I Found a Pirate Sleeping in my Bed

It's been fun...

...having the Scott and Brooke Rasmussen Family live near us for the last 8 months. They moved to Arlington in October for Scott to begin training as a Foreign Service Officer with the State Department (as Lucas puts it, he works for Obama). We have loved having them here and took advantage of spending a lot of time with them. Over the last couple of weeks, before they left for their first post in Africa, we did a few final hurrahs. We spent Memorial Day together in Rehoboth Beach, DE. Always fun at the beach! Uncle Scott was the only adult brave enough to go into the COLD water.

Filling up with sand.

McKay was digging in the sand...
and flipped some on Gabey just as I took this picture of him and Linc.

Tadders and Mackers were content to play in the sand.
The cousins also did sleepovers -- one week at our house, the next at the Rasmussen's. Below are the attempts at photographing the 4 boys -- Lucas, Lincoln, Gabey, and Tad -- the morning after the sleepover.

The Monday before they left, we met up at a spray park in Arlington. I first saw one of these a few years ago when visiting my friend Angie in Meridian, ID. What a great idea! There are fountains and splash buckets at the park. It's free, and the water part is open Memorial Day through Labor Day.
We wore the kids out.


McKay was having a wonderful time in the water.We were sad to say goodbye and miss them already. We're excited for what's ahead for them and look forward to hearing all about their adventures!

Natalie and McKay

"McKay, I just love you so much!"

--Cousin Natalie

Bubbles

Lately, McKay will hold his index finger to his mouth and blow.
Translation: I want to go outside and blow bubbles!

Walking!

Almost 18 months old, but M has finally decided walking might be pretty cool!

NY

Diana and I took a Moms' Weekend Off in New York. We took the bus up Thursday evening (after a near miss....we were too late for our original bus, but were able to catch another a half an hour later) and stayed through Sunday afternoon. Her Great Uncle Dan -- who lives in the West Village -- kindly provided the place to stay.
Friday morning, after a leisurely breakfast (ahhhh) at The Busstop Cafe near Dan's apartment, we boarded the Subway and took off for Central Park. Here we are in the Shakespeare Gardens with the Old Swedish Cottage behind us.
Now, I find NY an absolutely fascinating city. It is great fun to visit, but I have to think it would be hard to live there. Central Park is its redeeming factor as the most non-city getaway within the city. Here I am at Belvedere Castle in CP. It's perched atop Vista Rock and overlooks Turtle Pond and the Great Lawn.

Diana is posing for me with the Ghost Busters building in the background. Ya know, the building where Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis turn into dogs and the GB's fight the alien lady sporting the flat top.

What else to do in CP? Rent a rowboat and paddle around the lake! I just needed a pretty parasol. We enjoyed rowing around, trying not to paddle in circles, taking in the view, and chatting.



Next, it was on to the Met! We spent a few hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Obviously, we couldn't see it all, but were able to peruse several exhibits.

There was a special exhibit showing the changing perceptions of women from about 1890-1940 through fashion. We also dappled in some Roman and Egyptian exhibits (including some artifacts from Tutankhamun's burial), paintings (Degas, Monet, VanGogh, Manet), Medieval Art, and ancient European furnishings. By this time we were ready for dinner and a show! We found this great-sounding French/Italian place in our guidebook. Of course, we should have realized that, since it was in our guidebook, we were not the only ones who knew how great it was. Lesson #1: Make reservations for dinner. We were wandering around near the Theater District looking for a place to eat. Mind you, there's no shortage of places to eat in NY, but we didn't want to settle....we wanted an experience! But, as curtain time was drawing closer and our stomachs were getting louder, we finally stopped in a pizza shop. And you know what? That huge slice of NY pizza tasted ohhhh sooooo good. Off to Cort Theater to see Denzel Washington in "Fences"!

There was a little pastry shop right outside the theater so, while everyone else waited in line for the doors to open, we didn't. We figured we already had our tickets...no need to wait. We'll just sit and enjoy a tasty little French somethin'-somethin'. And that we did.

Here is the stage (taken before the announcement to please not take pictures. Whoops). We were almost in the very last row of seats but, since it was a fairly small theater, we could still see everything just fine. It was a wonderful performance. In case you're wondering, Denzel transfers just fine from screen acting to stage. All the actors were incredible. It made me remember how much I LOVE going to the theater. The play was set in Pittsburgh, 1957, and highlighted the life of an African-American family. Afterwards, I was trying to decide if I liked it because it had Denzel and because it got incredible reviews, or if I honestly liked it. I concluded that yes, I did like it -- I enjoyed the story, the acting, and the experience.

And, we coudln't just take off and not try to catch a glimpse of Mr. Washington outside the theater, could we? Of course we couldn't. So there he is. He's the one in the black baseball cap. Trust me.

We trudged through Times Square at about 11:00 to get on the Subway at Grand Central Station. Part of the fascination of NY is that one would have no idea what time it was based on what is going on outside. But, while NY partied on, we put our tired little Mommy-on-vacation (one being pregnant; not this one)-selves to bed.

Apparently, I only had enough energy to take pictures of the first day, because I got nothing for days 2 and 3.

Saturday was spent in swarms of people. We went to Chinatown for dim sum for breakfast (yummy!) and wandered around the shops to find souvenirs for the kiddos at home. We also had to stop in Little Italy for some cannoli. Yum again.

Our original plan had been to go to Ellis Island on Saturday but, Lesson #2: Reserve your tickets for Ellis Island in advance. I know; that should be a "duh". Like we were the only ones wanting to go there on a Saturday in May. But, we didn't factor that in, so the ferry tickets were all sold out. We decided instead to go with our closest friends on the Staten Island Ferry. It gave us a chance to see the skyline and pass by Lady Liberty.

That evening, we met up with Diana's bro-in-law Daniel-- who is attending law school at NYU -- and Uncle Dan for dinner. We went to an Italian Restaurant in the East Village, where we got to sit on a quiet patio in the back. Ahhh. Daniel invited us to a midnight movie, but we declined.

Sunday we went to church with our fellow brothers and sisters in the gospel (isn't it wonderful that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the same everywhere you go?), then boarded the bus home.

Thank you, Cory, for holding down the fort while I was gone. I had a wonderful time!