The Hendricks Family Experience

Every year since we moved to New York we have gone to see the Independence Day concert and fireworks at the Trophy Point Amphitheater at West Point. This year it happen to fall on the 4th of July. It has taken us two years to learn were you want to sit and we didn’t want to end up watching the fireworks through the trees again so we went to the concert 5 hours early. It was very busy this year so we ended up on a rather steep hill. (We learned that you need to go spread a blanket the night before.) We still had a great view of the concert and fireworks. It was a little hard on the kids so the girls played in a little spot in front of us until the concert started.  They put on another great concert followed by a fantastic fireworks display over the Hudson.  We got two for one this year because in the background across the river we got to watch another fireworks display. It was a fitting backdrop for the West Point Concert and fireworks display.  The kids had fun picnicking, sliding down the hill and eating too much food (which they paid for later). Kate drove us crazy being the busy 2 year old.  She had fun being chased around, and digging in the dirt until the fireworks started.  She is not fond of the loud booms (I have to admit that is my favorite part of fireworks.  The louder the better).  She spent most of the display with her hands on her ears or hiding under the blanket. She refused to watch any of them even the ones across the river. Chris had fun playing with our new camera. I think he took over 200 pictures. Claire slept through the whole thing after a long day and when it was finally over  we quickly walked to our car and were able to  escape the traffic.   After a few u turns, one bloody nose, and 2 car sick girls we made it home in time to clean up and go to bed. I am not sure it was a restful holiday weekend but we had a good time.

We wish we could have slept in but today but  we had to get up and take the boys to Scout camp.   So this morning we took the whole family up to Ten Mile Rive and hang out for a little while before leaving the boys and returning home.   They were not sad to see us leave though I am happy Mason will still give us a hug goodbye.   It will be strange to only have four kids at home for a week.  There will be no time for rest this week as we get ready for our trip to Utah. I decided to make dresses for the girls. (What was I thinking! I remember you cant find any cute dresses out here.) We also have to take Chris’s bass in for some work, pick up the boys from camp and a million other things. But life wouldn’t be fun if I didn’t have my family to keep me busy. If you want to see some more of Chris’s shots from the fourth click here.

Halloween Kids 2008  

Halloween, as usual, is always very busy. This year we decided to add some fun by decorating outside. We have been saving milk cartons for a couple of months to make 3 more skeletons to add to the 3 we made last year. To this we added lights, a ghost, a pumpkin, and some scary sounds coming out of the garage. We had to scramble to set up the last of it after running around most of the day finishing up some errands and running to the girls’ school twice for their costume parades. We tried to light up the skeletons with some black lights but they were too weak. We got an excellent idea from our neighbor using fluorescent ballasts and bigger black lights. We will be looking more into that next year. Of course we also had some very last minute costumes to throw together for the boys who had to dress up at the last minute. If you don’t know what Mason’s costume is, you are not alone. He went with a friend to a crazy neighborhood that really gets into Halloween.  Only one person knew who he was dressed up as. He claims he is Spaceman Spiff, the space man from Calvin and Hobbes. It didn’t matter, he came home with half a pillow case of candy. This year, Junior decided to stay home and pass out candy. As it got dark, he would stand real still by the porch with the rest of the decorations and as people reached in to get candy he would scare them. (If you look here real close you can see him by the porch) He got a few people really good which was hilarious. One girl only touched his arm and when she realized he was real she jumped back and screamed which scared the rest of the group. He had a lot of fun and can’t wait to do it again next year. (more…)

Our favorite

Happy Fourth of July! Here’s a picture of the fireworks we saw over in Cornwall.

The kids had a fun day – we drove over to Cornwall in the early afternoon to see what they had going on. There were some stalls set up selling cheesy stuff as well as carnival food (you know, fried dough, hot dogs, kettle corn, that kind of thing). Not real exciting, and the weather wasn’t too hot. So we took off and went to see some history.

First we drove up to Knox’s Headquarters in New Windsor. Generals Knox and Greene both were camped here from 1779-1782 during the Revolutionary War. We saw actual stuff from that time period and a tour of the house, quite a bit of which was original. We also got to see a period mortar being fired. Pretty cool.

Next stop was the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor and the New Windsor Cantonment (also in New Windsor, curiously enough). The New Windsor Cantonment is where big parts of the Continental Army were garrisoned during the Revolutionary War, from about 1779 until the end of the war. This is where George Washington gave his speech to the troops to stop the Newburgh Conspiracy. They had a lot of stuff to see, from a blacksmith to old toys to a large display of Revolutionary War cannons, including many captured from the British. It was fun to see history that we have read about. The Purple Heart Hall of Honor is pretty new, just opened last year. It gives a lot of information about the history behind the Purple Heart (including a real one given out by George Washington himself). Pretty amazing stuff.

Then we went home to grill up some hamburgers and eat watermelon and stuff, just in keeping with normal 4th of July celebrations.

Our last trip out included a stop at Weir’s for ice cream and then lastly, to the fireworks. It was a good show for a little town like Cornwall. Sarah and Allie liked it a lot, but Kate was not as excited. She buried her head in Steph’s chest and wouldn’t even look at them – but she didn’t cry. I guess she didn’t remember last year. The best part was we found a way to avoid the crowds and were home in 15 minutes!

All in all, a good 4th of July. The girls liked it and will certainly remember it for years to come. Oh yeah, and it didn’t rain.

We will post more photos of the fireworks up on our Flickr page! Click here to visit the photos.