We're Back...

Every moment of our trip to New York City was packed. We walked and walked and walked, but we did take the subway too. Although we thought we were on the wrong subway once and got off, we were on the right one all along. (So am I allowed to say we never got lost?) Some of my fav's:

1. The food: some of the best I have ever tasted. We ate homemade pasta in Little Italy and Moroccan in Hell's Kitchen.

2. The Modern Museum of Art: the top two floor were filled with Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Renoir--that was great. The bottom floor was the really contemporary stuff, some of which was a little disturbing. Ex: a video of a naked torso of a woman hula-hooping with a hoop of barbed wire. Does anyone really enjoy that kind of art?

3. Walking through Times Square on my last morning and accidentally happening upon Randy Travis performing. (We also spotted Christian from Project Runway in Soho. He was last year's winner and the show is one of my favorites!)

Times Square

We really missed Henry while we were gone. We even looked through some of his flickr pics while we were there. Here he is looking through the doggy door.

Henry has a new-to-us (bought used) swing set. He loves to swing and slide. That boy can swing and slide until he is red in the face and covered in sweat!

A Guy, A Gun

How does anyone keep a decent pedicure around here? We walked so much today that my toenail polish wore off. Today was our first full day here in NYC and boy was it full! First was Times Square and the Naked Cowboy, then to the American Museum of Natural History for some dinosaur viewing, then a stroll in Central Park, dinner in Greenwich Village and a look around, and finally to Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center where we got a good nighttime view of the city--whew! We might need a little rest now. We did see a guy with a gun today, and this guy was no undercover cop either. We were walking down a very well-populated street in Greenwich Village in broad daylight and I looked across the street and saw this guy with a gun in his hand. He was either tucking it or untucking it from his waistband area. I wasn't sticking around to find out! I wouldn't say he was flailing it, but he certainly was not trying to hide it. Anyway, it looked more like a protecting turf thing than a threatening/mugging thing, and I don't think he was paying a bit of attention to us, but what do I know about people brandishing weapons in NYC?

Top of the Rock view of Empire State Building

Central Park Turtle Pond

Radio City

More Visitors

I've had the best time catching up with old friends this summer. If you ever come to town, please call me. Lord knows I'll call you if I'm ever in your town! Who do I know in NYC? Hmm...

Sorority Sisters: Me, Brian Hyde (with baby Jonathan),
and Betsy Anderson (who lives in Arizona now.)

College Friend:
Sunshine Hillygus with baby Jake, Henry, Me.

Jake, Henry & Karl.

Henry likes babies.

I'm not sure Jake was so thrilled,
but he did get his pacifier back eventually.

Swedes Are Here

My cousin Louise from Sweden is visiting here in Arkansas with her new husband Erik. (That sorta makes it sound like she had a former husband that she got rid of somewhere, but what I mean is that they are newlyweds.) Their visit gives us plenty of excuses to do fun stuff that most summers we would just talk about doing, but never progress beyond that. This summer we actually planned and executed the fun. We have been to War Eagle Cavern, the drive-in movie to see Wall-E, and a canoe trip on the Elk River. The picture below is of Louise and me in front of Beaver Lake. It's not the greatest picture because it was taken with my camera phone and no flash, but you get the idea.



Last night, while we were watching the fireworks in Rogers, Louise was saying that the next time she sees Henry and Karl they might be several years older. That struck me as really sad. Having an ocean between us is hard.

On a side-note, Henry enjoyed about the first two minutes of the fireworks. He pointed and stared and was not scared at all, but after that he lost interest and one of us ended up chasing after him all over the field for the rest of the display. Welcome to the world of raising a two-year-old. I have a feeling that the better part of the next year will be spent in the same manner.