{All In a Day} SC State House Steps + President Woodrow Wilson's Boyhood Home

With all of our cross country treks visiting presidential sites and running up and down state capitol steps, can you believe that we had yet to visit a couple of spots right here in our own home state???

Hubby had some army work to do in Columbia today, and we tagged along for the ride...

  

Sure, we've driven past the South Carolina State House numerous times...

but we've never actually explored the grounds...

nor conquered the state house steps, until today...

It was cold...

and George is still quite upset about what Sherman's troops did to his cane...

As we were walking back to the car, M asked what that was peeking above the trees and exclaimed, "Is that Cinderella's castle?" 

Clearly, it's time for a trip back to Walt Disney World, or maybe a first trip to Disneyland???

After a yummy pizza lunch at Village Idiot...

we took a tour of South Carolina's only presidential site (besides the possible, but probable, birthsite of President Andrew Jackson), the Woodrow Wilson Family Home...

Now, we have stopped and tried to visit before...

{July 2013}

but the home just reopened last year after undergoing extensive restoration...

The only home that the Wilson family owned, they built this house from the ground up, but only lived here a few years before relocating to Wilmington, NC...

After a fun dinner on the way home, at one of our favorite dives, the Beacon Drive-In...

we concluded our daylong adventure to our state's capital city!

A Challenge or Two...or Maybe, Three

As many of our family members and friends (plus anyone else who has read this blog for any period of time) know, we love to travel, and we are not afraid of the car suburban.  We love a good family road trip, and we set a goal quite some time ago to get our children to all 50 states before they graduate high school.

The first time that I remember taking photos to actually document a new state visit was on our family trip to Walt Disney World in 2011.  This was, in fact, the girls' first trip to Florida...

but B had been once before - all the way down to Key West - accompanying Hubby and me to Bestie S's wedding!

Now, with family spanning from all the way down on the Mississippi Gulf Coast to up in New York City, and the fact that we almost always drive to visit everyone, our children have been fairly well-traveled (as far as the Eastern U.S.A. is concerned) from the time that they were born, without us really putting much thought into it.  I think that B had about 13 states under his belt before L was even born - when he was 2 1/2 years old.

Anyway, things really got fun once our family was complete, and more so, once M was out of those little baby years.  Add in that shortly before that time, when B was just barely 4 years old, he really got interested in the U.S. Presidents. 

The only thing that I can trace it back to is, February 2010 and doing what I always did (and still do), changing out our monthly "theme" books related to that time of year.  February included Valentine's Day books, of course, plus a couple of books on the U.S. Presidents, along with a big poster of the U.S. Presidents from a Scholastic Weekly Reader way back when!

This is where my past as a kindergarten teacher comes in quite helpful!

B loved that poster and immediately started learning the names and numbers of each of the Presidents.  From there, he just wanted to learn more...

He decided that his favorites were both James K. Polk "because he is my favorite number, #11" and Woodrow Wilson "because I like his ears".  Well, what would you expect?  He was just newly 4 years old at the time...

From that, came another goal, to get B to as many sites related to the U.S. Presidents as possible - birthsites, homes, gravesites, monuments, anything.

Our first check on that list came along one of our regular trips home after a visit with family in Pennsylvania.  We stopped in Staunton, VA at the birthplace of President Woodrow Wilson...

Fast forward a few years, and with our second "official" Summer Family Road Trip (2013) in the books...  Freshly home from our grand adventure, we were at the beach and reminiscing about that trip that took us up to Maine and back, and Pops (Hubby's father) told B how many capitol buildings that he had been to and asked him to guess which ones...  He went on to tell B all about walking the steps to the top of the dome of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver.  That's the moment right there that B decided to challenge himself and set a goal to get to each state's capitol building and run up the steps to the front door.

At that moment in the summer of 2013 (after we'd just traveled up and down the East Coast!), he had only one capitol building under his belt - the New Hampshire State House in Concord, and that was by presidential default...

Thank you, President Franklin Pierce!

So, with all that being said, don't be surprised if you start to see a few "Challenge Checklist" posts popping up on here documenting both our completed States & State Capitol Buildings and U.S. Presidents, once we, as a family, deem them completely checked off!

{Weekend Adventure} Journey to a Table + Some More Capitol Steps

Oh, what a crazy weekend...  I'm not afraid of a road trip, of most any kind, and pair that with a great find on Craigslist ~ a table I'd been searching for high and low for years...  What do you get?  An impromptu weekend trip down to Florida and back!

Hubby had drill, so I roped my mom into riding shotgun, threw the littles in the car, and embarked on our crazy adventure...

Down, down, down south to Tampa, we spent the night and went to get the table first thing in the morning.  Man am I glad it fit...  I missed having my professional car packing husband with us, but we got it in finally...and didn't have to leave anyone behind...  Bonus!

On the way back up, we stopped in Tallahassee for another capitol steps run!

 

 

We've definitely been to more capital cities, but since he challenged himself to running up the steps of each capitol building, this makes #18 complete on B's Capitol Steps Challenge...

{Friends, Food & Fun} New York City

One of my dearest friends is having TWINS!  Yes, that's right...  After many years of hopes and prayers and too many failed attempts, Bestie S is going to be a mom!

She and her husband, S, are expecting twins via a surrogate, and they are set to arrive in January!!!

 

So, up to NYC I flew, which by the way, I was super excited about...  I've been to NYC a fairly good bit, but never during the holiday season, as we ALWAYS drive... 

Though they moved out to Connecticut over a year ago, they both still work in the city.  So, after my plane landed at JFK, I made my way into the city to meet up for lunch with S (via her flawless directions).

 

We grabbed Mexican at El Vez... 

 

 

The cauliflower tacos were YUM!

 

 

S took my luggage, and I headed off to make a special stop at AJLI (Association of Junior Leagues International) Headquarters for a tour.  It was cold and very windy, but I made it!

 

 

As a past president of our local League, this was a very neat stop for me.  It was fun to see so many familiar faces that I remember from conferences...

 

 

The plan was for S to meet back up with me to shop and grab a drink at Top of the Rock...

 

Well, as we all know...  People plan, and God laughs...  Less than 10 minutes after we parted, S got a call that her puppy, Owen, had been injured and was in need of vet attention.  So, S headed home to Connecticut to find out what was going on with sweet Owen... 

Armed with more fabulous directions (S is really good), I made my way from AJLI to the Village and Tory Burch's first boutique.

 

 

 My ONLY pair of nice flats, that I LOVE (and obviously wear too much), were in dire need of repair.  We're talking holes in the soles and the logo having fallen off...  So, I dropped those off to be fixed and nabbed a copy of her latest coffee table book as well...

 

 

From Tory Burch, I headed uptown and made a stop at Tiffany.  Last year we started a charm bracelet for each of our girls with the idea that each year Hubby would add one charm, therefore building a forever gift that they would each cherish for years to come.  Well, being the OCD one that I am, it has bothered me to no end that while they were given the exact same bracelet with the exact same charm (except for their monograms, of course), they had a different sized bag and box... 

 

 

Thankfully, old Tiffany pulled through for me and satisfied my OCD issues with a new bag and box... 

 

I got to see the lighted firework diamonds in person as a bonus...

 

 

From there, I stopped in the Bloomingdale's flagship store on Lexington Avenue to grab a set of "Bloomies" for each of the girls for Christmas...

 

That ended up being one of my most favorite stops...  Such nice people all throughout, from my sales clerk who gave me 10% off to the ladies in the "Just a Box" area who charged my phone for me while I read!

 

From there, I took the subway to Grand Central and caught the Metro-North train to Connecticut to meet back up with S, S, and the injured puppy, Owen...

 So Owen, the puppy, ended up with a piece of his tail broken off and in need of surgery on Saturday morning to remove part of the vertebrae and sew him up, so I was on my own while S dealt with sweet Owen. 

 Armed with more of those awesome directions (thanks, S!), I tackled our previously-made plans alone.  Now, don't go feeling sorry for me...  I think it all goes back to perspective.  I'm a stay-at-home mom...  I rarely get to take a shower or even go to the bathroom without someone coming to tell me something...  While I love it, am so very thankful that we've been able to make it work on one income, wouldn't do it any other way if I had to go back and do it again, AND know that the days are quickly passing and I will loooooong for these days again, being needed 24/7, there are days that I do long for just a few minutes to myself.  So, right NOW...a day alone in NYC to wander around and do whatever I want???  Not too bad...

 

So, I got up early this morning and hopped on the first Metro-North train to Grand Central...

  

 

 and walked over to the TODAY Show Plaza, passing a little Christmas prep along the way...

 

 

 

 It's funny, but the tree is not near as big as I thought it was...  Nor, is the famous rink!

 

I went through security and got a pretty good spot...

 

 

 

 After the "regular" TODAY Show ended, a lot of people filed out and I continued around to the other side where I had a great view inside the studio as they presented "TODAY's Take" with Al, Natalie, Tamron and Willie...

 

 

 

 I loved seeing inside the studio.  It makes watching from home so different, knowing in what part of the space they are using during each set...

 

 

 

 That's me wearing glasses, bundled up in black...  It was FREEZING, but it was fun... 

 

Since I was going solo, instead of going ice skating as originally planned, I decided to visit the New York Public Library (Schwarzman Building) and do some "research" for our next family trip...  I had heard that Christopher Robin's original toys (aka "Edward Bear" and friends), the ones that the characters in A. A. Milne's famous Winnie-the-Pooh stories were based on (and named after), were on display, so I went to find them and check them out...

 

 

 

 So, very neat...especially after visiting this statue in Winnipeg, Manitoba on our road trip this summer...

 

 

 

 After catching up on some reading (and warming up) in the Periodical Room, I headed back to Connecticut and met up with S for lunch at her local standby, Jimmy's Southside Tavern...

 

With Owen still in surgery and both of the "grandmothers" flying in (not because of the puppy, but because of the main reason I was in town - a couple of friends and I were giving a shower for S), I decided that this might be as good a time as ever to try to get in to see Saturday Night LIVE, none other than LIVE... Though we are rarely up late enough to watch it these days, Hubby and I absolutely love the show. A quick search told me that Cameron Diaz was hosting along with Bruno Mars as the musical guest... I found a great site online here that told me the ins and outs of how to do it, and I decided to give it a try!

My SNL "adventure" began Friday night at 9:00pm when I assumed my place in line, #24... I was amongst a few that had been there and done it before. With a rundown of the process from them (mostly college kids or those in their early to mid 20s, I'd say) paired with what I'd learned here, along with the reassurance from S that it was "safe", I felt pretty good about the wait... It was colder than I would've liked, but I think that might've actually helped my chances!

The way it goes is that the NBC pages come out around 7:00am Saturday morning to start distributing tickets. Knowing that I was facing a 10 hour wait, I decided to try and think of it as a good old marathon tailgate, because I've done that before! 

It wasn't too terribly bad. I'd do it again...maybe NOT in 28 degree weather, but I'd do it again. I know that I can, now... AND, I'm going to have to if Hubby and I ever find ourselves in NYC without the little ones! 

Honestly, the regular late-night dinner crowd and party-goers were out until about 2:30am and there was just a short lull until the area started buzzing again getting ready for Saturday morning...

My favorite part was at around 4:30am when a string of black cars started pulling up one-by-one and the Weekend TODAY anchors started showing up! Erica Hill... Then, Sheinelle Jones... Then, Dylan Dreyer... And, finally, Lester Holt, all dressed in his suit and ready to go on air... That was neat...

So, at about 7:05am, I finally had the coveted SNL stand-by ticket in hand (which still does NOT guarantee admission)...

and hopped on a train back to Connecticut to pass the time, errr, host a baby shower!

I got back with a couple of hours to spare and took a short nap before getting ready to go (the shower was being held at one of the hostesses homes in New Jersey)...

What a special, special, special occasion we have to CELEBRATE! The babies are coming...finally, after 7+ years, they are on their way, a BOY and a GIRL!!!

What a lovely event it was and a wonderful time for S to visit with so many friends that have been hoping and praying for this day to come!

After the shower, we headed back to Connecticut with the grandmothers in tow to help sort through some of the new gifts.

I headed out to catch the train back to NYC and assumed my place in the stand-by line...#12...

Long story short, and NO cameras allowed, I got in! I think that they took 16 people total... It was so neat to see how all of the "behind-the-scenes" work takes place... You can definitely SEE the actual skits better on television, but we saw all the preparation and the big, behind-the-scenes, picture, and it was very neat!

After the show, I stuck around to meet and grab photos with a few of the cast members...

and that would be where my newfound NYC-savviness ended!

I missed my 1:47am train back figuring I could just sit in Grand Central and read my book... Afterall, what's 3 1/2 hours when I did 10 the night before? Well, Grand Central closes... Yep, it does...oops! I seriously thought that it was always open!

A nice police officer in Grand Central told me that I was welcome to stay and read, but gave me directions to a nice 24-hour diner where I could get a little something to eat and read my book. I chose the diner...it was warm!

I got something to eat, read my book and drank a couple of Diet Cokes to stay awake, all the while sending texts to both Hubby and Bestie S to keep them informed as to where I was, even though they were both asleep at this point!

Once Grand Central reopened, I caught the first train back to Connecticut (I was sooo happy to see that train!) and went to sleep, thus ending my TWO nights spent on the streets of NYC...

What a grand adventure it was!

Washington, D.C. {2014} - Day 4

Today Hubby got up super early and headed out to meet up with a couple of S.C. Army National Guard colleagues for the 8:00am Army Ten-Miler race.  The 3 little ones and I grabbed brunch at the hotel...

{My first Starbucks ever ~ Shocking, right? ~ I really don't know what got into me!}

So, I don't drink coffee, but I do drink too much Coca Cola, which is not good...

Anyway, I digress...  After brunch, we hopped on the Metro...

and made our way over to meet up with Hubby for the much-loved Youth Run...

The littles did great...

 
Love all FOUR of my sweet runners oh so much!

  

Until next year...