End of May: Ethan music performances, Memorial Day, cute Aubrey

Enjoying warmer weather outside!  We are so glad we moved to this street.  There are so many kids to play together and great families.  It's been really nice!


Aubrey and I went to the duck pond.  I handed her pieces of bread to feed the ducks and she would share a few, but eat most of them, ha!  I kept showing her how to throw them and she seemed confused why I wanted her to throw her snack. :)  

The boys washing the car with some help from neighbor friends.

Aubrey being her cute self, while Ethan does some yoga in the back ;)

Ethan at his end of the year music presentation.  They've been learning to play the ukulele and has really enjoyed it.  He says he wants one for his birthday now.
Aubrey and one of her boyfriends.

Another hang out spot for neighbor kids, Bryan's truck.  It's their club gathering place I think.

I had an end-of-the-year piano recital for my students with a spring theme.  Here's a video of Ethan playing the theme from Star Wars.



And here's a picture of all my students.   The two on the far right are the only two that are my students.  I teach their sister and her mom wanted her sisters to play in a recital for practice.  She's been teaching them since their teacher moved.



Memorial Day service at Provo Cemetery.  


We decided to do a garden this year for the very first time, since we finally have a garden area.  After hours and hours of weeding, Bryan's job was to rake and get the areas marked off.  He did a great job!

A few more cute pictures of Aubrey this month.




Austin turns 7!

We flew in from New York late Tuesday night and Austin's birthday was the next day.  We do friend parties on even years and family parties on odd years, so I didn't think much about arranging a get together before our trip, and we ended up just inviting whoever could come at the last minute for his birthday, but first we took him to IHOP for breakfast.  He actually went to an hour of school first because he didn't want to miss his birthday crown and then we checked him and Ethan out.  










































Austin is a boy filled with lots of energy.  When he gets an idea of how to create something, he does it quickly and with determination.  He has come up with lots of clever creations out of things around the house or with Legos that even his older brother and I am impressed with!  He can be very caring and sharing, especially when he knows someone feels sad.  He is confident and doesn't appear sensitive, but he is a pretty sensitive kid.  We love him and are so happy to have him in our family.  Happy birthday Austin!  We love you! 

New York Anniversary Trip

Bryan and I celebrated our 12th year anniversary on May 1st!  Where does the time go?  He needed to get some backdrops in New York City for the images he has been working on (now done with) for Hale Center Theater in Orem, and he took me along to celebrate our anniversary!  We went in December of 2007, which was a fun time to go and see the Rockefeller tree, the window shops, ice skating rink, etc., but it was FREEZING!  So it was nice to go in the Spring time.  We went from May 8th (red eye) to the 13th!

At the airport ready for our red-eye flight.

Washington Square Park

We kept checking the forecast before we went and it kept changing every day.  We were pretty sure it was gong to rain some of the time we were there and we didn't want to be carrying around umbrellas, so we just got some rainproof jackets.  It sprinkled a little on Friday and a little more rain for a few hours on Saturday, but after that clear, blue skies.  

We went to the 911 memorial first. 




We picked up some yummy authentic deli New York sandwiches and ate at a little park in Washington Heights with a view of the George Washington Bridge.  It was pretty cool looking with the fog.
 
Pretty greenery and spring flowers.

Union Square Park


Cool views from Burlington Coat Factory at Union Square.  I wasn't thinking and didn't bring great shoes so we stopped at Burlington to grab some.  We walked sooooo much.  It would have been cool to track and see how much.


Right by Central Park.  

Home Alone Hotel


At the FAO Schwarz store, crazy big candy!
 We went here in 2007 and got to see a keyboard demonstration, but they weren't doing it this time.
 This is for the boys who love the Lego Movie



This is "for the boys" too- this crazy set is over $400!
 


In 2007, we road in one of those man-pulled carriages and had a Jamaican guy give us a tour and he would tell us where they filmed different movies or t.v. shows, but sometimes he was very hard to understand.  Good memories.  This time we decided to try out the Citi bikes.  These are smart for people that work in New York to get around, but my advice is to not rent them to ride in Central Park!  You can never get back to a station in time and end up spending way too much!  We had a very memorable time on Saturday, though.  We had thought about riding them on Friday, but it was sprinkling on and off, and we were debating on Saturday too in case of rain, but we ended up just going for it.  We went around the shorter path in like 15 minutes and when we came around the second time we were thinking, "let's take the other path", but there is no other cut-off or place to cut through the park on bikes so we had to go around the ENTIRE park.  It was a lot of fun, but part of the reason why we didn't get the bikes back in time.  Then all of a sudden it down pored!  Other people on bikes waited it out underneath some hangover where they wouldn't get wet, some people rode it out, even joggers, but we just kept riding as hard as we could trying to get back.  It was soooo funny.  Bryan has some footage of it.  When we went back to the park the next day when it was sunny and nice it was like a zoo though and way overcrowded, so it really was nice that we were practically the only ones there in the rain and could ride however fast we wanted and didn't have to worry about other bikers or people being in the way.





We ate at the yummy shake shack!





We took the Staten Island ferry across to Staten Island.  It's a free ferry that helps workers who live on Staten Island get to the city.  You get close enough to get good pictures of the Statue of LIberty, but don't go onto Ellis Island where the actual statue is, but I've heard it's hard to get good pictures when you're there because it's so huge and you're right there.


My cousin (in-law's) sister, Shalese was so nice to let us crash at her pad.  She lives right in Greenwich Village.  She came on the ferry ride with us.




On the subway to Coney Island.  Crowded graveyard!








We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge first, and then the next day the Manhattan bridge.



 

Saw so many cute kids wearing their Jewish Yarmulkes, but I didn't get a chance to take a picture without being obvious.  I snapped a picture of these Jewish men without them knowing though, hehe.


Our favorite spot of the trip.  We really don't like the crowded places like Time Square, etc.  It was nice to sit at the edge of the water in Brooklyn and have a view of the city where it was more relaxing and quiet.




 Lego store
 Rockefeller Center.  We went to the top of the rock in 2007 where you get a great city view and can see the Empire State Building.

Our one splurge meal at Luke's Lobster in Brooklyn with fresh lobster, yum!

This isn't the building, but close to Luke's.  I just thought it was cool. :)


 Pictures from Manhattan Bridge

 China Town

The High Line is so cool.  Basically it's a path/park built on a historic freight rail line that is elevated above the streets.  There are benches and areas to sit and talk and it seemed like a popular date night activity to walk the High Line.

Murray's Bagels, so yummy!
Memorial Lighthouse for the Titanic.  There's also a museum right there but we didn't want to spend any more $ to pay to see it.




This is at the historic Fulton Fish market.  It had closed down and then a lot of it was destroyed in Hurricane Sandy.  So now they are restoring some things.  They are using old freight cars and making stores and shops in them. Looks really cool.



I think this was our last meal in New York City at Slice's.  Soooo good! I don't know what they do to their crust, but it is thin and different tasting in the best way compared to the pizza I am used to.

Last time we came to New York, Bryan had only been a handful of times and didn't know his way around the way he does now, after who knows how many times he's gone for work.  It was nice just relying on him to figure out the subway and knowing where to go. He knew all the spots and how to get there, so it was great!  My legs were so sore and tired by the end of every day, and my feet practically broken, but I survived, haha!   

I didn't see the temple the last time we came, and we did so many new things this time, since it was too cold when we came together last.
 

We went on Monday when the temple was closed, but the lady at the front let us check out the church building portion of it.  It was amazing how quiet it was inside.  You'd never guess you were in Manhattan!



 I'm so grateful we had the chance to go and spend some time away just the two of us.  I'm so thankful for my wonderful mother-in-law who came and stayed at our house with our kids so that we could go on this trip.  It was hard leaving Aubrey, since it was the first time we've been separated that long.  We talked with her on Face-time over the phone once and her expression was so funny.  She stared at the phone really confused like, "how come mommy and daddy are inside this phone?" I also got teary-eyed seeing her on the phone and not being able to hug and squeeze her. I missed my boys too, of course, but it's different for the baby of the family! The boys talked to us a bit and we showed them the view of the bridges and the Statue of Liberty.  They were funny.  They were like, "Cool!.  We are going to go outside and play with our friends now, bye!"  haha

Anyway, great -and much needed- time away!  What a great trip and great memories!  :)
"Memory is a child walking along a seashore. You never can tell what small pebble it will pick up and store away among its treasured things." ~Pierce Harris
 
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