Jordan Family Road Trip…Day 21 June 10, 2011

A lazy Sunday. Normally we are up at the crack of dawn (7:30 am LOL) to take Lance to the nature center so he can do his volunteer work with the carnivorous plants. But being on vacation we all got to sleep in quite a bit.

We decide to head to Lebanese Grill for lunch. Apparently it’s better than the old La Shish, which was to die for good. And the reviews were spot on! We ordered a fatoosh tawook salad and a huge platter of various meats. The garlic paste was simply amazing and none of us could get enough. On the way out I decided to buy the bottled house dressing (I could literally drink the stuff!) and I got to talking with the owner. I mentioned that we were from Texas and he asked how business was down there. I said it was booming and he should consider moving down there and opening up shop. What can I say, I’m an opportunist:)

Then it was off to the Stoney Creek Nature Center, a favorite of ours since the kids were toddlers. My boys have always loved nature and animals and when we lived in Michigan the older boys attended many kids programs and homeschool classes there. A new building was built after we left and it’s incredible! It’s the best nature center that we’ve ever been to.

 

My beautiful sister and niece!

Miles was obsessed with the beehive, for some reason.

We had big plans for the evening. Spending it with dear friends and their 5 kids that we see every time we’re in town. They have 4 girls and 1 boy and it’s always a challenge at first for the kids to acclimate to each other. But they always do and they always have a total blast.

Their son, who is 7, also has food allergies and Miles and him love to get together. Miles loves meeting other kids with allergies just like himself. And I think it’s so important for him to realize that he’s not the only one dealing with this. It’s easy for our kids to get isolated, when deadly food is always around the corner. But when you find another kid who truly gets it, knows from experience what life with food allergies is like. Well, that’s a special friendship! They played until it was quite late. The kids did NOT want to leave when it was time to go!

It’s always good to catch up. It’s hard these days to keep in touch with all the people who I love. I’ve been fortunate to know so many amazing people, but life is busy and my focus is my family while my kids are small. They grow too fast, ya know!

Jordan Family Road Trip…Day 20 June 3, 2011

Steve’s in town from Connecticut. He spent the early part of the day catching up with an old friend of his while the rest of us have lunch at Poncho’s of New Baltimore, our favorite mexican restaurant in the area. Boy have I missed those puffy tacos! Puffy tacos are non existent in Houston, which is disappointing given the plethora of mexican restaurants!!

The good news is that the boys are feeling much better, back to normal. Yay! Now it’s time to have FUN!!!

We order takeout from Bangkok Cuisine. Another thing that’s lacking in Houston, good Thai! Eating our way through Michigan. Yep, that’s what we’re doing. And I’m loving every minute of it!!

After spending more visiting time with my family, Steve spent daddy time with the boys while my sister and I went to a local club down the street. We had lots of fun. I felt very out of my element but we had a really good time. And it was fun to see my sister in her element!! We stayed out way too late but I really enjoyed our sister time together.

 

Jordan Family Road Trip…Day 19 June 3, 2011

Today is the day that Steve rolls into town for the weekend. The kids are finally feeling better and I’m ready to start doing things again! It’s a challenge because we’ve done the Michigan things over and over again. We’ve been to the zoo a thousand times. The kids aren’t interested in Greenfield Village AGAIN! So we took them all up to Great Lakes Crossing. That’s right, a mall. And you know how I feel about malls! Not a big fan.

Anyhow, they have an Olga’s. That’s a plus. And a gaming cafe. Double plus. We had my brother along for the ride who is 20 years old and developmentally disabled, so he has a harder time with certain situations. But he was ALL for the gaming cafe. In fact, he’s been begging to go back!! But, he’s truly a kid at heart and I knew they would all have fun.

My mom, sister, niece and I got a little shopping done while the boys played. I really need to get my boys some more clothes, so it worked out well.

We almost had a total disaster when the Icee place didn’t have cherry, only coke Icees. Miles doesn’t like the “brown” ones, only the “red or blue”. He really looks forward to the Icees, let me tell you. That’s because he can’t have any other mall treats. No ice cream, no cookies, no cinnamon rolls, no candy. Icees are all he has and when they don’t have a flavor that he likes, wow. It’s bad. He ended up trying the “brown” one and liking it ok. So I was proud of him. But it was still just OK.

We met my Grandma for dinner at Ruby Tuesday. Ya know, the place we’ve been about 100 times this vacation! I gotta say, I’m getting a little tired of Ruby Tuesday! But Miles can eat there and the rest of us can just deal with it. It was a nice dinner. Then we headed over to Grandma’s house to meet Steve, who was being dropped off there after his flight. Of course, his flight was delayed. So I left my van there and rode back to my mom’s house with the boys. Steve got in super late and came out to my mom’s house. Our whole family was together again and looking forward to the holiday weekend!!

Jordan Family Road Trip…Day 18 June 3, 2011

The kids are still battling their mild cold. It’s still freezing outside. Brrrr! This fully acclimated Texas girl can’t handle the cold very well anymore!

This was just another laid back day, spent with my sweet niece. We’ve been having so much fun together! She’s 2 years old, and such a sweetie! The girl I never had….The last time I saw her was in November, when my mom, sister, niece and brother met us in Disney World. That was soooo much fun! We all had a blast!

It’s amazing how fast kids grow, isn’t it? I remember the day she was born. My sister went into labor 3 weeks early, 2 weeks before I was scheduled to arrive in MI to attend her birth. I’ll never forget that phone call and realizing that she was going to have her baby without me. Especially, doing what I do, I really wanted to be there. I scrambled to pack, spent a fortune on last minute plane tickets for Miles and I and we literally flew all the way to MI. As much as I didn’t want my sister to be in labor all day, I also didn’t want to miss her birth. I got there just in time.

It was a beautiful moment when I walked into her living room. And saw how beautifully pregnant she was. And hearing her labor moans. And watching her strength. She was in the labor tub and I walked over to her and we both cried and cried. I made it. And I got to witness her becoming a mother. And I got to help welcome my sweet baby niece to the world. What an amazing day!

My sister is such a great mom. She’s my best friend. I love her to pieces and I can’t stand living so far away from her. I have my other sister in Texas with me, which I’m eternally grateful for. And I know that my other sister will never move. So we need to take the time we do get to spend with each other and use it wisely.

We went to BD’s Mongolian BBQ for dinner. It’s a place we’ve been often. I used to go to the one in Royal Oak when they first opened, before they added the second floor! In fact, I ate there a ton when I was pregnant with Blake. So yummy! Best of all, they’re great with food allergies!! So Miles got to eat, and he loved it! That always makes my heart smile:)

 

Jordan Family Road Trip….Day 17 June 3, 2011

I knew this would happen! I’m writing these blog posts about a week and a half after the fact and I had a feeling that towards the end of my trip I’d start forgetting things.

I’m pretty sure that all we did today was stay inside, out of the rain and visit with my family.

Lance was still feeling bad and I was thinking that his headache wasn’t just lack of sleep induced, he was getting sick. It’s funny…we did SO much on the first half of our trip. We really needed the break. Fortunately for us the virus was mild. It made it’s rounds in the boys eventually, but didn’t impact them too much. And I always worry about Miles getting sick because so often a benign cold virus ends up turning into full blown bronchitis. But, we seemed to dodge that bullet!

 

Jordan Family Road Trip…Day 16 June 2, 2011

Our first day in Michigan wasn’t the best. Lance went to bed with a slight headache and hadn’t had much sleep the night before. We had woken up early to leave CT and get on the road the day before and he hadn’t slept in the car at all. And then he went to bed late, with a headache. Usually his headaches will get better with sleep but this one didn’t. He woke up super early and in severe pain. It was a migraine. I had to go to the store to get him medicine for his head because, of course, children’s Advil is one of the things on my list that I forgot to bring! Poor kid, this was probably the worst headache he has ever had. But with a dose of Advil it started to feel better and while the pain didn’t go away, at least it was tolerable.

The headache (once treated) didn’t stop Lance from wanting to go to Olga’s! For you non-Michiganders, this is a yummy restaurant that’s located in just about every mall in SE Michigan. They have a somewhat greek menu, with gyros, spinach pie, greek salads. But the best part is the bread. Ohhhh the bread! It’s used for all their sandwiches and they also fry it and make snackers out of it. Yum! My 2 older boys remember eating there lots when they were younger. And they couldn’t wait to go back! The can’t make anything for Miles, but he had his lunchbox and special treats in it, so he was happy too!

We didn’t spend much time at the mall because Lance was still feeling pretty terrible. In fact, it appeared that he was getting sick. He had a runny nose and a raspy voice. He was also complaining of a slight sore throat. I thought it might be due to the fact that he was crying so hard that morning from the pain of the headache. So we stopped on the way home and got him some cough drops. The drug store was in very close proximity to Christine’s, a well known area bakery. So I ran in and got the Christine Original cake. Her version of bumpy cake, another regional treat that you can’t get in TX. It’s a dark chocolate cake with a layer of buttercream, topped with a thick coating of chocolate fudge. To die for!! Wow, was that thing GOOD! I sure miss bumpy cake:(

We spent the rest of the day at home, playing with my niece and hanging out with the family. Because Lance was still recovering it was a nice, laid back evening.

Jordan Family Road Trip…Day 15 June 1, 2011

There aren’t any great pictures in this post. Nor are there any stories about how much fun we had. We basically spent all day driving. And driving. And driving. No fun stops. Just potty breaks and food pit stops. We were so anxious to get to our final destination, where we’d be spending the last 2 weeks of our trip.

Michigan is where our entire family was born, with the exception of Steve. It’s our home. The state where we got married. The state we had all our babies in. Where we grew into a family, bought our first house, really grew up. Such wonderful memories of the beginnings of my very own family.

Michigan is also home to some of the most important people in my life. Family and friends. Although the numbers are dwindling as many Michiganders are spreading out across the country in search of work. Many of them have landed right in Houston with me! I am one lucky lady:)

It’s always exciting to go back. We haven’t been back in 2 years. Time goes by so fast and you don’t always realize it, until something makes you stop and pay attention. The last time we were here was for my youngest brother’s high school graduation. Good memories!

I couldn’t wait to see my sweet niece, my beautiful sister, my mom and grandma. All these women that are so dear to my heart. I couldn’t get there fast enough!

While we were driving through Ohio we went through a horrible storm. I’ve never been so scared in my life. I’ve been listening to my satellite radio during the trip so I have no clue about local events or weather. The sky turned a muddy brown/gray as the clouds rolled in. Then the rain turned vicious, dropping in such thick sheets I was having a hard time being able to see the road ahead. All I could think about were tornadoes in light of the recent storms that have swept the nation. I couldn’t even look for a tornado ahead because I couldn’t see anything! I was following a semi and just keeping my eyes on his tail lights. That’s how I was able to navigate. Everyone on the road slowed to a crawl. The road we were on was under construction and there was a cement barricade with no shoulder on one side, orange barrels on the other. I thought about pulling over through the barrels but I didn’t see a good spot to pull over and I felt safer by staying on the road behind the semi.

Then the hail started. Literal sheets of it. It sounded like rocks hitting the car. Rocks!! I found myself dodging them through the windshield, I thought it was going to shatter. I was so scared. I had Blake try to find a local station on the radio and of course there was a tornado warning. They were telling everyone to seek shelter ASAP in certain counties. Of course I had no idea what county I was even in but I had a feeling that the tornado warning was directed at where I was at. I don’t know why I kept driving. I really thought I was going to kill all my kids and myself but I was trying hard to stay calm and not freak out. I was shaking so hard. Petrified. But I kept driving. I just had to get us out of that storm and I could tell I was driving into it, which meant at some point I would drive OUT of it. And I did. I was still shaking when we stopped off at the next rest stop. There were other cars there who had lots of hail damage but we can out unscathed. Fortunately.

And that was our excitement for the day until we made it to my mom’s house in Romeo, MI, just north of Detroit. My sister was waiting for me along with my mom. We hung out until the early morning before finally heading to bed. It’s hard to get somewhere so exciting so late at night! But we were all looking forward to the coming weeks!!

Jordan Family Road Trip…Day 14 June 1, 2011

Two busy days in NYC was starting to wear on all of us. They were long days, filled with lots of walking. Lots of activities. So we decided on a slower pace for the day.

We had lunch at Lucky’s Diner, the 50′s themed restaurant where Miles could have the french fries. As I recall, based on this fact alone, he declared this his best day ever!!

Great food, fun atmosphere. Questionable service! But any place that can make my food allergic son happy, I love!!!!

Our next destination: Broadway! We were taking the boys to their first ever Broadway show. It was so exciting and we’d been talking about seeing a show for weeks. We were planning on seeing the Lion King but we’ve already taken Blake to see Lion King when it was in Detroit several years ago. So we decided instead on The Addams Family. Our boys haven’t ever seen the TV shows or the movies but we had a hunch that they would really appreciate it.

They really didn’t know what to expect, especially Miles who was nervous about being in the big theater and expecting more of a movie experience. But he quickly decided that this really WAS the best day ever! He clapped after each song and was clearly engrossed, as all the boys were. In fact, I think even the teenager was seen smiling and laughing!

It was a funny play. The actors were great, the set was really neat and dark, in a good way. It was a terrific experience. There’s nothing quite like seeing a play. And there’s nothing quite like secretly watching the smiling faces of all of your kids as they experience something really special for the very first time. Like only a mom can do. When the play was over Miles asked “Can we watch that again?” Too funny, if only we lived closer, had significantly more money (the theater isn’t exactly cheap!) and had all the time in the world to travel to and from NYC. But it did inspire us to check out the upcoming shows in Houston, which happens have one of the largest theater districts in the country! We will certainly be doing more of this as a family.

After the show we ate a tiny, but packed italian place. Super yum! You just can’t get NYC italian food in Houston! I think Steve and Lance had pizza for most meals, Blake had penne alfredo and I had one of the biggest and tastiest salads in my life! Oh yeah!! One complaint, though. It’s hard to find a good iced tea (aka Dorin fuel) in NYC. This place was no exception. Water for me. But I hear that NYC tap water is some of the best in the country, so I was fine with that.

We took the subway over to the 24 hour Apple store and played with all the apple devices we already have. LOL! But it was fun to ride in the glass elevator! Unfortunately my pics of the elevator didn’t turn out very good.

Then we headed to FAO Schwartz, which was right next door. Unfortunately it was already closed and the boys were super bummed. I was too. I had told the boys all about it. That was the one thing that we didn’t get to do on our trip that we really wanted to do.

Back in the car headed back to Stamford I could help but feel sad and happy at the same time. Sad that our little stint in NYC was over and we’d soon be leaving daddy again. Happy that I’d gotten to do so many things with my boys that I’ve always wanted to do. So happy that we got to do all of this as a family. A trip all of us will always remember. And sooooo happy that the next stop on our trip was home. Michigan!

Jordan Family Road Trip…Day 13 June 1, 2011

Another day in the city!

This time we did the uptown bus tour. Fortunately for us it was a very sunny, nice day. Unfortunately for us, the busses were very busy and it was hard to find one that had 5 seats available. But we managed to board and away we went.

First on the agenda: Museum of Natural History. That’s right, the stuff of Night at the Museum. Which it was nothing like, btw. But my kids LOVED it!!! Well, the older 2 anyway. Miles was more just along for the ride.

This place blew the Smithsonian in DC out of the water! We could’ve literally spent a month there alone. I’m so glad we went, but disappointed that we didn’t get to spend more time there. We’ll definitely be coming back.

 

We spent the most time in the dinosaur exhibits. Ever since Blake was a toddler he’s had a special affinity for dinosaurs. He rated the exhibit an A+. And he knows his dinosaur exhibits! Miles was less than enthused but Lance also really enjoyed it. They had lots of neat things to see, much more comprehensive than the Smithsonian. I liked their displays better also. Here are some of our favorites…

A dinosaur egg nest.

 

 

 

And I loved the placenta exhibit! LOL!!

We looked at a few more exhibits before getting to MY favorite…the meteorites!! Lance also shares my passion for space rocks so we totally geeked out in that section. We saw some amazing and rare specimen as well as some pieces of the same meteorites I have at home. Such as the Canyon Diablo, from the most well preserved crater on earth in Arizona. We got to touch one of the largest meteorite pieces ever found. This thing is mammoth!

It was time to move on, to see more of the city. None of us wanted to leave. Well, except Steve and Miles LOL! We went to the bus stop to try to get on but after seeing bus after bus drive by, too full to accommodate us, we decided to cut through central park to catch the bus on another stop.

Wow. Central park is deceptively huge! I remember thinking that the last time I was in NYC. But wow. We cut through the “short” way and it took near forever to reach the other side. And it’s really easy to get turned around in there. But it’s gorgeous! So peaceful and serene. Sounds of nature, lush greenery. Blue skies, people relaxing, walking, biking, picnicing. The boulders were awesome. The kids loved climbing all over them. We were just thinking we must be lost when I started to hear the sounds of the city again, the traffic, the horns. And I knew we were close. It’s a strange feeling walking out of this sanctuary and into the craze of the busy city. Civilization we found!

We finally hopped back on the bus and finished the uptown tour. We switched busses and were back on the downtown tour. Next stop: The Empire State Building.

A little background, I’m terrified of heights. And yet I’ve walked across the Blue Water Bridge from Port Huron, MI to Sarnia, Canada. I’ve been in the Sears Tower. And now I was faced with The Empire State Building. I only did this for my son, Lance. As homeschoolers we read a lot and one of the things I do with my kids is read to them every day. We’ve recently read the Percy Jackson series which takes place in NYC for part of the storyline. The Empire State Building is a main place where things happen in the series. So Lance was especially interested in seeing and going all the way to the top. Ugh. I’d rather have a root canal.

Miles has a lot of anxiety. He’s afraid of allergy foods, crowds, getting lost, losing his teeth, allergy testing, endoscopies, doctor visits, spiders, wasps, bees, hornets, dogs and being without me. When we were in line he was getting more and more anxious and afraid because I was. I told him I was afraid of heights and he quickly adopted that as a fear of his as well. So the whole time we were in line he was nervous. I told him we could be brave together and face our fears together. He was ok with that but was understandably on edge.

We finally got on the first elevator to take us to the 80th floor. They packed us in like sardines and I could feel my ears popping on the way up. Gross!!! We got to the 80th floor and they told us it would be another 20 minutes to board the elevator to the 86th floor. Or we could take the stairs. So that’s what we did! Climbed the remaining 6 flights of stairs to the observation deck. It was actually a good distraction for me.

Once we got to the deck I really started to feel sick. I found the innermost wall and faced it. Steve took Lance out to the outside deck. Miles and Blake stood back with me until curiosity got the best of them and they actually went outside to look! Miles overcame his fear and everyone spent WAY TOO LONG peering over the edge of that tall building. So nasty!!! When they were done the rescued me from my standing fetal position at the innermost wall and we booked it down the stairs again. It felt much better to be on the descent, although I wasn’t comfy again until my feet were firmly planted on the ground level. I hope to never experience that torture again! Please note that NONE of these pictures were taken by me. I’m even having a hard time admitting to myself that I was even up that high in the sky!!

We went to dinner at a local tourist trap (yuck!) and then walking through Times Square again on our way to the car. And then we were headed home, to Stamford, once again. Another great day, minus the Tower of Terror.