Day 1

The eight-hour flight was better than anticipated. Kids behaved fairly well, aided by the presence of those handy-dandy individual video screens. Nobody slept as much as they should have but we all survived. And nobody was sick for the first time in I don’t know how long!

We received a wonderfully warm welcome when Cousin Ali picked us up at the airport and drove us to cousin Cookie’s house where we were to spend the next two weeks. On the way, we stopped off at the rental car place. I realized that my American driver’s license had expired seven months ago but my Jedi mind tricks persuaded the nice gentleman to overlook that insignificant detail and add my name to the insurance anyway. Minivan!!

Cookie and Mike, our amazing hosts, were poolside when we arrived, along with their friends from Madrid who had landed just a few hours before us and who were to fly back on the same day as us (coincidence?). Emily jumped in the pool with the two Spanish kids while Jan and I unpacked, occupying the entire basement which, according to my measurements, is larger than our apartment.

Our first evening was filled with margaritas, Spanish music, exotic wines, tender steaks, and pleasant conversation with good people. The kids went to sleep at 7pm (1am Spanish time) and we hit the sack, completely wrecked from the long day’s journey, at around 11pm (5am!!).

Day 2

Emily woke up at 4am. So I woke up at 4am.

It rained a miserable rain all day. So we spent the day at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, Connecticut. After a kiddie IMAX movie about animals (Emily’s first cinematic experience), we saw sharks, jellyfish, seals, and all of the fish from Finding Nemo. My favorite part was the neon-colored poisonous miniature frogs while Emily enjoyed the children’s playpark best.

Day 3

Emily woke up at 5am. So I woke up at 5am.

It rained a miserable rain all day. So we spent the day at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. We explored dinosaurs, sea mammals, the Mayan culture, and lots and lots of birds. My favorite, as always, was the life-size blue whale hanging from the ceiling while Emily preferred to run around and jump off of all of the benches in the museum. We didn’t get to sit in any one place for too long. Jan made the astute observations that, if you don’t get to stop and actually read about any of the creatures you’re passing, you might as well just be in a stuffed animal toy shop.

Day 4

Emily woke up at 5am. So I woke up at 5am.

The rain had finally stopped and the beautiful sunny weather that we would enjoy for the rest of our holiday had begun. So we spent the entire day relaxing by the pool in an attempt to squash any last remaining trace of jet lag. Long-time college friend Joe came by to partake in our aquatic adventures.

Day 5

Emily woke up at 6am! Hurray for little miracles.

Off we went to the twee little town of Littletown, Connecticut to meet up with the famous Jerry and his beautiful family. We met at the always lavish Sandy Hook Family Diner for crab cakes and cheeseburger club sandwiches. Then we picked up entirely too much ice cream on our way to a surprisingly well-equipped Littletown parks and recreational facility. Emily and Harry went nuts on the sturdy and plentiful playground equipment while Jerry, (big) Emily, Jan, and I had a lovely chance to shoot the shit and catch up under the blazing Connecticut sun.

Side note: Sebastian had his first real food this day. We mushed up a banana for him. He didn’t like it.

Day 6

Who knows what time we woke up? I lost track. (Is it correct to add a question mark to the end of a rhetorical question? It doesn’t read correctly to me.)

Good buddy Steve came over for a much-needed catch up session before we headed down to The Westchester to meet Joe, wander about aimlessly, and stuff our faces at The Cheesecake Factory with some very tired kiddies in tow. Bang-Bang Chicken and Shrimp!!

Side note: Sebastian decided to start crawling this day. Exclusively backwards. Maybe it was the banana.

Day 7

One week into our holiday, we finally made it down to Long Island where we were invited to a backyard barbecue at my high school buddy Brian‘s house. Good grub and good friends kept us happy and busy while Brian and Angela’s daughter Ella teamed up with Emily to jump in her ginormous bouncy castle, count the backyard stepping stones in Spanish, throw some balls all over the place, watch some Dora, chase each other around the living room, and share some ice pops. Good times.

We headed back to Cookie and Michael’s house where GG and Aunt Ruthie were waiting to have dinner with us. The family invasion had officially begun! But this was only the beginning. Later that night, we picked up my mom and Phil at the airport and the rest of the family would all trickle in over the course of the next three days. All five gazillion of them! After all, there was a very important family wedding to attend. But I’ll leave the events of Week 2 for my next blog entry…

Here is a list of seemingly nonsensical and unrelated words that will probably mean nothing to you but will serve to bring back other very valuable memories of this week for us: chocolate milk, ramming speed, night terrors, Beach Bum, 100 degrees, Wolfy, bathroom floor cleanup, waiting on the front step, Tom Tom, backing out of the driveway, wet sneaker cups, ice cream damage control, hypnotic fairies.

More photos to come…