Travels to NY and Activities in First Half of July (DCITP, Meeting the Cousins, Adventureland, APEC)

When we arrived in the US, we had three weeks in New York, where the kids did Day Camp in the Park all 3 weeks and Lola did a week of Alley Pond Environmental Center science camp. It was exactly what I was hoping for - lots of time outdoors under the sun and being exposed to the elements, freedom, adventure,  independence.  They came back every day increasingly more tanned, and mostly learned Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars songs while swimming, scootering and running around in wide open spaces. Priceless, and for our kids, an eye opening and liberating experience. Pretty much a perfect American summer.

Lola was sick immediately before we left, and then when we got to the US the boys were immediately sick.  That combined with jetlag was a pretty fearsome condition.  The kids handled the 16 hour flight shockingly well.  I attribute a lot of the success to the excitement of the journey, the departure time (late afternoon worked well for us), the blow up beds and the luck that we had an empty middle seat.  The kids loved the lounge - don't let anyone tell you that kids do not know how to appreciate the good stuff!

It sounds ridiculous, but having stairs was such a novelty for the kids. And in the first couple of days, I was exhausted from running up and down every time we forgot something on the third floor (which was often).  I think having the kids at home livened up my parent's house and brought a lot of cheer, energy and chaos to their normally very calm existence!

Jetlag is real.

DCITP is the camp in Great Neck where my parents live. My dad joked that after paying taxes for the 20 years since my sister and I graduated, he is finally getting some value due to the camp being restricted to residents and their kids and grandkids.

The kids got to hang out with family, old family friends (people who saw me grow up!), swim and play a lot, and meet their NY cousins.

I got to take Lola to Adventureland, a really fun amusement park that I went to when I was her age. Trippy!

Lola also got to enroll in Alley Pond Environmental Camp, which was held in a (very nice) trailer in Douglaston Queens with a cool teacher and (per Queens) diverse student campers.  I was very glad that Lola got to experience both of these worlds - from learning how to count to ten in Hebrew, talking about summering in East Hamptons i.e. "East Expensive," to mingling with kids in Queens from all kinds of backgrounds.