Vacation continues...

the rest of vacay was spent in Connecticut where we stayed at my Auntie Ale's place

beautiful place on the water

 we were totally spoiled, woke up to breakfast cooking every morning and it was always a feast thanks to Viring making all kinds of things, pancakes, french toast, bacon & eggs, omelets, even fried chicken one morning and Dave getting donuts and pastries to add.  The kids loved it and said they wish they could have that at home...they are lucky if they run out of the house with a waffle to go :)

 
 Was really nice to sleep in, eat and then just figure out the day...which normally I would have every day planned, but really wanted to make this vacation a relaxing one and spend as much time as possible with cousins.  I think we did a good mix of our own thing and family things.  Jay says I plan too much, so I was a little more laid back this time :)  The first day we had to get a car charger so found ourselves at the apple store near Yale, so walked around that cute shopping area

 where I then spotted a Shake Shack so we had to have lunch there.  It was a bigger location, not crowded, so nice to have some room while we ate vs. the one in the city.  We also had fun playing foosball there.

 just pretty with all the green and holiday decorations still out

we watched Annie after and then had dinner at my cousin Todd's house

 He set up a fancy raqulette dinner for us, I mean cheesy potatoes with bread and charcuterie, so yum!
 stick cheese on the heated hand pan til it's melted, then pour over your potatoes or bread...the girls had fun...Jaylin actually said cheesy potatoes were one of her favorite moments of the trip
then just hung out by the fire, Todd played us some music

Jay of course taking over the kids toys :)

Trip to Newport to see mansions, ideally would have left earlier in the day to see more than one, but we got there late so only had time for one which was the Breakers.  I loved it.  I love history so was all very fascinating too me.  It was was an audio tour which I was iffy about, but was surprised at how clear and easy it was to follow so the kids totally were fine on their own.
 
They said no pictures inside, However you can take pictures of the Christmas decorations, so I took full advantage and tried to take as many pics as possible whenever I saw any kind of Christmas decor.Glad we came during the holidays, would have been bummed if I couldn't get any photos or would have been in trouble for getting caught trying to sneak some in :)





 just like you see in the movies, I love period movies!

 another chill day with coffee, shopping in Westport so Jayme could go to another Brandy store and dinner at Todd's.  Went to try a new cafe my cousin told me about, cafe G which was really yummy...every day after that he brought us some for breakfast, so sweet of him!
We rang in the New Year back in New York.  We took an early train into the city.  It actually wasn't that bad probably because we came early.  We got in about 3pm, went to visit Moxa and the family until about 6pm, then went to the adobe building by 6:30pm.

 good view of the tiny ball...we either had to choose the side where the performers where or the ball and I chose ball


so had to watch Taylor on the screen


I like when the ball was pink and purple colors


 
we left about a half hour after which being in the middle of Time Square I could see how you could stay out there a bit as it wasn't as cold as I thought with all the buildings and people.  But when we go out of Times Square to walk back to Grand Central Station it was a huge difference...freezing!


 It was a 1:13am train back so we didn't get home til about 3:30am, so New Year's Day was a lazy day at home...we tried to explore and go for a walk
 Jay said I let him go too far out :)
so when the girls came out we had to scoot up
 he loved running through the leaves

 the walk was a quick one as we were definitely feeling the cold!
 the kids could take it more than I could, they just wanted to run around outside

did a drive to the very tip of New York, through the Hamptons to Montauk

Kids were like we drove all this way to see this!?  Then Jay went off on how historic this place is and we like this stuff and I told them they are going to go home and read about it :)
Last day of the trip was Lobster Party as Jaylin called it.  We drove around the water to the other side where the Lobster guy lives.  He goes out weekly, summertime daily.  We were so excited to go with my cousin Dave to pick them up.
he let Jaylin hold them and gave the kids a story on lobsters
Spent the day just hanging out, playing with cousins



Lounging around...DJ loved to snuggle with Jaylin
 And we got some snow!


 so we went out for a little bit

 let the kids play outside




I had to call them in like 10 times before they came, they wanted to stay out, but it was way too cold

done

Lobster Roll prep...Connecticut style, just butter!
fun family dinner

boys hanging out at their own table...they didn't care for steak and lobster anyway, more for me :)

 Thank you East Coast Family for making our trip amazing!