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Wow, what an amazing trip!  Too short but just wonderful! 

Traveling with kids is never the easiest and sometimes as we're getting ready for a trip or even right in the middle of a crazy adventure I wonder if it's worth all the money and exhaustion. 

 It is.  

The time away and the opportunity for all of us to see something different, to get out of our own little world for a bit is worth it all.  On this vacation I learned a lot about my whole family and this week I'm hoping to write about a few of those lessons.  

One lesson I learned is that Lucy is awesome.  Oh sure, I already knew this but she was just amazing!

You don't see tons of kids under 6 or so in Manhattan.  There is so much walking!  And it's busy!  

Lucy was totally unfazed.  

For instance this is Lucy on the ferry on the way back from the Statue of Liberty.  Yes, that's the ground and no, I'm not freaking out about germs.  Everything in New York in germy and just plain dirty.  She was worn out and so she just figured out what to do for herself.  

She found things all over that she loved and made friends everywhere!  This was at an ice cream shop in Williamsburg.  She wants that backpack.  Right before this she'd seen a picture of Jesus eating ice cream and yelled..."Momma!  God eating ice cream!!!!".  The woman behind us in line grabbed my arm and said "oh my gosh!!!  she is soooo adorable!"  We heard variations of this all weekend.

On the last day we brought a stroller because her little legs were just worn out!  She figured out a way to rest.  

 I hope I remember exactly how this moment sounded and felt forever.  We'd just had a picnic and we walked over to a pier to look at the city.  Along the pier there were men fishing and Lucy was insistent that we join.  And here is the part that was amazing.  Her desire to fish led us to a conversation with the fishermen.  She draws us to people everywhere.  We talk to fishermen, and drivers, and janitors and just about everyone because of her.  She's curious about everything and wants to talk to people about who they are and what they do. 

Lucy is awesome.