Sweet Summer Getaway, Part 2

Our vacation in NYC continued on Sunday. We woke up and walked to another wonderful diner for breakfast. We did this 4 out of the 5 mornings were were there. We got hooked and I know that is where a large portion of my money would go if I lived in the city! Little did we know that Sunday was "National Puerto Rican Day" in New York and there was a parade down 5th avenue that lasted all day. Aaaaa! What a nightmare. It was very challenging to get around to where we wanted to be. It interfered with my 5th avenue shopping plans, and those had to get pushed back until Tuesday morning. In the early afternoon we toured the NBC studios and got to see where the Dr. Oz show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and SNL are recorded. Then, we made our way to the Brooklyn Bridge. The weather had been rainy that morning, but had cleared up and it was a beautiful day. So, we decided to walk across the bridge. If you ever have the chance to do this, I highly recommend it! It only took about 30-45 minutes and offered breathtaking views of the city. After we made our way across, we went down under the bridge to a pizzeria called Grimaldi's. This pizzeria is now in the Dallas area, but this particular location is where it originated. There is always a line to get in, but we hit it at an off time and only had to wait about 20 minutes. It was probably the best pizza I have ever had! I would wait much longer to have that pizza again!

Then, we had some ice cream and walked around a park right on the East River. After that we slowly made our way back into Manhattan. This is the view from Brooklyn looking at downtown Manhattan.

On Monday morning, we visited another diner and took a boat tour around the island of Manhattan. The tour lasted 3 hours and was one of my favorite things about our trip. You got to see so much and our tour guide was very informative and very entertaining. We probably took 100 pictures, but I narrowed it down to 4!
Once off the boat we went to see the Flatiron Building. We got some sandwiches from a deli and ate in a park looking at the building. It was so nice and relaxing.

Then we made our way to the Empire State Building. This was the first day in several with good visibility, so apparently everyone wanted to do the same thing! It took us about an hour to get to the top, but the views were worth the wait.

That evening we went to see Chicago on Broadway.

Tuesday morning was our last day there. We didn't fly out until the afternoon, so we were lucky to be able to spend the morning relaxing. After breakfast, we walked around looking at buildings, shopping, and then ended the morning in Central Park. What an amazing trip we were so blessed to be able to take!

Sweet Summer Getaway, Part 1

This past week, the first week of our summer vacation, Mark and I were so blessed to be able to get away on a "kid-free" trip to New York City. Charlotte spent the first few days at her Grammy and Poppy's house, and then my mom and dad came into town to keep her for the remainder of the time. We were there for 6 days, so I am going to break this into two blog posts.

When we first arrived in the city, we took a cab to our hotel. Everyone kept talking about how hot it was, because it had gotten to 98 degrees that day. Even the receptionist at the hotel desk apologized for the weather. Mark and I thought it felt pretty normal! Of course, by the time we got checked in the sun was headed down and was behind the buildings, so we probably missed the worst of it. We were very pleased with our hotel. We were a little worried about how big the room would be because you always hear about how small everything is in New York. It was a great size! We were also very pleased with the location, in midtown about 5 blocks from Central Park.

After checking out the park a little bit, we headed over to FAO Schwartz. I was pleased to pose with a lego Johnny Depp as "Captain Jack Sparrow."

We had dinner and then went to check out Times Square with all of its dazzling lights at night.

On Saturday morning we got up to experience our first New York diner. We love the show "Rules of Engagement", so we sought out the diner that the one in the show is based on. In the show it is called "Island Diner" but the exterior, entrance, and building were all the same. The inside was, of course, completely different, but the food was delicious!

Then we headed south to Washington Square Park, NYU campus, and Greenwich Village. We spent a lot of time that afternoon just walking around and checking things out.

While in Greenwich Village we did seek out two famous exteriors from T.V. shows. This is the building that was shown as the outside of the apartments where Monica, Rachel, Joey, and Chandler lived. The coffee shop at the bottom is what Central Perk was based on.

Just a few blocks over was the outside of the house where the Huxtables in The Cosby Show lived.

Then we headed over to wall street and saw the New York Stock Exchange. We also were able to see ground zero and the "Freedom Tower" going up there. It is only about 1/2 way built and is huge. It is going to be pretty amazing. We found out that it is going to be 1776 feet high, to represent out independence in the year 1776.

Then we headed back up to the northwest side of Central Park. We took some walking trails, got a great view across a large pond, and saw the Great Lawn.

It was in the 80's this day and got to be quite warm. We took the subway a lot of places. The platforms were pretty miserably hot and stuffy, but luckily most of the trains were well air-conditioned.

After dinner with my friend, Katie, who moved to NYC a year ago, we saw Rockefeller Center at night. It was beautiful and bustling.

On Saturday morning, we woke up to a rainy and chilly city. In turn, we decided to head over to the Museum of Natural History. That place was huge! After about and hour and a half we had only see the first of 4 levels! I was not wanting to spend the entire day there, so we skipped the 2nd and 3rd floor and went straight to the 4th floor where all of the dinosaur paraphernalia was.

After a great lunch at Patsy's Pizzeria, we checked out the New York Public Library and Grand Central Station before we made our way to dinner and a show. We saw "Catch Me if You Can." It is fairly new to Broadway, but was wonderful! We saw it on Saturday night, and then on Sunday night was the Tony Awards. One of the two main leads won the Tony for "Best Male Lead", so that we were really happy that we had just seen it!

More to come later . . .

To Make Your Day Happier

Charlotte is happy, and she knows it! (turn up the volume)

Last Day of School

Yesterday was our last day of school! Charlotte doesn't understand what that means yet, but Mommy and Daddy sure do! We are so excited about our summer together. Mark and I have a kid-free trip planned to New York City for later this week. Then, in July we are going to a beach house in Alabama with my family and then returning to spend time with Mark's brother's family who will be in town visiting. We have a very busy summer planned, with activities every single week until the end of July, but I know that we will have such a great time. We are in a very unique situation because Mark and I are both teachers, so we get all of our holidays and our long summer off together. We understand this is rare and a very precious gift. I may not be able to stay home with her during the school year, but Charlotte gets to have BOTH Mommy and Daddy home all summer long. We are so thankful for our jobs and the family time they afford us. We are also SO thankful that our long-awaited for summer has finally arrived!

Here is Charlotte on her last day to go to Miss Lisa's this school year!

Here is a picture Miss Lisa snapped of Char her first day there in August. I can't believe how much she has grown and changed!

Birthday weekend

On Sunday I turned 30. I still cringe just thinking of the number. For some reason, "30" has been a hard pill to swallow. I didn't want to turn 29 because I knew the next number was 30 and I have been dreading it all year long. I think it has to do with the fact that if being a wife, mom, homeowner, and teacher didn't make me feel old enough, I now have the age to prove that I am "all grown up". But, on the flip side, I have everything I ever wanted by the time I was 30 - I am a wife, mom, homeowner, and teacher. Truly, I have a blessed life and need to stop and count my blessings. Even if I didn't want this birthday to happen, I had a great time celebrating it! I got to celebrate all weekend long, starting on Thursday.

Mark took me out for a very nice dinner at one of the top-rated restaurants in Dallas - The Place at Perry's. It was absolutely delicious! They gave us a free crab-cake appetizer sampler because it was our first time there it was to die for!

On Friday night my parents drove into town to spend the weekend with us. At Char wen to bed we enjoyed some roaring games of Spades and Chicken foot. I am proud to say that Mark and I dominated game night! On Saturday morning, we went to the newly-renovated Children's Aquarium at Fair Park. It was small, but just the right size for Charlotte. They have a ledge in front of all the tanks that Charlotte could stand on and enjoy the view.

They also had a tank you could put your hand into.

The best part of the renovations was the outdoor area called stingray bay. They had some huge tanks filled with gigantic sting rays and other large fish.

On Saturday night Mark's parents came over to join us and Mark grilled out some delicious steaks. Here is Charlotte surrounded by her four grandparents. I don't think life gets much better for a 1-year-old!

Finally, on Sunday evening we had a cookout with our small group. This cookout was not for my birthday, but I had the added bonus that it was my birthday! Mark was sweet enough to bring a cookie cake to celebrate with. Cookie cakes are my favorite! Charlotte had fun playing with all the kids. Here she is with Emmie, who is only 6 months older than her.

My birthday wrapped up on Tuesday when my students at school held a celebration for me. They brought balloons and streamers and decorated my room. Thank you to everyone for making 30 a little easier to swallow!

Our day at home

Charlotte started getting a runny nose two days ago and last night she had a fever. This morning at 6:15, which is when we get her up is she isn't already awake, she was very soundly asleep. I didn't have the heart to wake her up. And, even if I did wake her up, if she had a fever she was going to need to stay home anyways. So, I just decided to take the day off and let her have some Mama-loving. I'm really glad I did. We ended up having a great day! Charlotte was in a really good mood, even though she wasn't feeling well. We played together, she played alone, we went to Target, we both took naps, and I even got some cleaning done! I took some videos while we were home together today.

Here is Charlotte entertaining herself by running in circles.

This is the first of two vidoes. She isn't exactly doing what I want her to with her snack. At the end, you can hear the phrase she has been saying constantly when she hands us something. She is saying, "Here you go."

This is the second half.

The best kind of dinner

In my opinion, the best kind of dinner is the one that is already made when I get home! That is basically what a slow-cooker does and I am loving my new one! I got a new digital one for Christmas and am trying to utilize it more. I have been trying some new recipes that I find online. Some have been great and some have been a flop. If you have any recipes you would love to share, please do so! I am trying to do one slow-cooker meal a week because it makes dinner so nice and easy after getting home from work. Tonight we had a recipe I have made several times and it is a favorite of ours! Try it and enjoy!

Pulled Pork

1 pork shoulder, boneless (2 ½ - 3 lb) - any pork cut of this sort will work, it doesn't have to be the shoulder

1 Tbsp McCormick Pork Rub

¼ tsp Thyme leaves seasoning

1 small onion, chopped (about ½ cup)

1 cup cola

2 cups barbecue sauce

8 buns sandwich buns or flour tortillas

Remove fat from pork with kitchen shears. Rub seasoning and meat tenderizer over pork and let if sit in the refrigerator overnight.

Place pork in slow cooker. I always use a crockpot liner. Sprinkle with onion. Pour cola over pork. Then sprinkle with thyme leaves. Cover; cook on Low Heat setting 8 to 10 hours.

Remove pork from slow cooker, reserve ½ cup juice/sauce. Cool some. Use 2 forks to pull pork into shreds. Place pork in a large sauce pan. Stir in barbecue sauce and reserve juices as needed. Cover and let simmer for 25-30 minutes. Spoon filling into buns.

Quick snapshot

All dressed up and ready to praise God this Sunday morning!

Look-alikes

One of the wonderful things about having an older sister who already has kids is that I can turn to her for advice and hand-me-down clothes! Jessica has been so wonderful to save her girls' clothes through the years and now we are making good use of them. I am also extremely happy for Charlotte that she has a cousin who is so close in age to her. Skylyn is 18 months older. I know that these cousins will have so much fun and make so many memories together as they grow up together.

Her is my mom with Skylyn and Charlotte. She bought them matching dresses for church.

Charlotte is wearing an outfit my parents bought in Hawaii for Aaris when she was almost 1.

Here is Aaris in that outfit 6 years ago. You can really see the difference in the amount of hair they have in this picture!

Char's favorite reads

Charlotte is finally getting to wear she will sit still long enough to read a book! Not every book, and she doesn't always make it through the whole book, but it is a start. My favorite thing is when we are sitting on the floor in the living room and she goes and gets a book and comes and plops in my lap. Reading to my child was definitely one of the things I most looked forward to when I thought of being a mom! Below are a few of her current favorites.

This is a great series of books! What have this one and "That's not my dinosaur." I predict I will by buying more in the near future!

We have 3 of the books, consisting of this one, farm animals, and wild animals. She loves feeling the different textures in these books!

Charlotte loves all of the small pages to flip in this book!

The next two my mom found. They have little flaps on the inside and Charlotte loves to flip and flip and flip the pages. I definitely have these books memorized!

Side note: My cousin, Hollie, recently did a post like this about her little boy's favorite books. I thought it was so cute I just had to copycat. Thanks, Hollie!

She always makes me laugh!

I love finding things that make Charlotte laugh that I never would have suspected. The first time I ever ran my SwifferVac around Charlotte she started crying. Tonight, after dinner, she thought it was pretty hysterical.

Mother's Day

Mark and Charlotte did a great job of making me feel very special and pampered on Mother's Day. It started on Saturday afternoon when I got to do my first round of shopping. I only went to one store, but it was great to go, take my time, and not be rushed! Plus, it was my favorite store, Ann Taylor Loft, so that wasn't too shabby! Then, on Sunday morning Mark got up and made me pancakes with a homemade strawberry syrup that I love! After that, Charlotte presented me with a beautiful new watch. We headed to church together and then over to Tom and Nancy's for lunch. We were very blessed to have Mark's grandmother, Wilmama, and his Uncle John, Aunt DD, and cousins Debi and Dan in town.

After lunch, we headed home. Charlotte went down for a nap and so did I! I got to read and then take a nap, for a grand total of two uninterrupted hours cuddled in my bed. The next amazing thing on my wonderful Mother's Day agenda was another round of shopping, this time at Kohl's. Finally, I got a little playtime with Char and then got to read her some books, cuddle, and tuck her into bed. I would say that was a pretty perfect weekend! Thank you to my amazing husband for always being so supportive of me. Thank you to my precious baby girl who makes me so happy to be her Mama every day!