An Unlikely Pairing

We really like Alison Krauss. She recently collaborated with Robert Plant (of Led Zeppelin fame) on an album, Raising Sand. American Blue Grass meets British Rock. Now they're on tour. And we went to see them last Tuesday at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. Here's what the NY Times said about the concert- and I think it's a pretty good summary. Maybe that's why they get paid to write about that sort of stuff.

And we went with Jared & Linda. More awesome people who moved here for a little while, and are now leaving the city for life in suburbia. We'll miss you!

Hot Town- Summer in the City

Sometimes, when it's really hot around here, people crack open the fire hydrants. None of the pools are open yet, because school is still in session (yep- until June 27th, actually) & they don't want to tempt the kids to cut school. So instead, they play in the hydrants. This one is right under our kitchen window. The boys seem to like to gang up on the girls and drag them through the fierce spray of water. And when a car drives by, one of the boys will stand behind the hydrant and put his arms into the spray to direct it at the car- giving a free *car wash*.

Agua

The other night when Alexis took a bath, we decided to keep Ella out. While Matt was helping Alexis get out, Ella noticed that there was water in the tub, so she crawled over, pulled herself up and right over into the water. She adores the water and absolutely hates to be left out of bathtime.

Good Friends

One of the greatest things about New York is that lots of cool people come and live here. Peter & Nikki are one such couple. We met them right after they got married and had moved into our ward. They were here to be NYC Teaching Fellows in ESL, which is the same program Matt was in. I was in the RS presidency at the time, and so met Nikki on her first Sunday. When she told me why they were here, I immediately invited them over for dinner so they could pick Matt's brain about ESL teaching, NYC schools & professors in the masters' program (they were attending the same college, as well). We hit it off really quickly with them and they soon became some of our closest friends. Last year, they moved out to the Bay Area in Northern California for Peter to attend Stanford Law School. But they didn't leave NY until after we blessed Ella. It was the very last thing they did here before driving over the George Washington Bridge. We miss them so much!

A couple of months ago, Peter decided to surprise Nikki with a weekend trip to NYC. They flew in overnight on Friday and spent Sat in the city. They stayed with us Sat night and it was just like old times- talking, talking, laughing, teasing, more talking. On Sunday, we hosted a little party for them to be able to hang out with lots of their friends who are still here in the city. And then they were headed back to the airport. We love you guys! It was sososo great to see you again!

Bishopric Picnic

Matt's been in the singles ward bishopric for almost a year now. We have loved getting to know the Orton's & the Hall's better through this calling and have really enjoyed spending time with many of the ward members as well.

Sadly for us here in NYC, the H's are moving to Southern California at the end of the month for grad school, so we decided to have one more bishopric day-o-fun before they left. We opted for a picnic this past Saturday. It was hothothot (but not so bad in the shade). We had yummy food, dancing music from neighboring picnickers, and great company. We brought a couple of kites (one that has been sitting in our closet for months, and another that was a gift from some friends) and had some good kite-flying fun with only one tree incident.

This is me with Emily O & Tamara H. And although I don't get to spend a ton of time with either one of them, they have still taught me so much through their examples and faith. They are remarkable women and it has been *fun* to hang out in the singles ward with them!

Here is the bishopric. Matt, Erik O & Doug H.

Family Party

On Friday night, we celebrated Ella's first birthday. Grandma and Auntie A came to have dinner with us and shower the birthday girl with gifts. Thanks to my friend Meredith, we had some delicious cupcakes from Magnolia for dessert. She's an icer & production manager there and once decorated a cake for Sarah Jessica Parker's birthday! She's so cool. Meredith, I mean.

Ella got several cute little gifts and really seemed to be interested in each item. She is a pensive and sort of serious little girl. She can be hard to get a smile and laugh from, but when she does indulge you, you know it's totally sincere. She adores Alexis so very much. And she is quite content. I am looking forward to getting to know her better! We love her to bits & pieces.

Seriously?

It's only June!

6/9/2008

Hi: 100°
Mostly sunny. Highs around 100. Heat indices between 102 and 106. West winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.

Bag Tag

What do I carry in my bag? Karen wanted to know. (Sorry this has taken me so long!) Since I'm a mom, the bag that is usually with me is the big ol' diaper bag. I love it cuz it hangs nicely on my stroller and it's big enough for all the stuff I need on the go with 2 little ones. Here are the goods:

diapers
wipes
diaper rash cream
a diaper pad
my handy-dandy streetwise map of New York City
extra clothes for Ella
a burp cloth
toys for Ella
figurines for Lexi
a little first aid kit
my wallet
a bottle
snacks
my cell phone
keys
sunglasses
my MetroCard (for the subways & buses)
feminine products
sunscreen
hand sanitizer
chapstick
lipstick
tissues
a few pens
my little notebook (for writing my to-do lists)
aspirin
a pacifier
my Sigg water bottle
digital camera & extra batteries

Museum Mile

Last Tuesday, we went down to 5th Avenue to enjoy the evening in the closed-off streets. Museum Mile is a festival when 9 museums have free admission for the evening (but the lines were crazy long!), and there were a bunch of street performers: jugglers, magicians, balloon men, clowns, musicians.

I got to participate in one of the magic tricks (a card trick that was rather amazing) and was actually pretty excited to have a part in it as I was just finishing up a book called The Prestige (there is also a movie of the same name, which I also love) all about 2 feuding magicians. I have to say here, too, that I totally love simple magic shows like those. And I don't want to know the secrets. Because I like being amazed.

The festival also provided lots of sidewalk chalk and everyone (including Lexi, of course) had a great time drawing on 5th Avenue.
A stranger made this one, but we loved it so much, we had to snap a photo.





We did make it into the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design, but only out to their *backyard* where Ella made an escape from the stroller and crawled around on the grass for awhile. Lexi made some grass angels (which are just like snow angels, but in the grass instead. She says that you can see their shapes.) We also saw a glass blowing demonstration from the experts at the Corning Museum of Glass.

Lexi also did a *rubbing* outside of the Guggenheim:

Happy Birthday Little One

I can hardly believe you are one year old! We love you!

At the Park

Ella has learned how to climb up the stairs and go over to the slide, back up and slide down all by herself! We've been working on her back up skills for a few weeks, and I think she finally has it. I'm pretty confident in her abilities, so although I stand very close to her, I'm not constantly spotting her and it makes other parents very nervous. Rest assured, people at the park, I know my babe. She's a very capable climber, and truth is, I'm not afraid to let her fall anyway.

Memorial Day 2008

(Photo from flickr- this is the flag that hangs on the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge on special days)

First of all, a very special THANK YOU to the men and women who have fought and are fighting for our freedom, country, families & beliefs. An extra special thanks to Great-Grandpa Elliott, Uncle Bruce and Grandpa Cope!! I know, there are some Portlocks in the Armed Forces as well, and we thank you, too!


Since Matt had the day off, this year we went up to Fort Tryon Park and sat on the Cloisters Lawn to enjoy a picnic and games with friends from our ward. Ella loved crawling around on the grass and trespassing on everyone's blankets and stealing their food. She had her first taste of watermelon and seemed to like it (after dumping all the juice out on the blanket- sorry 'bout that Celeste!) And in this photo she's getting into some Izze soda. I mistakenly gave her a first taste of it the day before and she loved it!


Lexi played with a few of the other little girls in the ward. Here are some sneaky shots of "Duck, Duck, Goose!"



Dad spent some time playing a viking lawn game called Kubb featured on the Amazing Race a few seasons back.


And he had a little quality time with Erik, the bishop with whom Matt *counsels*.

Remember my incident last September? I got a call from the Assistant District Attorney today. He had some *good* news for me. Turns out my assailant pled guilty in April to the assault. Last week she was sentenced to 4 years in prison with 5 years post-release supervision (basically, parole). I wonder if she thinks jumping me & my neighbor was worth it? I'm satisfied with the results.

How 'bout them Yankees?

(This is a shot of the New Yankee Stadium behind the Original Yankee Stadium. We were seated above right field).

Tonight we went to our first Yankee game of the season. It's the final year they'll be playing in the original stadium, so we just had to get some tickets. This was also Ella's first Yankee game (she made it to a Mets game last summer). It rained all day, so we were hesitant to even go, but since we are only a 10 minute walk from the stadium we decided to head over after the rain had basically cleared. We got there just after the top of the first inning. Mike Mussina had been pulled out of the game, and the Orioles had already scored 7 runs (before the Yankees even had a chance to bat). The rest of the game played out similarly- Orioles scoring, Yankees not scoring. The most exciting part was when the Yankees pitcher almost hit an Orioles batter instigating a HUGE fight on the field with everyone from both teams running out to home plate- including the guys way out in the bull pen.


We headed home just after A-Rod's home run. At least he had a home run. This was his first game back after some time off for an injury. Glad to see he was working for his $23 million tonight.




By the time the sun went down, the temperature had dropped to 42 degrees and it was a bit breezy way up in the Tier section where we were seated ($5 tickets!). We chose not to attend any games before now because we thought it would be too chilly... but we figured that by the end of May it would be plenty warm to enjoy some good ol' baseball. Not this time!

It's Our Park!

Saturday was It's My Park day in New York City. People were helping out in parks all over the city. We went to our favorite place: the Morris Jumel Mansion and helped plant some flowers, and clean out some flower beds. We totally love this historic house (where George Washington was headquartered for several weeks during the Revolutionary War) and are sad that their budget does not allow for better groundskeeping. Our Relief Society helped out there one time a couple of years ago, but I still feel this sort of responsibility to continue volunteering there. We have become friendly with the director of the museum and have spent some time just hanging out on the grounds. If you're into historic houses, this is a great place to spend a little time.

It also made me yearn for a little plot of land of my own where I can plant lots of veggies! Matt's mom calls us each year before she plants her garden and asks what sorts of things we'd like for her to plant. Then when we visit in August I get to cook up a storm with all the fresh produce that Alexis has harvested from the garden in the backyard.

Story Time

Friday was Aunt L's last day here. Grandma, L & A all came down to spend the afternoon with us. Here Auntie L is reading a story to the girls.


Grandma and Ella had some quality time (doesn't happen all too often as Lexi demands a lot of Grandma's attention).



We toyed with the idea of going downtown to try and catch a show, but ultimately decided to stay home, order pizza and play a rousing game of Time's Up! We're so glad we did because we laughed so hard and made lots of funny memories.

Top Girls

My sister Laura was here visiting this week. On Tuesday, we went to see a new show called Top Girls starring Martha Plimpton and Marissa Tomei. It was..... interesting. We couldn't really figure out what it was about. We had great seats, but the sound was terrible, and the actors were speaking in very thick accents (Scottish Brogue, German, British etc), so not only could we not hear what they were saying, we couldn't understand it either! After the first Act, several people around us took out their Playbills and tried to find some info on the play. The man behind us looked up some info on his blackberry and then read it to all the surrounding patrons. Another audience member close by told us that we needed to go back to the lobby and get some headsets, which allowed us to hear what the actors were saying much more clearly (they are connected to the mic on the stage). Thanks to all of those people, Acts 2 and 3 were a bit of a better experience. It turned out to be a much more somber play than we expected. We went into it thinking it would be a light & fun play. It is more of a social commentary on women in the workforce and what they have had to sacrifice to get there, as well as some political commentary, but we all know I'm not much into politics. Here's what the NY Times had to say.

At least we didn't walk out. Several people around us did.

Mother's Day

We sort of had a 2-day celebration of Mother's Day. On Saturday, we treated my mother to some Dinosaur BBQ (we opted for take out since it was an hour wait!). Lexi and I made these cute flower pot desserts that I found here.


Then on Sunday, after church we headed up to my mother's where she cooked a delicious dinner! Ella discovered the dishwasher for the first time and kept herself very busy figuring out how to climb up on top. She loves Grandma's house because it has some novelty experiences like stairs, grass, and TV.



HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Isn't he sexy?

Matt recently had another war with a cold sore on his upper lip, so he let his beard grow out a bit. This is the longest he's ever let it grow (3 weeks) and this is the first time ever I have actually liked it. I can never seem to get past the initial stubble face that burns me every time he kisses me. But I really loved the way he looked this time around. Even some of his students commented on it, although at first they couldn't figure out what was different about him. He had to shave it off, though, since he's in a bishopric.

This Little Imp

One day while Lexi was at school, I was working at the computer while Ella was entertaining herself on the floor. She spent some time playing with our children's kitchen set and then moved over to the desk to go through all the drawers. And what, do you think, did she find there? A candy stick (who knows how old it was) and somehow she was able to get the wrapper off and stick it in her mouth! I'm a bad mommy because I didn't even notice anything was happening until she stood up at my knee and tried to hand it to me! So much for waiting until her first birthday to introduce sugar.