New York City, 9/26/07, Wednesday

Wednesday we started the day off at the Empire State Building. We were told to get there early to avoid long lines. So we did. No long lines whatsoever. It wasn't cloudy at all, but it did seem a bit humid or something. Anyway, once we got to the top we realized that it was a little hazy. Here are some shots in a few directions. You can see Central Park in some of them.

Notice all of the water towers on top of the buildings.

Looking uptown.

Downtown shot. I seriously felt deprived of the twin towers. It was obvious to me that I was missing something.

We stopped in to a little place called "Brooklyn Bagels" for a bite to eat and were not disappointed. CHECK OUT the amount of cream cheese they loaded on these things. It was perfect, and the jalepenos were a nice touch. I crave these now.

We stopped off at Macy's. It was WAY too huge to be any fun for me. I don't like shopping in a place that is completely overpriced and has such a large selection. It was just too overwhelming. We walked through it, saw these old school escalators, and left.

Here's Central Library. It was SO pretty inside - all marble and gorgeous. Too bad they just don't make buildings like that anymore. I got myself a library card and we used the internet for a short while to try and get tickets for the Daily Show again. No luck.

Statue at Rockefeller Center.
We missed the ice skating by just about 2 weeks. Dang!

We did a NBC tour and got to check out the set for SNL. Good times.

Fun and random mailbox.

Here are some pictures of St. Patrick's Cathedral.
We were totally excited about the Carnegie Deli. We stopped in, didn't even look at the menu - just ordered a "Woody Allen." We had seen the menu online before the trip and it said "Lots of beef and lots of pastrami." Sounded good. We ordered from Take-Out unknowingly so they wouldn't let us eat there. We hopped on the subway to Grand Central Station, found a table, and unwrapped our highly anticipated "Woody Allen."
ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

This was no sandwich - it was a practical joke! Look at those wimpy slices of rye. There isn't even any mustard or lettuce or tomatoes or any sauce. This sandwich cost us practically $20 and all it is is a pile of animal flesh between a sorry excuse for bread. Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed.
They also took pride in the fact that they made their own pickles. I LOVE pickles but I could not stomach these ones. To me it tasted as if they smoked them in cigarette smoke. No thanks! Next time, I think I'd spend a little more time checking out the menu.

Family Home Evening at the Pumpkin Patch

I had no real intentions of getting "Pumpkin Patch" pictures of my kids every year. It just so happens that Derek suggested one Monday that we go for Family Home Evening. So we did. I didn't make sure that everyone's hair was fixed and that they were dressed in their pre-planned Halloween outfits. We just went to have some fun.

I had to put some comparison pictures on from last year. Ryan doesn't look much different but I hardly recognized Katie.

Happy Halloween!

Costume Choices...

Hmm... what to be for Halloween?

A bat.

Spider

Monkey

Ladybug and Blue Power Ranger

Lion
Alligator (zipper is broken)

Lion fits Ryan slightly better.

Thomas the Tank Engine (we DO have a conductor hat, and yes, he'd wear a shirt.)

Spiderman

Umm... not sure what Katie was going for - it was just in the dress up pile.

Princess 1

Princess 2 (had to bribe her with chocolate by this point to keep putting on costumes).
We had about 8 other costumes that Katie could wear - but wasn't up for the fight.

Now we just have to choose which ones for the Trunk or Treat tomorrow.

New York City, Tuesday, 9/25/07

Tuesday we visited Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

Ellis Island - really enjoyed it.

This is not the ACTUAL foot of Lady Liberty, but it is life-sized.

View of the NYC skyline from the Statue.

Empire State Building

After hanging out all day at Ellis Island and Liberty Island we headed back to Times Square area and saw Spamalot.
It was funny, but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone. The songs weren't impressive in my opinion and it didn't seem super professional. Some of the humor went a bit too far which made it less than stellar for my taste.

Spider Day in Preschool

Today was spider day.

We read a book about spiders, sang some spider songs, I had caught a live spider last night so the kids got to inspect it and then we let it go outside. Then we let the kids make their own spider webs and pipe-cleaner spiders.
For snack we had web pizza and spider pizza.
The kids were actually pretty attentive for about 45 minutes - not bad for 3 year olds.

Wild Fires in California

No, I don't believe that we are in any danger. I seriously don't know much about the fires going on around here (except that it was arson). On Monday morning there was a fire about 5 miles from our place and there was talk about some evacuations in the stake. The fire is in the foothills and it would have to be REALLY out of control and plow through hundreds of homes before reaching us - so we are not worried. The sky was very dark on Monday (smoke) and when I left the house in the morning the sun was bright red. By the time I got back about 15 minues later - it looked completely different. These pictures were taken just after 9:00am.

It was interesting because when I was looking at the sky, the sun was orange but it doesn't show that way in my pictures.

The winds were really pushing the smoke in a southern direction so when I looked northeast - the sky was pretty clear, but southward it looked totally brown.

My back patio is COVERED in ash and the winds are blowing it all over the place. I'm just ignoring it at this point because it doesn't make sense to try and clean up when things are still going.
Anyway, business as usual unless we hear otherwise.

Best Feeling EVER

Today a six-year old was pretty angry at me and expressed it to his younger brother and Ryan.

Unexpectedly, Ryan said something to the effect of, "I don't want you to say that you don't like my Mom. If you're mad at my mom, I'm not going to play with you."
The boy replied with, "No, I LIKE your Mom, I just feel mad that she won't let us go to the park."

I was very surprised - my boy stood up for me. I didn't think he had any idea that I had feelings. Anyway, I don't want to encourage him to pull the "I'm not going to play with you anymore" card, but it did feel nice that he cared about me.