Mount Vernon, New York, and the 1st Day of School

Amy wanted to do a few things while she was here. One was go to Mount Vernon and the other was go to New York. So we did.

We all packed up one day for Mount Vernon. We had a nice, hot day there. And then a torrential downpour as we left, but that's another story.

In front of the very impressive house.

Christian pouting.
Later Christian was seen getting in trouble for said pouting.
But I guess that's another story too.

Posing as the Washingtons and Custis family.
Did you know Washington never had any kids of his own? His wife had 2 children when they married, and then they raised these 2 grandchildren.
Interesting, huh?!

And a funny one.
And Addie wanting in on the action!

Amy and I drove the 5 hours up to New York Monday morning, stayed the night, and came home the next afternoon.
It was quick but it was fun.
I took a grand total of 7 pictures there and only 2 included us in them.
I just don't know what my problem was!!!

Oh, and we had 3 celebrity sightings! We saw Bridget Moynahan eating breakfast with a male friend, Mischa Barton walking her dog, and Taylor Swift going into a restaurant with her family.
We were pretty proud of ourselves. :)

Here I am posing with my knish that I bought from a street vendor.
Doesn't that just sound so New York!
I was so excited that throughout our stay I bought a knish, pretzel (icky!), and gyro from street vendors. :)
It's all about the little things.

At Central Park.

Here is the construction for the World Trade Center Memorial at Ground Zero.
It's going to be beautiful.

And then Wednesday the kids started school.
8th grade for Alexis and 6th grade for Christian.
Can you even believe we have 2 middle schoolers?!
Ugh.

Amy was in charge of first day pictures so this is what we got. :)

Walking off to the bus together. I thought about walking with them, but then I came to my senses and realized they would hate that! There are about 20 kids from our neighborhood that ride the middle school bus and they love getting together in the mornings to hang out before the bus comes.

Exciting stuff, huh?!