It's up to you

The view from up high - the tallest bldg in New York (again) - the Empire State Bldg.

We took the Subway most everywhere (or walked). It's amazing that all this is under the city!

Times Square in the background.


Central Park - it's hard to believe you are in the Big City when you're here.
This is a life size replica of Lady Liberty's foot. Noah's only as big as her big toe!

The Addams Family musical was hilarious with Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwerth as leads.

"It's up to you" That's what we said to Noah when we asked where he wanted to go for his end-of-school-kick-off-summer trip. Well, I don't know if it was because of the song, but he chose to go to New York City.

Originally, we planned to take Reese with us, but it worked out wonderfully for my mom to come stay with her at our house while we were away. It was such a blessing, although we missed her terribly. Everywhere we went, we sould comment, "Can you imagine if Reese was with us right now?" as we were standing in the hot sun in line waiting to go through security to see the Statue of Liberty, as we were running to catch the open doors of the subway, as we were wandering the exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art where nothing can be touched, as we enjoyed an evening performance of the Adams Family Musical, as we negotiated crowds and traffic in Times Square, and as we rode the tallest and fastest rollercoaster in the world at Great Adventure in New Jersey. It all would've made Reese miserable and us too!

This trip was a little different than any other I have taken to New York because Noah was in charge, so our plans included going to M&M World, Nontendo World, FAO Shwartz, and the largest Toys R Us in the world. We also did all the standard NYC sights, Central Park, Empire State Bldg, Grand Central Station, and the National History Museum (along with the things mentioned above). Dave and I introduced Noah to the Blue Man Group. He loved the show! I think Noah finally realizes that there are some stage performances that he enjoys seeing. One of the most interesting things we did was to go to Ground Zero - the sight of the Twin Towers. We walked through a museum with found objects and stories from the people who survived and didn't survive the 9/11 attacks.

All our time in New York and the only time I did not feel safe was riding in a bike driven cart through central park and into the streets of the city! A taxi ride is scary enough - of course, Noah loved it, anything wild, adventurous and thrilling!

And, if you ask Noah what his favorite part of NYC was, he will say "New Jersey, Great Adventure!"

Miscellaneous May

We spent a few days at grandma and grandpas house playing with cousins. Reese loves having her cousins around and they love being around her. She learns alot from them and watches everything they do. We spent quite a bit of time "painting" on the patio with water. This is the first time I hav ever seen Reese stick with doing something for more than 5 minutes. It was a great activity that kept them all interested for awhile.

This is Reese's friend, Dillon. His mother and I have been walking every morning. We pretend it is for exercise, but in reality it's just so we can catch up on all the gossip in our lives. It has really helped to get out in the fresh air each morning and start my day. I hate the morning routine - making breakfasts, lunches, showering, hair, etc - and I was letting my attitude overcome my whole day. Walking and talking has given me something to look forward to in the mornings and gives me energy to get on with the rest of my day. Reese and Dillon seem to look forward to the walks also, because as soon as we meet up, they have to give each other a "hello" handshake before we can continue on our way. The constant flow of snacks doesn't make them unhappy either:-)

Yay! they finally got shopping carts with the cars in front at our local grocery store. I remember pushing Noah in these when he was little and how much he liked it, so I was very excited (or so I thought) when we got to the store one day and there they were. Reese was very excited too - at first - for about 5 minutes and then she wanted to ride up in the normal basket seat. Well, I was disappointed, but no big deal. Until the next time we went to the store. I went to put Reese in one of the normal shopping carts and she got upset. She saw the ones with the cars in front and wanted one of those, badly and loudly. So we switched. Again, after a short time, she wanted to ride up front near me. So now, whenever we go to the store, we have to get a "car cart" (and it has to be the pink one these days) and I inevitably end up pushing around a giant-hard-to-maneuver shopping cart with an empty car on the front. I guess this a lesson in "be careful what I wish for". I'm thinking it's time to switch grocery stores!