Introducing Xander to the Family!

After a few days in Hawaii it was now time for Xander to meet the rest of the family!

Our flight from Honolulu to New York was a lot better than the previous one. We had a day flight this time (which made all the difference) and Xander was not given a seat as the flight was full. However, he was happy to sit in our laps as long as we kept him entertained. We passed lots of hours just drawing, watching his shows on the tablet and playing with his toys.

10 hours later we touched down in New York and because of the different time zones it was now early morning (while it was night time for us). My brother Denis came to pick us up at the airport, met his little nephew for the first time, and then we started the trip to my parents house in New Jersey… Two hours later, after navigating through Queens, Bronx and Manhattan we finally arrived at our destination and were greeted with fresh hot bagels and hot coffee (Thanks Mum and Dad!).

Xander was a bit cranky due to it being night time for him so after some food we managed to get him to sleep for a few hours before meeting the rest of the family!

During the course of the next few days we managed to get Xander to meet and greet my brothers, sister, cousins, uncles and aunties… He was a bit overwhelmed at first and very shy but warmed up towards all of them after just a few meetings.

The one person he really got along with was my brother Rene and Amanda’s daughter, Leila. They are quite close in age and it was great to see them interact, play and chase each other around the house.

Throughout our stay here we were able to attend my brother Denis’s College graduation. And wasn’t this a grand affair… The graduation took part in a massive indoor sports arena where there were almost 2000 graduates occupying the entire floor area. You can just imagine the amount of family and friends that were inside the venue…. I’ve been to football games with less crowds than this! Later that night we had a great big party in my parents back yard with family, friends and lots of good food and drink!

A few days later Suz, Xander and I made a trip into New York City and visited Central Park Zoo where Xander was enjoying running around and looking at all the animals. Once we finished there we walked down to the Rockefeller Centre, all the way having Xander pointing out all the police cars by yelling out “wooo wooo” as we were walking past them 😉

Our walk continued all the way down to Times Square where we got onto a subway train which took us down to East Village. The subway in New York is outstanding and puts the train system in Sydney to shame, however…. they are not very friendly to people travelling with prams. Not all the stations had elevators and some of the gates were tricky getting through.

Later on during our time there we also made a trip to Upstate New York with my parents and also with Amanda and Leila. We visited an Alpaca farm, saw some great scenery and also visited a Farm Market. Over the next few days and weeks we passed our days spending time with family and as the weather was warming up we also bought a small blowup pool which all the kids (and some adults) couldn’t stay out of.

We had a couple of great weeks with the family… but unfortunately it was soon time to start the trip back home again… It was now time for Suz, Xander and I to continue on our trip so we said our goodbyes to everyone and promised that we would meet up in Hawaii next time as it’s halfway between Sydney and New York.