Our Incredible New York Trip: Day One

About a year ago, Kevin's parents received their mission call.  My guess as to where they were going was Palmyra, NY.  I was close.  Their mission is actually the Rochester NY mission, but Palmyra was in it.  As soon as I heard, I figured that would be a great place to go visit!

Growing up, my family always heard about a place called Beaverkill, NY, where my mom and her family stayed for a week or two each summer.  There were two houses there; one where they stayed when they visited and one where her grandparents lived.  She had many fond memories of that place.  It was always her dream to take her kids to Beaverkill.

As soon as Kevin and I started planning a trip to NY, I told him I wanted to go to Beaverkill as well if it was close enough.  Lucky for me, it was only about 3 1/2 hours away, so that became part of our trip itinerary as well.

Next, I knew that while it would be cool to see Beaverkill, it would be even more cool to see Beaverkill with my mother.  She and my dad both jumped right on board and came on our trip with us.

Day one of the New York trip actually happened entirely in Idaho and Utah, but since it was the beginning of the travel, it still counts as the first day of our trip, right?!
 

Traveling down the interstate with a banana tree in the back--just funny so I had to take a picture.  The banana tree was on its way to Ross and Megan.  The banana tree we have had for 7 years had two baby banana trees before it had bananas, so we donated one to them.  Anybody else want one?  We have two more sprouting!

It was so, so nice to have extra adults along to pack the luggage!  I packed as conservatively as I could (only 3 suitcases, a bag of swimming suits, and a back pack each for Kevin and me), but we had a stroller, 6 kids, and three car seats to haul as well, so it was quite a load. 

We had a totally awesome 11:45 PM flight on July 9.  For some reason, all the flights to Rochester were night time flights.  Natalia had some good adrenaline pumping and she's happy to be there anyway!

When we got to the airport, we found out that our flight was delayed TWO HOURS!  Oh brother.

Grandma Kathy is an experienced traveler--she's been to China more times than she can even count, for heaven sake, but traveling with six little girls added a new dimension to the event!

Mari was quite a trooper.  She doesn't generally stay up past 8:00, 9:00 tops, but she held out clear until 2 am!  Good thing we had that bottle and lid!

Again, happy to have the bottle.  Thanks for buying those, Grandma.  An interesting side note--there were several troops of boy scouts also awaiting flights in the airport.  Lots and lots of them.  They were on their way to a jamboree or something like that.   Good to know someone could do a good turn for us if needed.

Hooray for Grandma's Netflix!  Even the excitement of the airport wears off after a few hours.  Note Grandpa Reese in the background.  Hat in the tree, backpack for a pillow, handkerchief over the eyes.  He lay there for a long time.  Not sure how much was sleeping time, but at least he rested.

Natalia finally gave in about 1:30 or so.  

Anna followed suit after a bit.  Kevin just closed his eyes so he could feel like he was asleep.

Mari held out the whole time.  I mistakenly thought she'd go right out on the plane, but she didn't.  The airplane had little eye masks and earplugs on each seat.  I was grateful to know that at least the passengers next to us could block out her crying/screaming, because there was nothing I could do about it!

That first flight was kind of just something to be endured, not enjoyed.  All of the girls did sleep some, but Mari probably slept the least.  Go figure.  The upside to our long layover in SLC was that our layover in the JFK airport--which was a much busier place--was much shorter than it otherwise would have been.  That flight--to Rochester--was a lot more enjoyable.  It was daytime and everyone was pretty cheerful.  I got to sit by Eliza and loved to see her reactions to the take off, flight, and landing.  It was so fun.

A great, tiring start to our trip!  And so ended day 1.