Hotel Time

The kids and I landed in New Jersey on July 6th, but unfortunately we couldn’t move into our new place until August 3rd.  Cody found us a nearby serviced hotel to stay in for the time being.  It had one bedroom, a living room, and kitchen area.  Jade slept on a pull-out sofa and Ridge slept in our pack n play.  As you can imagine, staying in such a small place with two very active children got old quick.  Pretty sure the kids explored every possible play area within the first day or two, including--but not limited to--jumping on and off furniture. 

 

Oh, Jade, what’s that in the cupboard?

  

Wait.  Now let’s see if you can both fit.  Ok now we’re having fun!  Can you just stay in there for awhile?

  

Oh, also, spinning on the office chair and banging pot lids together, hiding behind the curtains… I can’t remember what else, but let’s just say we did in fact have complaints on us.  Jokes on them though because we unplugged all the phones and put them on top of the fridge so Ridge would stop making prank calls. 

 

I probably made it to day 3 before I took the kids to Wal-mart to pick out some new toys.  Wow they were in a good mood and played really well for oh, about a day after that. 

We still only have the one car, so we have to take Cody to and from work everyday.  It is only 10 minutes from the hotel, so it’s not bad.  When it wasn’t raining, we would stop at a nearby park on the way back from dropping him off every morning.  I found one I particularly like because it is shaded pretty much all day.

 

 

The kids still got plenty sweaty, though I will say the heat and humidity still did not even come close to competing with Hong Kong.  We could at least stand to be outside after all.

Ridge surprised me with his climbing skills. 

  

And his appreciation of nature. 

  

He also still loves to swing.  I hope he never grows out of his excitement for it.

  

I think it is safe to say the tire swing is also a big hit. 

 

Another saving grace was the weekly playgroup our new ward organizes.  One week the kids swam at one of the gal’s houses.  She also had guinea pigs, which Jade particularly loved.  I guess she’d never seen or heard of them before because she kept calling them “skinny pigs.”  It was too cute, I almost didn’t want to correct her. 

 

We found a couple things needing fixed on our car.  Good news, it was still under warranty; bad news, we had to drive it back to the dealership near Queens.  We dropped the car off and had one of their guys shuttle us to the nearby New York Hall of Science for the day. 

  

The repairs ended up taking longer than expected, so we had to leave the car and get a rental.  Then we drove back on Saturday with Cody.  After we picked up our car, we made a day of it and went to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens. 

 

 

The kids would probably say the playground was the best part.  I would say trying the food from the vendors was my favorite. 

  

  

We thought it was cool to drive past Yankee Stadium.  We’ll get to you one day. 

A few other happenings while we were in the hotel:

For a Saturday breakfast, we tried out one of the local bagel places. 

 

We fell in love with the car cart at the grocery store.  Has to be one of the greatest inventions.  And the fact that the store is actually big enough to accommodate the massive thing is heavenly.

Jade absolutely loves going to primary every week.  One week the drawing she brought home looked like this:

She explained that it is of our family praying; Ridge is the one laying on the floor not folding his arms. 

Jade was ecstatic to receive a package in the mail from her dear friend, Nora, in Hong Kong.  It only got better when she looked inside and found a friendship necklace Nora had made for her.  We adore Nora and family!! 

And last, but of course, not least:  I found a doctor and had a 3-D ultrasound.  Baby Boy is looking as healthy as can be with those big, plump lips of his!