Reality Bites

The vacation is over, back to reality - and it stinks. If this weren't a family blog and if I weren't such a good girl I would say this really f*%$ing sucks! I get this way after just about every trip we go on. I go through a depression for a while, and eventually snap out of it. This was somewhat of an emotional trip for me. I hadn't been back to NJ in 7 years, and hadn't been to my Dad's in probably 12. During this time, my grandparents up there (Grandma, Nena and Pop) had passed away, all right around the same time. This was the first time I didn't go to their houses. I did go visit Grandma at the cemetary. I had never been there and it was the 7 year anniversary of her passing. I wanted her to see Ava, and she did.
On a happier note, we had a great time up there. When we first got there the weather wasn't good. It was really cold and rainy. However, after that first day the weather became awesome. Everyday got warmer and it was nice and sunny. We spent a lot of time outside because it was so nice.
I have been trying to write about our vacation for the past 3 days, and I can't do it without talking about how much I hate Florida. If you know me then you already know this - I despise FL with a passion, always have. In another post, at another time, I will list my top 10 reasons why I hate FL so much. Why am I still here? Good question. I think the biggest reason is my own fear. And now I have a family to think about too. Anyway, I will just post about the vaca and not about how depressed coming back to FL makes me.
I have so many pictures to post and I tried to open a flickr account, but for some reason it will not work on my computer. We only have 258! It is hard to narrow it down to just a few. We took Ava to Space Farms Zoo, and she got to feed some animals. She loved it. We also went to High Point Park and drove through NJ, PA, and NY all in the same day! On Thursday we left Ava with my Dad and Yvie and went to NYC. It just happened to be Fleet Week and Brent wanted to tour one of the ships. After we did that we had about 4 hours left to run through the city. We ended up just going through Central Park and Times Square. Central Park looked so different from when we went there in March a couple of years ago. People were everywhere and it was so green! We went through parts that I had never seen too, like Strawberry Fields and the Dairy. We had an extremely overpriced lunch at Mickey Mantles. Ava spent a great day with her Pappy and Granny Yvie and luckily she was on her best behavior. She did the well the entire trip actually. She was awesome on the plane there and back, and she went to bed good and everything. I was worried that being away from home and out of her routine would wreak havoc, but she was better behaved there than at home! My Dad and Yvie threw a party for us and there were a lot of people there, and she mingled around and was being pretty social.
To sum it up, it was a very successful trip. Ava got to spend time with her grandparents, Brent got to see NJ for the first time, and I got to eat Jimmy Buff's which are the best hot dogs in the world. If you are ever in West Orange, NJ, you have to go there. You can thank me later. We really miss Pappy & Yvie! Ava has been saying Pappy!
Here are some highlights:
Day 1


Day 2




Day 3




Day 4

Day 5




Day 6