June 5-10, our friends the Berrys, flew in from Empire, NV to visit. They are officially the first non family members to grace us with their presence, oh wait, Chris did come stay the night a few months ago, but that doesn't count b/c he was here on business. So, fear not Berrys, you still hold the title!
Just a little background, we met James & Adrian while living in Utah. James works for USG, and Adrian and Lise' & Sydney are only 3 weeks apart. Abri & Mason are 3 months apart. They now live in the "middle of nowhere" plant in Nevada, so this is bring the country mouse to the big city" territory.
Back to our visit. They flew in laaaaaattttttteeeeee on Friday night; arrived at 1am to be exact, so we gave them the first day off and spent it exposing them to Sandy Hook, the beach, the park, etc. That night, we just bbq'd at the house.
On Sunday, we took the Statan Island Ferry over to Manhattan. Once there, we hopped on the double decker tour bus. We figured it was the best way to keep all the kids in one place while learning a few things to boot. We could not have asked for a prettier day, and by early afternoon, the Daddies and the kids headed home while Adrian and I went to see Guys & Dolls on Broadway. You can't come to NYC and not do Broadway. It's an addiction of mine, and I'll eat canned beets for a week to go. This one didn't let me down. We were lucky enough to have seen Oliver Platt & Lauren Graham and a few other big names in the show. Check it out by clicking on the link. We ended the night by walking the streets of New York, eating world famous cheesecake and visiting Times Square. If only we had more time.
We started off Monday with Dunkin Dohnuts. The middle of no where had nothing of the sort, so there were many happy smiles in this house. It was a work day for B, so he took James with him for the majority of the day. Adrian and I took the kids to the splash park. What fun. They would have stayed all day if I'd let them.
Tuesday was our final day to cram in all things New Jersey, and the start of our month of rain. Lucky for us, the storms appeared early, and afterwards, it was just overcast and drizzle. One of Sydney's request was to see a lighthouse. We had shown her one the first day we went out to Sandy Hook, but we did one better. We took her down the street to the Twin Lights and climbed to the top. There you are rewarded with grand views of Sandy Hook and NYC.
We followed that with a trip a little further south to Point Pleasant where there is an official NJ Boardwalk complete with Aquarium and amusement park built with little ones in mind.
The day ended at Bobby's Burger Palace (Bobby Flay). B's favorite buger joint by far.
We were sad to see them leave, but we packed in as much excitement that was humanly possible.
