Never Forget

We visited Ground Zero earlier this year. This is what it looked like in March. Click here to view the post from our trip.

Here is a picture of a plaque that hung in the temporary memorial.


Our lives changed forever on September 11, 2001. Never Forget...

The Couples & their Babysitters

We are so lucky to know so many good people. I just wanted to take a minute and share some good things about these good people. These are the couples we convinced to go on our wild adventure with us. They all had to make arrangements with other great people to watch their kids for a whopping 7 nights and 6 days of babysitting.


THE MINNICKS
Jared & Elizabeth
They have 5 boys. Yes, FIVE boys. They are great friends and we love 'em like family. Elizabeth's mom, dad and friend Michelle took care of their kids.



THE CHRISTOPHERSONS
Robb & Kari
These guys have 6 kids. Kari is Jeremy's sister and they live next door - in case you didn't know that already. Robb's parents planned to watch their kids the entire time, but had some health issues to deal with for a few days. Kari's parents stepped in like troopers and took over for those few days - even though they should have been on their own vacation at the time (thanks for filling in you guys!).



THE "OTHER" WARDS
Matt & Aimee
These guys have 3 kids. Matt is Jeremy's brother and they also live next door. Their babysitting arrangements were a little different than the rest. Their kids got to go to the coast and spend the week with Kelly and Julio (Kelly is also Jeremy's sister). The kids thought they were getting a vacation!



THE WARDS
Jeremy & Jennifer - that's us!
Yep, we were the ones that started this whole shenanigan. We have the best 4 kids around. My mom agreed to take the kids for us. She stayed most of the week at our house and ran the kids here there and everywhere. We came home to a clean and quiet house - she kept the kids at her house on that last night so we could have time to rest for a few hours after our long night of traveling. She is the best - what else can I say?


So, if you were keeping track, that was 18 kids we left at home - yes EIGHTEEN KIDS! We couldn't have done this trip without all those great babysitters. You guys ROCK! We appreciate you so much! We really are so blessed. We love you guys. Thanks for making this trip such a great experience for all of us.

Couples Trip Day 6...The Final Chapter

We made it home around 5 am this morning (Thursday) after a delayed flight and a episode with a crazy woman on the plane that had to be escorted off by an air marshal at JFK forcing us to taxi back to the gate (ask me and I'll tell you about it sometime). Nevertheless, we're home and it feels great. I have been looking at our daily trip blogs and noticed that those entries towards the front of the trip were a little more lively and lengthy. We'll see if we can remedy that with our final trip entry, here it goes.

After getting in extremely late the previous night, we had a later morning before spending our last few hours in New York. Knowing that we had to leave that afternoon, we wanted to make the most of our time so, we started off by catching the subway uptown to eat at the Seinfeld diner. Seinfeld fans will recognize that shot below

All of us on the trip (ok...Matt, Robb Jared and I) are big Seinfeld fans, so this was a must. Ask us any Seinfeld trivia and Matt, Robb or I could answer it. You're impressed I know...



The real diner is called Tom's Diner, locally touted as the inspiration behind Suzanne Vega's song "Tom's Diner". Of course the diner looks nothing like the one on the Seinfeld show, they only used the the outside for "exterior establishing shots" as we learned that they are called.


At the least it fulfilled my pancake craving, they tasted great!


We then caught the Subway again and stopped off to see the New York Temple




It was cool to see such a metropolitan temple. I wish that we had time to do a session, maybe next time




We then jumped back on the subway going downtown to tour battery park where we saw the statue of liberty.




The last time we were here they allowed you to climb the stairs to the top, but in the post-9/11 world they only allow you in the bottom section of the big green lady and only if you have an appointment. That's the statue just off of my left shoulder, if you can see it...




We opted out of the ferry out to liberty island due to the weather and instead headed over to ground zero. Ground zero was a site I'm glad we visited. They have erected a make shift memorial on the grounds over the new subway station.




I saw one visitor in tears reminding me know how powerful the experience is still for people. You could watch all the construction underway through the holes in the netting draped over the fencing



It was quite fascinating to watch them work



Catching the subway back uptown, we then headed to the Soho area (stands for south of Houston street). Little Italy and Chinatown are near and we wanted to do some shopping for some shirts and souvenirs for the kids before heading home. There's Jennifer posing on Mulberry Avenue, the heart of Little Italy



After walking through a few of these shops you figure out quickly that you've seen one, you seen them all. There are a lot of nasty looking meats and dead birds hanging in the windows in Chinatown. Jennifer watched this Chinese dude place a snail in his mouth, suck out the contents, and then spit out the shell. Awesome. I tried to tell her how cool it would be if she did that, but she wouldn't listen. In any event, with our shopping complete (lotsa little bits of junk), we headed over to Little Italy to go to the country's first pizzeria- Lombardi's.



This place dates back to 1905. Jennifer and I watched a segment about the country's greatest pizza on the travel channel prior to leaving and decided we had to give it a try. We had the traditional, pepperoni with fresh basil and fresh mozzarella. The Minnicks had a tomato and spinach pie.


While there, our waiter invited Jennifer and I to go and check out how the pizza's are cooked in the back kitchen. We jumped at the opportunity as we wanted to check out the coal oven we had heard about. The pizza chef was very nice and invited us back into the kitchen to check it all out. Friendly looking guy, isn't he- notice the insignia in the background



Jennifer took some pictures of our pie cooking inside



This oven (coal) was HUGE, they used this 8 foot pole to get to all of the pizza's in it.



Supposedly, there is a great debate as to which person, the original owner (Lombardi) or his pizza chef (we'll call him Pete), who later broke away and started his own pizzeria, brought pizza to America. That's a picture of the two below, chef on the left and Lombardi on the right.



Debate aside, the pizza itself tasted great. Definitely some of the best we have ever had. Getting short on time, we then had to hustle back on the subway to get our bags at the hotel make the long subway ride to the airport. Being as it was around 5 pm, the subway was packed and I got the feeling that the locals didn't particularly enjoy the millions of bags and carry ons that our entourage had brought.The flight felt long, but we were both very excited to see our kids.

We have been talking together and with the kids about the trip this morning. A lot of great experiences and memories that we will be talking about for years to come. I had a couple of impressions. First, we enjoyed the many nice people we met in Boston and New York. I was impressed with the number of people who walked up to us and offer support or help when it looked like we needed it. Second, I sure love how and where we live. It was cool to see such impressive and historical things, but it made me realize how much I love living where I live near so many family and friends. Finally, After reviewing all of the entries, I have one word for myself, diet. Man we ate a lot of food.

Also, I will be working to place short little videos of the trip throughout the past few entries. Come and check them out if you want to see a little of our adventure.

Day 4- The Big Apple

y 4 took us to New York City, the granddaddy of em all. Jennifer and I have been to New York once before, but with so much to see and do here, once was not enough. An early wake-up call in Boston allowed us to arrive in New York, via the subway fairly early.

Speaking of the subway. We got lotsa good riding time in this week. The subway is amazing to me, such a vast underground system.


Here's what it was like




Once we checked into the hotel, we got back on the subway and did some of the New York things like, stopping off at Madison Square Garden for a tour. They call it the "greatest arena on earth". I told the guide that obviously he had never been to the Save Mart Center.




Here Matt weighs himself on the same scale used by the professional boxers before a match. Notice the scale topping out on weight...



touring Rockefeller Center...



Eating a New York hot dog from a cart (man look at her go)...



Catching the St. Patrick's Day Parade (really just a people marching around with green on, don't let anyone tell you different)


And taking a tour of NBC studios at 30 Rock. Here we walked on the nightly news set, saw the Saturday Night Live set and Jared and I even got to do a fake news cast from one of their prop sets.



Along the way, Jennifer and Aimee had to give there man, Michael Scott, a big 5...




For dinner, our group went to a place we have always wanted to go, Ruth's Chris. This is a southern place that was once just called Chris's Steak House. Chris sold to Ruth and thus it became Ruth's Chris.




It was awesome. Not our cheapest meal on the trip, but we did up spending less then we planned, made us pleasantly surprised.



The group stops for a moment near Times Square. Man that's a lot of lights.



Steak and sweet potatoes can leave one feeling a little heavy, but we still had one more stop for the day,



The Empire State Building!





After going on a skyride (think star tours new york style) on the second floor, we made our way 86 floors to the observation deck. Fastest elevator I have ever been on. Once on top we saw views like this


And this



The wind was blowing hard and it was FREEZING!


Check out the video below




They lit the building up green for St. Patricks Day



Matt and Aimee pose for a quick pic in the chill.



Elizabeth and Jared pose inside the lobby




Our hotel is a couple of blocks from the Empire State Building which we were planning on walking after leaving the building, but this guy (who makes a living off of tourists like us) offered to take for a 30 minute drive around the city for a decent price, so we all jumped in.


We cruised Rockafeller Center, Central Park and Times Square. Being that this was the first limo Jennifer and I have been in together, we felt big time.




Finally, we wanted to say hi to Trevor, Logan, Lizzie and Jackson. We miss you and we'll see you soon!