Brooke Bites the Big Apple

It's Brooke's turn for a trip to New York! 

To piggy-back on John's [final] annual trip to NY, we left on Wednesday with him, and flew back just the two of us on Sunday.  

Brooke was beside herself excited to see the Big Apple. 

We arrived Wednesday night and checked into our tiny hotel room about 9:00 p.m.

 and she was immediately struck with the view. 

We quickly headed out to Times Square to see a little of the sites...

The ferris wheel inside Toys R Us

 and grabbed a burger at the Shake Shack (our fave). 

On Thursday, Brooke and I took the Subway all the way down to the Financial District.

Looking across to New Jersey

At the 911 Memorial - one of the new towers is behind her, center.

Cousin Angie, who just moved to Brooklyn, met up with us at Max Brenner's near Union Square. 

 Max Brenner's has lots of chocolate.

 After shopping at The Strand (and buying books) and walking, walking, walking we walked up to Macy's and the Empire State Building.

In the lobby of the beautiful Empire State Building

The New York Public Library ... Library Lion! (Children's book reference there) 

 In the NYPL, there was a Winnie the Pooh exhibit with the original toys that inspired AAMilne.

And we walked all the way back to Times Square where our hotel was.  

Our feet hurt!  

The next day we headed out to a different part of town and it was raining.  

We shopped, hitting Forever XXI, which is HUGE at the Times Square location.  Shopping in the morning is definitely a must.  The stores were quiet whereas when we went back in the evening to purchase (didn't want to carry around packages all day), it was crowded and crazy.

We headed uptown to Rockefeller Center, The American Girl Store, some more shopping, and 

the Apple Store...

and of course FAO Schwartz where Brooke experienced BIG without ever seeing the movie.

It was my birthday so we were nothing but gourmet and had a street-corner hot dog and pretzel for lunch.  Something you have to experience at least once in your life, right?

Then we walked over to Dylan's Candy Bar.  A three-story candy store.  What could be better?

We didn't feel like walking all the way back to the hotel so we hailed a pedicab.  A fun experience, but note to self: only use one if you have just a couple of blocks to go, unless you're alone.

There was a dog event next to the harbor where people were totally crazy with their dogs.  There were booths where you could do yoga with your dog (seriously, people were all spread out with the mats). Gives a new definition to Downward Dog.  The best though was this kissing booth. This woman was ecstatic to pay $1 to kiss her little dog.  Whatever!

Saturday we took a boat tour around the entire island of Manhattan (no, that's not the boat we went on!)

The views are great and you learn a lot more than trying to see the city for yourself, plus it saves aching feet.  

Having an afternoon snack at Magnolia Bakery.

In Times Square at night, they had a JumboTron and we were on it.  See us on the bottom?  I have my camera in front of my face.

Brooke and I got tickets to Mary Poppins and it was Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious!  

I recommend it!  We had a great time.

On her bucket list was getting hot chocolate at night.  We decided to after the show since it was our last night, so late and we had to walk back.  The weather was so warm we never felt the need, but wanted to nonetheless.

Experience the city was um, an experience?  Brooke was exposed to stuff she never could imagine.  It shows what a sheltered and clean life she leads in Newbury Park.  Most poignant though was probably the walk back after the show.  Not only was it late, like 11:00pm, but we had to pass some shady looking gangs, a couple of times on almost-deserted streets which was not too comforting.  We were so glad to reach the safety and familiarity of the Marriott lobby!

One of our favorite things is riding bikes in Central Park.  It was the most beautiful day, perfect for a ride, and cycling around the park is the absolute best way to take it all in.  

You'd never know you're in the middle of a city!

 We rode over to Lincoln Center where the temple is located.  It's only two blocks from Central Park in one of the nicest areas of Manhattan.  Of course.  

We had a fabulous trip.  I love our new tradition of taking one child at a time on an adventure like this when they're old enough and hope we can continue it.  Christian is already talking about how he gets to go in three years.  We'll have to be a bit more creative since John won't be doing these long NYC stints every fall anymore (new job, Hooray!).  

This little girl just turned eleven. 

 She loves to hang out with her sister and her friends.

 She's totally awesome and gets to leave on a jet plane in the morning to New York City. 

She's very excited to be able to go along on a business trip (it's her turn!).

I went downtown L.A. to go to the jewelry and fabric districts and had lunch at an awesome restaurant called Bottega Louie.

Not only was the lunch exquisite, but the French pastries were gorgeous.

 And the macaroons amazing.

And this little girl lost a top tooth last night.  She's a jack-o-lantern in time for Halloween. 

Her other one is loose, too so she'll be asking for front teeth for Christmas I think. 

This and That

It seems like not a lot has happened to blog about since school started, but upon further consideration, there has actually been quite a bunch.

Christian and his girlfriend Kate kickin' it at the beach on Labor Day.

Having fun burying Ashlyn in the sand, until they were ordered to cease and desist by the lifeguards!

It's illegal to now dig a hole deeper than 18" at the beach. 

Come ON!!!!!

Be sure to bring your ruler next time you're at the beach. 

Oh, and if you're loading up the car to go home, be sure and not lock all the doors with the car running before everyone gets in.  

Otherwise, you might have to wait 45+ minutes for AAA, unless of course the fire dept happens by first.  Lifeguards can't do it, Highway Patrol can't do it, City Maintenance can't do it (and yes, they all happened by), but the FD can unlock the car door!  And they are especially happy to do it when you are blocking the parking lot and they want to get by!  No wonder they are always called heroes.

(By the way, it was our friend that it happened to, NOT ME).

 I think the only good things about this awful humid weather is are the beautiful clouds and sunsets.

Uncle Adam installed a gnarly swing from a super tall tree in their front yard and the kids had a blast with it.  

Other happenings:

*I started a BYU religion class (like institute) - every Wednesday morning

*I work (volunteer) in the Middle School office every Thursday answering phones and whatnot.  It's fun.

*I'm the DAC (District Advisory Committee) Rep for the elementary school so I get to go to big meetings at the school district headquarters once a month.

*I'm the SSC (School Site Council) Rep as well, which means another monthly meeting. 

*I'm the Laurel Advisor.  Love it. 

*Back-to-School night was tonight for the elementary school and we only had 2 classes to visit. It's so fun, and I will be adding many more things to my list as soon as the teachers narrow it all down (library helper, computer helper, math helper, classroom helper, etc......)

*I lost a little diamond in my ring. :-(  
Need to make a trip downtown to the Jeweler soon.  

*My gym of 11 years closed.  So sad!!  We joined the YMCA for the whole family.  The gym is small, but adequate and nice, and they have great classes for the kids and an indoor pool.  Madison and Brooke started a youth fit class (2x/week) and the instructor said they were so athletic that she's going to come up with something different for them.  Total confidence booster.

*Also, they made the school's Volleyball teams.  WooHoo!! 

*Cub Scouts started this week.  Christian is thrilled! He's ready to move on to Bear, but can't until January.

*I've been searching for a piano teacher and found an excellent one.  However, she's expensive, inconveniently far away, and booked!  The only time she had was during mutual.  Luckily when meeting with her, she liked the girls and recommended her top student to me who lives near us, and doesn't charge very much since she's a senior in HS.  Score!  We now have another teacher, at least until she goes away to college next year. 

Madison with Arnela Ervin

*Brooke started up voice lessons again today.  She's working on a piece from My Fair Lady.  It's fun to hear her develop a Cockney accent.

*Her coach has a business called Cocoa Metro.  Try it - it's totally awesome.

*I went to the Republican office today and picked up a Romney bumper sticker.  I just might use it, too.

*I'm taking Brooke to NYC in two weeks!  It's her turn to go and she's excited.

*Today is my mom's birthday.  We met at Wood Ranch in Northdridge for lunch.  It was a lot of fun: me, Dre, Adam & kids, mom, dad, Matt & Cyndi.    

The Sound of Silence

The kids all went back to school today, which is always bittersweet around here.  We love summer, and never want it to end, but there is always the interesting prospect of a new year, new friends, new experiences and growth to look forward to in starting school again.

They were of course nervous and excited and had a very hard time falling asleep last night.

Brooke is starting middle school and has studied the school map with Madison (multiple times) who gave her tips on how to get around.  We've been to the locker, practiced the combo lots of times, toured campus, and got all ready for a new chapter in life.

Madison is ruling the school as an 8th grader.  She received her schedule with two PE classes, and no math!  That's a bit confusing, but working with the AP and the Counselor, got it all figured out.  Turns out that because she is in all honor classes and the Discover Magnet program along with Spanish, there wasn't room for Algebra, as it's taught the same time as Spanish.  Unfortunately, she had to drop Spanish for Math, even though we were secretly hoping that PE could somehow count as math credit.  ha!

Christian is a big 3rd grader and is super excited to have is best buds Harrison and Max in his class. 

Christian and Ashlyn will now have the same recess and lunch.  He told her he'd look out for her during those times to make sure she's OK and they could be together.  He's so sweet!

Ashlyn is in 1st grade.  She told me she was nervous about going to school all day as she has never done that.  But she was really concerned about me being "alone" all day without her.  She told me I would have to "find a friend to hang out with".  She mentioned something like that almost daily so she really was concerned about me.  Don't worry Ash, I think I can keep myself busy.

 They are all ready to have a fabulous year!!

Christian with Mrs. Triplett!  We are so happy to finally have her for a teacher.

See that look of nervousness?  It's genuine.  She froze.  She didn't want us to leave.  But I know that she'll be awesome when we leave. Especially when her BFF Cooper arrives.

Mrs. Warner and Ashlyn.  She's in a 1/2 split.  I hope it works well.

Off to the Middle School!  I asked Brooke if she wanted us to drop her off or walk her in, and she really wanted us to go in, so sorry Madison - you get to walk in with your parents!

It was fun to see their reaction when they opened their lockers which were decorated late last night by John.

We ended up walking Brooke to her first class and the teacher came out to introduce herself.  She was super nice - they really take care of the 6th graders well.

Now I'm home and it's so quiet.  I can hear the refrigerator humming.

I can also clean up a mess and it will actually last . . . 

... until 2:35.

Then and Now

What a difference five years makes!