Spring break / 80th Bday (end of March)

This past Spring Break, we were heading out to New Jersey again.  This time to celebrate my mother-in-law's 80th birthday!  I'm glad it coincided with Spring Break - that way we were able to spend a few extra days with Grandma and Pop-pop.  And thankfully, at this stage, the boys still don't mind road trips!

Nothing like starting out the road trip with snow though. There's at least a couple of inches of it already in the yard!

Snow is so powdery! I wish we had that when we were snowboarding:

Always so pretty though when it snows:

These birds are probably so confused lately! They just came back recently into the birdhouses.  I hope they are warm enough:

Well, before the trip, we had to plan for Grandma's birthday.  I managed to find a couple of pretty pins.  And we figured, it was time for another clay painting. These boys couldn't be more different when it comes to selection of colors.  Graham has greys and tans and reds, and Charlie has mostly blues!

We found a cute sloth with a little tray.  Each kid gets to paint half a sloth:

Like I said, these two boys couldn't be too different.  I hope it will look better once it gets out of the kiln:

And since we are at this clay painting spot, we figured it was a good time to get Pop-pop something too!

Team effort to draw and paint this BBQ plate.  Doesn't look too bad:

The first day of driving was uneventful, thankfully.  We started with snow in Illinois, then the rain stopped when we were in Indiana.  By the time we stopped at our first pitstop in Ohio, it started to sleet! And then, it just drizzled the rest of the way for our dinner stop.  Boys opted for Red Lobster - surf and turf!

Another dreary day the next day! Blaaaah!

First stop for lunch, McDonald's.  Thankfully, fastfood is only allowed during road trips:

I've been sticking to filet-o-fish:

Omg, it's going to be forever on I-80!  I suppose it's good in a way that I don't have to worry about missing any turns.  Ha ha!

The initial plan was to have a surprise party at Grandma and Pop-pop's favorite diner.  But instead, we've opted to have a nice dinner at uncle Doug's golf club.  Everyone is dressed up :-)

And I finally found my Pandora bracelet too. So happy to finally add my little gecko (bottom center) that the boys bought for me as a memory for our Malaysia trip last summer:

Ooohhh... steak is looking very yummy.  And looks like Charlie is already eyeing it. Ha!

And someone is tucking into my pasta!  That was really yummy too, rigatoni with a lamb ragu:

I'm surprised Bobby went with the chicken. He is always the steak guy and the waiter confused his meal with the fish.  So he has to wait a few extra minutes for his food to show up:

Charlie seems disappointed with his mahi-mahi.  But all the food was super yummy:

Okay, photo time! Except Charlie totally photo-bombed this one:

There - much better.  Mom and her boys:

Mom and grandkids.  So happy that everyone is here!

What a beautiful dinner.  Love this!

The next day, we are on the train heading into New York city.  I have an appointment at the Consulate General of Malaysia to renew my passport:

For whatever reason, Charlie is doing this 2-thumbs up thing.  Little stinker.  Ha!

The train ride took about 50-some minutes.  Not too bad at all.  Then, it's about a 30 minute walk from the Penn train station.  Quick family we-fie with the Empire State building, but we can't see it!

There it is!

The appointment went smoothly.  The only unfortunate thing is that the passport machine is broken, so it will take a few extra days to have the new passport made AND I had to submit a pre-paid envelope.  It was about $30!!  Normally, it would be a same-day process.  Oh well, in any case, that means we don't have to walk back to the Consulate and we can do some extra sight-seeing.  

Check out this door - Impressive!!

 This was the door to the Permanent Mission of India.  I'm no sure how it's different from the Consulate General of India.

We walk towards the Grand Central Station. I've been to NY a few times but have never walked through here - it's the Grand Central Market.  Not very big but very cute and full of stuff to buy and eat!

O. M. G... the main foyer of the Grand Central Station is MAGNIFICENT!  The ceiling is something else! Not sure if you can see it in the photo below, but there's constellations painted and it's beautiful!

But before we can wander around and take more photos, we meet up for lunch with Bobby's nephew.  What a nice coincidence that Matthew is working right downtown as well :-)

Lunch at Pershing Square was yummy.  Graham and Charlie obviously included time for dessert too.

Okay, back into the Grand Central Station.  These chandeliers are something else!

We were wondering why there was an Apple signage by the stairwell.  I guess it's because they have an entire store on the next level.  Wow!  I wonder how much they pay for rent at this prime location:

Family we-fie!

Oh, and due to unfortunate circumstances, Bobby is now just back to just consulting work at home. And therefore, able to spend the rest of his time with us on our road-trip!

 

Just can't seem to take enough photos of this train station.  Just spectacular:

The outside of the building is pretty spectacular too.  I guess you just have to be there to see it as well:

I'm glad Graham is still having fun with his film camera:

We are heading back to Penn Station and find some interesting sculptures along the way. These are so realistic!!

And of course, there's always time for Boba along the way.  Graham gets a strawberry smoothie of some sort and I had a passion fruit tea.  Yummy!

We were suppose to walk over to Time Square but on our way to the Malaysian Consulate earlier, Graham noticed the flagship store for Harry Potter.  I guess this is where we're spending the next hour before our train ride home:

He keeps wanting a wand and we obviously keep saying no!

I thought this was so cute - Charlie is so small compared to Hagrid (yes, I actually had to look it up!)

Later that night, it's time for Grandma to open here birthday presents.  This is probably my favorite.  I think I need a "giveashitometer" too!!

And the plate for Pop-pop turned out quite nicely.  So glad he loves it!

And Grandma also loved her "split personality" sloth. Ha ha, too cute!

The next day, we were supposed to meet up with another cousin to go fishing.  But unfortunately, that didn't happen.  So we wandered off to a creek nearby.  Looks peaceful until a car drives by!

Nothing biting, so we drive a bit more and find a lake:

Graham has wandered off elsewhere:

As long as he doesn't walk into this really thorny plants!!

It's starting to get a tad chilly, so it's almost time to go! No fish today :-(

Later that night, it's time for Grandma to measure the boys' height on her wall.  He he, Graham is definitely grown!

Charlie is now eye-level with Grandma :-)

Both boys have grown an inch since earlier this year.  Wow!

And it's time to play some Uno:

Can you believe it, our 2nd game took about 1.5 hours. Crazy!!

And Charlie wins all 4 out of the 4 games that we play. What?!

It's finally time to leave.  We decided to swing by and visit some more relatives on the way home.  And Graham and Charlie managed to score a couple of sloth stuff animals.  Lucky kids!

I guess I shouldn't be surprised if we're seeing Amish horse and buggies in Lancaster, PA!! Except it's really slowing down traffic and the huge semi-truck in front of us is trying to find the right opportunity to overtake it:

We also saw a couple of outdoor clothes-line hanging from the ground level to the next floor up - with clothes drying the entire way.  That was quite the sight!

We finally leave NJ after 5 days.  Charlie snagged my blanket and made a little cave for himself:

He better not be playing on his phone the entire road trip!

I still love taking photos of bridges :-)

Speaking of bridges, the Baltimore Key Bridge collapsed !!  It happened on March 26, when a cargo ship that lost power hit one of the pillars.  Crazy!!

We stopped in Lima, Ohio before calling it a night on the 2nd last leg.  And the next and final day, we see Chicago!

And... the traffic!!

I decided that we should try out another restaurant while we are driving through Chicago.  Might as well, right? 

They did run out of donut holes since we were there towards the end bit of lunch.  But I've never seen a restaurant serve 4 eggs over hashbrowns before. That's a lot of eggs for one meal!!

Charlie's meal was massive too - and it was a kid's meal??!

Needless to say, lots of leftovers to make a breakfast burrito!

And look, we are home and the potatoes that I've left in the garage are growing.  Ha!!

The daffodils are in full bloom and unfortunately, are just flopped over:

It's beginning of April and it's still so cold!  We had snow one day this past week and then a mix of snow/rain and then, just rain. It's only just slowly warming up. Hopefully no more freezing nights?! I think some of my other indoor plants are also ready to go outside!

Happy 80th birthday to my mother-in-law!  I'm so glad we were able to celebrate it with her and the rest of the family! XOX