Focus with your mind, Focus with your ears, Focus with your body.

--That is the drill at the Karate class Michael has been attending. He looks forward to it every week and he made some great improvements over the last two months. He and Jordan love to practice their Ninja moves with daddy at home too.

Some Spring Excitement

A few weekends ago the good weather started to break through and we enjoyed a visit from Jenny, Isaac and Grace!

Here are the boys at our Chelsea Teddy Bear Factory with the "world's largest teddy bear," Goliath.


We played at the park!!


Jenny is a kid magnet on Sunday morning!



We have crawdads and other life in the ponds near our apartment. They make our nature walks exciting.

Day One- NYC

For Spring break we were able to take a week long trip to New York City. Jared participated with a non-profit group (for family and for life) lobbying at a United Nations conference. We came along to visit an old friend, Christi, and see the sites. Jared tried to find time to spend with us and experience some of New York also. Since this blog serves as sort of a journal for me-- you get the whole travel log and an abundance of pictures.

Our first full day in NY was Sunday. We arrived Saturday night, after a 10 1/2 hour drive. We had some middle eastern dinner and crashed at Christi's studio apartment. She had moved out of it earlier in the week but had one day left in the lease and a little more work to do on her "little house" before we took over its accommodations. These photos are of Christi's old empty studio. It was fun to sample a few different dwellings/neighborhoods during our trip....more on that later.


Sunday morning, we took a crash course in the Subway and found our way to church and then to Jared's afternoon orientation meeting. The boys and I walked around a little, visited a catholic church, and then hung out in Grand Central Station.

Day Two --NYC

We woke up to 12 inches of snow and school canceled for Christi! Jared left very early for his first day at the U.N.. Christi got to come with us to one of her favorite NY museums-the American Museum of Natural History.

These are photos of the house where Christi lives. I hope to get some of her good photos of our outing and her actual "little house" in the backyard. The house/apartment in Brooklyn has twelve bedrooms and twelve roommates that live in a communal/co-op way. They are really talented and fun people to meet.




This is Christi and the boys on the train/subway--exciting!!



These are the beautiful tile mosaics of animals in the subway stop for the museum!


After a long day-- One of the roommates gave up their room for us --warm and cozy!
I was waiting for Jared to come home at 10:00 that night.

Day Three- NYC

Tuesday morning started out a little slow when we made our way to a museum in Brooklyn that was closed for the day....grrr. But plan B turned out to be just what we needed. The boys were excited to take a boat/ferry. We went past the statue of liberty to Staten Island and then on a bus to a great children's museum.








Michael really loved the building area. The power tools really worked and there was wood to fit together into a box! He tells me nearly everyday he wants to make our house into a factory to build something or another.

We got back to Brooklyn just in time to gather things and move over to an apartment in Manhattan Christi had found for us. Here they are waiting for Jared to come home at 9:00 that night.

Day Four -NYC

On Wednesday we took in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Michael did surprisingly well. We especially enjoyed the knights in shining armor, the musical instrument display, some modern art, the Chinese garden, and the Egyptian temple.


Michael wanted to be like the artists doing replicas of the art. We took some time to let him sit and work on his own paper.
Jared got to join us again in the evening for another "free" museum called the Sony Wonder Technology Lab.

Here are some random photos of the tame finches in the park, a view of the Chrysler building, streets and subways.



This is the really nice and cozy Manhattan apartment we were able to get for three days.

The old fashioned stairway and elevator

Day Five-NYC

In the morning we made a quick and much needed trip to the laundromat down the street from our apartment. Then we got on our way to some of the mid-town Manhattan sites.


This is the New York Public Library. For any of you PBS moms aka "Read Between the Lions."
They had the best selection of foreign language children's books I have ever seen and a fun bean bag room to lounge and read.


We walked through Times Square and some of Broadway and on to the Rockefeller Center.

Here is Michael at the ice skating rink. The weather had gotten progressively warmer throughout the week but this was a windy spot. We stayed very bundled up since we spent a lot of time on the street each day walking.


Jordan's naps became regular again during the week--usually around three to four o'clock. Our faster pace and longer days did him in whether we were walking on the street or more often taking a long subway ride.


Yea! We were finally able to meet up with Jared around 4:00 at our LDS temple at the Lincoln Center! What a haven in the city! We stopped by Ground Zero-the World Trade Center Site and then found a NY style pizzeria for dinner. Our version of night life during the trip was to find our way home before we dropped and have a smidgeon of family peace and quiet before bedtime.