In July, Jimmie and I had the opportunity to go visit family in New Jersey. The biennial Tucker Family (my mom's family) Reunion was taking place in Palmayra, New York this year! A huge thank you to my parents for helping to get us there and for planning such a fabulous reunion. It turned out wonderfully! As we were heading back to the east coast, it just didn't make sense to go and not spend some time in NJ with all of our family there. Jim wasn't able to come on the trip as he was working, but Jimmie and I were able to spend a whole 2 weeks out on the east coast! We sure missed Jim, but it was so fun to be able to visit so many people that we never get to see.
I'll apologize right now… Apparently I was absolutely dreadful at documenting the trip..especially pictures of Jimmie WITH other people! I know I took several pictures for other people on their phone… so if you have some shots of you with Jimmie… feel free to send them to me! I'd love to have them :( Grateful for the pictures that I do have though. I got a bunch on the reunion as I was the designated photographer of some things since I had my real camera. Unfortunately, NJ got documented with my phone and since it wasn't always strapped around my neck, it wasn't on the forefront of my mind. It was sure an awesome trip!!
Tuesday, July 15
It was something else flying with this crazy one year old, by myself, for the first time. Sometimes it was a little stressful and not something I look forward to doing again…but overall, he was pretty good and it went much smoother than I'd anticipated.
Of course a huge part of that was thanks to my new Tula that we got right before the trip. We had found out that I'm pregnant about a month before the trip and figured… we'll definitely need a baby carrier with having 2 under 2… might as well get one now and let this kid use it!
It was a LIFE SAVER on the plane.
We landed in Philly that afternoon
He didn't sleep much on the way out…which was unfortunate since it was his nap time. But as soon as we landed and got in a carseat… within minutes, that was the end of that!
We had a day or so to recover after landing in Philly and driving up to NY, so we got to play at home where Steph and baby Karsten were also visiting. These guys were pretty funny together.
Jimmie trying Cheerios for the first time. He quite likes them.
Wednesday, July 16
Jimmie with his great aunt Donna
In the down-day between arriving and leaving, we stopped in and visited a lot of family. Most of whom, didn't know we were coming until we showed up or contacted them moments before. Aside from my family, we got to visit Nanny & Pop-pop, Donna, Amanda, Lindsay, Tina (Mom-mom), Jeremy, Penny; Grandpop, Melanie, Steven, Christopher, Aunt Kim, Uncle Steve; and Carol (Grammy) all on Wednesday! It was a bit of a whirlwind, but it sure was fun!
Jimmie loved playing with his Uncle Jeremy
Jimmie with Mom-mom
Jimmie especially loved the cat toys (and cat!) at great ant Kim's!
Jim's Mom, Carol, was one of the few that didn't know we were coming at all until she saw us. We met her at the diner and surprised her there. I think she was just *a little* happy to see us. Jimmie hadn't seen his Grammy in person since he was just 6 weeks old.
Back at my parents house, Jimmie LOVED (the dog) Ginny's pillow. He thought it was about the greatest thing to make a lap around the house and dive into the pillow. It was hilarious!
Thursday, July 17
(Yes, I know… the car seat straps. Don't worry, we fixed them)
We packed up the car and headed up to upstate New York for the reunion! Somehow we managed to get up there in only 2 cars, and car 2 picked up Geoffrey (flying into PA) on the way up.
We decided it'd be best to put both babies in the same car. Mom and Nate were great sports about riding/driving with us :) Driving with babies can make the trip seem very long… but this was one of those great moments where both kiddos were totally zonked! (Score!!) In all seriousness, they actually did very well in the car :)
Just getting ready for bed after arriving in NY
A little bit of play time the next morning!
Friday, July 18
We went to the Roseland Water Park with the whole crew. Everyone who was coming to the reunion had arrived safely at the hotel the night before, and we had quite the crew heading to the park! It was a bunch of fun to be able to play with cousins and visit with family.
Whether he was still uneasy from traveling, sleep deprived, or just didn't care for the water… Jimmie was not a fan of the water park. He pulled through and had some happy moments like this lunch time and he gave a half-smile during the lazy river. But he was very cautious and stand-offish of all the water attractions. He hadn't wanted to go in the pool the night before either!
Loves his baths… hates the water. Interesting?
Before-After water park
Either way… he was sure tired when we left!!
That night, we went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant as a whole crew with our Tucker Reunion shirts on. Most of my immediate family had seen it before, but many in our group had not, and it's always a blast to see it again! They do a fabulous job and it's always amazing.
For those of you who don't know what this is, it is a huge, annual, theatrical production that takes place on the Hill Cumorah (pictured) which depicts events from the Book of Mormon. It goes on for just a few weeks each summer and the actors are all volunteers who come from all around.
Stephanie and Karsten with a few cast members pre-show. The show starts at sun-down and before the show you have a chance to visit and learn from cast members. We also got some of the tastiest food ever from the local Rotary club who comes and sells some real yummy dinners!
Since the show doesn't start til sun-down… Jimmie was a little fussy since he wanted to go to sleep. Eventually he would give in and fall asleep in my Tula just a few minutes before the show started at about 9:15pm.
Thankfully I had awesome family there to help appease him for a few minutes at at time.
We also had a few minutes to get some family shots before the show since everyone at the reunion was able to be at the pageant.
The Egbert Family
(Frank, Jeri, Spencer, Hannah, Olivia)
The Strobel Family
(John, Jan, Nick, Katie, Ben, Jake, Matt, James, Zac)
(Austin & Caitlin with their son, Sawyer)
(Spencer & Rebecca Wilhelm)
The Brian Tucker Family
(Brian, Annjanette, McKay, Samantha, Morgan. Missing Abby)
The Foulk Family
(Steve, Jill, Geoffrey, Megan, Nathan, Evan)
(Scott & Janelle Robertson; their kids Alan, James, & Lucy)
(Steph Oxborrow, missing Marc; their son Karsten)
(Emily Young, missing Jim; our son Jimmie)
All the boys!
All the girls!
Everybody together with Tom & Glenda Tucker at the helm!
(Missing the Himes & Bruce Tucker family)
Aunt Jeri, Aunt Jan, & Hannah
Olivia, Samantha, Sawyer, & Caitlin
Megan, James, Scott and sleeping baby Lucy
Steph and Karsten
Grandma and Grandpa entertaining Jimmie
Saturday, July 19
The next day we went to Niagara Falls. It was about a 2 hr drive from our hotel. It was a pretty rainy and overcast day, but the falls were still fun to go to.
(Borrowing a few pictures here)
We also got to go on Maid of the Mist (which is a ferry ride that goes down by the falls)
Normally it's just "misty". I'm guessing it was because of the poor weather, but man those falls were spraying way more than I remembered.
Poor Jimmie who was already having a rough day, and apparently doesn't like water, was not overly thrilled. We kinda stood in the middle on the bottom of the deck and STILL got soaked somehow. That's okay, I'd seen it before and it was fun to go with everyone else.
Meg and Alan
A deceptively happy Jimmie… :)
The whole Foulk clan (ah…there we go. That Jimmie face it a bit more of what I remember seeing all day)
After the falls we had quite an adventure trying to find lunch. Long story short, we ended up finding TGI Fridays which took basically the rest of our time there.
So here's some cute shots of the babies.
…we tried to get a cute picture of 3 babies in the high chairs. This is about all we could get ;) I think they were ready for their food.
Karsten just having a grand ole time!
Later that night we had a family game night filled with lots of different games. I think this one must have been during a round of Celebrity Meltdown
Sunday, July 20
On Sunday we went to church, spent some time visiting different church historical sites, had a picnic, took some more family photos, played some games, and had a family home evening (Strobels had left early that morning so missed this part)
Foulks
Tuckers (Brian)
Egberts
Hannah with baby Karsten
Lucy and her Daddy (Scott)
Grandma and Grandpa Tucker
All of my immediate family was able to attend. We missed husbands/brother in laws, but it was great to be able to be all together
Oh… James ;)
We tried to get some family pictures ;)
I love how they turned out. Haha! Very realistic
Jimmie.. well, shockingly enough, was quite finished and ready to leave.
Mom with her parents and 2 of her siblings
Grandma and Grandpa Tucker with a few of the grandkids
Mom and Dad tried to get a nice Grandma and Grandpa shot with their grandkids, too.
Hahaha, there's not much to say here.
Except how did Dad end up with the ever-calm Lucy while Mom ends up with already hysterical Jimmie AND Karsten?? Love how this one turned out
Poor kid. Finally got his Mommy back
Sweet little Lucy Goosey
Karsten, fascinated with the log cabin… and his thumb and nose as always ;)
Nate with his typical face
Alan, just being Alan
Lucy, being Lucy
And James, being James
Grandma with Jimmie
Jimmie was a bit happier once I convinced him to let me carry him in the Tula
Brothers, Alan and James Robertson
Jimmie loved to look up at the trees in the Sacred Grove
He was more calm here than anywhere else
Steph
Looks like James must be telling some stories
A perplexed Karsten
Tired, but content
Grandma and Grandpa Tucker
Steph and Karsten
Karsten and his great grandma Tucker
Lucy with Mommy
Normally, I wouldn't include bathtub pictures… but there's a story with this one. Check out the concentration in his face. We had the 3 babies in the tub…Karsten's splashing up a storm, Lucy's investigating the faucet, and Jimmie is just over here "in the zone". He was so focused on stacking these hotel shampoos and conditioners along the side of the tub. He would focus and line them up perfectly. We even moved one over about an inch to see if he would notice. I've never seen him look so offended in my life. "Why on earth would you move that? I just stacked it perfectly!"
He's now into building with blocks and stacking whatever he can find.
On Monday, we packed up, said our goodbyes, and headed home to NJ. We stopped at a few different sites on the way home and dropped Geoff off at the airport, arriving in the evening back home, and very tired.
That left us with an entire WEEK in NJ because we left home for Utah the following Tuesday.
From Tuesday-Tuesday we spent time visiting more family, catching up with some friends, relaxing at home, swimming (on my end), eating Wawa, and just having a great time. I guess I was SO relaxed that I didn't take many pictures.
On Thursday we got to spend some time with Tina (Mom-mom) and her family before they went out of town! It was so fun to be able to see them and so nice of Nanny to cook us such a wonderful dinner. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from this afternoon :(
One day, Mom and I randomly matched. Like… almost exactly. BAHA! Totally not planned.
Jimmie woke up nice and early the entire trip. Good thing he had some fun toys to play with.
On Friday, we went down the shore… Atlantic City! Not everyone's favorite beach, but I quite like it. Lots of memories there and of course, the board walk.
Reppin' the Phils
Checking out everyone at the beach, and enjoying the breeze
Not always quite sure what to think of the water. But I can tell you this: he liked those ocean waves a lot better than any hotel pool, water park, or pool in our backyard! He did well as long as you were holding onto him and just let his feet get wet.
But mostly, he liked the sand! And this little chair, that has stuck around for so long, was perfect for him!
He doesn't like to leave his hat on much so I lathered up his hair with sunscreen.. This always results in an unintentional mohawk
Let's be real. You can't go to NJ, especially the shore, without some gigantic jersey pizza.
…and now I'm starving.
Saturday we got to spend the day with Grammy since it was her day off of work.
It was a ton of fun! I borrowed a few pictures of hers off of Facebook.
We went to Friendly's for lunch, spent some time at Grammy's house, skyped with Daddy, hung out with Uncle Marc, and went to the park!
Carol, Marc, Jimmie
(this one was actually from a night earlier that week when we got to go over for dinner!)
Later that night we met with my family and Grandma (Caroline) Foulk and went out for dinner. It was so much fun to be all together!
Jimmie with both Grammy and Grandma!
Jimmie and Grammy
Jimmie on the swings with Aunt Meg
Just relaxing, playing games, and getting some Wawa on
More swings!
Just casually chasing poor Ginny around the house
"Don't mind me, I'm not doing anything…"
Playing with his great grandma Foulk's motorized chair… that was pretty fun!!
On Sunday we went to church at my home ward, Medford! It was fun to see some familiar faces but also made me realized how long I'd been gone and how many people I actually didn't know!
On Monday night, we got to go over to Aunt Kim's house for dinner and visit her whole family. It was great because we got to see so many people that we hadn't gotten to visit with yet. It was a blast as always and the food was delicious.
Tuesday was spent packing and a few short visits with friends before we had to take off, once again, on a long flight home.
We sure had a BLAST visiting with so many different parts of our family on this trip!! Though it was a little overwhelming at times for the little guy, I know he had a lot of fun and loved getting to see people whom he hadn't seen in a while and meet some whom he had never met at all!
We are sure blessed to have such wonderful family in our lives!
