Adventure #75: The Shore

"In Jersey, we don't go 'to the beach.' We go 'down the shore.'" - Unknown

June 6, 2016

After living in Jersey for nearly a year, we've had more than our fair share of strange looks when we asked questions about the beaches here. Someone had to explain to us that what we call "beaches" are what everyone here calls "the shore." It took us a while, but we finally took a trip to the shore... and Maria HATED it!  Most of our time on the sand consisted of Maria begging us to pick her up, nearly in tears, and Maria crawling on top of us so she won't have to touch the sand any more... as pictured. By the way, we went to Ocean City if you were wondering.

She was happy looking around and touching the water if we held her, but that was it.

Her reaction was a little concerning only because our summer was filled with vacations to the beach with family and friends. We figured she would get used to it because quite frankly, she would be kind of forced to. Maria wouldn't even stand on the towels. haha 

Jordan wanted to try to take her to the water again. He tried to show her some shells and Maria pulled this face:

Can you believe that? She was so disgusted! I didn't even know that was an instinctive "this is so gross" face! We were laughing so hard and just kept doing it again and again. 

We even tried to put sandals on Maria to see if she would walk on the sand. She lasted about 0.2 seconds and then started crying again... lol

Ocean City had a huge boardwalk! Maria was extremely tired and so we walked up and down the boardwalk. Jordan was so excited to see Goofy Golf. Every time Jordan's family visits their extended family in Florida, they go to a place called Goofy Golf.

Within a few minutes of walking up the boardwalk, Maria conked out. We even reapplied sunscreen on her arms and legs and she still didn't budge.

Jordan and I had a blast looking at all the shops, rides, and food along the boardwalk. We just walked and talked without a worry in the world. It was pretty much a date with how long Maria slept. We really did love the entire experience there and can't wait to go back again!

Adventure #74: Fun in Philly

"One happiness scatters a thousand sorrows." - Chinese Proverb

June 3, 2016


Jordan finished his first year of podiatry school!!!! Ahhh!!! I am so proud of him and all of his hard work. Even though school was finished, he needed to pick up some things from his locker. So we made a trip of it.

Jordan's school is right next to Franklin Square where they are currently having a Chinese Lantern Festival. We hadn't gone yet because it costs so much money at night. But since we were there and it's free during the day, we checked it out. Definitely worth it!

I can only imagine what it looks like at night, but it was so neat during the day, too! There were so many little details... and so many pandas! lol

This walkway was particularly beautiful.  :)

Our most successful family selfie of the day. It was perfect, minus Maria's chubby little foot in the bottom left-hand corner... but I'll take it. :)

Also close to Jordan's school is a little Italian place. They have some delicious and ginormous calzones. I could only finish half of it. And Maria wasn't too thrilled that she didn't get any. Maybe next year, munchkin.

It was easier and cheaper to take the train and so on our way home we had a cute little experience. There was a man sitting a few rows away that Maria kept smiling at. But then she would get bashful and lower her head and look away. For at least five minutes it was the same thing, back and forth, smiling then bashful. I wish I caught it better on video, but this will have to do:

Adventure #73: The Park

"The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache." - Marjorie Pay Hinckley

May 20, 2016

With the warm weather and Maria moving around more than ever, we decided to spend an afternoon at the park. We could not believe how much fun we had! The first thing we did was put Maria in a swing. She could not stop giggling and we loved it!

Here's a video of her first few swings:

Then we tried swinging with her on our lap, but it wasn't as much fun (in her opinion).

The park had this awesome spinning thing for little kids so we gave that a go after the swings.

This park is amazing because it even had a blocked off area for the very little kids to crawl around and was perfect for Maria.

We enjoyed seeing Maria experience new things, and we were also glad to get some fresh air. The last thing we did at the park was take her down the slide.

Here's a video of her first time down. I think she was a little scared, but still liked it.

I forgot to mention that before we went to the park we gave Maria her first hair cut! It wasn't anything major. We mostly just trimmed the few areas that were much longer than the rest of her hair. We were pretty proud of ourselves and we thought it looked good.

Adventure #72: NYC

"The city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world." - F. Scott Fitzgerald

May 18, 2016

One of my best friends from high school, Felisha, was graduating with her masters from Columbia AND she was singing the national anthem. She invited us to attend and we were so excited! It was an exciting event and it would be our first time in NYC. Of course we hit an extra hour of traffic on the way there, which we had planned for, but there was enough traffic that would make us barely late. I had even reserved a parking spot a few days before, and the parking garage turned us away. He said they had accidentally booked too many cars. Jordan and I were trying to decide whether I should make a run for it while he searches the city for another spot when the man who had just turned us away said that he would take our car. We were so grateful! Then we started booking it to the school.

I was running to the school, leaving Jordan with the stroller behind. I didn't want to miss Felisha singing, but we were already too late to meet her sister at the gate for tickets. I kept running. I was praying that I would at least be able to hear her from outside the gate. Luckily, within a minute of getting to the gate, I heard them announce that Felisha would be singing the national anthem. She started singing and I started crying my eyes out. It was so gorgeous. Jordan and I decided it was the best national anthem we had ever heard!

But seriously, I felt so many tender mercies that morning: The parking garage taking our car even though they were full and running quickly enough to hear Felisha sing. Heavenly Father really does answer our prayers and this experience was a huge reminder of that. 

Columbia has a BEAUTIFUL campus! Jordan and I kept saying to each other how cool it would have been to attend school there. Of course, we would never have been able to get into to Columbia, but it was fun to dream. The graduation ceremony itself was also amazing. And again, Jordan and I were wishing we could have had the same experience at our graduation ceremony. Oh well, at least we really enjoyed attending Felisha's. :)

After the ceremony was over, we travelled with Felisha's family to Time Square. It was fun finagling a stroller through the subway system... (that was sarcastic if you didn't catch it). But once we made it down there it really was a lot of fun!

Of course there are lots of characters hanging around. They were almost clean enough to take a picture with, but then I used my eyes to see the Elmo fur all greasy and matted... So I took a picture from afar. So non-conspicuously... That's my shoulder on the bottom left. I was pretending to take a selfie... Why do I do such weird things?!?! And why do I share them?!?! Sigh... moving on.

This sounds like a super cliche thing to say about New York City, but the building really are sooooo tall!!! You feel so tiny looking up at the sky scrapers.

We got some hot dogs and some much needed rest after walking so much that day. Maria was a little cutie pie with her cheerios. 

Felisha's family had tickets to see the Lion King on broadway, so after they left we walked around a little more to check out everything. There were definitely things there that I never want to see again in my life, but it was kinda fun being surrounded by so many people and so many things going on.

Jordan always does a good job at keeping our munchkin happy.  :)

It was a long trip home... walking, subway, more walking, driving, traffic, detours, etc. Maria was so tired that she just snuggled in my lap watching Disney. Overall it was a fantastic day! I was surprised how dirty and smelly New York City was, but I'm excited to see other places there, too.

Adventure #71: Valley Forge

"Naked and starving as they are
We cannot enough admire
The incomparable Patience and Fidelity
of the Soldiery."
- George Washington at Valley Forge

May 12, 2016

As Jordan's classes have started to wind down, we have had more time to do things as a family. One particularly free day Jordan took us to Valley Forge. It was only about 40 minutes away and boy, was it so beautiful in that area. We went to the small museum first (which I forgot to take pictures there!), and then we headed out to the fields.

It was so green and it just seemed to go on forever. I keep finding it amazing that at places where such hard and terrible things happened, it is now beautiful and peaceful. Pictures do it no justice either. We didn't know much about Valley Forge before visiting, but we know and appreciate it all now.

They have some replicas of the cabins the Continental Army stayed in during the Revolutionary War.

Jordan even had to duck to step inside one of the cabins.

And this was the best picture of all three of us...  lol

I had no idea Valley Forge was such a huge area. It's impossible to walk around and see everything. They have specific driving routes so you won't get lost.... which we still did a few times. I think that being completely surrounded by the replicas, monuments, and actual artifacts, and not being able to see anything else, made it feel like we went back in time.  

One place we stopped for a while was at the National Memorial Arch. It's on top of a hill and just pops out above the surrounding trees. 

There were beautiful wild flowers there and Maria was wearing yellow... so we couldn't resist taking some pictures. She did not enjoy sitting on the grass, but she did enjoy playing with the flowers.

There weren't very many people at Valley Forge the whole time we were there, but luckily, we ran into some people at the Arch who took our picture.

We just thought every part of this arch was beautiful.

As we read the inscriptions, Maria wanted to touch them. 

As we drove around we saw smaller monuments for each colony represented in the Continental Army. This was for Virginia, so we had to snap a picture. :)

Adventure #70: Our Little Comedian

"Laughter is an instant vacation." - Milton Berle

May 8-11, 2016

This little girl never disappoints in the humor department. She always finds a new way to make us laugh.

As you can see, she recently discovered how fun it is to smash her face against the glass.

And sometimes we find a way to make ourselves laugh.... lol

Adventure #69: Maria es una Colombianita!

"Food is our common ground, a universal experience." - James Beard

May 5, 2016

For Cinco de Mayo we were craving some Latin food. We probably should have had Mexican food, but we wanted Colombian food more. We found an amazing place only 10 minutes away from us!

I don't remember the name of the dish Jordan got (pictured above), but I got the Arroz con Pollo. And of course it came with some fried Plantains (my favorite!!!). 

Maria was only satisfied with her Cheerios for so long... so we gave her some platanos. Needless to say she enjoyed them very much.

Lots of people in the restaurant started to notice and said she's a salsa dancer! haha We had so much fun watching her dance while eating some yummy Colombian food! Sorry the next picture is blurry, but I wanted to show how neat the decor was inside. And the rest of the walls are filled with other vibrant decorations.