The Lincoln Tunnel ate our bus...aka Fabulous NYC

While we were visiting my parents, they so kindly agreed to watch our kids, and also my brother's son, so Joe and I and my brother Josh and his wife Erin could all take a trip to NYC. We left Wednesday morning (Dec 27) and were back Thursday night (Dec 28), so it wasn't very long, but it was fun! We took the Megabus (very affordable way to get there and fairly comfortable). We stayed a the Hotel Verite in the Gramercy area (also very affordable hotel, were able to actually get a room with 2 queen size beds), and very convenient to traveling by subway (we were able to catch a couple of different lines within a couple of blocks of the hotel).

We went to the Metropolitan museum of Art, which was very cool and huge. We only saw a small fraction of all they have of course. We went to Times Square. Saw where they were setting up stages and where the ball drops for New Years. Don't know why anyone would try to drive through Times Square!


We went to Rockefeller Center and to the top of the rock. Amazing view! (Josh and Erin who have also been to the top of the Empire State building said Top of the Rock was better). Loved seeing the ice skating rink and huge Christmas tree, and where they tape the Today show, and other things we see on TV.

We walked up 5th Avenue past St. Patrick's Cathedral and all the fancy stores with their Christmas decorations and window displays. There were so many people!

One of the best things was eating waffles! That's right. You can kind of see the wafel truck in this picture, the yellow cart thing there in the middle that is not a taxi. This was THE wafel place (I can spell, but this is how they spell Belgian waffles). Won Throwdown with Bobby Flay wafel truck. Amazing! We ate them twice, they are that good. And their special Spekuloos spread is to die for. Consistency of peanut butter, but gingerbread flavor. Yummmmm. I wish I could have some now. If you go to NYC, you must find the wafel truck! We had a really fun time. We will have to go back and get downtown and see a show and all that!

Oh and when it was time to catch the bus back to DC, we ended up standing in the cold waiting for 2 hours because the Lincoln tunnel ate our bus! They told us it was somewhere in there, but we never found out because the 7:30 bus came (we were supposed to go at 6pm), and we got to get on it. As we drove out of Manhattan, we saw how backed up the tunnel was and I guess the 6, 6:30, and 7pm buses were all in there somewhere. At least we got home. Guess that is traffic in NYC!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Here are a bunch of pictures from our trip to my parent's house in Virginia for Christmas. We had a fabulous time, going to museums and being with grandparents. My Grammy and Grandpa Bob were there too. And we got to spend time with my brother Josh and his wife Erin and their son Andrew.

4-generation picture!

(This is the George Washington Masonic Memorial)

They had a cool Christmas and train display at the Botanic Gardens.

Christmas is coming

The Christmas season has begun. We had our ward party last night, it was "A Night in Bethlehem." So we were all supposed to dress like we were from Bethlehem in the days when Jesus was born. A lot of work went into decorating the foyer and gym to look like a marketplace. It looked great. And there was yummy food. I spent all week making pita bread (not authentic because it had yeast in it, but good anyway), and made yogurt to make tzatiki, and helped make hummus. They had lots of other good food too. I think everyone had fun. The kids really had fun dressing up. Alice was quite enamored with her costume. And Simon wanted to wear his headdress to bed. (I made the costumes out of sheets and tablecloths and felt I bought at Goodwill.) It thought these pictures were fun so I wanted to share.

Oh, the little baby is a Joseph Yule, he belongs to another ward member. He was enjoying the comfy manger!

Funny things my kids say

Here is another installment of funny things my kids say:

Simon - I didn't spend all my money, right? (He got birthday money recently)
Me - No you have $5.
Simon - I'm in the black!

Who knew his 5-year old mind would grasp the concept of red/black financial descriptors that we explained to Eli a couple of days earlier when he asked about Black Friday! Gotta love it!

Happy Thanksgiving

I really like Thanksgiving and the time we all spend thinking about all the many blessings we have. I know that I am truly blessed and have so much to be thankful for. At dinner one night this past week (no not on Thanksgiving but prior to it), as a family we did ABCs of things for which we are grateful. So here is some of that exercise

A - Alice, it is good for me to remember that I am thankful for her and all her 2-year oldness.
B - Beds
C - Cars
D - Dad, both mine and the great one that Joe is!
E - Education and Eli
F - Family and friends and Freedom
G - Grandparents
H - Home
I - Ice cream
J - Joseph Smith
K - Knowledge
L - Love
M - Moms
N - Nighttime so we can see the stars
O - Opportunities (Eli thought of this one!)
P - Prayer
Q - Quiet times
R - Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
S - Simon and Scriptures
T - Telephones
U - Underwear!
V - Voting
W - Water
X - X-rays
Y - Yummy food
Z - Zippers
It would only take 4 things in each letter to have more than 100. Makes me realize how many great things I have to be thankful for and how easy it really is to count my blessings!

Halloween

I know it has been a couple of weeks, but here are some pictures from Halloween, Simon's birthday gathering and raking leaves.

Here is Alice as a ladybug and Simon the fearsome pirate.

My 3 cuties! Eli was Garfield.

This little girl is Riley. She is in Simon's preschool class. They found each other during the Trick-or-treat down Main Street, and the next thing I know, they were holding hands!

We had trunk-or-treat for our ward activity Saturday before Halloween. We dressed up as "Gilligan's Island"

Here is Simon with his cupcake cake. A definite pirate at heart!


Aren't these girls cute. It was a beautiful day and we had fun raking the leaves and jumping in them. I couldn't resist putting Taryn in the leaves in her pumpkin outfit!

Time to brag

I just wanted to take a moment and be proud of my kids. First, Eli. We went to parent/teacher conference for Eli and he is doing awesome in 3rd grade. His teacher thinks he is a great kid, and I know he is. He is very smart. She said they gave the kids the test for the end of 3rd grade, to see where the kids are, and he scored a 96%! And he has an average of 100% on all his math tests for the year so far! He is a smart kid and I am proud of him for doing a good job and continuing to try. I am a little concerned that he will not learn anything in 3rd grade (well he does need to work on his handwriting....), but hopefully the teachers will find something to challenge him with :)

Simon turned 5 yesterday! I can't believe he is 5! He is so much fun and so inspiring in his love of life. He is also very smart, he reads like a pro already! He loves preschool and dressing up. He was born at the right time of year because he sure loves Halloween (and Christmas, he is standing here reading as I type and insisting I add Christmas). He is so awesome at making me feel like a great mom because he gets so excited about little things. I bought him a pirate costume for Halloween, various parts from Goodwill, and he was so excited you would think he won the lottery. He told me it was the best ever and I am the best. Ohhhh, so sweet. I wish everyone had a Simon! (But I am keeping mine for myself!)