An Evening in New Jersey

January 10, 2014 was a day of lots of firsts.

You all know about all the firsts with flying and going on my first solo vacation,  and the first time I had met Lina and held her.  This day was the first time Lina left the Island and travel to a different state.  First time I ever slept while crossing the Brooklyn Bridge (every good Van Dyk sleeps while traveling... the early morning killed me).  Lina and I met some of our cousins on the Van Dyk side of the family for the first time as well.

When I figured out the dates I was going to go to New York, I asked Tim if we could make a trip to New Jersey to see Kevin and Liz.  Kevin is my 1st cousin on my Dad's side of the family.  I also wanted to meet their children especially little Sofie.

Sofie was the baby who has a heart condition that caused Kevin and Liz to go to California for her birth and first open heart surgeries.  She is not much of a baby anymore... Here she is with her Daddy.  She is a "mini-me" of Kevin.  If you were to look at their baby pictures side by side you wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

Aunt Carol (Kevin's Mom) came and brought my cousin Arlene's two boys, Nick and Zac.  The last time I saw them they were boys, now they are at the brink of becoming young men!  I couldn't believe how big they were.  It was so nice to see my Aunt Carol and spend some time talking with her (she gave me a well deserved scolding over not blogging more often).

Towards the end of the night Greta (Kevin and Liz's middle daughter) got a little tired, Tim was holding her and she fell asleep on his shoulder.  It was so sweet!

I am so bummed I didn't take my camera with me for this visit.  All I had was my phone that was just about dead... So these are the only two pictures I took.  You would think that I would learn my lesson.  I always feel so self conscious hauling out my big camera and then later regret not taking more pictures!