New York City, Parte Dos

(For my Spanish readers out there, I'll try to translate as much of this as I can...)

Here is the second (dos) installment of our New York City trip. (El New York City Trip-o)
Sara, Kris and Joel did me a favor and woke up at 5am so we could catch the early train in to the city to watch a taping of "Good Morning America". I love that show. This is my second favorite meteorologist, (El Nino) Sam Champion. Kris was convinced that wasn't his real name (nombre)--that his real name (nombre) was "Butter Scotch", whatever that means. The first time (tiempo) Joel saw him on TV, (TV) he didn't believe that he was the weather man--he thought he was a Chippendale. (Or is it Chip 'n Dale?)
This was an amazing (bonita) church (iglesia) called St. Patrick's. It's crazy (loco) how these old buildings are so ornate (ornate-o) and beautiful!
The Carnegie Deli. Remember the Adam Sandler song?
This was one sandwich that Joel and I shared--there had to be a pound of meat on there! We ordered two sandwiches between the four (quatro) of us...
and then this piece of cheesecake... (queso-cake)

Wall StreetEllis Island. Wow was this place cool! I could have spent an entire day here!

The Statue of Liberty. This was pretty cool. We walked up 153 steps to the top of the base (well, Joel ran). It was very high up! Imagine being at the top!!! Then, after walking down, my legs cramped up--seriously. I could hardly bend one of them. Crazy. The picture below is our view from the top of the base.
That evening, we went to the Yankees game.
The next day, we left for Boston. After stopping (alto-ing) at a Denny's and eating (manger--for those French readers) a DOMINANT brunch, (a table [mesa] FULL of food) we arrived in that lovely city. It was lovely for 3 reasons:
1. Clean subways
2. No $8 tunnel tolls
3. Subway maps that made sense

Thank you Boston. We seriously considered writing a thank you note to Boston for this. But who do you address it to?Fenway Park. Very nice.

Finally, we flew home (casa) the next day. Here's a picture of Chicago from our plane. This was our 15 minute (minuto) flight from O'Hare to South Bend. Hilarious.

We have so many more pictures of our trip. If you'd like to see them all in full technicolor, please let us know. We'd love to share them.

It's a...

Okay, we were WAY too excited to keep this a secret!!! We went in for our sonogram today, and heard good news all around. The baby is healthy. We just aren't good at keeping secrets (okay, I'm not!) and so we decided to tell. We are having a...







baby!!!!!!!

One Week Down

Our first week of being back to work (on my part time schedule) is finished--and it went really well! One thing I was worried about is the time when I'm showering/getting ready while Ollie's up--last year, he was still taking a morning nap. So far--it's been great. While I shower, he keeps busy eating a snack (Corn Pops, 'pops', are his new favorite) and then as I get ready, he plays on my bed reading or laying down. He's still tired enough by 10 that he just lays his head down and watches for a while. It's kind of nice! Anyway--this week I got a video of him reading to his baby, who-by the way-is behind him.




One other thing--his new favorite activity is playing in the truck. Each day, at LEAST once, he begs to go into Daddy's green truck. While in there, he steers, plays with gadgets, turns dials, and locks the doors. (I always sit in there with him!) But he sure loves that. It's just so funny to see how their (meaning kids in general) interests develop.

The Wonderful World of Straight Hair

I used to belong to this club--the world of straight hair. That is, until I became pregnant, or hit puberty, I'm not sure which. The past few years, my hair has gotten wavier and wavier until now...it's just plain curly! If I TRY to straighten it, it doesn't work. I don't think the more humid summer has helped--but seriously, it's getting ridiculous.

I've had friends who have book "good" hair straighteners, but being the cheap-o that I am, I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much on one. Tonight (after several frustrating hair days) I decided to check ebay. I found what I think is a good one--and for a great price! It's even pink!!!!! So hopefully, if all goes as planned, I'll be able to wear my hair straight again, and have it actually be that...straight.

New York City

I'll be honest...I've kind of been dreading writing this post because of all the pictures I'd have to sort through!!! We took tons. I'll include the highlights. If you'd like the entire week long tour--come over sometime and we'll narrate it all in stunning detail.

The reason we went to NYC, for those of you who don't yet know, is to watch baseball games. Yankee Stadium and the Mets Stadium are both in their last season--so it was imperative that we went this year. (So I was told) We also drove the 4 hours to Boston to see a game at Fenway Park.

Our first evening there we walked around and saw Manhattan. So many buildings, people, and food vendors! My was it tempting...I include this picture because I am a HUGE 'Apprentice' fan. I didn't say 'Donald Trump' fan, just the show. But this is one of the Trump Towers buildings. We later went inside.
Joel posing in front of the fountain in Central Park. This really was a HUGE park. It was beautiful!
Joel's sister, Sara and her husband, Kris eating our hotdogs at Gray's Papaya. We're pretty sure this is famous for something. Wasn't this hotdog stand in the movie "Fools Rush In"? I keep telling people that, but no one else seems to remember...
Lynette (my NY friend) in front of a "modern art" exhibit. Seriously folks, the Metropolitan Museum of Art--and THIS makes the cut?????? But out of all the beautiful Monets and VanGoghs, this is the picture I show...
Dzino (Joel's old roommate from college), Joel and I on the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a beautiful view! We walked to Brooklyn and then ate delicious pizza (below).

More to come...

One Thing at a Time...

Yes, we're alive. Boy have we had a busy week...no, month. I have been working full time this week getting ready for school--LOTS of professional days this year. But here are some pictures of our classroom. I'm job-sharing with my friend Mira this year. So far, it's been a super year--the first two days went really well!

If a Tree Falls in the Forest...

So Joel and I were having a late night conversation last night (you can imagine how productive those are at 10 o'clock) and it just hit me--the whole 'tree in the forest' thing. Here's what I mean: if a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there, does it make a sound? I always said, "of course it does!!!" But then I was thinking about the physics of sound (again, at 10 o'clock, mind you) and remembered that sound is made because sound waves vibrate the ear drum. So, now I've changed my mind. If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it--then no--I don't think it makes a sound. Because you have to have an ear drum to make sound--otherwise it's aimless sound waves.

Any other opinions? I'm sure many of you are more scientific than I am, so I'm curious to hear.

The Afore-mentioned Pictures

We started off driving to Nebraska where we stayed with good friends Kara and Brad and their son, Braden. Unfortunately, it was a very QUICK trip--but really good to catch up with them. I don't have a single picture...

We left from there and drove through South Dakota, North Dakota and then Saskatchewan to see my grandparents in Saskatoon. The highlights of this portion included: stopping 3 times within 30 minutes shortly after leaving Thursday morning--between bathroom breaks, coffee at McDonald's (f0r Kendall!) and Ollie's dirty diaper--we wondered if we'd ever get going! We camped that evening in North Dakota. Camping was another adventure--as fun as it was, and beautiful weather--Ollie decided not to go to sleep until it was pitch black. That doesn't happen there until 10:30pm. So he stood in his pack 'n play the whole time. Joel and I fell in and out of sleep as we waited. Of course-- the flip side is Ollie's awake as soon as the sun is up--around 6:15. You can understand why we only attempted camping once this trip...

We had a super time with my grandparents in Canada. Joel was again amazed and somewhat disturbed that Canadians really do say "eh" that much. He has a lot to learn...We saw my aunt Lorraine and Uncle Ted, and their daughter, Nicole and husband, David. Their two kids were there, as well as my cousin Max. Ollie had a fun time following Max around saying "hi", but I don't think Max was too amused. After 3 days in Canada, we continued on.

We drove two more days to Ellsworth, Wisconsin, the Cheese Curd capital of the World. This also happens to be where my grandparents live. We hung out with them for a couple days--and also saw two more of my aunts, 3 cousins, and a second cousin. Here are some pictures of our walk to the park one evening:
We left Thursday morning from Wisconsin and drove to Joel's parents house in Indiana. This is where we left Ollie for 5 days while we gallivanted around New York City. I'll post pictures of that on a separate post...later. I also have some pics of us camping and memories from Canada--but can't locate them...so I'll maybe add those on, too.

We're Home!

3,730 miles later, we're back in Newton! Luckily we missed most of the heat--although, at 8pm, it's still 99 degrees out. Our house was 90 degrees when we got home--hopefully it will cool off fast...

I won't post pictures until tomorrow (hopefully!) but we had a great trip. Lots of time with family--some that we hadn't seen for a while! We had a GREAT time in NYC--but, no offense to our 2 New York friends--we won't be moving there any time soon. Those subways and train schedules got a little old...

We left at 4am (central time) and arrived here just before 6pm. We took an hour to eat ice cream with Courtney in Overland Park on our way home, and of course made many bathroom stops.

All in all--it was such a great trip. We are so thankful for our family and friends that we saw--and for the opportunity to take almost 3 weeks to go travel!