May 2009- Six Flags, Boston, Plymouth & NYC

Here we are again! It's our last trip for the school year. For the week in May we did some really fun stuff. From Friday to Friday our family walked 60 miles. How did we do it you ask?

Well, day one- Homeschool Day at Six Flags Over Georgia.

Day two- fly to Boston, MA and walk "The Freedom Trail" all over town.

Day three- finish the trail, tour the "USS Constitution", drive to Plymouth, MA and walk around the Wampanoag Village, Plimoth Plantation & the Mayflower II then drive to NYC.

Day four- Wake up in NYC and keep freaking out about meeting Phil from the "Amazing Race" and then ride the elevator with him to breakfast!!! Ok, enough about Phil. Take the subway to Battery Park and ride the ferry to Liberty Island & Ellis Island. Walking tour of "Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World" (which, we learned, is her full name). Walk back to hotel by way of Ground Zero after our moment of silence.

Day five- Walk to Central Park Zoo, FAO Schwartz and back down to Times Square.

Day six- Again...walk over to Pier 86 where the Intrepid Museum is. For lunch the girls & I walked across town to The American Girl store and the boys walked to Times Square. Back to the hotel to rest and then off to the park and back to American Girl for our SECOND exchange...Jewel's decision making skills are a work-in-progress :)

Day seven- Our last full day. We wimped out of walking 30 blocks to the American Museum of Natural History and took the subway. To make up for it we wandered all over the 4 floors of the museum for 5 hours. Following a 2 hour nap we walked up to Times Square to get our last NYC dinner. Did you know that the Olive Garden is in the median of Broadway? We literally ate in the middle of the road. Look behind us in the pic...those are people walking on the sidewalk!

We had a fabulous time and hope to go back one day. We'll be home for a while now and are looking forward to a lazy summer vacation. Yeah, right. I can dream though! I think it's about time to venture west...who's up for a trip to the Grand Canyon? Write to us or comment on our blog and let us know what you and your family is up to.

Love, The Cross Country Cochrans

PS- Sorry some of the pics are turned....the software won't let me rotate them.

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Time to catch up

Hi guys! Sorry that it's taken me so long to get these pictures posted. Life is crazy hectic around here and I have a feeling that it's just going to get worse. I mean, we do have a pre-teen in our house now:) So, to catch you up-

We took a NJ trip for Jewel because she didn't want to be without her Dad on her 9th birthday. This year in school we have been studying American History and we just finished our book on the War of 1812. Since we were going to be driving through Maryland we decided to check out the most important fort of the war- Fort McHenry & the Bombardment of Baltimore. We had a facinating day there. On normal weekends they reinact the War of 1812 but the weekend we were there it was Civil War- oh well! The kids ran all over the fort looking for answers on their quiz to become National Park Junior Rangers. They learned first hand all about how Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner in the harbor.

After spending the week swimming at the pool we were ready to head home. But not so fast- we stopped off in Washington, DC to check out the American History Museum! The original Star Spangled Banner is housed there. Photographs are not allowed in the exhibit but it was well worth the stopover. Since the Natural History Museum is right next door....we checked it out too.

More pictures to come...enjoy!

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We weren't eliminated!!!!!

For those of you who do not know- we are HUGE Amazing Race fans. Bryan and I have been watching religiously for years and this season the kids have enjoyed our obsession with us. As we are traveling this week we are missing a couple of our favorite season finales. By chance we thought we might make it to our New York hotel in time to catch the finale of Amazing Race tonight. No luck though. The kids were bummed but cool because they know we've got it DVRed at home. As we checked into the Marriott- Times Square Lara was in the way of someone getting off the elevator pushing a large cart. I'm looking at the guy and....yeah, I recognize that guy. Yep- that's Phil. It's freaking Phil, the host of Amazing Race. He leaned over and told Lara thank you for moving out of the way. Then....we found out from the front desk that they did the finale here in NYC tonight and the host and crew are staying in the hotel!! Can you stand it??? This show is something we love to look forward to. We've even joked about signing up. :) To top it all off- Phil is staying in the room next door to us! Ahhhhhh!!!! Woo-hoo! He was coming back to his room and I just happened to be in the hall- yeah, right I just happened to be in the hall for 20 minutes waiting for him to come back to his room- and I got the guts to speak to him. I told him "we just drove down from Boston trying to get here in time to see the finale on tv and that we missed it." He goes, "Oh that sucks! You just missed it....well I won't tell you who won then." The kids came out and Bryan too...and I said, "No, please don't...we'll watch it when we get home." And Phil says..."Well, even though you were the last ones to get to the hotel...you're not eliminated because this is non-elimination round. Good luck!" Holy crap....we were all screaming when we closed the door...the kids were FREAKING out....ok, so it wasn't the kids...it was me!! We've only been in NYC for 30 minutes and how cool is that??!! We're off to the Statue of Liberty tomorrow.

Sandy Hook, NJ & Charlottesville, VA

We had a great time on our most recent trip up north. While Bryan was working the kids and I went off to explore the New Jersey coastline. The Sandy Hook lighthouse at Fort Hancock was our first stop. Fort Hancock was occupied by British Loyalists to ensure British entry into New York Harbor during the Revolutionary War. Then on the way home we stopped off to check out the Twin Lighthouses on the Navesink River overlooking New York Harbor. Reed's birthday dinner was the following day. He asked for sushi and Bryan's co-workers told us about a fabulous place called Redheads. Yummy! On our trip home to Georgia we stopped off in Charlottesville, Virginia to visit Thomas Jefferson's plantation- Monticello. What a beautiful day. The kids had a great time...especially Jewel who answered every one of our tour guides questions before any of the adults in our group. She loves Thomas Jefferson! Enjoy the pics...and more to come as the "Cross Country Cochrans" share our spring 2009 travels with ya'll.

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Family Day

The weather was amazing and the company couldn't have been better. We spent Saturday with our cousins- Chuck & Barbara Ann Price. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their first baby. The food was delicious and we played at the park and games until they sent us packing late into the night! Thanks for a great day Chuck & Barbara! We love you!

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Workout Journal #2

The workouts have been tough. Really tough. By that I mean tough to keep up with. By that I mean I stopped working out. I'm ready to workout but I just don't make the time. Ya'll know I hate exercising- I'm not good at it and sports aren't good for my self-esteem (as a great friend told me last night). I'll keep moving around and making better food choices- which is what I have to do in order to loose weight without exercising. We're making the switch to organic foods....it's been a struggle to commit to it with money issues and food prices going up but I feel better about eating when the foods are organic. I'll let you know how we do.

There's nothing new going on around my house lately. We're busy with our sports and dancing schedules. Bryan's still traveling for work and amazingly we haven't gone with him since October. I think this is the longest we've gone staying at home for almost 2 years. Time seems to be flying by and in a few short weeks Reed will be turning 12. That brings changes that I'm not quite ready for. Springtime starts our busy season with family celebrations and we are excited to have the 4th cousin join in the April birthday club. This April we'll have a 12, a 9, a 2 and a newborn cousin.

The beautiful weather we've been enjoying this week has inspired my weightloss renewal AGAIN. I feel so tired all the time but the pleasant breeze that comes through my house has lifted me up out of my slump and got me going. There's just something about being outside that makes me happy. Now, my husband would disagree that I'm an outside girl- he's only known me as the one who'd rather stay inside. That change in me only happened after I had kids....now that the kids are older and it's not so much work to be outside with them....I find it invigorating not exhausting to be out there with them. I called my hubby today and told him I don't want to go through another summer without a table and chairs for our deck. I'm ready to sacrafice a few things to get my family eating fresh from the grill more and enjoying the outdoors. Now, I'm not giving up getting my hair done, or my nails done....or a dinner out once in a while so what am I going to sacrafice? Well, maybe he can sacrafice something instead;)

Happy Spring!!!

25 Random Things

I did this on facebook and thought it would make a good post. If you read this then leave your blog address in the comment area and list your own 25 random things- I'd love to know more about you too! I thought I couldn't do it but once I got started it was fun!


Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. I don't think I'll be able to do 25 of these things.

2. I always wanted to have 6 or 7 kids, until I went through pregnancy- now I love the number 3.

3. I took a 90 minute ferry ride to Canada with my niece, Linzy, and we were surrounded by "Red Hat Ladies"...it completely freaked me out- there were about 75 of them- all in red and red hats!

4. I wonder sometimes if I have any half-brothers or sisters out in the world somewhere...my father was a wanderer.

5. I'm completely addicted to raw sushi- thanks Amy!! ...and I got my son to love it too! Reed will steal it off my plate when I'm not looking.

6. I keep in touch with all my old boyfriends.

7. I didn't know how to really love someone until I was really, truly loved- that kind of love hurt.

8. One of the things that tips me over the edge is people who drop their ill-behaving children off at birthday parties.

9. I'm the middle child of 5, my older sister and brother were 14 1/2 and 12 when I was born. So throughout my family's changes I've been: the baby, middle child, the oldest and then finally after the second marriage- #9.

10. My kids and I have a goal to visit every state in the continental US- we've checked off: Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Colorado, Delaware, & Washington. This spring we'll add: Massachusetts, Rhode Island & Connecticut to the list. Only 26 more to go!

11. My maid-of-honor was my best friend from Georgia Southern and in turn I was her matron-of-honor, we had our first babies, our sons, 3 months apart. It was perfect. I haven't heard from her in 9 years.

12. All my life I told myself that I would not be happy if the man I married was shorter than me, if he was smaller than me in the waist and if his mother hated me- I was completely wrong. Did you hear that? I admitted to being wrong!!

13. I rarely admit when I'm wrong.

14. I've secretly wanted to be a lawyer.

15. I adore my relationship with my heavenly parents- it's a personal joy of mine.

16. When I turned 30, a light switch went on- I don't have to deal with certain kind of "crap" anymore. It kept going over and over in my head- "I'm friekin' 30 years old- I'm done with all that!"

17. The worst things you can do for the ones you love are the things they could and should do for themselves. -John Wooden

18. When I'm angry about something....I clean.

19. My kids know that I can't stand it when my DVDs aren't in alphabetical order. We have over 300 and all three of them know where they go.

20. The thing that hurts me the most is when people disappoint my kids- that breaks my heart.

21. I fold sheets really well. My husband, who managed the bedding dept. at Macy's even thinks so. King sized, fitted- you name it. I can fold it into a perfect square!

22. I'm afraid of heights but I would love to go sky-diving.

23. I got really pissed the day they took "Free Fall" down at Six Flags. That was the first ride I ever went on at 11- and the only reason I did was because my 8 year old sister, Emily, was going on it and I didn't want to look chicken.

24. I drove from Salt Lake City, UT to Atlanta, GA alone when I was 19. It took me 3 1/2 days and I was delirious most of the way because I had no cd player, no phone, only money for gas and a car that wouldn't go over 55 mph. Now I can only drive about 2 hours at a time or I get flashbacks.

25. I didn't know what happiness was until I met Bryan.