Jennica's Big Trip

(Jenn) Ben's mom decided that for each of her grandchildren's 12th birthdays, she will take them on a trip to visit someone in the family. Jennica is the first of the grandchildren to get this grand birthday present, and they decided to come here for her trip! At first, the trip was just going to be Grandma and Jennica, but as the trip planning continued, Grandpa and Andrea (Ben's sister) jumped on board! They were here for a week and left on Tuesday this week. I must say that of all of our visitors so far, these four have been the most energetic and eager to do EVERYTHING! They really did squeeze a LOT into a week, and we had a great time.


They visited Central Park, The Museum of Natural History, Times Square, American Girl Place, The Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center, the World Trade Center Site, the Federal Reserve Bank, Wall Street, and the Statue of Liberty. They also attended Wicked and Mary Poppins on Broadway; they did a bunch of shopping on Canal Street and at H&M; and we ate at The Cheesecake Factory. To top it off, we squeezed in a birthday party for Ben and Jennica, Church on Sunday, and an overnight trip to Palmyra, NY for LDS Church History sites. Wow! If you've been to New York City, you know that they really did fit a lot into a short amount of time.

Henry loved having the company and warmed up to them fairly quickly, considering the fact that he is now suddenly VERY clingy. He called Grandma and Grandpa by their correct titles about half of the time, although that "ma" and "pa" part is really confusing! He managed to learn a slurred version of "Andrea," and he called Jennica "Jenny" or "Cup!" On Tuesday morning we dropped them off at the train station to send them on their way to the airport for a sad goodbye (although not too sad because we'll be in Utah this summer). On Wednesday morning, Henry and I went out to run some errands, and as soon as we got to the car, he started asking, "Grandma? Grandpa? Cup?" and I was sad to tell him that we weren't going to pick them up from the train station today. It must be so confusing to him that people just show up as a major part of our everyday lives one day, and they vanish the next.

Pictures: Statue of Liberty with Dad I., Ben, and Andrea; Jennica at the top of the Hill Cumorah in Palmyra; all of us on the top floor of the Joseph Smith Log Cabin in Palmyra.