I Love New York!

I guess in my heart, I will always be a Yankee. I can't help it. I love the hills and the snow and the country up there...

Connor and I went to New York this past week to visit my sister, Dorothy, and her family. She had come to South Carolina to visit and paint a mural for Connor's nursery a few weeks before Connor was born, but had never gotten to meet him. So, I planned a short trip during her winter break. (In places where they actually HAVE a winter, I guess they have to celebrate it with an extra week off of school. They still get a spring break, too.)

So anyway, Connor and I flew out this past Tuesday. Connor was so cute in his traveling outfit! We flew out of Oklahoma City to Albany, switching planes in Dulles (Washington DC). Connor was so well-behaved on all the flights! He slept part of the time, and flirted with the passengers around him. In fact, on one flight there was no one sitting close to him that was making a big deal over him, and I got a kick out of watching him look anxiously around waiting for someone to notice him. Poor thing!

When we got to Albany, Dorothy & Gwendolyn (who is 2 1/2) picked us up we got started on the 90 minute drive to her house. It was about 6:30 and I hadn't eaten since a very early lunch, so we decided to stop for dinner at a Friendly's off the interstate. For those of you who don't know, Friendly's is usually a nice little sit-down restaurant (probably like a Denny's). Well, apparently we stopped at a Friendly's CAFE, which is part of the same chain, but is really a hole-in-the wall fried chicken joint in a gas station. Appetizing, I know. However, Connor was crying so we made the best of it and got back on the road.

About half-way between Dorothy's house and the airport is a little town called Cobleskill that has a Super Wal-Mart. Since this would be the easiest place to stop for groceries, we decided to pull off and do some quick shopping. Then, rather than getting back on the interstate, Dorothy decided to drive the back roads home. The only problem with this is that you're passing through a number of small towns with small-town cops that will pull you over for a broken headlight. Dorothy had JUST found out on the way back from the airport at a toll booth that she had one of those, and of course the small-town cop in the next town over pulled her to give her a ticket for it. She explained the situation, and since it wasn't a big deal he was just going to give her a special kind of ticket that gave her 24 hours to get the problem fixed and inspected and she could send in the form and have the charges dropped. No big deal, right? So we sat in the car waiting and waiting for him to come back. After what seemed like an eternity, the other policeman came to the window. He asked Dorothy if she knew that her car registration had been suspended for an insurance lapse. Not only was it news to her, but to top it off Dorothy hadn't been able to locate her registration and insurance information in the glove box. We even had to borrow the policeman's flashlight, but it just was not there! So there we were at 10:00 p.m. at night in the middle of nowhere with 2 babies (one crying - mine of course) and 2 policemen trying to figure out what to do because it was about 10 degrees and technically they were supposed to confiscate the plates and have the car towed. And Dorothy's house was still about 45 minutes away. So the ever-so-kind cops took pity on us and wrote a second ticket for driving an unregistered car and let us go.

Early the next morning Dorothy went to the DMV to clear the whole thing up, and basically just had a $16 fine to pay from 2 months ago that she hadn't known about. We decided that it was a good thing I was with her, because the ONLY reason they let us go was because of the babies. I'm sure they didn't have room in their patrol car for all of us, and it was late and cold. If it had just been her or Jimmy in the car, they would have had to pay for the tow, impounding, AND the $16 fine.

Fortunately, the drama on our trip didn't continue, and the rest of the week was relatively uneventful. It did involve several late nights of talking, however, and one GLORIOUS 2 1/2 hour nap for me!! It snowed every day except the day I flew in and the day I flew out - which I loved of course! And we had a great time visiting and playing with the kids. Connor enjoyed playing with his cousins and eating the cheese puffs Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Jimmy fed him. And Uncle Jimmy especially loved snuggling with Connor. Here's a few more pics I took. (I think Jimmy hid whenever I had the camera out... somehow I missed him.)

Tristian in coke-bottle glasses and "handwarmers" Dorothy knitted

Gwendolyn in the coke-bottle glasses

Gwendolyn and Connor in their sleepers - so cute!

The kids playing horsey on Dorothy!

Gwendolyn's up-do

Connor & Tristian