Road Trip to STL - Benjamin's 1st Bday

 

We spent Friday driving most of the day.  We did spend Friday night in Hannibal, MO, the birth place of Mark Twain!  That was interesting.  We walked around had dinner and spent some time down by the river.  We also picked up some really cool mustaches which we donned when we arrived in St. Louey!    When we arrived in disguise nobody recognized us....although we were told to be quiet, which was hard with such fuzzy upper lips.



Anyway, we quickly got settled in with our cousins and proceeded to have a great weekend!  It was hot, so we played in the fountains downtown which was fun.

 

Sunday we celebrated Benjamin's 1st Birthday and Josh's 3? Birthday, even though we were a little early it was nice to be able to celebrate in person!  Cake and pizza were had by all.

 

We also spent the day at the JCC pool which was fun....and a concert in the park!

Click here for more pictures.
Also, see Grandma Hillary's Pictures here.

Tubing

This weekend, The Sellers, Joeb, Summer, Anderson and Brody invited us on their boat. We drove to Lake Waconia and went out on the lake.  The kids...and Miriam went tubing for the 1st time.  They had a great time!

On Sunday we took a bike ride to Kowalski's!  This was Olivia's first "real" bike ride (outside of the neighborhood) without training wheels.  There were lots of streets to cross, she likes to push the buttons at the corners....

See some pictures from our day on the boat and a video of some of the tubing here.

The 2013 Lubin Summmer Road Trip - Eastern Excurison:Part 3

Day 10 - Sunday (550 miles)
Today we left Albany and headed straight through to Auburn Hills. Early on, we were treated to one of the most amazing rainbows.  It was a full arch and extremely deep and bright. In some areas there were even 2 at a time.  The kids were as amazed as we were and took a ton of pictures from the back seat and the through the sun roof.
We made a few stops along the way but nothing for longer than a few minutes, so when we stopped and got out we got a little crazy.....11 hours in the car will turn you into a vegetable!(hah)

Day 11 - Monday (100 miles)
We drove out to Kennsington Park in Michigan to meet Suzy and her kids half way between Auburn Hills and Lansing.  There is a small water park within the park and we spent a few hours there visiting and playing in the water.

Later that night we went over to Tony and Christine's house and met the Lee's and Gus for dinner for one last hurrah with our Michigan friends!

Day 12 - Tuesday (200 miles)
Tuesday morning we had breakfast at Lita's and got back on the road.  We waffled a bit about stopping in St. Joe or driving all the way home...but in the end decided a day at the beach would be good for everyone.

The lake was cold.....

but we got used to it and the weather warmed up as the day went on.  We had a great time at the beach, played in another spray park and had a nice relaxing pizza dinner, before heading to the hotel.

St. Joe never disappoints!  See some of our past St. Joe trips below...always a great day at the beach!

2012

2011

2009

Day 13 - Wednesday (550 miles)
Wednesday we could not leave the hotel without trying out the pool and getting our complimentary breakfast....but we then got on the road for our last leg of the trip.   We tried not to stop too much, our goal was to get home in time to pick up Cosmo before the Hound Dog Hotel shut down for the night.
We got home early enough to pick up Cosmo from the HDH and even though we had a great trip, everyone was happy to be home!
Total Miles Logged @ 2,850 
Total Hours in the car @ 55

See the last set of pictures from our trip here...

The 2013 Lubin Summmer Road Trip - Eastern Excurison:Part 2

Day 6 - Wednesday (300 miles)
So Wednesday ,we woke up on the NY side of Niagara Falls.  We spent some time in the hotel pool playing and then got on the road for a final leg of our Eastern Excursion.  300 more mile and were in Albany...again on time for dinner.  This time Uncle Billy was the guest of honor!  Of course, we went to the Barnsider so we could have cheese and crackers and popcorn!

Day 7 - Thursday (0 miles!)
Today was car day.  We returned our lease and picked up our new car....everyone was very excited!  It took a bit longer than expected.  The kids went to the park with Grandma and Grandpa while Miriam and I were at the dealerships.  Then we went to watch "Smurfs 2"....as you can see in the picture below I was dressed appropriately, however, not having seen the first "Smurfs" movie I was lost and ended up taking a nap. It was just Smurfy!

Day 8 - Friday (100 miles)
Today was Great Escape day!  Once Grandpa got home from work we hopped in the new car with the intent to drive to the Great Escape only to find out we already had a flat tire (the car had less than 50 miles on it!)  So we spent some time at the dealer and left the car there before heading to Mr B.'s for lunch and then finally reached Great Escape.....once we got there we studied the map and there was so much to do, everyone was a bit uncertain where to start...see below.  It was a beautiful day, the lines were short and it was not too hot....perfect Amusement park weather.  We rode a ton of rides and saw part of the diving show from the Gondola.  Then we stopped at a golf course for ribs (of course) on the way home.

Day 9 - Saturday (close to 0 miles)
The Urbachs were in town for the Camp Schodack BBQ and alumni event so we got to see Marc, Dawn, Mikey and Mathew.  Unfortunately, Steven and his family did not make it in to town on time to meet us.  We met at the pool, had lunch and caught up.  The kids all played together really well, it was fun to see them hang out.  They had fun jumping off the diving boards....there is a video at the link below.

Later in the afternoon a lot of the extended family stopped by the house for dinner.  It was great to see everyone; GG Pearl, GG Rene, Aunt Roz, Aunt Barbara, Nadine, Michael, Brian, his wife and his kids(Lola and Baron - who we had not met yet), Jessica and Bob.  The kids had a great time talking with everyone!  Isaac especially enjoyed having an audience for his jokes and riddles! 

See some more pictures (some from Grandma Hillary as well) here...

It was great to be back in Albany...it had been so long since we have been home.  We were so happy to see everyone...only wished we had more time!