New York 2011

So, Clark and I decided that every 5 years (or so), we should go on a trip together, just the two of us.  Our first trip was to Las Vegas (not my fav) and so this year, we went to New York, New York.  My parents very nicely watched all 4 kids for us (my dad took a week off to help my mom.)  I found direct flights from Calgary to Newark, New Jersey (thanks WestJet!)  It was busy, crazy and loads of fun.  While I don't mind the hussle and bustle of a major city, I don't know if I could wander around it with 4 little kids.    Anyway, here's some pictures from our trip.





Waiting for the train to take us from Newark to New York.

Our Sister-in-Law told us to take "interesting" pictures of New York.  She totally meant something like this, right?

 A GIGANTIC Tortoise skeleton at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).  Only complaint about this museum?  They should have done a better job playing up the Night at the Museum stuff.  There were tons of kids wandering around asking about the movie.  Seriously, they could be raking in the moola!

Speaking of the movie.  This was the only thing from the movie that we found... and there was a line up for people to get pictures with it!  It was here, at the AMNH, that I was also brought to the sad truth: Boys have not changed in thousands of years, over all cultures.  Basically, as Clark put it, when man figured out how to draw/carve, they carved something.... you think about it, and make your guesses.  And it's not the Tiki Head.

This was sitting outside the AMNH, advertising a new exhibit that is coming.  No, not about war.  Actually, this little beauty (can't you see yourself driving the kids to the park in this?) is used to chase tornadoes!

This is the stage where we saw Shakespeare in the park, in Central Park!  No photos were allowed, of course, but I figured a quick shot of the stage wouldn't hurt.  Good part?  The tickets were free!  Better part? We still got in standing in the Stand-by line.  Best part?  Look at the seats we got!  All in all a good evening spent.  We saw Alls Well that Ends Well, one I actually hadn't see before.  They even did a great job simulating cannon fire in the background (there's a pond behind the stage.)

Kristen in Times Square.  Obviously not on a weekend, but surprisingly on July 4th Monday.  There weren't a lot of people until later in the day.

Who wouldn't want to kiss Captain Jack Sparrow?  Even if he was only made out of Lego?  Better yet, why wouldn't you go visit the 4 floor Toys R us in Times Square?

Where's Kristen?  In Grand Central Station awaiting the arrival of a very good roommate and friend!  I understand that, but where is she?

Look at what we found!  We were wandering around Time Square when we saw a dude wearing a centurion helmet and a T-Shirt that said Volcanoes are exploding in Times Square.  We were going to ignore him when he heard him say that you could get some money off with the coupon he had if we went to both the Pompeii and Harry Potter exhibit.  We were sold.  We met up with one of my roommates from Ricks, Cherie and her brood and wandered through some of the costumes and props from the Harry Potter movies.  (We went to Pompeii the next day).  It was awesome and the last leg of the exhibits North American tour.

Need I say more?  Found this on the dumpster of our stop on the Subway.

I have a love for Pret a Manger (Ready to eat) from my 2 trips to London.  The food is good and it's always fresh!  What they don't sell that day, goes to the homeless instead of the dumpster.  Can't go wrong either way I say.  Have to say I was ecstatic when we found one.

We saw this at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met).  Can you guess what it is?  I couldn't either, had to have someone tell me. 

Clark and Lady Liberty.  Mental note for those who have New York trips in their future... The Statue of Liberty is on a pedestal which sits on top of Fort Wood.  To go inside Fort Wood, the Pedestal and/or up to the crown, you need a ticket.  The catch?  You need to book it at least 2 weeks in advance.  The museum is in Fort Wood, so you won't even be able to see it without getting a ticket.  Lets you know how impressed I was when we figured that out. 

Yankees Game.  In the Bronx.  Yes, we did get out of Manhattan.  The game was entertaining, I'm not a baseball fan, frankly, I find it boring.  But it's always fun to hear the real fans lose it over things. 

Yankee Stadium only gets an F on one account. They made me throw out 2 metal water bottles. No real reason, I could toss them or go across the street and store them for $10. Seriously! So, we went in water bottle-less. Guess what I bought inside from the Yankee store, only because I was worried we wouldn't find a place with water bottles? Yeah a METAL water bottle!

On our way to the Top of the Rock (the Rockefeller Center), 67 floors up!  For someone with height "issues", I did really well and didn't panic once.  I also didn't look over the edge, get too close to the edge, stay near the closest I got for very long.  But I can say I did make it up.




Clark only had a couple of things on his list to see or do, and this was one of them.  We found the fire hall that the Ghostbusters was filmed at.  Good timing too, because we've heard that it may be on the list to shut down due to cut-backs.  If my understanding is correct, this particular hall was the first ones to respond to the 9/11 attacks.

And to end off, who doesn't love a car flying out of a building? Thanks for the visit!

Canada Day

Every year for Canada Day, we head out to Airdrie for the Canada Day Parade.  While I love the excitement and floats involved in a much larger city's parade, there's just that hometown feeling still to the Airdrie one.  There are still people who throw candy and hand out things, so the kids have a really great time.  Happy 144th Canada!

There was a little bit of a lull at the very beginning and the Mounties took advantage of it and wandered around and talked to everyone.  Caleb was more then willing to jump up for a picture!









Great thing about parades:  the kids for the most part, sit and watch.  Something they aren't inclined to do most of the time.







Where there's a mascot, Caleb will follow.  (And Kyrie run away, panicking.)







Hello Happy Family!

Doesn't this look like a good picture for a Remax ad?

Summer's Almost Here!

For me, summer was truly here when school was over.  I'm down one kid and have two more to go.  But, as we prepare for a busy summer, here's a couple of pictures to tide you over.

Two words: Chip Coma











One of my marigolds. :)

Summer is Around the Corner

Summer for me begins to feel like it's getting closer (instead of forever away) May long weekend.  It's the time that everyone starts to take care of the yard that was hidden all winter long.  The gardens start to get dug into and we all start to think long and hard about hiding the winter gear until winter again. 
This May long weekend, we went down to the new Cabin to help out building a new playground for the kids.  Now, I'm not really a shopper by nature, but  there's something about this:

That makes me smile and think about the bargains that I will be able to find.  There is also something about the selection that is different then what everyone is wearing around here.  You also can't beat a sale in the US stores.  It's incredible.

Here's the trickiest part of the whole playground.  This slide actually proved to be more work then all three guys thought.  I'm just glad that they were able to finish it up so that the kids can play outside, close to supervision.  And in the background, yes, we are that close to the lake. 

If the sun is out, it must be warm, right?  The kids all braved the cooler water to have a water fight.  I'm just glad that they weren't too adventurous so that I didn't have to get too far into the water.  I'm also glad that there were some great stones to sit on and watch.

We lucked out that weekend, with very little rain until Sunday night.  But, the great thing about a shower during sunset: some great rainbows.  I couldn't make the whole rainbow fit in the picture, but it was awesome!

Now that May has ended...

I seem to have the worst luck loading things up to Blogger.(It's taken me 3 days to load up pictures.) Anyway, April was completely and utterly crazy. It felt like I went from event to event to event. Don't get me wrong, I love being busy, but it felt like a bit much. So much so, that my house suffered more then it usually does.

Easter, 2 Grandma Birthday parties a weekend apart, that was just the beginning.

Clark threw me a surprise party for my birthday in conjunction with the royal wedding! I honestly had no idea what was going on. Thanks to him and my very good friend Kira, I didn't suspect a thing. Everyone came dressed up in honor of Will and Kate's wedding. Very fun!

I was also able to head down to Arizona with 15 other ladies! Crazy, tired, fun, loud, sun, shopping. Just a few words to describe how it went. 4 days with just a bunch of ladies. It was fun to hang out with those that I don't normally do things with and get to know a couple of the ladies a bit better! While some dedicated pool bunnies, I mostly hit the stores, sprinkling the sun in between. There were some great stores that I haven't been to before, or in a really long time. Thanks to Val for such a great weekend!

On the way there. Blue, Pink & a new dress. Hello Kira!

What I do while suntanning.

Crazy fun, a 5.5hour delay, finally brought us home at 4:30 in the morning. That was definitely something I would try again.

Decorating is a slow process...

At least for me it is. I haven't totally figured out what I like, what I want in my house. I have figured out what I don't like, which you would think would narrow things down. Sort of. (wince)

But I have known for a long time that I need more storage. Can't put everything in its place when you don't have a place for it. So, I have been eyeballing hutches for several months now. I thought that I would try craigslist or kijiji and by something previously enjoyed and then just paint it to suit what I want. I found a couple, my dear money-conscious husband (who I adore and am happy that he keeps me in check) would do a fabulous job of talking me out purchasing them. We just needed to wait. Love that phrase. And, admittedly, I was a bit chicken to go to random person's house and look at these things solo. So, round and round we would go.

Well, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I found a couple of display cabinets that I really loved from Ikea. So, cowards excuses aside, I found someone with a truck, went to Ikea and got some new display cabinets. So the Saturday that Clark got home from yet another trip, we put up the cabinets and some curtain rods! I will have this house decorated - in time to move!

And, in typical Calgary fashion, which drives a good, dear friend of mine batty, it snowed again last night. A lot. For some reason, that does not deter my kids at all. At least I managed to get boots on them?

An Organized Moment

As you may well remember, I decided to grow a garden last year. And it did well. See here for a little reminder. Well, to save on some costs and to stretch myself a little more, I have decided to start several different plants from seed. Obviously with our fabulous weather (insert sarcasm here), there are some that need to be started early.

And with that little bit of knowledge, I have actually started some early. I have a healthy batch of pumpkins, peppers (3 varieties), some herbs and some cherry tomatoes. I am waiting for my watermelon to decide that growing is a good hobby. In the next little bit, I'm going to add a little bit of zucchini and cucumber. Now, I just need to figure out where I'm going to put all of these little seedlings. (I'm running out of window sills.) I am also happy to report that my children (more importantly, the 2 year old) have also managed to leave them mostly alone. They are very happy to come and check out the progress and offer to help water them. My plants have also not drowned in "love", aka water.

We are also on Spring Break. Last year we went to California. I've decided that that was really awesome as we planned NOTHING this year. There's a couple events already planned for later in the year and so the money and vacation time just wasn't there. Yeah. 2 weeks off, at the house in Calgary weather (read: snow, wind with an occasional sprinkling of sun, more as a tease), has not been that fun. There have been moments, mostly errands that I have to get done. Needless to say, I have already figured out what we are going to do next year for Spring Break. But, here's some pictures on a nice day of our new bubble blowing machine!