We took a day and explored Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty. The weekend we were visiting was the official reopening of the statue after damage from a hurricane. Because of the re-opening there was high visitation, but we found that we could visit from the New Jersey side and get on and off the island easier. Julia had a hard time imagining where we were going although we described it. When we parked and she could look into the bay to see the Statue she pointed it out and exclaimed “I want to go there.”

The day was pretty hot so the girls were not excited about walking around the island to see the statue from different angles. Once we got inside and had some air conditioning they were more interested. We went up to the statue’s base and enjoyed the breeze and the view. After coming back down, we toured the museum and learned some cool facts about the statue. Emily was most fascinated by the repairs that have occurred over time. Julia enjoyed finding the life sized foot and face replicas.

We ended our visit with a bit of shopping and got our National Park stamps. We promised the girls each a “treasure” from our trip and Julia found hers here. The National Park has made a bison stuffed toy as a mascot for a conservation program. Julia fell in love and named it Honky. Honky the bison enjoyed traveling with Julia for the rest of the trip.

We spent several days visiting our cousins in Connecticut. There was LOTS of swimming time with jumping, flipping, splashing, and just fun. The girls wanted to keep up with their bigger cousins in the pool. There is no motivator to encourage swimming than trying to keep up with active and fun cousins. The weather was warm and sunny and made it a great time to hang out at the pool. We had several meals poolside so we could enjoy our time playing a little longer.

Monkey bread breakfast with four extra helpers!

The boys were great gentlemen to the girls. They were always great to open doors for the girls and to carry whatever the girls were holding. Very sweet! Together they built forts in the living room, played dress up, spy games, explored Lego sets, built with clay, and drew photos. Lots of fun just to watch their play with each other.

Loved this moment of Emily just hanging out with Caleb and him just letting her invade his space. Caleb is not fond of kissing and we discovered this when he exclaimed that Aunt Rachelle and Uncle Robby kissing was “unusual”. For the remainder of the trip we referred to all kissing as “unusual”. Maybe one day he will have a more favorable opinion of kissing.

We made a trip back to Stew Leonard’s to do some grocery shopping and just enjoy the fun store. Emily’s favorite activity in the store was dancing to the Chiquita Banana woman singing. The kids replayed her singing nine times dancing in the aisle each time.

This photo of the kids is from the last visit to Stew Leonard’s. It is great to see how all four kids have grown so much in the last two years.

We needed a stretch-your-legs stop and knew there was a large mall that could meet our needs. We were delighted when we discovered a double-decker carousel. For as much as the girls love carousels this was double the fun. Of course they wanted to ride on the upper level. The mechanism that moved the horses was a bit different than they are used to and Julia opted to move to a stationary horse instead of a rocking one. We were all decked out in our red, white, and blue to celebrate Independence Day.

What did you do for your summer vacation? We really hope someone asks Emily this question when she starts school in the fall because she has a lot of cool things to pick from. We combined visiting two sets of family into one vacation and a few sightseeing things between them.

First we drove to Connecticut to visit cousins. We did lots of swimming and a few sight seeing adventures including the Statue of Liberty. After leaving Connecticut we spent an evening and morning in Washington D.C. taking in a two museums and several monuments. Then, we caught a train in northern Virginia and travelled to Florida, sleeping one night on the train. The next part of our vacation took us to the kids’ Grandparent’s house in Miami and a visit with more cousins. We made one trip into the Everglades between rain showers. The last stop of the trip took us to Orlando to play and swim a bit more.

In total we traveled for two and a half weeks and saw 14 states and cousins. Julia traveled through two states for the first time. The best thing we collected in our travels were great memories of time that we spent together.

We have been waiting for words from Julia and it appears that the wait might be over. Over the last three days we have heard four sentences of two words and one three. The first we heard was her answering a question and requesting to go swimming by saying “me pool”. She was sweet to say it with her hand in the air like a school age girl. Fun stuff.

Emily is quite a talker and seems to have a really good stream of conversation. As she was playing tonight, she was rearranging diapers into a road. She disliked something and exclaimed “Oh, Crickets”. I though it was awesome. I hope to hear that one again.

We played at Emily’s school playground just before school started. It was good for Emily to be able to reconnect with the school this way and Julia just had a blast playing. Mama caught her a few times being particularly sweet. She is such a big girl getting ready for her last year at home with Mama before she starts school. Mama is looking forward to this non-school year to spend some special time with the big girl she is becoming. Honestly, who can say no to those big brown eyes?

Sun-kissed sliding time! Notice the shoes on the wrong feet. This happens most days. We decided that there is not much Julia has within her own control in her life, but she can control which feet her shoes are on. She intentionally wears them on the wrong feet to act out her independence.