Living in New Jersey

 Jerry had a summer internship with Otis elevators this past summer.  We knew the job was based in Hartford, CT, but there would be a lot of travel involved.  I was planning to take the kids and drive out to Utah for a couple weeks toward the end of the summer, and we still had to continue paying rent for our house in Indiana.  We didn't want to be paying a lot of money for a place to stay in Hartford, knowing that it would be sitting vacant for a good portion of the summer.  What we finally decided on - the weekend before Jerry left to CT, ha, was for him to do an extended stay hotel for 2 weeks, schedule a week or two of travel, then another 2 weeks in the hotel, etc. and I was planning to stay with my sister in New Jersey and we'd see him on the weekends, since it's about a 3 hr drive - without bad traffic - and we'd maybe go stay with him a few days every now and then. 

When he left for the internship Hayden still had a week left of school, and we'd just gotten back from our Las Vegas trip.  I know Hayden was just in 1st grade, but I didn't want him to miss out on the last month of school, especially considering we wouldn't see Jerry till the second weekend anyway.  It was a miserable 2 weeks.  I was sick for the first week, with who knows what - just felt yucky and miserable, and on the verge of throwing up constantly.  No, not pregnant, I even took a test, just to make sure, haha! 

So once Jerry got to CT he realized the travel would be much more intense than we'd thought.  He'd basically be traveling 90% - 95% of the time.  He was talking with his boss on the first day, and the boss asked if the family got in and settled.  Jerry explained our plan to him, and he suggested that the days when Jerry works out of an office he should just go to the Allentown location, which is about 45 min. from my sister's house.  Awesome!!!  It helped us to realize why we hadn't found any short term leases we felt good about, and why we never wanted to sign a contract. 

So two weeks after Jerry left we packed off and traveled to New Jersey.  Here we are at one of our rest stops.  I have to admit, with all the travel we did this summer, the kids really did excellent!

 

It really worked out great staying with my sister, and it was so fun, and a bit of a life saver for me.  They were awesome and pretty much gave us free reign of their basement.  There was a HUGE walk in closet, that had been used as their play room, which was turned into a bedroom for me and Jerry, and Luke.  The other 3 kids slept in the family room.  

Unfortunately we didn't see Jerry very much this summer, we calculated that over the whole 12 week internship we were together for 30 whole or partial days - we figured probably only 12 - 15 days where we were together in the morning AND night. There were definitely some hard aspects to the summer.  It's hard to send your kids to their room, when they don't have a room.  haha.  It's hard to take away playing with "friends" when they live with their cousins.  Can't really threaten to take away their toys, when they don't have their own toys to play with.  And it's hard being a single mom, even though my sister and her kids were SO EXTREMELY helpful, I'm still the mom.  And it's hard being the disciplinarian, schedule keeper, the problem solver, and just being without Jerry and without a break.

HOWEVER, there were SO many positive things about this summer.  It was great.  It was truly a bit of a life saver for me.  I relished the great sister time I got.  Ruth Ann and I would go out walking every morning and talked and talked and talked.  I just LOVED it.  It was so fun being able to laugh with her every day too.  I had some built in babysitters with her kids.  The kids loved all the cousin time.  They just played and played all day long.  And for being with each other 24/7 they got along so well!  Luke learned to sleep!!!!  He actually started taking a nap every day!!  And of course we were able to do a lot of traveling to all the places that Jerry was working at.  I'll write more about those trips in another post.

Here are some other fun things we were able to do while staying with my sister!

A Fabulous Tea Party!

     

 Rebecca and my niece, Rachel planned the tea party of the century!  They had it all planned out, and because they were so excited I couldn't help but give in and grant all their requests for the party.  We had a fancy - plastic lace - table cloth, with Tangled plates and cups for the girls, and Cars plates and cups for the boys.  Instead of tea we had water and hot chocolate.  And we had some yummy sugar cookies and cupcakes to go with it.  Everyone that was invited needed to wear a hat, and dressing up was optional.  Stuffed animals made up half of the party, and they were even dressed up as well.  It was very cute the way the older cousins even joined in on the fun of the party and got into it for the sake of the kids. Seriously, Tea Party of the Century!!

 

 The Best Darn Milk Party EVER!

We were all amazed at how fun the tea party was, and Hayden was a wee bit jealous of their success.  So during the tea party Hayden concocted the idea to throw a milk party!  During the party he invited everyone to his "Milk party" that would be held "in... um.... about an hour."  So what kind of parent would I be if I didn't indulge in his fun party as well.  So about an hour after the tea party he got his party all ready.  We had the "Milk party" outside and had milk or punch if you'd rather, and graham crackers.  For the after party activity we all played a round of "The Foot Game."  -It's a family game we all love to play involving stepping on people's feet - hence, the name, The Foot Game.  

Believe it or not, the partying wasn't done because my 3 yr old nephew, Spencer threw a "Punch and Crackers" party the next day.  haha.  Glad they were successful!

Family Photo Session

My 17 yr old niece, Jessica is an amazing photographer.  She just has an eye for what looks good.  I asked her if she would take some pics of our family so we could have a decent picture with all of us.  She is amazing!

 

Cousin Photo Shoot

So, like I said, Jessica is an amazing photographer, and she likes to do makeovers on her sister, Rachel, then do a fun photo shoot.  She gained 2 more models to work with for the summer.  

WARNING!!: MAJOR PICTURE OVERLOAD, but how on earth do you cut out pictures of your adorable girls?  I can't!

check out those model poses.  No idea where she learned it!!!

Showing off the waterfall braid.

Rebecca, Rachel, Spencer, and Sydney

 Luke wasn't hooked to my hip the entire time!! 

Luke finally learned to play with others.  He was often kidnapped by his sisters and cousins to go play, and my camera was stolen as well because Rebecca loves to take pictures with my phone.  In a way it's kind of good, cause there's usually a few good ones in the pile.

Playing Peek a boo??

The Kids got to play constant dress up

Their dress up collection was even bigger than ours, and the girls were in heaven.  Rebecca loved piecing together fun outfits.  Check out this fashionista!

And another little pose

Getting to spend time with my family

It was great being able to get to know my nieces and nephews better, and seeing what a great family they are.  This picture was right before Jessica and Alisha's piano recital. p.s.  they are amazing!