New York

While my parents were in town they offered to watch Mesha and Griffin so that Sterling and I could go to New York. We just did a day trip but it was a lot of fun. It was cool and a little bit strange to see some of these places you have seen a million times in movies and on TV in real life.

Looking at "the ball" in a museum by Times Square.

Times Square.  We walked into it on accident and all of a sudden I recognized where I was without ever being there before.

The Empire State Building.  We were too close to see it very well.

Riding the subway.

On the Staten Island Ferry to get a look at the Statue of Liberty.

Manhattan Temple.  It looked so out of place from what I am used to which is why I think it is so cool.

Good ol' Deseret.

Central Park.  Sorry to Anya for cutting her out with our not so great self portrait skills.  Sorry to Sterling for the look on my face (I was running out of patience waiting for him to figure out how to put the camera on night mode...)

Radio City Music Hall.

Rockefeller Center. Anya wasn't impressed.

I haven't ever seen it without the ice rink.  It would be fun to go sometime this winter.

I can now put a big ol' check mark on my bucket list. Yay New York!  I'm still not a Yankees fan though, sorry.

Anya's Blessing

We blessed our sweet little Anya on Sunday.  Both sets of grandparents, her sister and brother, and her mom and dad were all there.  Her Daddy gave a sweet blessing.  She is such a good little person for our family.  She is so patient and hardly ever cries.  She loves her big sister and smiles at her whenever she sees her.  I am so grateful for my little Anya and for her angel baby qualities. 



The whole gang.

Big brother and sister.

Anya and her Daddy.

The girl of the day.

I had my Dad pose for this picture because I have one like it for both my other babies on their blessing days.

Grandpa and Anya.

Grandpa and Mesha.

Grandpa and Griffin.

What sweet babies and what a good family.

Mystic

We have both sets of Grandparents here with us for Anya's blessing/ tour of New England.  I went with my parents and the kids to Mystic, CT one day.  It is a seaport town and there is a Nautical Museum, aquarium, and this little 18th century looking "village" with shopping and such.

There was a duck pond.  Grandpa bought us some food and we had a couple dozen instant friends!

This was, of course, the kid's favorite part.

Especially this guy.  He loves ducks.

We found a hand pump drinking fountain.

Griffin took a drink and spit it out.  He was blowing raspberries for a few minutes before we figured it must not taste very good.  I tried it and it tasted like iron so badly.  Yuck. 

Pumping the well.

Sweet little Anya.

Right before we went home we saw an old train caboose and took the kids over to see it.  I lifted the kids up on it and left them there while I went to get the camera.  As I was walking  back Griffin was trying to get down by himself and I kept telling him to stay there.  It didn't work.  He slid off and landed on the big granite slab that was used as a step.  His whole side was one big bloody scratch.  So I didn't get a picture but Griffin got a nice souvenir.  Besides that incident it was really fun.  There was a Scandinavian gift shop there that I could spend all day in...

Bunk Beds

We got bunk beds!  Thank you craigslist, I love you.  The kids LOVE it.  We set it up in Mesha's room and were planning on moving Griffin in later this year when Anya is ready for her own room.  Griffin would have none of it.  He let us know that he was going to sleep on that bed immediately.  The first night he slept on Mesha's old box spring padded with a few blankets (still not nearly close enough to comfortable).  We bought him a mattress and big boy bedding the next day.

Next up is putting Anya's room together...