Not-so-Black Friday

Today, we went hiking in Hacklebarney State Park. It was so much fun because there was a creek with a few small waterfalls.

After hiking along the creek, we stopped by a river that the creek fed into and had lunch. We ate turkey sandwiches, animal crackers, pumpkin pie, and hot chocolate.

There were a bunch of different trails, so we decided to take a different trail back to the parking lot, especially since it went past a playground. When we were about halfway to the playground, the trail split. Michael wanted to take the trail that went away from the playground (he wanted to hike some more) and I wanted to head toward the playground and the parking lot. So we compromised. Michael did more hiking with Katie, Jonathon, and Nathaniel and I went to the playground with Timmy, Eliza, and Christian. We played for about 15 minutes and Michael and the rest of the kids joined us. We played Mom Chase and Dad Chase. That game has been a favorite ever since Jonathon was little. Michael or I are the chasers (sometimes at the same time) and if we catch any of the kids, they get tickled. Of course, when Michael is the chaser, they get tackled, then tickled. They love it!

On the way home, we saw a farmer's market and stopped to see what they had in the way of food. Wow, was it expensive! We just got some solid gold cider doughnuts and water. They were pretty good, but I think the ones from Terhune Farms are better. Not only are they cheaper, but they seem more fresh, tastier, and are softer.

All in all, it was a really fun, family day!

The Last Trip of the Season

Michael took Jonathon, Christian, Nathaniel, and Eliza to Six Flags Great Adventure again last Saturday. There were almost no lines at all of the rides so they got to go on a lot of the rides before they had to come back for Christian's soccer game at 2:15. I'm so glad we decided to get season passes. The kids have had so much fun going with Michael. Well worth it since they went 7 or 8 times!

One of the rides they went on was "The Dark Knight." It is an indoor roller coaster that is almost pitch black. This picture was taken at an unexpected fall.


Michael bought this picture because of Jonathon's expression, but I think all of them are funny. Christian said he closed his eyes almost the whole time and this was probably the most animated that Nathaniel got on any of the rides.

Two Free Days

The kids got yesterday and today off of school because of Rosh Hashana. We didn't get these days off when I was a kid because I grew up in Arizona where there aren't a lot of Jewish people. It's kind of nice to have the Jewish holidays off.

Whitney and I wanted to take the kids out for breakfast before school started, but with one thing or another, it didn't happen. On Tuesdays, my mom doesn't work, so yesterday seemed like a good day to go out for breakfast so that my mom could come too. We went to the Skylark Diner for breakfast. One of my favorite things to get there is fresh-squeezed orange juice. The kids always get hot chocolate for breakfast no matter where we go. It was interesting to have 10 kids and just 3 adults at one table, to say the least.

After breakfast, we went to Giamarese Farm. They have a pick-your-own pumpkin patch that I wanted to take the kids to. When we got there, we saw that they also had PYO apples and they had already started doing the fall hayrides. We picked apples (I think the kids got about 10 pounds), then went and picked out 8 pumpkins (one for each member of the family.)

Last, we went on the hayride. It was so fun! The farmer (he drove the tractor that pulled the two trailers) told us all the foods that they grow on the farm as we drove past them. He stopped at the horse and brought him closer. Then he stopped again near the piglets and the chicken coop. There were 3 little pigs. One was pink (Pinky), one was black (Inky), and the other was brown with a pink stripe around the middle (Stinky). Then he brought a chicken around the trailers so that we could pet her. She was so soft...

Twice, Timmy found one of these carts and got into it. This time, one of the workers saw him and wasn't too happy to see him in it. At least he was really nice about it.

Today, we brought in the huge GeoTrax train set that we have been storing in the shed. The kids (and I) had a lot of fun setting up the track. It was a challenge to find a few battery-operated engines with their matching remote control. Timmy likes to carry the engines around with him and take them in the car when we go out. We managed to find two out of five.