in his hand. He had thrown up. Poor guy felt crappy the rest of the day.

We landed at the JFK airport shortly after 3pm local time. It took us a while to get our luggage and our rental car. The kids had never been in a rental car either so it was a new experience for them. 

From the airport we drove in the crazy NYC traffic to Stamford, CT to our hotel. After checking in to our hotel, we went and got dinner. Brett still was not feeling well so it was an early to bed night for us all.