We had the best of times visiting Casey and Kimber in New Jersey a couple weekends ago. So fun to have them in our neck of the woods this summer. Pretty sure they're the only family we share a similar time-zone with right now... so we couldn't pass up the chance to visit fam:)
The 12-hour drive was surprisingly not bad at all. Both kids were little rockstars. Totally shocked me when we had to remind Jaden we brought a couple movies along for him... more than 8 hrs into the drive crazy kid:)
(Can't say Jaden was a perfect gem once he was out of the car, but something about strapping him down in a carseat makes him a little angel.)
We were able to make great time with Brielle taking bottle feedings. By the way... being squeezed between two carseats feels [not so] awesome.
Once out of the car, Jaden went nuts! He's kinda crazy about Casey and Ber ber. Eventually he calmed down enough to get some sleep.
We headed to the lovely town of Hoboken the next day. I've been dying to visit the famous Carlo's Bakery ever since Cody and I finished the first 4 seasons of Cake Boss. Yeah, we're kinda fans of the show... even though Cody refused to show his enthusiasm and jump for joy with me;)
the line was massive - the wait about an hour - the store super crowed
Lucky for us, we met some awesome Australian folks who saved our spot in line so we could grab a bite to eat. We went up the street to a little pizza place on the corner. The deep dish was my fave:)
So finally we were in. The cakes and other desserts looked amazing. It was so crowed though, we weren't even sure what to order when they called our number. We couldn't see all the options through the masses!
I ordered this chocolate truffle deliciousness I had seen Buddy make on the Rachael Ray show earlier that week... SO good.
Casey wrestled Jaden to keep him from getting lost in the crowd and Kimber stayed with Brielle while we made our orders. So nice to have 2:1 adult to kid ratio:)
Oh, and that's me and Buddy just chillin.
Kimber lead us to this awesome splash park down the street with a great
view of the Manhattan skyline. Jaden couldn't wait to get his face on
that chocolate frosting!
After a day in the heat, the pool was the obvious choice after returning to Casey & Kimber's apartment. Jaden was stoked, then nervous, then excited, then cautious, etc. etc. etc.
He was definitely a bigger fan of the kiddie pool, and loved doing the "lobster walk."
Bri slept pretty much the whole time, and was all smiles with Kimber when she woke up.
The following day, we spent the afternoon lounging in Central Park.
YUMO burgers and dogs at the Shake Shack for dinner.
We walked a whole lot of blocks back to the car and then the back wheel of the stroller popped off.
Good thing we were 1 min. away from our car and the stroller was borrowed from the street! Casey found it one day while out selling.... now we know why the owners didn't want it anymore:)
:Central Park and another shot of the wheel:
On our way home, we made a stop to get a glance of the Statue of Liberty. We were on the Jersey side so it was a back view, but still very cool. It was Cody's first time, and I had done the whole Liberty Island tour back in High School. Definitely an awesome sight to see.
Jaden had fun pretending to be the statue:)
Random shots of Jaden scarfing down an otter pop, wrestling with Casey some more, and riding in the back of C&K's car... (trying out Kimber's hat and sunglasses).
We had an awesome time and then said our goodbyes after WAAAYYYY to short of a weekend.
The drive home wasn't quite as smooth, but still totally worth the trip:)
