new york!

for the bubba's 16th birthday trip he chose to go to new york to spend a few days with auntie alli. they left thursday night (the 13th) and came home sunday night (the 16th). for lexi's 16th birthday we went on a girls trip to ocean city, but apparently that's not the most fun thing for a boy. plus also, he has a february birthday, so no beaches involved. i suggested a weekend of snowboarding, but no dice. it's pretty nice and convenient that ny is a cheap and short'ish bus ride away!

brunch with the auntie. and aren't they hilarious.

i'm not sure...

they had a really good time. chris did some research and picked out some things he really wanted to do. alli wanted to take them to see a show on broadway, so they chose matilda, which they all enjoyed. chris also wanted to try authentic new york pizza, which they did.

alli wanted to take them on a hop on/hop off bus tour, so here they are. alli's roomies tagged along. so alexis almost died laughing telling me this funny story about the bus tour. they were all sitting in the very back on the top of the bus. alli's roomate (carlos, maybe?) was wearing a baseball cap, and when the wind blew, it flew off, but they were stopped. so carlos told chris to run off the bus and get it for him, which he did, (good boy!) and also which they filmed. he dodged through traffic and no one had run over the cap, so it looked like it was going to be a happy ending. but wait! as christian was running back to the bus, the bus takes off. commence alli and alexis screaming/laughing "oh no! stop the bus! someone tell the driver!" finally the other roomie went to tell the driver, while carlos calmly reminded the crew that the driver would have to stop at the red light just up ahead, and christian was returned safely. oh those silly kids and their shenanigans.

they went to the top of the rock and it was terrifying to my afraid of heights bubba, but he did it. :)

i love to travel and am glad i can send my kids off on fun adventures. i am glad they are such good friends that they want to go on fun adventures together. and i am glad that we have at least one relative that is within 5 hours of us.

their bus came back sunday night. the sunday night that started the storm that dumped 6-10 inches of snow on our little county and surrounding areas. bytheby, i am totally making that number up, but in my expert opinion, having been involved with dozens of severe snowstorms this season, (ok, that's an exaggeration) that's what i would guesstimate. and it's always awesome when one can say (or type) guesstimate.

 

anyhow, bad snowstorm brewing sunday night. i was pretty sure school would be cancelled on monday and so we debated changing the ticket to come home monday night. but we didn't know for sure, and since chris is applying for the tech center next year, we're really trying to watch his absences. and we also didn't know if the weather would be even worse on monday, or if it would be bad on their bus route on monday and the bus would be cancelled and then they could be stuck in ny. anyways, after hemming and hawing all afternoon, we finally decided that i would go sunday night and just drive really slowly. and that's what i did. i gave myself 2 1/2 hours to get to baltimore and took it nice and easy. the snow was pretty heavy and visibility wasn't great, but slow and steady wins the race and we finally made it home 5 hours later. Two 16th birthday trips down, three to go! thankfully we've got 10+ years to think about the next one. ;)