New York or bust (part 1)

Two weeks ago, we took a road trip to upstate New York. This has been in the works for months. We actually began planning it about a year ago. My grandfather passed away 14 months ago, and we held a memorial service for him two weeks ago when most of the family could be there. Two weeks ago, we took a road trip to upstate New York. This has been in the works for months. We actually began planning it about a year ago.

My grandfather passed away 14 months ago, and we held a memorial service for him two weeks ago when most of the family could be there. We aren’t ones to take a restful vacation, so we crammed a lot of family time into less than three days in New York! (A little more background info – my mom and dad’s families live in the same area, so on Friday we spent a lot of time with my mom’s family. On Saturday, we spent time with my dad’s family. Saturday night, we invited people back to our hotel.)

The baby did pretty well with most of the trip up. We drove 8(ish) hours on Wednesday, and stayed in Maryland for the night. On Thursday, we made a pit stop in Hershey, PA at the outlet stores and then made it to Binghamton around 4. We had a quick visit with my aunt (who came by our hotel) and then dinner with my grandma and another aunt, both of whom had driven the day before from Asheville.

Dinner was at Little Venice. The food was great. Unfortunately, we happened to have reservations during a charity dinner the local baseball team (Binghamton Mets) were a part of. The place was packed, and the service left a lot to be desired. The baby and I ended up having to go walk around outside of the restaurant, so everyone else could finish eating.

Friday was the service, and Lucas only talked (loudly) once during the service. It was a good interruption, too. My grandpa would have been proud. 🙂 Following the service, the family had a luncheon/reunion since we haven’t seen people in many years (and nobody had met Lucas!) Some photos from after the luncheon:

Following the luncheon, my grandpa’s sister had people over to her house, so we ended up there for several hours. My mom’s cousin has a new grandson, and Lucas got to meet him on this trip (as well as another cousin’s baby, which we’ll get to in another post!) Lucas finally got used to being around babies his own age and then we came home. (We have to work on that – his interaction with other babies, and not toddlers.) He liked to talk loudly to Dylan.

You’ll also notice a theme in some of our photos – the water bottle. The baby became obsessed with water bottles on this trip. We finally made it back to the hotel after 8, and ordered pizza and wings from Nirchi’s (ohmygosh YUM.) There was ice cream that night, as well. So much yumminess.

(I had this ice cream once. The next morning, we quickly realized that Lucas’ stomach couldn’t handle it, so I skipped it on Saturday night. It was divine, though.)

Next up….Saturday. More family gatherings and more babies!