First Trip Out of the City

We crossed the bridge on the lower level to go out of the city. Spring Valley is the town where Kevin teaches.

This is the school. It is in a town just like you would see in Illinois. Kevin said when he arrives in the morning the soccer field is covered with geese.

Abby said, "Daddy, do you teach here or learn here?"

Kevin got his first paycheck and took us all to the mainland to see his school and to shop at the stores outside the city. We don't have "normal" stores like you are used to. The ones here are small and crowded with very high prices. Milk is $4.20 a gallon here. We saw Kevin's school and then went to Target to shop. Oh, how nice it was to be out of the city. There were parking lots here! Grass and houses. Familiar stores and restaurants. No noise and traffic and a bajillion people in the streets. No concrete as high as you can see in every direction. We got our items at Target and then went to IHOP for lunch. Kevin had been wanting to take us to the one in Illinois for some time and we had just never made it. His family went there a lot when he was a kid. We all got breakfast. Katie, Abby and Lilly ate all their pancakes and scrambled eggs and sausage. Serena got cinnamon apple pancakes and Kevin got blueberry.

Serena picked Lilly up to take her to the bathroom and wash her sticky hands. Once in the bathroom she realized that Lilly had pooped and it was everywhere. Now smeared down Serena's shirt from holding her. The diaper bag was back in the van in the Target parking lot. We cleaned out the high chair with wet paper towels and Serena walked the girls back to the van. Lilly got cleaned up and in clean clothes but Serena didn't have anything to change into. So Kevin and Abby did the grocery shopping by themselves and Serena waited in the van with Lilly and Katie. The dirty smelly mess couldn't even ruin the day. We all had such fun. Oh yeah, and milk at Target was $2.89!

We were able to get school supplies for the first time this year. What fun that is. New pencils and clean notebooks. Folders and index cards. We would later get the dictionary and calculator at the teachers store around the corner from our apartment.

Kevin showed us the way he comes back into the city. It is a different route than when we first arrived. He likes this way better. It goes right along the Hudson River, which was pretty at sunset.