Valentines in the HEART of NYC

Haha... Jenni, me, somehow earned the title as the official "tour guide" for our trip to Manhattan. Valentines day, we spent the morning with the Skeens in NJ and then all rode together with Rich, Mirit and Asher into the city. There we found a great place to enjoy some famous NY pizza... it was one of Rich's fav. places near 12th street (they use to live there). The fresh basil leaves atop the thin-crust and fresh mozzerella pizza was fantastic (even for one who is selective about her pizza- hmhm).
Rich sent us in the right direction to catch subway and we made our way toward the Staten Island Ferry. Along the way saw...

• Ground Zero
• Wall Street and the NY Stock Exchange
• Statue of GW where he was sworn is a Pres. of the United States

Then made our way to...

• the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Is. Ferry
  

Then uptown to...

• Central Park (southwest and east end) with the ice rink--- it was dark
• 5th Avenue- windows and St. Patricks
• Rockafeller Center
• Maxi's for dinner on 42nd (?)... great Valentines Dinner to end the day!
  
• Revisited part of Time Square
• Port Authority to catch the bus to NJ

**Sorry No Pictures... Maea was all over it on Saturday***

A True Presidents Day

We spent Pres. Day at George Washington's Estate, Mount Vernon, in Virginia overlooking the Potomac River!!! Washington's Bday lands on the 22, so we were a few days off being there on his official birthday, but it was a very appropriate location to celebrate the holiday!
One of Mom's highlights was the marching band. A short video clip shows part of the parade that took place in front of Washington's home. Mom will share more about it... In short, it was a very nice afternoon...

After Mount Vernon, we ran into heavy traffic going through Old Town Alexandria. Recognizing that the reason was the local parade, we stopped to find Mom another marching band... We did not see the line early enough to catch the real band, but we did get to see come colonial era costumes worn by men who apparently reenact various parts of the revolutionary war period. The video below is take just after they broke out into a mini dramatic play... didn't catch it, but you can see their costumes, which fit really well into the town with its restored homes.

Snowed In

Happy to be home in a warm home with most the kids home, minus Andrew and Rachel (in Hawaii with her family this year). We're snowed in... and yes, we are still in Bellevue... this is very unusual for the Seattle area, but we'll enjoy the white Christmas! It keeps coming down.

Remodel Update!

With the tenuous economy and our thrifty roots, we've decided to take on a huge remodeling project on ourselves!
I know it is daring...we swore we wouldn't leave it unfinished, we set a goal, a reasonable deadline, used a carefully thought out budget and we went to work!



I don't have a picture ready so I'll have to keep you all in suspense until your next visit!
Oh, I guess I forgot to say what the huge undertaking was...




our bedroom in no longer the Family Room, we moved the computer out!

some things are more difficult for us.... baby steps!

Cute Grandbaby!

We have the cutest grandbaby and we can't stand it that she lives in Boise! Steve has Kristen send a picture to his phone everyday and then he sends it to the computer so I can see it! If it gets late in the day and he hasn't got his daily dose, he calls me and asks if I've heard from her yet for the day!! We're under her spell!!!

FLYIN' UP HIGH

State Diving 2008! Maraea just wrapped up her high school diving career this weekend with a 5th place finish in the 4A Dive championships at KCAC. She has had a great run in high school, qualifying for state each year. This year Newport moved up from 3A to 4A which made the state competition a little tougher but she still did well! Now its off to consider college possibilities!

Just call me Juniper Exterminator!

An addition from the Miller Branch:

I just wanted to show off to Momma's crew something new at their casa.

While Kevin and I were there visiting last month we decided we wanted to tame the unruly junipers. I don't know what is wrong with me, but I have had an issue with those junipers for years, and when they are so overgrown it makes me particularly crazy. So, we went out to trim them and ended up convincing mom that they just needed to go. There are many more to remove, but I think we are half way there. (Back in my high school days I got obsessive one night and removed a big clump of them while mom and dad were gone.) Before taking out the whole bush we were a little concerned about leaving the house so "naked" but I think in comparison, naked is all right. And, last time I went on a rampage, mom recovered well and planted a really cute garden spot where the juniper had previously covered. [Side note, please Aunt Toni, don't start screening your calls. You are our master gardener and we all know mom is always looking for an excuse to get you to Washington.]

So, without further adieu, the Before and After Photos:

Before:

After:

In addition to that great adventure, we also had a great time in Seattle going to Pike's Place (yes, again...but Kevin hadn't been since high school). And, we pretended to go to a pumpkin patch. For the Fruit Stand, I mean Pumpkin Patch adventure, Brian and his girlfriend Sophia joined us and they brought her son, Skylar for a photo op too. We had a ton of fun taking pictures of the cute little ones.
It's always fun to be with family, even if they are just using you to get to your child. We had a great time, and everyone enjoyed loving on Madi.