Summer Travels, Part I

We got back from our first trip last night! New York City and my whole family-- what a week! You won't be shocked to hear that I took very few pictures of the entire event. But trust me, we had a great time. And we're completely exhausted from everything. Here are a few pictures along with stories whenever necessary:

All of the cousins from the Bentley side of the family, from l-r: Kendra, Samuel, Caleb, Bentley, Eliot and Ryder.  What a crew!
We all met up at Leah and Brian's house in New Rochelle.  It was nice that there was a place with plenty of room for all of us!

Ryder enjoys sitting in Eliot's special chair

Riding the train into the city

Tracy very generously bought tickets for us to see Evita on Broadway!  It's one of my favorite shows, so I was super excited to get to see such a great production of it!  And added bonus-- Tracy and Rachael watched all of the kids so we could really enjoy it!

The actor playing Juan Peron has also been on Natalie's favorite TV series, Fringe, so Natalie was extra exuberant!

For our other day in the city, I insisted we visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I hadn't been there since right after my mission, so it was time to re-visit some of my old favorites!  Here, Kendra enjoys looking at the armor (and the horses).

Ever since visiting Mount Vernon, Bentley has been a big fan of George Washington (a fact which pleases me no end).  So I LOVED this picture that Craig snapped.

Getting crazy with Aunt Tracy

We didn't actually plan to all wear pink.  It just happened.  Aren't we cute, though?

I guess Craig chose to ignore the pink rule.  That may have been for the best...

I love this.  When we walked into this room, I asked Kendra if she could find the picture that we have at our house.  As soon as she spotted this Van Gogh (which I've had a print of since I was in high school), she got so excited she ran to get Bentley so she could point it out to him, too.  They both stood pointing at it jumping up and down-- my Mom commented that it was the most excited she'd ever seen little kids get about artwork.  That made my little humanities heart so happy that we needed to document it!

Those are all the pictures we took. I know other family members took more, so hopefully they'll email to me (hint, hint) and then I can add them to the blog.  Not pictured much is all the food we consumed: two trips to the Shake Shack, one trip to Mughlai, a fabulous Indian restaurant, two trips to Levain Bakery (best cookies in the world.  Really), barbecue on the 4th...  We ate like the complete gluttons we really are but try not to be.  Maybe all that walking around worked off a little of it, though?  Right?

Also not pictured was the fact that my kids kept getting sick!  Kendra had some weird rash all over her a few days before we left, but it was fading by the time we were in New York.  But then a few days later Bentley got it, and in addition to the fever and general sleepiness Kendra had had, he decided to throw up all over himself and me.  That was on the 4th.  It wasn't my best day, I have to admit.  And then by the time we were leaving, Ryder also had spots all over him, although he seems fine other than that.  So, yeah, we're exactly the kind of houseguests everyone hopes for!

So now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that none of the other cousins come down with whatever they had.  Please?