Dana Daily

Yep, two years. Sal and I have been married two glorious years today. It's amazing how wonderful marriage can be when you're in it with the right person. Unfortunately, Sal had to work today, but I took the day off and actually had a fun day with all three kids. I wrapped Sal's gifts, tucked them in a bag, and filled it with cotton balls instead of tissue paper. I gave him a Duke Ellington at the COTTON Club CD, a pair of drumstick pencils, and a dual (TWO) CD compilation of classical songs. That was a CD that he had put on his Amazon wish list so I just ordered it from there. Easy Peasy. Sal gave me cotton pillowcases, as shown, and a gift card to Willow. Date night!! After we got Seth tucked into bed for the night we watched 90 Day Fiance , our favorite train wreck, and sipped some peach wine. We had an awesome evening.

What a long day. We should have had a three hour drive today. Instead it took us about five. Stop to pee, stop to eat, finally enough is enough we're not stopping again. I asked them what their favorite part of vacation was. "EVERYTHING!" Success. Now, to start the mountain of laundry, but not until after we switch out the batteries in the thermostat. Argh. It's always something.

As much as I wanted the girls to experience Times Square, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island were our main reasons for detouring through New York City. I found out last year that the third grade at the girls' school does a unit on the statue in May. It was an obvious destination choice. The hotel did not have a complimentary breakfast and I wanted to make sure we knew where we needed to be to catch the ferry for the islands. We had tickets for 9am so we had no time to waste. The valet brought our car and we drove the few miles to the pier. As luck would have it there's a diner near the ferry landing. This picture was taken before Seth gave Sal's glass of orange juice a swipe and spilled it everywhere. Ah, kids. After breakfast we stood in line and waited for the ferry that was running about 30 minutes behind schedule. Eventually it arrived, and we headed to Ellis Island. We spent a lot more time there than I had planned. I thought we'd be there an hour or so...

We had a busy day planned, and our first stop was The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island. I've always thought it would be cool to tour these mansions, and to see The Breakers at Christmastime was amazing. This was the Vanderbilt Family's summer cottage, and took only two years to build and decorate. Prior to visiting, I read online that the kids version of the tour was really good so we hooked the girls up with their own listening devices, while Sal and I opted for the adult tour. I didn't hear any complaints from the girls during the tour, and afterwards they said they loved it. Our tour was pretty amazing as well. I expected the mansion to be big and expansive. I didn't expect it to be so opulent. Maybe someday we'll have the chance to tour the other mansions, but I've heard that once you tour The Breakers, the other mansions just aren't as impressive. We were allowed to take one photo inside the house, and only of the Christmas tree. From a distan...

We arrived at Sal's aunt and uncle's house around 9:30. It seemed like Thanksgiving dinner was well on its way. We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, visited, and the kids played. We had a delicious meal that included turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, turnips and carrots, rolls, cranberry sauce, and desserts galore. Seth slept through dinner, poor tired baby, and Sal's cousin, Victoria, snapped the picture below of him while he had his own Thanksgiving feast when he woke up. He looks so much older to me here, like a toddler even. Victoria is holding Seth in the picture above, and Uncle Joe and Aunt Doreen are standing next to Sal and I. Cousin Joey is in the orange shirt, and a family friend named Jackie is in front of him. Jackie is in her 80s and as a hobby dances at nursing homes to entertain the residents. Emmy wanted Jackie to show her some dance moves, and told her all about cheerleading. We had a really nice day, and loved being able to spend...

This is what happens when two history nerds get married. . .they drive 45 minutes out of the way to see a statue. Sybil Ludington's story doesn't make history books like Paul Revere's, but it's a similar tale. She was a 16yo girl from New York who rode through the countryside in April of 1777 to rally "American" forces to stop the British advance in the colonies. She rode more than twice as far as Revere, but since no one wrote a poem about her ride, it's not something schoolchildren learn. Sal and I have seen a couple shows / documentaries on the history channel where she was mentioned and they always show a statue. We knew it was in New York and when we saw how close it was to our route to New England it was obvious we had to go there. The statue is located in Carmel , a tiny town located near Danbury, Connecticut. I researched the statue and knew it was placed by Lake Gleneida . Not having the coordinates or exact location of the statue, we had a...

Last year we had planned to go to New York City around Thanksgiving, but I was pregnant and diagnosed with placenta previa and my doctor was strongly against traveling that far. So, we postponed our trip. This year, we decided to add a few days to our original plans and visit Sal's family near Providence, Rhode Island. Sal's last day of school for the week was today so we signed the girls out of school for Wednesday, and headed toward New England. We spent the night at a Comfort Inn in Mifflinville, PA. Not quite half of the driving distance was behind us, but we were tired and needed to get out of the car. Tomorrow, onward to Pawtucket.