Easter 2015

Sarah came in from Chicago late Thursday night and we picked her up Friday morning for some brunch at First Watch. After spending the day together, we dyed eggs together at my parent's house that evening.

Saturday morning, my mom, sister, and I got to spend some time together shopping and having lunch at the Greene, which was really nice. While we did this, Yusaku had some Daddy/Daughter time with the girls. He took them to a kids workshop at Home Depot, followed by a visit to the petting zoo that was set up at Town & Country. There were lots of cute farm animals there apparently. :)

Since Sarah had to head back to Chicago kind of early in the day on Sunday, we had Easter dinner at my parent's house on Saturday with the Kawais. Somehow, I don't have a picture of all of us at dinner. It was very nice though! After dinner, the girls hunted for plastic eggs around the outside of my parent's house.

Sunday morning, the girls opened their Easter baskets and found all the eggs hidden around our house before we changed into our church clothes and met my family for Mass at St. Charles. After church, we headed to my parent's house for a lunch of egg salad and some visiting before my sister had to head out. It was a lovely weekend!

New York Trip...the last PITT stop! ;)

We drove as far as Pittsburgh on Tuesday and spent the next morning checking it out before drove the rest of the way home. First, we rode up the Duquesne Incline and enjoyed a nice view of the city.

We made the impromptu decision to visit the Pittsburgh Zoo after that. It was nice to have some family time that was a little more relaxed. By this point of the trip, Yusaku was finally feeling better (thank goodness!). We all had a good time and it made a nice end to our vacation.

New York Trip...Meeting Lemi

We got into New York Saturday afternoon and after dropping our luggage at the hotel, we headed straight to Yosuke and Manami's apartment and we got to meet Lemi! She was so tiny and sweet! Olivia was taken with her little cousin right away. She did a great job holding her. It was so cute to watch Olivia with her. Natalie, on the other hand, wasn't quite sure what to make of her. She preferred to check her out from a distance.

We hung out and visited for a few hours before heading back to our hotel to get ready for bed. We got up Sunday and walked to the American Girl store, where Olivia's doll (Sylvus) got a much-needed trip to the salon. ;) After that, we headed across town to an awesome children's bookstore called Books of Wonder for storytime. We grabbed lunch across the street at a delicious cafe afterwards and headed back to the hotel for a little rest before meeting Yosuke, Manami, and Lemi for some frozen yogurt in their neck of the woods.

Monday we decided to visit the American Museum of Natural History. If I could have foreseen how this would have turned out, we probably would have skipped it. It was super crowded and both kids were quite grumpy. We gave up on it about two hours in despite having seen very little of it.


We split up, with Yusaku and Natalie heading back to the hotel for a nap and Olivia and I heading to Central Park to stroll around. The beautiful scenery and fresh air was a much need break after the museum experience. Olivia especially enjoyed practicing her mountain climbing skills, scaling the biggest boulder we could find.

When Natalie woke up, she and Yusaku joined us in Central Park.

We squeezed in one more quick visit with Manami and Lemi before we had to hit the road. Even though parts of the trip were stressful, we were so glad we glad we got to meet Lemi. Can't wait to see her again at Thanksgiving!

New York Trip...First Stop: Hershey, PA!

We had been planning and looking forward to our trip to New York (by way of Hershey, PA) for a long time. The week before we were supposed to go, everyone came down with strep throat and we almost had to cancel our trip. We decided at the last minute to keep our plans and push through, which may or may not have been a good idea. :)

Since Yusaku was feeling pretty miserable at the beginning of the trip, I drove most of the way from our house to Hershey. Saturday morning, we got up and headed to Hershey World before driving the rest of the way to NYC. We took a little ride-on tour where we learned how chocolate is made and then headed to the "factory" to make our own chocolate bars. I have to say, my children look especially cute in aprons and hairnets!