The Turner review

 

"Hold on to me as we go,

as we roll down this unfamiliar road

and although this wave is stringing us along

just know you're not alone

cause I'm going to make this place your home."

- Phillip Phillips ( our road trip theme song)

 Tomorrow we will make landing on our cherished red soils of PEI.  With mixed emotion, we've come to the end of our Turner road trip for this year. Reflecting back on this incredible adventure, together we have gathered some silly facts and created some awards. Enjoy!

Big Blue ( our awesome Toyota Highlander, not the Gmen ) wins vehicle of the year!  She endured over 13 000 kms of Turner Chaos: trustworthy, comfy and our home on the road.

John wins Best Driver (hands- down).  He drove over 13000kms. (Carolyn drove 11km - no, it's not a typo.) I did win best navigator though. ( I was alone in the running.)

Eli wins most entertaining passenger (and he was only there part time!Just imagine how he'd do at the Oscars!)

    Best supporting crew: Charlie, Finn and Owen- The Best travellers, adventure seekers and ready to wrestle with a second's notice. (Whenever I turned around, they'd be tackling or wrestling each other,seriously)

Best meal out: Corky's (Memphis- for John's Birthday)

Best hotel: Hampton Inn (They should have sponsored us)

Best show: Cirque du Soleil's, La Nouba (John is even quoted as saying "better then any football game I've ever seen")

Subway should have also been a sponsor as we certainly enjoyed a number of footlongs!

Most intriguing new t.v. show: The Amish Mafia (we are very curious)
Best book read: Over the edge: Death in the Grand Canyon

 





What was on the Turner turn-table?

This is what could be heard belting out of our rig driving down the road...

1. Home- Phillip Phillips ( a fitting theme song)

2.  Diamonds in the sky- Rhianna

3.  Gagnam Syle- Psy

4. Don't stop the party- Pitbull

5. Girl on Fire- Alecia Keys

6.  Try, Try, Try -Pink

7.  "I belong to you, you belong to me , in my home....." artist?

8. We are never, ever, getting back to together....-Taylor Swift

9.  Don't you worry Child - Swedish Mafia

.... that's all we could think of for now... it's late and we are getting tired.

 

 

Some things we learned about each other along the way:

1. Owen knows the lyrics to every song.

2.  Finn is exceptionally observant and astute. Just when you think he isn't paying attention, he unveils a wealth of knowledge and detail.

3.  When John is hungry, everything comes to a halt. Feed the bear.

4.  Charlie is deeply concerned with homelessness in the U.S.

5. Mum needs "girl time"  away from the boys every now and then.

6. We have exceptional extended family and friends (who kindly welcomed our happy chaos into their homes)

7.  Eli knows how to behave while away from his immediate family.Phew!

8.  Garmins are not always trustworthy.

9.  Everyone snores when they are really, really tired.

10.  This road trip was one for the memory books.

 

Cheers one and all, thanks for coming along on this magical adventure with us.

Take care of each other,

love the Turner Tourists

xo

 

 

 

Time with family

New year's day we made our way back to family; to Bev and Chris' in Pennsylvania.  Of course there was a great welcome. Notice Eli is in there too! We were very happy to be reunited with our furry one. Chris treated us to a local New Year's tradition: Pennsylvania Dutch New Year's Day dinner. It consisted of Pork and Saurkraut and mashed potatoes. Indeed a new one for us but we loved it.

Ahh ...Sisters! Such fun!

Doggy cousins: Eli and the Barclay Bear.

Bev is the ultimate dog sitter, dog whisperer...Eli will miss her.

Saying goodbye is never easy. Looking forward to the summer visits already.

Wouldn't be a holiday at Bev's without the frogs.

Thanks Bev and Chris! The Turners are homeward bound.

xo

New York, New York and New year's eve!

Here we are in the big apple.  This was Saturday night in Times Square. To our left they are setting up staging for Monday night. Below are the big screens. We are actually on the big screen in the middle (you can spot John's blue coat towards the middle left!) The city felt so alive! Something big brewing....

 

 

Of course we had to try some New York style Pizza. It's always a cool thing to see which famous people have also eaten in the same place! We were not disappointed by the photos on the walls.

Walking down 6th avenue was a spectacle of lights and glitter. I loved this giant Christmas ornament display near Rockefeller Center. The Rockefeller Tree was gi-normous and beautiful. The outdoor skating rink was a hit too...  The weather was perfectly suited for the evening.

 

Can you guess where Finn is? Here's a hint: Remember Tom Hanks playing the floor Piano in the movie Big? This is the actual piano! It is located in the infamous FAO Schwarz toy store. This store is a hit for all ages! We all lost ourselves in this playground!

The boys found Candy-land...

                                                    I discovered the muppets....

Johnny fell in love with this black rhino.

Back on 5th avenue...the window fronts were adorned with every designer possible. This is for Cate: Oscar de la Renta.

Oh, and John had a lovely visit with the Donald.

 Sunday we hit the Meadowlands for the football game but we ventured back into Manhattan Monday, New Year's Eve.  We hit the pavement early and started with a few sights.  Above is Ground Zero. Just behind the flags, you can see construction under way.  We realized our children had absolutely no understanding of this tragic event (as Owen was not even a year old and the twins unborn) so being there provoked a series of deep questions that we were unprepared for.  It certainly has prompted us to reflect on how 911 has impacted our safety and freedom which we once took for granted. As parents, how do we best address these issues with our children?

We  strolled down to Battery Park to catch a view of Lady Liberty.  Known best as a symbol of Freedom, it somehow seemed very fitting after being at Ground Zero.  Sadly, due to Hurricane Sandy, we were unable to climb the Statue of liberty but we did soak in all that she represents. 

From there, we hit Wall Street.  Here is John in front of the NY stock exchange.

 

From Wall street we glimpsed the Empire State building and then took the subway all the way to 72nd street where we grabbed some lunch and went for a stroll through Central Park. Strawberry Fields  was an extremely busy part of the park, with a tribute to John Lennon going on.  We then came across a flurry of activity where to my excitement a 4 mile road race was being set up for midnight! Oh, how I would have loved to take part...

 

Instead, we kept strolling, which was lovely too.  We caught up with an artist in the Park who was keen to sketch our 3 boys. They managed to sit still for the duration. Phew! The end product is rather cute. He drew them playing football. Surprised?

Below, they conquered more climbs in the park!

Look who else we spotted in the park?! Big Bird was very happy to have us shouting out to him and gave us a great big wave.  Elmo looked exhausted and shared zippo energy our way. Guess he's working on some personal issues.

As we made our way out of the park, we walked straight into the 7th avenue frenzy! We came across hundreds of Police officers getting their assignments! Very slowly we made our way as far up 7th avenue towards Times Square.  It was now only 4 o'clock.

Streets were already being closed to car traffic.  Here we are 5 blocks from the heart of the New Year's Eve activities. 

This is as close as we could get... we were 4 blocks away and people were crammed in like sardines. " This is crazy" said Finn.  It was 4h15, almost 8 hours from midnight! We were told that in order to get a spot in front of the stage, you needed to be there by 8am.  Police expected the crowds to fill 20 blocks deep!

At this point, we decided to say goodnight to this great, electric city  and we ventured away from the congestion. Along the way to our hotel, we crossed endless tv cameras.  Here are the boys in front of Fox News.  Charlie was desperate to be interviewed but just couldn't get in there.

Happy New year everyone!

Carolyn xo

 

 

Back in the New York Groove

Here we are at the Giants final game of the season.  After winning the Super Bowl last season, the Gmen had a bit of a Super Bowl hangover and didn't show up for a couple of games and it cost them a playoff spot.  However, you cannot be greedy as a die-hard fan, two Super Bowls in four years is something special, in fact we are spoiled!  Boys loved their first ever Giants game and if we win the lottery we will go to all their games, home and away!

 

 

 The boys received early Christmas presents before we left PEI, Giants jerseys.  Finn got a Hakeem Nicks, Charlie a Victor Cruz, and Owen a Jason Pierre-Paul.

I had a few words with NFL commissoner Roger Goodell during the warm-up which was pretty neat.  He seems like a really down to earth guy who just went around to meet some fans before the game.

 

 We had great seats only five rows from the field and what a stadium, state of the art being only two years old.  Not an empty seat in the house and very knowledgeable crowd.   Nothing like being at your team's stadium!  Lots of fun!

 

In a very nice tribute by the Giant organization, the tunnel for the Giants players entering the field was formed by the parents, students, and teachers from Sandy Hook Elementary who are just down the road in Connecticut.  It was pretty emotional seeing the Giants players holding the hands of the students of this school during the singing of the national anthem.  Our hearts go out to those families and for those that didn't know, one of the boys killed in that terrible shooting was buried in a Giants #80 Victor Cruz jersey.  Cruz went to Newtown last week to spend time with this boy's family and with other children from the school.  When you see this, you realize football is only a game and that life is so precious and how much you love your kids.

Owen, Finn, and Charlie were really excited to find out by coincidence that the Philadelphia Eagles were staying in the same hotel as us, out here in the Meadowlands.  They took a football along with a Sharpie and got a number of autographs from Eagles players.  Some of the players who took time out to sign their football were Riley Cooper, Brent Celek, Jeremy Maclin, Casey Matthews (Clay's brother), Nick Foles, Evan Mathis, and a few others.  To their disappointment, Mike Vick would only sign two or three autographs which isn't much of a surprise.  I was surprised that the Eagles didn't leave the hotel until 10:45am for a 1pm game.  Perhaps that's why they looked so bad on Sunday as the Gmen pounded them 42-7!  Looks good on them!

Eli must of known we were in the house as he put on a show for us as he threw for five touchdowns in the game, the first time ever in his career.  One of his touchdowns was to Victor Cruz and he did his salsa dance in front of us which was exciting for Charlie, who believes he is Cruz when playing and out in the front yard!  He was hoping to buy the same receiver gloves Victor Cruz wears.

 

My mentor Tom Coughlin!  Great coach, two Super Bowls!

 

Charlie and Owen cheering hard for the Giants!  Boys bought a lot of Giants gear here in NY.

 

 Good photo of two time Super Bowl MVP, Eli Manning, before his TD throw to Cruz.

 

The whole family celebrating the blow-out win by Big Blue!  We missed our dog Eli so much and after the real Eli's great game, we had to buy our Eli a new Giants collar and dog tag.  He will be really wagging his tail when he sees this!

 

Happy New Year Everyone! 

Cheers, John

Florida Fun

 

 

 

 

Hi, it's me Charlie.Here's some fun that I have had in Florida so far. Can you guess what theme park we went to?

 

                                  This is Squidword from Spongebob. He was in the parade.

                                   This is Gru from dispiccable me. They were in the parade too.

I liked the ride.

These are trees from Dr. Seuss. We saw a live show of the Grinch on Christmas eve. It was really good.

 

 This is for my little cousin Peyton. We are hoping she can tell us what dinoaur this is.

 This is for my grand father GG. He likes cars, like the old ones.

 This is for my aunt Bev. Do you know whose car this is?

 Here are my cousins Ian and Andrew. Can you believe we met them in Harry Potter's village of Hogsmeade at Universal Studios! They didn't even know we were there and there were lots of people so that's pretty cool.

This is still Harry Potter's village.

 Me and Finn at Cirque du Soleil. It was the most amazing show I have ever seen. Santa gave us tickets.

 Our family: We met our cousins, Winnie, Ian, Andrew and George at Downtown Disney before going to our show.

 Me,Owen and Finn at wet and wild. It is a water park where we spent the day playing.

Owen is smiling. I am flipping and Finn is being silly. Mum says it looks like we are doing a synchronized swimming routine. Not funny. Tomorrow we are going shopping and then we are heading towards New York on Friday.  It has been relaxing in Florida.
From Charlie