Boo at the Zoo (and some friends, too!)

One of my mission companions, Jamie, was in town over the Halloween weekend- so we met up at the Central Park Zoo so our kids could play and we could reminisce.  Turned out to be Boo at the Zoo! And the keepers were treating the animals to pumpkins!  We also did part of a scavenger hunt, and got to pet a snake & hissing cockroach at a special little show, and make a scary headband (and get interviewed by NY1 news).












But more than that, just being with Jamie (& her cute family) was so enjoyable.  I always felt loved by her and comfortable with her.  She exudes happiness, kindness & enthusiasm.  Te quiero, hermanita!

The Farmers Market

I LOVE that there's a Farmer's Market only 3 blocks from our new home!  It's there every Thursday and it's great!  Ella and I stroll over there to see what's looking good and more often than not end up going home with more than what's on our list.

Fascinated by the squirming blue crabs!

Neighborhood Harvest Festival

Another great thing about our new neighborhood is that a few times a year there is a great event planned by the local parents.  The Harvest Festival is the biggest and most well-attended.  I volunteered to help out at the cupcake decorating table, which was messy, but delicious!  The festival was rained out for its original date, so it was postponed to the following weekend, when it rained again!  This time, however, we were able to use a local church on 181st street, so the Festival went on!  All indoor- it was really quite warm and crowded, but it was fun!

Standing in the pumpkin patch- every child got to choose a pumpkin to take home!


Sitting among the entries of the scarecrow contest







Fishing for prizes!


Decorating our pumpkins!




What a fun day! Face painting & pumpkin decorating- check!

The Guggenheim is 50!

On the Guggenheim's 50th Birthday, admission was free!  So I took Ella down there to view a little Kandinsky.









She particularly loved this installation of gold beads suspended from the ceiling.  We must have spent at least 15 minutes here while she ran in and out of the curtain.

Urban Glass

October is also the time of year for Open House New York.  This year we decided to check out Urban Glass in Brooklyn.  A space in the city for glass artists to work!  Very cool.  We were sad to find out, upon our arrival, that the facility was only doing events for Sunday's Open House New York, but they did agree to give us a tour and spent a lot of time with us. 

First we had to don special safety glasses!

We felt the WHITE HOT heat from the oven where they store the molten glass.  When an artist starts a project, they dip their long steel rod into this oven to pick up some glass.

After a project is complete, it is stored in this container to cool down.  It can take several days to be cool enough to handle with your bare hands.

Steel rods waiting to be used- this oven keeps them hot.

The woman sitting was a visiting artist from California.  She comes several times a year to use this facility.  She is wearing a special protective covering on her arm to prevent any burns.  And the woman in the blue is the "gaffer"- the assistant who does whatever the artist needs help with.  It is extremely difficult to blow glass by yourself.  You must have a gaffer.

Tools on the wall for cutting & shaping.

I wish I had some photos of finished works, but if you've ever seen hand blown glass, it's really an amazing and beautiful creation.

The Whitney

Back at the beginning of October we made our first visit to the Whitney Musuem for their family day activities.  There's a Georgia O'Keefe exhibit right now, so there were many plant-based activities to celebrate her plant-inspired paintings.  We got to plant a seedling in a recycled container complete with a fancy water pump made entirely from recycled materials (but since we have black thumbs in this household, they both withered and died shortly thereafter).  We also got to listen to the roots of plants!  Did you know they talk?  We had to wear stethoscopes & put them up against the planter box to listen in on the conversations of the flowers & plants.  They said things like, "I think I need to relocate- my apartment just doesn't get enough light" and "I think you might be the root of that problem."  It was pretty cute.

Plant doctors were on hand to help us out:

Alexis also took part in a tour of the O'Keefe exhibit and spent some time drawing (in the gallery where she could be inspired by O'Keefe) her own versions of a place she had been (the beach in North Carolina).

Medieval Festival

Every year at the beginning of October there is a Medieval Festival in Ft. Tryon Park, not far from our new home. This was the first year we actually attended- it is a very popular event!

We saw people working on looms & spinning wheels:


A pottery wheel & artisan:


A view of Matt's school (the cupola in between the large buildings)


Some falcons:




And a JOUST!

Yankees in 6!

Here's hoping the Yanks can claim their 27th World Series tonight right here at home in the Bronx.

Halloween

Ella participates in a little playschool class on Mondays.  The Monday before Halloween the kids all dressed up for class.  Ella wanted to be Cinderella.

After tripping over her dress multiple times, I decided I didn't really want to deal with her in that Cinderella dress all day long on Saturday.  Alexis chose to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and so I thought maybe I'd dress Ella up in all black, top her off with a witches hat & maybe paint her cheeks green to allude to the Wicked Witch of the West, who we all know is really not so wicked after all (well, you know that if you've seen Wicked).  But when we were getting dressed, she refused to wear the hat and said to me, "Ella no wear hat. Ella be tat."  So we pulled out the cat ears & tail from the dress up box, painted her face and away we went- Dorothy & a black cat.  And I just noticed (after posting all the photos) there isn't really a good one of Alexis's whole outfit- red ruby slippers, and little dog Toto and all.  Guess we'll just have to dress her up again. (wink wink)

We first participated in a Trick-or-Treat Parade in Inwood- visiting businesses for candy!  And ultimately the Fire House.

Home for a nap then back out to the church for a Halloween Party where more candy was acquired and a good time had by all.  There were some good costumes there that night!

Costume Parade at Church Party

Uncle Sam & a Bald Eagle

High School Musical people (I have to admit, I've never seen this movie, so I'm not sure of the characters)

Super Mario & Princess & Mushroom

Me as Rosie the Riveter.  We Can Do It!

Lighthouse Festival

No pictures of the Little Red Lighthouse, but we did in fact venture down to the festival again this year.  Once again, we missed the celebrity reading of the tale, and missed the chance to climb the lighthouse (but that's fine since we've done it before!).  We did get to enjoy all the other activities going on this year- I think this was the best festival yet!  Hay rides, face painting, crafts, food, live music, free giveaways, clowns, live animals, & fishing gear to fish in the Hudson!

Mmmmmm, Donuts!

Headed down to the Lower East Side to check out the Doughnut Plant with our friends Malesa & Aubrey.  These donuts are so delicious- way way better than your average Dunkin' Donut.  They are all made fresh daily, and all jams & fillings are made from scratch at the Plant.  They have seasonal donuts, as well as several regulars.  My personal favorite: The Peanut Butter & Jelly Donut.

Don't those donuts look awesome?

PB&J!- chopped peanuts on top, and filled with homemade jam- not too much, not too little!  It is square shaped, too (with a hole in the middle) and the jam is evenly distributed throughout the donut instead of just in one giant glop in the middle.

Aubrey & Ella- they opted for wheat thins and goldfish over donuts!  More for us! :)

We also picked up some awesome kosher pickles from the Pickle Guy.  And then walked through some of SoHo where we ended up at Balthazar's and purchased some of their delicious bakery treats as well (potato-zucchini foccacia, anyone?)

First Day of School! Kindergarten edition

Alexis started Kindergarten this year.  She's in a full day program (because there isn't really anything less than a full day program around here) and is in a Gifted and Talented program.  I don't really know exactly what that means, except that she had to test into it, so I'm fairly confident that all the other kids in her class are bright, too, and that she might actually be challenged by them as well.  I really felt that last year school was very easy for her and that she was way ahead of many of the kids.  I do find it a little crazy that they are so focused on academics- they are reading and writing most of the time.  But she also gets a good dose of the arts- she's learning to play the cello in orchestra!  And she has a drama class, art class & chorus class as well.

Shame on me for not taking an official first day photo.  I forgot the camera.  And then on day 2, I forgot the camera.  On day 3, I only had my cell phone with me, but felt I couldn't keep putting off her first day photo.  So here she is just outside her classroom:

And then sitting on the mat in the classroom:

Annual Chili Cook-off

Last month we had our ward's annual chili cook off again.  I have entered it several times before (but only blogged about it last year), and placed every time, but the title of Best Chili has always eluded me.  I decided to try out a new recipe this year, which I thought was pretty good.  But then, it doesn't matter much what I think, does it now?

I'll admit that I might be a bit more competitive than is healthy for a church event.  But I really enjoy winning.  I'm a bit of a sore loser, in fact.  Anyway, there were several awards- like for the spiciest (congrats Hannah!), and the most original (congrats, Heather!) and for the Youth's favorite- oh, that went to me!  It was exciting to get an award, but part of me, admittedly, was a little sad that it was only the Youth's favorite, and not everyone's favorite.  

 

Anticipating the announcement of winners:

But.... wait for it..... turns out it was everyone's favorite!  And I won First Place as well!  And got to take home The Golden Spoon (which is a new tradition they started this year- I have to bring it back next year and defend my title- so don't think I'm sharing my recipe with you.)  Alexis was so excited that I won!  She jumped up on me and latched onto my neck.  She couldn't wait to get her hands on my golden spoon and just kept shouting "You won, Mommy! You won!"  Nice to have a cheering section.

(some of Lexi's facepaint came off on my nose&chin, in case you were wondering)

HONESTLY, I did NOT expect to win two prizes! Aren't those kitchen towels great?!

I'd like to thank my mother, for teaching me how to cook and blessing me with good-cook-genes.  And my sister for eating/testing out my recipes.  And Matt (not pictured) for putting up with my ambitions. Oh, and eating my food on a daily basis.  Thanks for the love and support!

The New Yankee Stadium

My mother won a pair of tickets to a Yankee game a few weeks ago.  She gifted them to my sister and I, but since Allie had school the night of the game, Matt was able to come with me.  (Actually, I was going to let him go with Allie, so I guess I was the one that got to go in her place).  It was a re-scheduled game that had been rained out earlier in the season- Yankees v. Angels.

The new stadium is pretty nice.  We didn't get to see too much of the "nice" stuff that they have improved since the last stadium.  We noticed there is a Yankee musuem, and Monument Park is out near the bleacher seats.  We paid $9 for french fries and $5 for a fountain Pepsi.  So it seems that the seats aren't the only prices that have skyrocketed with the new stadium. 

Yankees win!  Everyone's a good sport, though, and gives their high-fives (just like I always had to do in high school sports).

 

Sure hope the Yankees win against the Angels again TONIGHT (to win the ACLS & head to the World Series- first time since we've lived in NYC).

One More Friend

We also got to visit with one of my BYU roommates, Natalyn & her family. We haven't seen them in a few years, and never met either of their kids, so it was extra wonderful to see her&Jeff again. She just happened to be in Southern California one weekend while we were there. Yay!

It's Like Riding a Bike

While in California, Alexis learned to ride a bike without training wheels. She's never ridden one with training wheels, but I sort of wanted to skip that step. She's been riding a scooter for about 2 years now and has the balance on that completely figured out, so I was hoping that would sort of transfer to the bike. Matt took her out to the street and worked with her for a little while. Before she knew it (literally) she was riding! She couldn't really figure out how to stop, so that made her nervous. And I think she surprised herself at her ability and then psyched herself out- because she rode it several times that day, but then didn't want to do it again. And still hasn't wanted to try and ride the cool bike Grandma Susan got for her that now sits in our entry hall waiting for the day when she's ready to try again.

Matt was a little sentimental when he mentioned that he really enjoyed teaching her to ride a bike in the same driveway and street where he learned to ride.

Family Reunion and Other Utah Stuff

Mid-August we packed up my in-laws minivan and drove up to Utah to attend a family reunion for Matt's family.  They try to do it every 2 years- and for the past few reunions we've been able to spend time at this amazing ranch in Altamont (east of Salt Lake, but west of Vernal).  It's huge and sleeps over 100 people (which is good since Matt's family is quite large).  There's a pool, pond, basketball/volleyball area, rock-climbing wall, shooting range, horseback riding, & cattle roaming free.  Not to mention the lodge itself with a huge main room & a game room in the basement.  Shame on me for taking only 3 photos.  If I get more from someone a little more photo-responsible than myself, I'll post them.

Lexi riding a horse with cousin Paige leading:

Ella & mom riding:

Alexis helping Jennifer make pizza dough during our meal preparation shift.

On our way home from the reunion, we drove through Salt Lake and decided to stop & spend some time in the Church History Museum and Temple Square.

Holding onto the Iron Rod

A replica of the  pulpit in the Conference Center. Can you see Lexi's head?

Examining a replica of the Gold Plates

I was also able to get in touch with a dear friend, Sister Pilz.  I was very close with three of her children during high school (Karl, Heidi, & Katrina) and spent many many many afternoons & evenings in their home.  If I wasn't playing volleyball or at the church or at my house, I was probably at their place.  She met up with us and my kids loved her from the moment they met her.

After the reunion, we headed back to Provo for a few days.  We stayed with Matt's brother & family in their beautiful home.  Here, Ella took some time to brush up on her drum skills:

Matt helped prep some of Lari's campaign signs:

And I planned a backyard barbeque party so that we could see many of the wonderful people we have known- we were only in Provo for about 2 days, and so many of our friends came to see us!  I wish we could have visited all night.  I definitely did not have enough time to talk to everyone like I wanted to.  But I hope you know how much we love you- and that I felt your love that night, too.  And if you come to NYC, you will have our undivided attention.

The Browns!

Alexis, Anna B & Ella

My mission friends: Lisha, Kari & Nici

The Campbells!  B-dog and his band The Neon Trees have an album coming out in January.

The Graves! Jennifer, one of my roomies at BYU, introduced me to Matt.

Emily! A friend from our ward in Provo- I was in YW with her daughters.

Sheridan! She lived in the same building as us here in NYC (but has relocated to UT).

The Johnsons!  Carrington & Matt were close friends growing up.  I don't think we've seen them since their wedding day!

The Greeners! Lance was my boss at Ellis, my first job out of college.  At a cool $8.25 an hour.

The Beemans! We met Corrie in the singles ward here when Matt was called to the bishopric.  They have also relocated to UT.

The Taylers!  Rebecca was a college roommate of mine for a couple of years.

Angie!  How did I miss getting a photo with you?!  We met Angie here in NY and she has also relocated to UT.

After dealing with a horrible bout of the flu (it hit every single one of us!), we headed back to California for a few more days until our flight home to NYC.

Lego Land

Although we have been able to go to Disney for the past several years (only because "we know people", not because we actually pay for it!), we weren't able to get comp tickets this year. But, a mission friend of mine, Sariah, blessed our vacation by gifting us a couple of tickets to Lego Land. And since Alexis & Ella are both big Lego fans, we decided that would be our amusement park trip this year. It's a great little park designed especially with kids (ages 2-12 or so) in mind. We had a really wonderful day! The girls were really patient in the lines (especially the ones that had legos to play with!), and the weather wasn't too hot. Even Matt&I had a fun time!

First ride of the day: a boat ride through storybook land

                 

Naptime!

I have always loved Legos, too. I think I had a stash under my bed until I left for college.... so these recreations of familiar landmarks&cities&arts were just fascinating to me. All constructed from thousands and thousands of LEGOS. How can I get that job??

President Obama's Inauguration

NYC scene

Close-up of Einstein's head:

I particularly love the Q-tip detail in Mt. Rushmore:

It was a fun family day- thank you, Sariah, for making it possible! :)

California!

August 1st found us on our way to sunny California- to forget about our NY cares for awhile.... and be with some family.  We had a wonderful time and did lots of great things- although we don't have too many photos to prove it.  But here are some of the highlights:

The LA Zoo (I am just fascinated with the giraffes and zebras!)

A Dodger Game!  It was Mormon Night at Dodger Stadium while we were there this year, so we went along with Grandma & Grandpa & (what seemed like) the entire Mormon population of the Greater Los Angeles area.  Russell M. Nelson was there and threw out the first pitch! And Ella had her first Dodger Dog. (We're allowed to like the Dodgers b/c they play in the National League.  Our American League allegiance belongs to the Yankees).

We always try to spend a lot of time with Jason&Tiffany and their boys when we're there, but I think this might be the only photo I have of our times with them! Lexi really loves Trevor & talks about him all year long- "my friend Trevor in California...."

We visited an aquarium and the (not-so-great for swimming) beach at San Pedro.

We walked around downtown Santa Monica & picked up some cupcakes from Vanilla

Then we visited the LA Temple Grounds (to show Lexi where Mom&Dad got married) and enjoyed our cupcakes

Spent some time at the Skirball Musuem to see the Superman exhibit & the Noah's Ark exhibit (which was the one thing Lexi really wanted to do again this year)

Swam in several neighbor's pools- Lexi is still pretty nervous around water.  Ella is quite fearless.  I wish we had taken time every day to go swimming- they may have both learned this summer!  Maybe next year.

Ella seems to be well on her way to swimming!






We also visited the La Brea Tar Pits, which still actively bubble today!  This is where hundreds (& thousands) of animals met their demise hundreds of thousands of years ago.  No dinosaurs here, though.  They existed even before the tar pits.  Mostly saber-toothed cats and woolly mammoths etc.

And the Museum of Natural History where we worked on a T Rex skeleton

And saw the Paleontology Lab at the musuem:

Ate Gelato! (and lots of other yummy food! La Tolteca! In-N-Out! Teriyaki! Foster's Freeze! Donut Man!)

We helped out in the garden a little bit, too.  And then I did some canning:

One of the most exciting things we did was take a trip to Lego Land.  But that deserves it's own post.

The Move: Part 1

As many of you already know, we relocated this year.  We are still in New York City, and actually only less than a mile from our previous home, but what a difference!  When we moved into our first apartment, our plans to be in the city were pretty temporary and the apartment was big, cheap & brand newly renovated.  Matt was working on a Master's degree & then we were planning to move upstate and buy a house and be close to family.  But, as we all know, life doesn't always go according to our plans.  And we have enjoyed the city and Matt has a stable job here, and there are lots of great opportunites for us, so we've stayed.  Then Lexi grew old enough for school.  And old enough to know what's really going on around her (aka Mom got mugged in the elevator of our building, a boy was stabbed around the corner) and it wasn't exactly the sort of building I wanted my kids to live in anymore (although that might be considered the understatement of the year).  Anyway, we started thinking about looking at new apartments, and the cosmos aligned enough for us to get a great 2 bedroom with a better layout & use of space than our last place, in a good building near many of my friends, a park, the A & 1 trains etc.  We signed a lease for Sept 1st, and since we were planning on spending August in California, we decided to give up our other lease on July 31st and move all our stuff to a storage unit for the month of August. UGH. What a nightmare!  We did it to save the $1650 we were paying in rent- and I suppose in the long run it was worth it, but what a hassle it was.

So, the evening of July 31, several friends came to help us out and Garrett was kind enough to document the evening (even though I'd rather not remember too many details).

Matt rode his bike over the GWB to NJ to rent a truck for us (much cheaper over there- also where our storage unit was).  By some miracle, when he got back with the huge commercial size vehicle, 3 cars parked in a row had left the curb at about the same time, leaving a huge space for him to pull into right in front of our building.  Amazing.  He started loading boxes right away and did quite a bit of work by himself until some friends started coming in the late afternoon.

We didn't actually head over to the storage unit until about 7:30 PM or so- then we had traffic to deal with across the bridge- once we arrived, Matt realized he had left the unit key in Manhattan, so I had to go back (in my mother's car that we were using to transport our crew) to get the key.  It took a while longer to unload than we had anticipated as we had to pack the unit strategically to get everything to fit- then Matt got turned around trying to find a gas station & then the truck rental place to return the truck (NJ roads are notorious for being hard to navigate).  I had all the guys in the car waiting at the Budget place waiting for Matt- thank goodness Jordan had a Maps App on his phone- he was able to put Matt's location in and then guide him to us.  We finally finally made it back to our empty apartment (where Mom was watching the kids) at about 11 PM!  It was only then that I realized we still had the fridge pretty full of food- which just became a free-for-all for some of our neighbors (who had no qualms about cleaning us out right in front of us!)  Then we packed up Mom's car with all the stuff we'd be taking to California and went back to her place for the night.  And headed out to the airport for California the very next day.

Here's the truck.  Until about 2 years ago, you had to have a Commercial Driver's License to rent one this big.  It was crazy huge.  We didn't fill it, I'm happy to report.

Jordan, Garrett & Dan

Greg was wearing those crazy toe-separator-shoe things (he's studying podiatry)

Oh yeah! And it was raining!

At the Storage Unit in New Jersey

Thank goodness they had these dolly-carts for us to use!

When my nerves were frazzled to bits & pieces, Curtis was able to supply a little entertainment:

For all their hard work, we thanked the guys with some Five Guys Burgers and Fries- their generosity was worth more than that, though! 

Here's the crew that came to NJ with us Jordan, Travis, Garret, Jon & Curtis- there were several more that helped on the Manhattan end (thanks James, Philip, Dan & Greg!)