The Statue of Liberty

{August 7th} We left Washington DC this morning and our next hotel destination was in New Jersey.  Since we were only 20 minutes from Baltimore, we decided to detour and find Charm City Cakes.  If any of you used to watch Ace of Cakes, then you know right where we are.  The GPS said it was only 20 minutes from our hotel....ha!  Little did we know we would be driving and hitting EVERY single red light in the city of Balitmore.  After about 40 minutes, we finally found it, long enough to jump out of the car and take a picture.  That was it.  

We had planned to stop in Philedelphia to visit the Liberty Bell and such, but we decided to skip it and just get to the hotel.  We were glad we did.  It ended up really raining that afternoon.  Here we are waiting for dad to check in.  This was the BEST car seat arrangement ever.  Andie could help with Caleb and pass back things to the girls.  Thanks Andie!

That night we hung out in the hotel.  To say it was a bit stressful to find, we didn't dare venture out at night in Newark, NJ.  Fortunately, they had a fairly priced restaurant in the hotel and guess what we ordered....PIZZA!  Yep - that's 3 nights in a row, are you seeing a trend?  I'm assuming is was a New York style pizza, because it had a semi-thin crust and thin on the sauce - but it was seriously, one of the best pizzas I've ever had!  Delicious!  We also ordered a bowl of cream of broccoli soup and the kids and I slurped that right up!  It was so good.

{August 8, 2013}  The next morning, we headed from Liberty Park in NJ on a ferry boat to the Statue of Liberty!  It was AWESOME.  Above, is a picture of Andie and Adalyn and Ellis Island (below as well).

Here are a million other pictures for our family to remember this fun adventure.  When I was little, I would have never thought I would be able to see the statue of liberty.  Now, my kids have seen it, and the little ones won't remember it, but we have pictures to prove it!  So cool.  If you are ever in NYC, I highly recommend it!

It was so neat to see the city across the river.  If I didn't have 4 little ones, I would have been willing to venture in.

They all loved the ferry ride.

Lady Liberty.

We got to the island and they had a free listening tour.  Everyone got their own device, which was great.  They had a kids tour starting on channel 200 and adult tour on channel 400 (or something like that.)

I believe they said this was the original torch that is now in the bottom museum part.

We had tickets to take us up on the pedestal.  You could take stairs all the way up to the crown, but no, not with 4 little kids.  It was 200 stairs up to where we were standing and that was tall enough.  We took the elevator!

The Brooklyn Bridge

Looking down at the star level and then further down at the ground level.  We were HIGH up!

Shawn and Caleb and NYC

This was inside the museum.  A replica of Lady Liberty's face.

We walked around front and took a picture.  The girls loved listening to the tour!

Pretty neat, to have your family in front of the Statue of Liberty. 

Here we are on the boat ride home.  We had thought, if we had time, that we would ride over to battery park and walk up to the 9/11 memorial, but as you can see, the kids were done for the day.  My watch said it was 3:00pm (we got there at 10:30) so we were anxious too, to not be stuck in rush hour traffic in NYC.

There she is one our way back.

Well, we had about 4 hours to finish our trip and arrive at our final destination...Keene, NH.  We plugged it into the GPS and had a small tour of New York, crossing the longest tunnel ever from NJ to NY for only $18 (yeah, take lots of cash for toll roads)

Shawn tried to get a picture of this cool air force ship.

We ended up taking the 91 up North.  Shawn and his parents took the 95, but this road was SO pretty.  They couldn't have taken it with the moving truck, because the bridge clearance was only about 9ft.  I think that's what made the drive nice too - no semi's. 

We thought about all the pictures we should have taken.  Like the Welcome signs to each state.  We saw and pointed out Welcome to South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire.  It seems like there was one other - but you get the picture.  11 states in a 17 hour drive - not bad. 

Welcome to New Hampshire!

Here we are.  We made it!!  It was nice to get in, around 5:30 and still have some daylight.  It was also nice to walk into a house full of boxes - we didn't have to unload, which was great.  Thank you again, to all who did!

Since we had just got into town, we decided we would go out one more time to celebrate our new home.  We let the kids decide and they choose Pizza Hut.  That is pizza 4 nights in a row - all from different places and all delicious!  Good thing we all love pizza.

We were glad that we were able to travel safe and arrive safe.  We did have a small issue with the rain driving up to New Jeresy and then driving up to New Hampshire - the passenger floor was flooding - and we didn't know where it was coming from, but we now got it fixed (we think!)  We sure did love this family vacation and look forward to the many other places we can visit while we are here in the North East!  Happy Traveling!

Washington DC or BUST!!!

{August 5, 2013} - it's time to start our journey towards New Hampshire!  We got the kids up nice and early and left about 5:00AM from our friend's house.  Today was going to be the longest driving day - our goal, Washinton DC.  (about 10 hours away!)  The kids slept until about 8am.  Then started playing and enjoying the ride.  I love Caleb's little leg!

I drove until 9am, then needed a break.  Shawn took over and was a great driver.

One tired mama!

We stopped about 10:00am for breakfast at McDonald's.  It was perfect - nearly half way through our drive and we were just stopping for breakfast!  The kids were doing great.

Caleb loved the pancakes.

Each of the girls and their water.  They did so great on the drive, little fighting and whinning.  We were so blessed.

We made it to the hotel by 3:30pm.  Not too bad!  We took a little break, then went and got some domino's pizza for dinner.  We then headed to the Washington DC temple for Family Night!  We visited the temple ground and inside the visitor's center.  It was great.  The girls loved being there and so did I.  What a perfect family night!

Each of the kids took a picture in front of the temple.  As you could tell, Caleb was not too happy....we quickly learned, he did NOT like the grass!

We got him on a little blanket and he was a little better, not much.

A couple walked by and we asked them to take our picture.  It turned out pretty well!!

The three sisters wanted their picture taken by the water fountain.

SO PRETTY!!  It's breath taking at night!  I love it!

We got back and got a good night's rest in the hotel.  I think we all sleep until almost 8:30am - which is sleeping in for us.  We enjoyed a yummy free breakfast at the hotel (I really think that is our favorite part of hotels).
{August 6, 2013}We drove into DC today.  We had a small list of things we hoped to see.  We tried to find parking near the Lincoln Memorial and walk from there - but guess what, no parking near there.  We told the girls we were driving past it and Andie said, "Check!  What are we going to see next?"  So, they didn't even see Lincoln, but that is alright.  We finally did find parking and then started talking.  We saw the Washington Monument.

 Then stopped in front of the White House

 We were glad we took the double stoller - everyone had a turn to take a break from walking.  Ali always thought her turn was the shortest.  (haha)

 We stopped by the Boy Scout of America statue for lunch.  PB&J on the go!

 Then we went to the Museum of American History (I think) and saw the Navuoo temple sun stone

 Then we headed over to the Museum of Natural History (I get all the names confused).  We saw all sorts of dinosaur skeletons, stuffed wild animals and such.  I know I took a lot of pictures there, but for some reason, they are not in my folder.  I wonder what happened to them?  How sad.

 Moving on.  After the Smithsonian, we were fortunate enough to meet up with come very good friends of ours.  Blake and Shawn were best friends growing up.  I meet Saleela a few years ago when they came to Atlanta, then we saw them on our trip in November 2011, when Shawn and I took a trip to DC.  Now they have an adorable little girl, with one more on the way!

 We met at a quaint little rooftop park, in down town Bethesda for a picnic pizza dinner.  This time, pizza was from Costco (Thanks Blake and Saleela!)

 We had a great time together!

 It is so fun to see Shawn open up whenever he is around Blake.  Many years later, and they are still such great friends.  They always just pick up the conversation that was from their childhood.  It's fun to hear them!

Here they are with their babies.  We had a great time in DC.  The girls were so excited to be there, since Shawn and I had gone beforehand without them.  When we entered the 2nd Smithsonian (with all the missing pictures!) Andie proclaimed, "Every time we go on a vacation in New Hampshire - I want to come here!"  I'm so glad they loved it and were able to see what we saw.

My baby boy is turning ONE!!!

It's finally here.....GRADUATION!!!!!

YIPEE!!!  He did it, it's official, and he has a cap and gown and one long ceremony to seal it all up!  I'd like to introduce you to DR. SHAWN BRODERICK, ph.d 

Well, first of all, the supporting crowd.  After a quick 4 day trip to move things up North, Shawn and his parents returned just in time for graduation the next morning.  Here are all our little ducks, sitting in a row.

 Pomp and Circumstance.  The Police Chief (guy holding the sword) led them all in

 About 10 minutes in and the smiles are all gone.  The opening invocation lasted about 15 minutes - no joke.  Longest prayer EVER.  I think the guys was sad he wasn't asked to be the main speaker, and put in his 2 cents anyway - but, it was SO long.

 Then a few more talks and whatnot.  Then it was time for the hooding!  Shawn was within the first few minutes, which was great.  The kids wouldn't have been able to handle much more.  We roamed the halls until the end of it all after Shawn went through.  The official "hooding"

 YEAH!  He did it!

 Here we are, with Dr. Kilpatrick, Shawn major professor.

 Fancy outfits.  Way to go Shawn.  After the ceremony, Dr. Kilpatrick had invited us all out to lunch at the Savannah Room.  It was really delicious.  On the walk back, Shawn and I were talking and mentioning how it didn't really feel like graduation.  Unfortunately, the move was the bigger focus at the time, but never the less, he did graduate, and it was a great day.  I feel like the better day was when he passed his defense - that is when I felt that is was DONE and time to celebrate.  What a great feeling!

 Naturally, because of graduation, I organized and held a party for my husband - and even ordered his this beautiful cake...OOPS....no I didn't.  Fortunately though, my good friend Kelly took care of all that for me.  She had invited us over for dinner that night, and I hadn't even thought about a graduation party or cake.  She had ordered this for us and said that it said "Congratulations Broderick's" because we were all part of the last 5 years.  Thanks Kelly - you're the best!

 So happy!  It's so great when so much time, effort, energy, prayer, sacrifice, and trail pays off.  We truly are blessed to have be able to accomplish so much, to have so much and to learn and grow from it all.  We wouldn't change any of it!

The most exciting thing....we are finally done with graduate school.  For the first time in our marriage, one of us won't be attending school!  Hip-Hip - HOORAY!!!

New Hampshire Bound!!!

The first time we moved across country, we were a family of 4...barely  Andie was 20 months and Ali was just 4 months.  This was about 5 weeks after we got to Athens.  They were so little  :) 
Now we are a solid family of six - and boy of boy, we sure do have a lot of crap stuff!  So, here we are again, at another exciting cross-roads in our life. We are moving from Georgia to New Hampshire! Crazy! Click on this link to see 5 years ago, when we were moving from Utah to Georgia! (One thing that made me laugh is remembering that I used to think Utah was so green! haha)  I sure was glad that we had a extra bedroom downstairs to pile our our moving boxes in.

Once again we were so grateful for all of the people who came and helped us move.  It only took about an hour or so to load the truck.  Most of that was organizing and tying boxes off before we could move on.  The above pictures it just with the missionaries.  But we had tremendous support from the ward. 

Here is our cute little family and our "love fern" ready to make the move to New Hampshire.  We were given this plant when Caleb was born and it has died many times, but keeps hanging on.  She survived the move just fine and is still with us.  Poor neglected plant (I should go water it!)

Andie and Ali on the morning the van was driving away.  We were really lucky that Shawn's parents were willing to help Shawn with the drive up to New Hampshire.  Come to later find out, he drove the whole way (oh well) - but they had a good time and enjoyed seeing the northern part of the country.  They took a day in Washington DC and were able to walk around and see several of the sites.  We're glad they enjoyed their trip.

The kids and I hung out back in Athens for an extra week because Shawn was graduating later in the week. 

We were so lucky to stay with our friends, the Palmer's and LeAnn helped me come and do the last of the cleaning to check out.  Good-bye 8A, you've been very good to us!

We had a wonderful week with the Palmer's, who ended up letting us stay with them the entire week.  (We were planning on just sleeping in our apartment, but they quickly persuaded us to come sleep on their beds and couches instead...we were spoiled.)  It was a fun week, just relaxing and having nothing to do.  We planned on Shawn driving the truck up early, so we could make a family vacation out of it.  What a great idea!  We sure miss Athens and all of our good friends, but it's so exciting to move forward on our journey!  Whatever and where ever that may be!  For now, the next step is New Hampshire....ready or not!

(We're going to freeze!)